Hearing aids

Hate to admit, but may need to start investigating these, not so much for 2 channel listening but normal stuff. Who has researched and which are "universal", meaning normal TV / conversation and can be also worn while listening to analog? Does soundstage change?

for stereo or music listening, get a good pair of headphones.
For everyday full time use, get some high quality hearing aids.

I recently admitted to myself that I've definitely lost some of my high end hearing. Hard to understand some dialog on TV, stereo sounds better with my hands cupped behind my ears, etc. The usual old guy stuff.

I read an article in Consumer Reports about hearing aids and they ranked Cosco best in cost, customer satisfaction, etc.

So I joined Cosco, made an appointment and had my hearing checked. The audiologist there was great. I had a full one hour exam (no cost!) and the guy ended up explaining pretty much the whole hearing aid scene. It's kind of a mess. He didn't try and sell me anything. He basically said I could go either way. I have moderate to worse hearing loss at around 1.5k on up.

His advice was to wait maybe 6 mos. or a year as over the counter aids are going to be coming out soon. Also there are some new developments in regular hearing aids on the near horizon.

(Rechargeable hearing aids, it seems, are not quite ready for prime time. Stick with the batteries for now.)

The new over the counter aids will be around $400. The hearing aids recommended by Cosco were about $1250 to $2500. If you go to a regular hearing aid place you could pay $5000 to $10,000.

A week before my Mom passed away she somehow lost her hearing aids. We had to go the place where she bought them and they charged the full $5000 for replacements (after they had been gouging her for decades, it seems).

My temporary fix was to buy a couple of equalizers, one for the TV and one for the VTA stereo system. The one I got for the stereo was a recapped Mitsubishi, the one for the TV a Teac. Both just old consumer level stuff from the '80's or early '90s.

The one I got for the stereo has been recapped and it has an output level. It works great. The recapping makes a HUGE difference. The Teac on the TV is only okay. It does help.

The recapped Mitsubishi (with postage) was about $160 and the Teac about $80. I ended up with an extra Teac. I may list it over in the FS section.

Of course, if you can swing it, Erhard Audio sells an all tube EQ. I'd love to have one.

My wife has serious hearing loss.  She had an audiogram done, and they don't even test above 8 kHZ ( at that point, her hearing was 70 dB down).  Pretty scary, when we are used to looking at amps to perform flat to 20k, and loudspeakers to at least 15k.  Getting old sucks, but those Who and AC/DC concerts were great!

This is a question which I have always pondered, I am an otolaryngologist and review audiograms daily. I have always wondered how many forum members/audiophiles have hearing loss. It seems to me that his a hobby of mostly middle aged men, many who may have undiagnosed hearing loss. I wonder how this affects audiophile sound perception and whether a person with hearing loss can really tell a difference, or if it sounds different rather than better. Most adults will lose high frequency above 12 khz. Hearing is not tested higher than 8khz because the ear is far less sensitive to those frequencies and signals need to be much louder. High frequency audiometers exist but are expensive and clinically not important, as those frequencies would be hard to aid. . The audiogram records normalized response but really sound level at 8Khz much higher than say 1Khz  Our ears are designed to understand speech, a relatively low frequency sound. Speech discrimination is another variable that i suspect would greatly affect  audiophile discrimination.  I would be curious to here about whether anyone else here has had their hearing tested, or if they have loss how it sounds with and without hearing aids. I would also disagree if you have a hearing loss, I would advise you stay away from headphones, especially high volumes or if enclosed. Protect your hearing, it cannot be easily restored. If you notice ringing or tinnitus, you miss conversations or your family complains about your hearing be sure to have it tested.

64 years old, sound cut out about 13K. This was using Emotiva Airmotiv4 speakers.

I cut out at 12.7K which I don't think is too bad for a 74 year old.  

My problem is tinnitus which I hear as around 7 to 8K.  Wondering if anybody else has this problem and knows of anything to reduce it?

dave

67, and on my cheap office computer speakers, I was good to about 13.4K A close-run thing whether the speakers or my ears quit first.

I'm 53 and using my computer speakers I was able to get to 14K.  And like Peter, I would have to check if the cutoff was my ears or the speakers, but I'll bet it was me.  And the tinnitus that I have isn't helping anything either.


Tony

Its kinda sad, I bought my ST70 on ebay as an unfinished project from a guy who was selling it because his hearing was so bad it didn't seem worth pursuing anymore.

Age 69; lost it at 8.1kH
This with an ST-70 and Tyler speakers.
My hearing is very non-linear, or else Ty's crossovers are, which I doubt. I'll almost lose the audio, then it comes roaring back. Happens three distinct times during the climb to 8 kh.
I could sure hear the bass, though, right from the start.
Dick Vandersteen is the only speaker-maker who actively crusades for the ear and reasonable SPLs.
I don't think hi-fi has wrecked my ears. Now, a few years as a major newspaper's rock critic exposed to three concerts a week, and learning to fly back when ear protection was for sissies, those would be my first clues.

62 13168 HZ. On my MacBook.

Bob Latino wrote:

I am in my mid '70's now and my hearing has gone downhill with age. Forty+ years ago I played test records and found that I could hear pretty well up to about 18 Khz. The last 2K (up to 20 Khz) was most likely my gear at the time. I recently played the test video shown above and found that at about 7800 HZ I lost the tone. I was playing the video through good Tyler Acoustics speakers which have the Seas Millennium tweeter which is pretty flat to over 30KHz. Listen to the audio on the video and turn up the volume a little. Watch the top of the screen where they show you the frequency. Report first how old you are and (be honest now !) at what frequency did the sound cut off ? What you can do is just tap inside the video with your mouse and the video will pause showing you the frequency cut off point.

Bob

Hi Bob,

thanks for this. I'm 62 and have been wearing pretty advanced hearing aids for a couple of years now.

With my hearing aid music profile "on", I can only hear up to about 6.5k (even lower with the profile set to "normal" )

I'm listening through a pair of Klipsch RP 160M bookshelf speakers driven by my ST120 (KT88s) fed by an Emotiva DAC/Pre and MacMini.

Will try the test again with my Magnapan .7s sometime but assume the results will be the same.....Pretty discouraging to be honest....

Cheers Jay

On my cheap computer speakers the left ear goes to about 12.5K right loses it around 10K. Which is about right, I had my hearing tested about 1.5 years ago and was informed my left can hear higher that right.

great sweep test, I like it better than the individual freq tests that are also commonly available.
On my cheap computer speakers was good from 25Hz to 13KHz, so not sure if my ears or speakers are giving up first.
Will try later with my full size hi-fi speakers.