Audiophile Hearing Aids
- Thread starter astrotoy
- Start date
A mere one-minute google search strongly suggests, from several sources, that ear candling is a bad idea, dangerous and ineffective. Sorry to be so blunt, but I am concerned.
I know several people who do ear candling 4 times per year. None of them have tinnitus. But all of them rave about less pressure. A more open sensation, in the ear/sinus. They all use the same massage therapist who performs the dangerous procedure. A mere one-minute google search can also find praise about this. One needs a few morsels of gray matter to accomplish the task, along with another set of hands, to combat setting your hair on fire. Dangerous!!! Hilarious...But I do appreciate your concern...
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Thank You so much for your concern. Crazy, dangerous, has a completely different meaning to me. Annapurna, that was dangerous/crazy. Never in my wildest days would I have thought that I would be having a discussion how crazy/dangerous ear candling is. But I must admit I am now intrigued! On a scale from 1 to 1000 ear candling would be at the end of the scale on the crazy/dangerous list. I'll report back if I survive the procedure. Problem is the massage therapist is booked for the next 2 months, waiting for a cancellation. BTW, I am NOT expecting a miracle and will for sure share my results. (if I survive) A good friend of mine had it done last week. I can attest she is not crazy. She does not have tinnitus but was very pleased with the results...
"As often as possible do what the others are not doing
Go off season instead of on
Go in bad weather instead of good
Walk when others ride
Laugh when others cry"
Ed Buryn
1971
There are a number of videos on YouTube teaching Qigong techniques for tinnitus.
It may be in my head (pun intended) but I’ve had a positive result. It’s not a cure. There is an ongoing need to apply the technique. But the overall problem is reduced even when it exacerbates. I find that there is not a big immediate charge. But the next day there is.
I’ve also had a positive result with Qigong for clogged eustachian tubes. Nothing helped this until Qigong.
It may be in my head (pun intended) but I’ve had a positive result. It’s not a cure. There is an ongoing need to apply the technique. But the overall problem is reduced even when it exacerbates. I find that there is not a big immediate charge. But the next day there is.
I’ve also had a positive result with Qigong for clogged eustachian tubes. Nothing helped this until Qigong.
This was very interesting. Been playing with the technique. Very much appreciated, I never heard of this until now...Thank You
Well I just got some BTE Oticon hearing aids. I can say for sure that detail is improved, and my fatigue and tinnitus are also improved/reduced.
It's only amplifying above 1k, and everything below that is "passed through" the ear canal insert (it has holes in it for that).
The only negative is the soundstage is a bit flatter. I think this is because the mic is behind my ear and it makes the timing of certain frequencies different from the main frequencies that are not enhanced.
Overall just getting used to this, we'll see where it goes.
It's only amplifying above 1k, and everything below that is "passed through" the ear canal insert (it has holes in it for that).
The only negative is the soundstage is a bit flatter. I think this is because the mic is behind my ear and it makes the timing of certain frequencies different from the main frequencies that are not enhanced.
Overall just getting used to this, we'll see where it goes.
Similar to mine. Yes, the fine outer ear directional cues are lost (or not re-established?) with BTE microphones.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
I purchased Widex U4 PATS model about 8 years ago.My biggest concern was what it would do to my music listening over all.
My audiologist was wonderful and she was agreeable to working with me to adjust one of the programs to have settings that made my audio system sound as good as possible, based on my beliefs of how music should sound.
It took about 5 adjustments that I would describe (guess) the frequency range I wanted increased or decreased to improve the sound. It has worked wonderfully for me.
Three years ago my wife was convinced that my old hearing aids didn't work properly and asked me to purchase a new pair that would work better.
I agreed and purchased a pair of Moment 440 and they were awful for music and general listening. I could hear better but I contend, with all of the digital programs in them, they sounded, well, digital and harsh.
I kept them for the sake of my happy home and still put in the original U4 whenever I listen to music. All is well and a happy wife.
My reason for going to Widex was after researching many hearing aids I discovered that the developer of Widex made hearing aids for musicians. Not that that made them perfect for listening to music just, at least in the right direction.
My audiologist was wonderful and she was agreeable to working with me to adjust one of the programs to have settings that made my audio system sound as good as possible, based on my beliefs of how music should sound.
It took about 5 adjustments that I would describe (guess) the frequency range I wanted increased or decreased to improve the sound. It has worked wonderfully for me.
Three years ago my wife was convinced that my old hearing aids didn't work properly and asked me to purchase a new pair that would work better.
I agreed and purchased a pair of Moment 440 and they were awful for music and general listening. I could hear better but I contend, with all of the digital programs in them, they sounded, well, digital and harsh.
I kept them for the sake of my happy home and still put in the original U4 whenever I listen to music. All is well and a happy wife.
My reason for going to Widex was after researching many hearing aids I discovered that the developer of Widex made hearing aids for musicians. Not that that made them perfect for listening to music just, at least in the right direction.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
I have a very good friend and neighbor who is an ENT and he owns an audiology lab as well. We were talking about this thread and it was his thought that for music Oticon is the best but as they say YMMV
Thanks, my current audio pair won’t last forever. I’m going to look into that brand
I've had my Widex Moment 440 hearing aids for three months now, and I have my final "free" hearing check and setup adjustment next week. I am fairly sure that what I'm hearing when I listen to music isn't "natural," but it's been decades that my hearing has been losing its high frequencies, so I'm no longer sure what a realistic frequency balance should sound like. Still, I'm fairly sure that the spectrum above 4kHz or so is overboosted.
