Confused Musical Presentation


Disclaimer!.... I have neurological auditory damage from exposure to military ordinance without hearing protection and therefore wear hearing aids. I have suffered a considerable amount of hearing loss above 3000Hz. The effect is similar to a treble tone control turned all the way down! However, I've been a music lover and audiophile since the early 80s and have enjoyed a lot of different systems over those years. My present system consists of Wilson Sophia 1, Quicksilver V4 (KT150), BAT 32SE, Cary DMC 600SE, and analog front end is driven by AVID Pulsus and ZYX 4D. Cables are Analysis Plus all around. I have minimal room treatment in 17 x 28 dedicated listening room. 

My  Problem: Listening to small group jazz (90%), typical audiophile fare, and solo instrumental and vocal music is simply breathtaking even at higher volume levels.  (My max on the volume is 80 out of 140 on BAT) No issues at all. However, when the music gets complicated/complex everything goes to crap! Soundstage collapses, music is jumbled together. There is the same effect even at moderate listening levels. Any suggestions to remedy this would be greatly appreciated.

Mike
Ag insider logo xs@2xcommunique1
Everyone is going after the system even after being clearly told there are hearing aids and damaged hearing. Situation normal.

As state of the art as your hearing aids may well be one of the hardest things for any system is when the tapestry gets dense to keep all the threads clear and distinct. And look, this is with plenty of AC power, overbuilt power supplies, and plenty of physical space to work with. Even something as big as a phone or iPod, when you want better all your choices are bigger. Also with audiophile gear what’s the worst component? The all-in-one. The home theater receiver.

No home theater receiver ever made ever made anything but crap sound. Even with all that power and space to work with. Of course your hearing aids are the problem. Always have been. Always will be.

There’s a simple test that will rule out the system and confirm its the hearing aids: when in a big room full of conversation (restaurant, stadium, etc) are you able to easily hear and make out lots of different voices and conversations? Or let’s say its raining, or you’re in the shower, or driving the car with the window down. Can you still distinctly hear isolated sounds within all that background noise? That’s the acid test. If you can do that with natural sounds but not with your system then its the system. Otherwise its the hearing aids.

Or you. Can’t rule that out. But if so then sadly that one is beyond even me. For now anyway.

Okay so going to assume its the hearing aids. Because it is. Nothing else (that we can deal with) makes any sense at all.

Any suggestions to remedy this would be greatly appreciated.


Well you’re not gonna like it but it is a solution so here goes.

Hearing aids are comprised of microphone, amplifier, and speaker. We know its possible to cram really good speakers into the ear canal, because lots of people have them. So true audiophile sound with hearing aids is possible, and the problem is not the speakers.

Its the mic, and amp.

So what you do, get yourself a really good set of IECs. Inner Ear Canal phones. Shure SE535, something like that. Then shop around for some iPod sized amp to plug them into. Finally once you have that you will be ready to audition microphones. One or two, your call, depends on how unobtrusive you want to go I guess.

As much as I’d like to take credit for this brilliant solution I have to admit this was done long before me by Fosgate who built one based on headphones. Worked great. Nowadays, quality IEC, iPod size amp, one good stereo mic clipped on the collar, hardly even know its there.

Considering the rest of your system this would be the single biggest upgrade you could make. So there you go.

Oh and, I know the services are messed up and all, but thanks for serving.
I doubt this is a case of hyperacusis. As a longtime sufferer, the symptoms are sensitivity to sound pressure levels resulting in pain. The OP, and myself, would not be able to continue listening to music once this condition kicks in.
With hyperacusis, the pain occurs when presented with loudness or high frequency spikes or transients. Due to the OP’s upper frequency hearing loss, now corrected by the use of hearing aids, this condition would be immediately apparent.

I suspect the room needs to be further treated to increase the focus in the midrange and improve the imaging. This is assuming the OP can hear this frequency range clearly.
And communique1...
Thank you for your service.


One thing is absolutely true is that I CANNOT discern audible ques in a crowded environment! Which leads me to believe that I'm still in denial of the fact that no matter the quality of the hearing aids they WILL NEVER replace or be equal to natural hearing. I work very closely with my audiologist to tune my hearing aids to reproduce voices as naturally as possible. I also believe that I use some aural memory of how I remember reproduced music sounding prior to my hearing loss situation. In either case, its most likely a combination of the two. Considering that my hearing aids, if purchased by me at retail would be @ 10K for the pair, so they do a pretty good job taking everything into consideration.

By the way, I'm listening to some Anne Bissom and it's like she's in the room.  I'll keep trying to solve the problem. I'm due to get the next generation of hearing aids in December. I will say that with each generation, heaing does get better. 

And I was proud to serve...20 years...Go Airforce!
You need an equalizer or comparable modern digital sound processor to compensate for the hearing issues.

All the old guys with old ears like me could probably benefit from one as well to be brutally honest. 🙄
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