Do any forum members have hearing aids or know someone that does?

Hola friends, my hearing has taken a big hit over the years, many rock concerts in the late '70's and '80's . Worse, numerous car races! I had my hearing tested 3 years ago and I was shocked that I was down 30db in my left and down 35db in my right. I've had trouble hearing males that speak softly for awhile and it seems to be getting harder. When I had the test, they fitted me with some new digital aids, and everything sounded very echoey and not quite right.

I feel my hearing with music is still very good, I know that's realitive to me, I worry about how much enjoyment I can expect with hearing aids in my future? I would expect that the brain will adjust to the amplified sound through the device, but...

Thanks, Craig

Hi Craig,

Two months ago I went through exactly what you are concerned about. At 62 I have known for a few years that I had hearing issues in the range that normal speech falls. I spent a couple of days on the internet starting with - Hearing aids for audiophiles. I filtered through more information than I thought I would find on the subject. Apparently there are more of us than one would have thought.

I decided on the manufacturer Widex and there was ENT-Dr. near me that carried their products. They have many different products to choose from.

After my testing I was told I had a loss that started at about 200Hz dipped about 25-30 db and came back to normal around 7000Hz. Both the Audiologist and the Dr told me I was profoundly deaf. I didn't agree with profoundly but my wife did .

I decided if I was going to give this a fair chance I would go with one of the higher end products. I chose the U4PATS model. It has 12 frequency bands they can adjust to your specific hearing issues. They are quite small and have a remote to access volume and different programs in them. I like the remote rather than having to play with buttons on the hearing aid itself. There may be an app you can download to make the adjustments but I have not gotten that far yet. They also came with a 30 day trial and all of the money except the fitting cost of $200 was refundable.

Now for what you really want to know. I was concerned that I would hear a mono type signal and lose the sound stage and image detail. None of that happened. It was all the same with the addition of suttle details and maybe not so subtle. The most noticeable, female harmonies became much clearer and the number of times the sound of the tip of a drum stick touching a cymbal.
I tried listening with the aids in and taking them out mid song. There was no change in the stage and image. Just a drop in the detail on frequencies my old ears don't hear any more.

All this said many of the people that did research and wrote about it said " If you need hearing aids and don't like the sound listening to music. Take them out and just turn it up."

The only things that are an issue with them is, a bit of an echo in your ears when you first put them in but that seems to go away fairly soon. Still haven't gotten use to having something in my ear, when it itches I take it out and scratch it and put it back in. Also try to remember to take them out before getting in the shower.
Overall it is well worth the investment.

Good luck, if you have any other questions just ask.

The only thing I can offer about hearing aids is that you may want to make sure it is covered under insurance should you lose or misplace it. I guess some might be more expensive than others, but we had an insured lose one of his hearing aids at an amusement park, according to him it was like a $3000 hearing aid. He tried to claim it under his homeowner policy, but just losing or misplacing something isn't a covered loss under personal property. But if he had scheduled it onto his policy, like you would do for expensive jewelry, it would have been covered, but you do pay an extra premium for it. I think you can also get insurance directly from some of the makers of the devices. Yours might not be anywhere near that expensive though.

That's a good idea Kevin. Unfortunately that is the price range so I will be checking with our insurance agent.
Thanks

Brad, thank you, thank you sir!! This was just what I was hoping to hear. Excellent post and more than I expected!!

Thank you Kevin for some very good advise on the insurance aspect! I guess I'll research companies here in Tucson (lot's here in old folks land ). Set up a new hearing test and try some of the new models out. Thank you again so very much! This has been really bugging me. Craig