In reply to Buconero117: I became an audiophile hobbyist many years ago, when my hearing was quite good. My processing of the higher frequencies deteriorated slowly. I recently tried out and compared several 75 ohm digital cables, and I had no trouble hearing differences among them and arriving at a preferance. I continue to enjoy my stereo system, though I now play it at a higher volume than I did years ago. And my components are similar to what many audiophiles like. My interest in a hearing aid is largely triggered by difficulty in hearing lecturers in large halls and sometimes difficulty in hearing conversational speech when the speaker speaks softly. Since I will get something to help in the speech department, it would be a bonus, I suspect, if the hearing aid also improved my hearing of live and recorded music. At the moment that is a supposition -- I haven't actually worn a hearing aid as yet, so what effects it may (or may not) have is unexplored territory. In the meantime I have sought verbal advice from several sources, and, frankly, I have been confused by the different things that I've been told. I'm going to visit an audiologist next week who sells several different brands of aids (I have a recent audiogram from a medical facility), so I'll have a chance to hear various possibilities. Unfortunately, by the way, I won't be hearing a General Hearing "Musicians'Listening Design," the only hearing aid that I've thus far found to advertize online that their device is designed for high fidelity listening (a bandwith of 16khz, purposeful provision for appreciable headroom in the analog to digital converter, etc.) I live in eastern MA where, I'm told by a General Hearing representative, there are no dealers for that brand -- all the more regrettable since one of the commentators in this thread mentioned the General Hearing product positively.