Easily the best and most significant sonic tweak one could ever make!

Aj523 is absolutely correct.

I am 70 years old and have been immersed in this hobby since I returned from 1973-1974 WestPac cruise onboard the USS Midway. The one item that definitely extended my audiophile life was the purchase of the Widex Dream 440 Fusion hearing aids.

Since those early days working around T2s and A7s and subsequently Bell 206 helicopters, and driving with window down and just simple aging, the high frequency loss and tinnitus has taken its toll on the high frequency response of the left ear.

I had very limited to no interest response from the local hearing aid centers. Their primary focus has been, and is, on speech. That however that dictates that they apply compression to the extremes of the frequency spectrum. Well, that was not acceptable. When I asked the Costco hearing aid center if they can tune their available hearing aids with no compression, they declined.

Aaron at HearSource tuned them remotely via the Widex app for 2 modes, Standard and Music. No compression or EQ on the music mode. I have never been happier to spend $2,700.

So… Listening to the future, I just ordered a pair of LRS from Magnepan. Will keep the 3.3Rs   Have a DNA1 that can swing the current and a pair of Quicksilver Mono 120s with KT150s that can swing the voltage. Will test both.

 

Happy listening to all.

Respectfully, I disagree with jrpnde on Costco.  They sell a wide variety of hearing aids.  Some of the best technology these days addresses high frequency hearing loss by means other than “making it louder.”  The way that is done is the reproduce high frequency portions of sound and re-playing it at lower frequencies where mapped hearing ability remains to the individual person.  Costco sells those kinds of hearing aids.  But the trick is to also be able to adjust those hearing aids to fit the user’s needs.  I think Costco get high marks here as well, but am interested in other people’s experiences.  From an audio perspective, I am curious about this as well.  For those of us moving towards hearing aids, how does the high fidelity experience (often expressed by reviewers with all sorts of fancy terms for sound attributes) change if the high tech hearing aid is re-packaging high frequency parts of the sound and broadcasting it to our ears at a lower frequency where hearing loss is less affected?

My HF hearing loss was caused by one of the 'wonder drugs' back in the 1950s. At age 70 I finally gave in to buying hearing aids. Tried 'dummy' units of the in-ear variety and couldn't stand them. Then went to a premium HA dealer. With a $6k pair he was able to EQ it to the point where my wife sounded exactly like her normal voice--even outside of the room I was in, and 20' down the hall. Very impressive. I photographed my hearing chart and left. $6k was too much, given my active lifestyle and vulnerability to damaging or losing them. I ended up purchasing Audicus online for $1500/pr. Sent them my hearing chart and they EQ'd them, but obviously, I could not get them fine-tuned over the internet. They were reasonably close and after about two months my brain adjusted to wearing them. Basically, I adjusted to the 'new normal'. Wearing a mask during Covid, I've almost lost them when removing my mask. They are the small, over-the-ear type and are visually almost unnoticeable--not that I'm that vain, but I don't have any body piercings either.

I have a very mild tinnitus, which goes away when I wear the HAs, or when I listen to music. I do not wear the HAs when listening to music. I simply listen at a louder level (+3dB) than my audio buddy with good hearing. It takes my brain about a minute to get readjusted to the different EQ without the HA. I've trained my brain to hear most of the great nuances of reproduced music that audiophiles treasure without HAs. Leaving them on when listening kind of messes up live or reproduced music in many ways, so unless I cannot make out the lyrics from the back of the hall, I leave them off. But I can appreciate that others might not be so fortunate.

Given how rough I am with the HAs, I'm impressed with their durability. I've had them for two years now. Once I'm able to go mask-less, I might consider paying extra to have a local pro fine-tune the EQ, just to see what that's like. But if I had to do it over again, I'd go right back to Audicus, as I'm comfortable with their price and their product.

The simplest way to describe the impact (in audiophile “speak” using jargon from the typical review or marketing materials) is that “the veil over the music has been lifted”. This might just be the only legitimate example of that effect. 

Had my hearing tested for the first time recently.  I hear well, wanted a baseline.  Pretty normal but a big dip around 4KHz in the left ear.  Her first question- 'Do you shoot guns?'  Apparently this left ear problem is commonplace.