Hearing Aids


I have used hearing aids for 20 years, but primarily for understanding voices in movies and TV. I was considering selling my Merlin TSM speakers, but in the meantime, my wife and family were starting to complain about my hi fi levels. I put the aids in, and...WOW....what a difference in clarity and depth! Why the heck didn't I try this sooner? This was one reason why I decided to stick with the Merlins. Well, as luck would have it....I have lost one of my aids. They (Phonak) were going on 10 years old so maybe it’s time to upgrade those. However, my insurance plan will only pay $1200 towards new hearing aids. The Phenol, at least 10 years ago, were quite pricey. Any thoughts from this sage group?

troutbum

@mahler123 - that's not a bad idea about a Zoom consultation. 

More than a few audiologists are musicians themselves and understand more 'audiophile' needs.

As far as hearing aids being designed only for speech, for most hearing aids, that is just not so. Most any good hearing aid today (audiologist hearing aid, I don't know about the OTC ones) has multiple programs - for speech in noisy settings, speech in quiet settings, music, television, and a number of other options, and you can work with the audiologist on setting up a music (or any other kind of) program that works for you; mine has a 'music' program which also works well for speech on the TV, plus it has an EQ of sorts where I can adjust low, mid, and high frequencies to some extent, and I've found that quite useful. 

I've also got a pair of in-ear hearing aids for headphone listening....

@troutbum - I'm currently using the latest Jabra hearing aids from Costco; they were about $1500/pair, plus another $60 or so for custom earmolds. I'm quite happy with them as far as ease of use and sound. 

I am in the market for new aids. Currently demoing current TOL Oticon’s. They are very good & superior to my 4 year old TOL Signia’s. I plan to demo Widex. 
They all have music programs which primarily eliminates noise reduction. Good luck finding an audiophile audiologist.