Hearing issues and signal attenuation

Broadstone, I've worn hearing aids for just over a dozen years, nothing like Buconero, but long enough to offer some comments.

First off, I agree with him that properly fitted and adjusted aids will enhance your life, not just music listening. And I suspect the two pair you tried were not quality devices. I say that since you consider equalizers out of your price range and then you sold both pair on eBay!

Proper hearing aids must be custom fitted, both physically to your ears and sonically to correct for your specific hearing loss. The size of your canals should not be a problem. And the itching can be cured by prescription medication or Cortisone cream.

In addition, do you always listen alone or do family or friends ever join you? All the well-intentioned advice for speaker set up, equalizers, etc. may result in changes that any other listeners might not be happy with.

Quality hearing aids are not cheap and they must be fitted professionally by an audiologist. The type sold on line or at Sears for a couple of hundred bucks will hardly ever be satisfactory. Some medical insurance may cover part of the costs but unfortunately too many will not.

So forget the suggestions from those who have not experienced this themselves and go for properly fitted devices. They you should be free to pick whatever speakers are most musically pleasing, not those that attempt to fulfill an inappropriate task. Your life will be brighter.

Good luck.

Obviously you need to do what you are most comfortable with, so I'll just offer this.

The first audiologist I visited seemed intent on selling me the most expensive aids possible. That was over $6K more than a dozen years ago. I think when I tried to explain my needs for best musical accuracy he thought he could over sell me. I really felt like I was visiting a shyster car dealer!

Then a friend suggested I try a local university that has a speech and hearing department. Because they are non-profit they could advise on what best suited my condition rather than highest cost. Now speech perception was improved immediately but it took a few visits and adjustments to fine tune my music setting (with my aids up to 4 EQs are possible) so that brass and strings sounded natural and not edgy and harsh. Patience paid off.

"with my aids up to 4 EQs are possible"

I just read Broadstone's reply and realized someone might misinterpret what I meant to say just prior to that. My devices have four unique memory settings. Any combination of frequency gain or reduction, noise filtering, and directionality can be programmed (by the audiologist) for each of those four. The range of frequency adjustments is from 500 to 8K Hz.

Many hearing aid manufacturers offer a recommended response for music but I found a custom setting was needed for the most natural musical tones.