The Audiophile Upgrade Easiest to Ignore


Common wisdom when putting together an audio system is to first choose the speakers. It makes sense except speakers are not the last device in the audio hardware chain. Our ears are.

My audiologist tells me about two-thirds of the individuals he tests have a hearing impairment. My left ear significantly dips in the mid-range. My right ear takes a dive at 1kHz. As an avid audiophile, I finally realized that I could never build a truly high fidelity system unless I could properly evaluate audio gear.

I thought that because I could hear voices ok my hearing had to be good for music as well. How wrong I was! Ear infections began to erode my hearing acuity until I had to take hearing tests, treat the problems, and get hearing aids to make up for my deficiencies.

I'll never forget the day when I tried my new pair of hearing aids. I could carry on a conversation without uttering "What did you say?" with great frequency. And I could hear music in its full glory. It's as if I had bought a new piece of audio gear, which in fact I had, and tonality, instrument separation, and the rest of the attributes often used to describe an excellent piece of gear had made an appearance

I regret not having corrected my hearing much sooner. I missed on a great deal of joy for many years. I'm writing this post to urge those of you fellow audiophiles, even if you have no problem hearing normal speech, to get a hearing test. There are good ones in free apps that are a good first step towards a professional test. One called "Hearing Test" is quite exceptional and available on Android phones.

Doing a hearing test takes just a few minutes and is extremely easy to do. Don't cheat yourself of all the subtleties and nuances that music offers when it is so easy to do something about it.

And let the community know. Perhaps then print and video audio reviewers will follow suit and improve the credibility of their reviews. God knows what they often say about gear performance sounds nothing like what I hear, even allowing for differences in equipment synergy and room acoustics.

If would be awesome if reviewers published their own hearing tests and what they have done to correct any deficiencies they have. I don't think it's asking for too much given the influence they have on the audio equipment we spend a great deal of money to acquire.

psalvet

I know I need to do this, thanks for the nudge. In terms of audio, I have always been concerned that a hearing aid would essentially be the last (digital) audio component in my chain, and could negatively affect the quality of sound. Can I ask what brand of aids you chose that gave you good results? 
 

On the lighter side, I want to see the look on the audiologist’s face when I ask for jitter specs on their hearing aids. I see a whole new business here. Who will create the first external hearing aid reclocker?

You cracked me up about the hearing aid specs. If something like the Denafrips DDC at the beginning of the chain cleans up the USB signal, would the hearing aids at the end of the chain be an ADC? (Air or Analog to Digital converter) Inquiring minds want to know.

I have the Oticon Opn 1. However, I am trialing the Widex Moment, reputed to be the favorite of musicians. It is awesome sounding and highly adjustable. The phone app has volume, built-in programs including a very good one for Music, and an equalizer to create customer presets.

These two hearing aids are behind-the-ear models. They don't cover the whole ear and feed you the whole signal, but "assist" the natural sound coming through the ears and around the tiny speaker inside the ear. I wish I could describe the technology better.

THE MOST important piece to the audiophool puzzle.

When the hearing deficit becomes markedly evident in tests, you can only do so much striving for T.A.S. - room, gear and tweaks.

Tinnitus, with hearing loss @7Khz here. Adapting without aid, until the inevitable- or perhaps lady luck is with me until I reach 100? Probably be more concerned with the R.A. by then.

nope....not nearly as good as live music or music through a very high end stereo.  It's better with hearing aids, but "fake".  Its a great loss to anyone who appreciates what a real violin really sounds like in real space.