I have significant loss in my right ear, and tinnitus. I usually wear 2 hearing aids during the day. Hearing aids are designed and engineered for speech recognition, but maybe there are audiophile hearing aids out there as well; I'm thinking that that gold is being mined... Mine are blue tooth, which I use for the hands free telephone, but lately have been visiting my playlist on Spotify. .and the sound is not that good. I'm thinking of BT headphones... When I A/B with my hearing aids in and out at home, my systems sound better with the aids in place than not (totally my subjective opinion). Wearing them at home is, maybe, a habit I should develop, But like contact lenses there are reasons not to wear them for extended periods. Although I don't have the super critical hearing that seems prevalent in the audiophile world ( I probably never did) I do appreciate MUSIC and the process and physical nature of re-playing it. Having my recorded music sound good to me (it doesn't have to be perfect, I mean there are all those artifacts involved, and my ancient and abused ears) during playback is important to me. To get to the point, for less than a pair of speaker cables you can have an exam and a prescription for hearing aids. You can decide when and where to use them. You can decide if they are of a benefit or not, and proceed with your life.
Results of Actual Hearing Test and Next Steps
Like probably many on this forum I’m getting into that post 60 age where hearing may not hear as well as it once was. To baseline where I stand today, I arranged a professional assessment. Results:
- 10dB loss at 2K Hz
- 20dB loss at 4K Hz
- 20dB loss at 8K Hz
- Word recognition 100% at 70dB
- Sound tolerance to 110dB (that’s loud)
Summary; mild to moderate loss at higher frequencies; muddled conversations in group settings. No urgent need for hearing aids but higher volume may be required for media.
I listen to music mostly at the 70-85 dB range; most theatrical movies and concerts can go as high as 95-100dB which is too loud for me. My McIntosh MA352 has EQ knobs which I rarely use. I prefer direct sound without boosting and play mostly vinyl. Also have EQ in my car.
I tried enhancing EQ settings at 2K and 10K Hz and found it did add more detail; at least it was an agreeable sound. My hope is to avoid hearing aids for as long as possible and still get maximum music enjoyment.
Anybody else encountering this or have some workarounds to suggest?