Like you, @2psyop, I have hearing damage from shooting guns in my adolescent days and although I scored 100% on word recognition, I have trouble hearing normal conversation in a noisy setting like a restaurant. All the consonants like ch, sh, ng, th, etc. tend to smear and are at a lower level than the rest of conversation. It’s right around the 3Khz level where my hearing drops well below the rest of what I can hear. Anyone who’s gone shooting without ear protection, just once, will have this deficiency and never get it back. Once, broken.....
I find I don’t need hearing aids since the drop starts from 2Khz and continues slightly after 3Khz area and my brain, such as it is, easily makes up for it. The only downside is a loss of shimmer, air and presence with some music in that area.
Granted, you’ve had years of abuse from your service but I think you can work around it all unless your tests show that the damage is more severe than what I think you have. I wish you the best on this.
One thing I’ve found is that ribbon tweeters go a long way towards restoring some of that lost area of hearing. When I had speakers with them, everyone thought my system was a bit too bright but it sounded fine to me.
All the best,
Nonoise
I find I don’t need hearing aids since the drop starts from 2Khz and continues slightly after 3Khz area and my brain, such as it is, easily makes up for it. The only downside is a loss of shimmer, air and presence with some music in that area.
Granted, you’ve had years of abuse from your service but I think you can work around it all unless your tests show that the damage is more severe than what I think you have. I wish you the best on this.
One thing I’ve found is that ribbon tweeters go a long way towards restoring some of that lost area of hearing. When I had speakers with them, everyone thought my system was a bit too bright but it sounded fine to me.
All the best,
Nonoise