Hard of Hearing Audiophile.


This is for my hard of hearing audio peers. I lost a lot of hearing from exposure to big guns in the military. Wasn't bad until my fifties then caught up with me and pretty much killed the hobby. With the virus quarantine, I set out to build a little system that would serve me. I was motivated by enjoying Spotify through my JBL 200 Life bluetooth buds. 
I went through four sets of speakers, six integrated amps and a set of headphones in my quest. I have Widex hearing aids and they do have a less than perfect Music setting. Kind of harsh and peaked in the upper midrange but not totally bad for live performances and listening in the car with road noise. 
For my audio system, I quickly realized that I had to listen through these hearing aids to get decent sound so my goal was to find something that was neutral to easy going and not peaky or harsh. 
I went through several sets of speakers. Got a good deal on some PSB XB bookshelf's but they lacked the body and bottom end I wanted. Klipsch M600 were too forward and brash. After reading some reviews, I settled on ELAC Debut 62 speakers. These are great $600 speakers. I later added two eight inch Outlaw M8 subwoofers and they really added to the sound quality and the PSB monitors were very nice with the subs. I kept both the PSB XBs and the Elacs.  I settled on Audience Ohno interconnects. They got a good review in Absolute Sound and are excellent interconnects. I'm using 3130 Mogami OFC speaker cables nicely terminated to look professional. Conductor size came out to about 9AWG. (two 12 gauge on each leg) The sub cables are some Belden 8412 with Canare F10 RCAs Terminated by me. Good sub cable but sucks as an interconnect. I cant speak highly enough of adding the Outlaw M8 subwoofers. It made a huge difference in the system. 
Sitting on a wooden shelf, I slipped an 18"x18" Ceramic tiles under subs. Seemed to tighten up the bass a fraction. 
I had a OPPO 93 DVD player and it is my CD source. 
Amps are where I had trouble. Luckily, I discovered the Yamaha S801 integrated, and it's calm honest influence makes the entire system sound really good to me. One of Steve Guttenberg's favorites along with the PSB XB speakers.
I passed on the Cambridge 100 receiver for being dead sounding. Denon PMA800 was nice but no sub out. Outlaw receiver had a characteristic sound to me and music seemed not to escape the front of the speakers. I ordered an IOTA  integrated from England and couldn't get it to work for me sonically.  The Vincent 500 had a nice midrange but lacking in bass control and fitness in the details. Parasound 200 integrated and great bass and the remote was the absolute best I've ever seen, treble, bass and balance being adjustable from your listening position and you can see the bar easily from, in my case eight feet away. Too harsh and forward for me. 
I found a used set of HiFi Man headphones for $130 on Ebay and they join the mix. 
This setup is in my garage/work shop. I got some foam sound material from Amazon and glued it to the wall behind the system. My speaker stands are a very sturdy work counter. I have limitations. The speakers can be set out from the wall one foot max. 
Thats been my adventure. If you have hearing problems, just experiment and look for the neutral sounding equipment that other may think are not exciting enough. For me it works. I don't know if any other hearing aid has a music setting or not.  I am super happy with my enjoyable system now. I even got a stamp of approval from an audiophile friend with good hearing. 
My thanks to Crutchfield for their generous patience with my returns and ditto for Audio Advisor. I expected to be red tagged as a return abuser but it never happened. 
Remember that my hearing is damaged and your mileage may vary. Objets in the mirror are closer than they appear.

fredcdobbs

Showing 1 response by sakoaud

(note to EBM: this may be too lengthy for you :) ). Thanks to the others here for their ability to understand the issue at hand! To all others, I apologize in advance if this message is too lengthy.

Profile: Valve-based Audiophile (whatever that means), Board Certified Otolaryngologist-Head / Neck Surgeon for 27 years ("ENT" physician), many, many past/current 2x/month LOUD thrash,speed,black,doom metal/rock/eastern indian/folk rock and classical music and firearms exposures - since Hendrix (51 yrs ago) to the present, although COVID-19 cancelled everything since 2/2020! Began wearing custom/professional hearing protection 20 years ago - better late than never.
There are many more like us with this issue - with SIGNIFICANT mid to high frequency hearing loss that impairs what I used to listen to at age 15 on my parents Thorens/valve MacIntosh setup. The mindset of the here and now is accept what limitations you have and go with that - knowing that it’s never going to sound like what your memory may remind you of.

I also wear hearing aids - not something I prefer, but in certain social situations it’s essential. I don’t wear them when listening to music (live or otherwise) and for the best listening environment I rely on my Sennheiser HD650 powered by either a WOO or other headphone amp). Headphones are themselves limiting, but an often sonic refuge.

I have CONSTANT, intensity variable high pitched tinnitus with which I try to ignore and mostly do - BTW there is NO effective treatment for this.

You also seem to have experienced the frustration that I did - having gone through amps, speakers, etc. to achieve some sort of "normalcy" in listening. It’s a compromise to be sure, and without driving yourself crazy you need to find that "acceptable" interpretation of the music that meets your new, realistic expectations - as it looks like you have done. Kudos to you, sir.
I have no evidence to this, but I believe that audio manufacturers are aware that there is a certain significant population that have our issues of hearing loss. When our numbers become large and vocal enough I envision that they will develop gear that can be (much like all high end hearing aids) tune-able to our specific and individual frequency losses, in an attempt to recreate a more youthful listening experience (it in fact, that’s ever possible).
Contact me by PM if you need any details/other questions !