Recent upgrade to my hearing with truly amazing results.


As an audiophile for over 40 years I've never given a thought about my hearing. Always thought it has been pretty good or so I thought. I was researching the possibility of purchasing/upgrading to a new amp when my daughter said to me..."Dad, maybe you should look into upgrading your most important component...your EARS !! " Why? Because you may not realize it but you say...'what'  a lot. 

It opened my eyes enough to go off to an audiologist for a free test. Sure enough I had a somewhat typical high frequency loss of moderate severity. Just turned 70 so it's pretty common.  After testing several very expensive hearing aids of well over $5000 I came to some conclusions. I could hear speech better but they sounded artificial and 'thin' sounding. When listening to music I was no longer listening to my stereo. Instead I was listening to a hearing device that was trying to replicate the sound of my stereo. Not good! I'd rather just turn up the volume.

After much research I made an important discovery and tried a pair of Apple Air Pod Pro. These are NOT just music ear pods. Apple has entered the hearing-aid arena. This device uses an audiogram from an app called 'Mimi' to adjust only the frequencies that the user is deficient. BTW... the audiogram from Mimi matched exactly to the one from the audiologist. Apple created a new technology, something called "Transparency mode" that allows all other sounds to pass naturally into the ear. So ONLY the high frequencies where I was deficient were boosted.

This was life changing! I couldn't believe how clear my stereo sounded. Completely natural sounding, plenty of bass and super clear. Unquestionably the best I had ever heard it sound.  Could have spent $50 K on upgrades to my system and it wouldn't equal this upgrade to my hearing. I was shocked to say the least.

Important to note... when you get high cost hearing aids YOU can't adjust them on your phone. Only the audiologist can make any changes.  These Air Pod pro's only cost $249 and were FAR superior to the other much more expensive hearing aids I had tried and I CAN adjust them myself to fit my needs. I now wear them in restaurants and other social settings and I hear perfectly!!

I believe in the near future there will be other alternative hearing devices coming to market using newer technology. Companies like Bose are working on this as well. What changed ?  The FDA is changing their regulations on hearing aids due to the 'Affordable hearing aid Act'. This should open up the flood gates to better, more affordable technologies to enter the market.  Long over due.

Note: To use the available app requires use of an I-phone on the most current IOS 14. Here's a video of exactly how the app works...

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExMjW1nivOA

I tried them with the idea that if they didn't work I had 15 days to return them at no cost to me. They are NOT going back. I love them. Keep your eyes open for new models coming to market soon that will be Android compatible.

Hope this helps someone get great hearing at 1/10 the cost. This was hands down the BEST money spent on an audio upgrade I ever made.  I wasn't aware of how much I was missing.

Hope this helps !!


gdaddy1

Showing 3 responses by charles1dad

@gdaddy1,
Amazing developments. You've done a terrific service for many on this forum with your comments and observations. Higher frequency hearing loss is fairly common and progressive for a lot of folks north of 50 years of ago.
Charles 
@gdaddy1, 
I find your results very interesting.  In previous threads discussing hearing aids one consistent complaint from users is an "artificial " sound when listening to audio systems reproducing music. Just as you, it's often described as "thin" sounding. ,  it strikes me as near remarkable the much cheaper Apple product is superior to the expensive hearing aids. This will be good news for those folks.

It also surprises me that you find listening to speech actually better than utilizing the hearing aid. This seems backwards to me. Apple's app/technology is on to something that the hearing aid manufacturers are missing. Your posts are quite a revelation.
Charles 
@gdaddy1, 
I believe that many will benefit from the information you kindly provided. They obviously improved your music listening experience.  How are they with speech recognition compared to the hearing aids? I'm happy for your outcome.
Charles