Hearing Aids Anyone?

[Mark51]

I just recently started wearing hearing aids.  Now that I'm in my 60's my hearing drops like a rock after about 1 or 2K.  Without aids, I have difficulty understanding conversation and it can even lead to early dementia from what I've read.  (No need to make it worse than it already is)

 

I have been a life long audiophile, nothing too crazy, and am surprised at how different stereo music now sounds with the highs restored by the aids.   Without them its like a wet blanket over my head.  But now recorded music seems very bright through my Fortes unless the recording is ideal.  It's something I have to get used to.   I could take them off when listening to music but then it sounds dead and lifeless now without the aids.  Also, once you have aids you are supposed to wear them all the time or your brain will not adjust to them.  

 

The only reason I started wearing aids is because my son's father-in-law is a hearing aid specialist and he gave me an older pair of Phonak aids.  They are probably 3 to 5 years old.  The good thing is that any time I feel I need an adjustment he takes care of me.  And now my son is getting licensed as a hearing aid specialist.  Once he gets licensed I will get a more modern pair that can be be adjusted by a phone app according to circumstance.  The technology is pretty amazing.  One of the downsides is that I can now understand everything my wife says.  

 

Anyway wanted to share that because I suspect there are Klipsch owners on this forum who also have hearing loss issues and I'd like to hear your experience.  

 

 

[JJkizak]

Everything has its positives and negatives. Maybe get a hearing aid that makes women's voices sound like Marilyn Monroe.

JJK

[Guest wdecho]

My sister in law has a pretty severe hearing loss or perhaps that was the way she was born. She is very adept at reading lips but a few years back she started wearing hearing aides. What she complains about most while wearing them is all the ambient noise everyone else is use to hearing. Keep them in and enjoy your music again. 

[dtel]

13 hours ago, Mark51 said:

  Without aids, I have difficulty understanding conversation and it can even lead to early dementia from what I've read. 

I know how you feel, being almost 61 I have the same problem. For me it's just like the hearing aid commercials, background sounds seem to blend in with voices, I can hear what's said just can't separate it from other noises or conversations. In the last 2 weeks an audio engineer even told me I need some, I know just never did it but need to look into it.

[Seadog]

I'm probably on that path, but for now I can boost the highs a bit on the preamp if needed.

However, I think I may have developed a mild case of misophonia, especially at work where certain sounds like the clunk of a closing door annoy me badly.  I usually wear my Klipsch ear buds when sitting at my desk (often without plugging them into an output source) just so I can concentrate.  Don't even get me started about people crunching on ice during meetings!

 

[Guest wdecho]

7 hours ago, Seadog said:

I usually wear my Klipsch ear buds when sitting at my desk (often without plugging them into an output source) just so I can concentrate.  

 

My son in law does the same thing at work. One advantage is you can hear your other employees talking about you thinking you are listening to music. 

[boom3]

For me it's not sensitivity. If the house is quiet I can hear an ant pass gas. It's picking out voices when multiple conversations are going on. Bars are worse of course due to music on top of people babbling. I'm not sure a hearing aid would help that. Last time I checked with my trusty HP 204 oscillator and a JVC ribbon tweeter,, my hearing ended at 13 KHz. My audiologist's tests end at 8 KHz and he said my upper range was very good for a guy my age (62)