Do any of you have any suggestions about how I should explain this to the audiologist? I think what I really want is corrected hearing that's as close to a "normal" young adult's hearing frequency response, which I'm sure isn't flat from 20Hz-20kHz. I know that I don't want the sizzling high-end that I think is an attempt to increase speech intelligibility in challenging environments.
Do any of you have any suggestions about how I should explain this to the audiologist? I think what I really want is corrected hearing that's as close to a "normal" young adult's hearing frequency response, which I'm sure isn't flat from 20Hz-20kHz. I know that I don't want the sizzling high-end that I think is an attempt to increase speech intelligibility in challenging environments.
Up until March 2023 I used to post about digital audio and how things like networks could be improved for dramatically better sound quality. Earlier the same month I had finally finished a five year long project to establish a system for local and remote streaming. I went to bed on the 12th March with a broad grin on my face, having just heard the effects of adding the final 2 SR Galileo network cables to my system. I awoke on the 13th after a good night’s sleep to find my ears feeling blocked, my hearing muffled, tinnitus in my right ear and my sense of balance completely gone. 2 weeks later I was given a diagnosis of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, essentially a failure of the cochlea and associated labyrinth, usually mediated by interrupted blood flow due to viral or vascular causes.
As a result I underwent a series of audiology tests, which resulted in the fitting of a pair of hearing aids. The fact that I’ve lost hearing entirely in one ear means that the stereo illusion, fundamental to hi-fi, no longer works for me, so listening to hi-fi is no longer interesting. However I still listen to music but now via the visual medium which provides my brain with the missing directional information. Naturally I wanted to compensate for my loss of hearing so I did several things:
1. I arranged a micro-suction wax removal to ensure that what hearing I do have is optimised. Just to mention at this point that candling is neither reliable nor safe and should not be considered unless other, modern techniques are not available, as may be the case in less developed countries. Likewise ear drops is another popular treatment that can cause as much or more harm than good.
2. A sight test to ensure my vision is 20:20
3. Hearing aids
As a former audiophile I obviously wanted as good hearing aids as i could obtain. Like hi-fi, there are several manufacturers, all offering their own cocktail of both common and unique features.
As luck would have it, the audiologist practice my ENT specialist referred me to has two of the most customer oriented, patient individuals I have ever come across. Starting out with balance tests, tympanometric tests to check for eustachian tube disfunction and hearing tests, they developed a full array of diagnostic data about my ears. From there its was a matter of selecting a pair of suitable hearing aids and setting them up according to my prescription.
The first thing to know about hearing aids is that some degree of hearing must be present in order for it to be ‘aided’. Essentially a hearing aid is like a graphic equaliser, boosting those frequencies where deficits exist. The most common deficit is a rolling off of sensitivity as frequency increases. In older adults there may be an across the board general lack of sensitivity that gets worse with increasing frequency. The audiologist should set up the hearing aids to compensate for the losses in each ear, such that the patient achieves a flatish response between say 500-8000 Hz. All the hearing aids I am aware of are digital, so have a considerable amount of processing capability. Manufacturer’s use this capability to create specific performance characteristics in firmware designed mainly to minimize noise and enhance speech cognition. Specific programs can be developed to enhance different listening situations, for example listening to conversations in noisy restaurants, in groups, listening to music, driving in a car etc. In addition, most digital aids are now equipped with some type of Bluetooth to allow streaming from devices like smart phones, iPads, TVs, specialist microphones, in-car entertainment systems and the like.
Typically each manufacturer offers a range of aids, ranging from the simplest, most economical,
with least processing power, to top of the range flagships with a wide range of features and controls. Many aids offer control of volume, balance, tone (sharp to soft), directionality etc. via a smart phone app. Batteries may be rechargable or replaceable, so battery life is an important feature. A couple of tops aids I tried struggled to produce more than 12 hours service before requiring a recharge, which is really annoying when they start running out of juice mid-evening.
By far the most important aspect of any hearing aid is the audiologist who sets them up for you. Hearing aids can be purchased cut-price off the web, but the chances that they’ll do a proper job are slim to none. There are many different types and degrees of hearing loss. Ear canals are of different shapes and have different acoustical properties. The aids themselves are designed to be configured by a specialist and matched to a user’s prescription, so first and foremost, find a really good audiologist. Then there’s the aspect of hearing aids and hi-fi. Hearing aids do not offer full frequency response, rolling off very early in the bass and extending up to around 8KHz in the treble. In order to hear deep bass, the hearing aid must allow low frequency pressure waves to pass the hearing aid in the ear canal and reach the eardrum with as little attenuation as possible. Given that all naturally occurring sounds above a certain amplitude reach the eardrum, the hearing aid is going to introduce a delay between natural sounds and those amplified by the aids. The longer that delay, the more unnatural the hearing aid will sound. Of all the 7 sets of hearing aids I evaluated, Widex offered the fastest response (minimal delay) and this can be heard, but in my opinion there’s so much more going on with the aids in terms of processing that this is only one of several important differences between the various aids, so while its an important aspect, its not the only one.
So having evaluated flagship models from 6 different manufacturers, my take away was that the second most important aspect in making a good selection of hearing aid is to understand where your priorities lie and pick the best hearing aid for that/those job(s). Due to my type of hearing loss I need hearing aids all the time and I need them to hear everything, so my choice was based on the aids that offered the best speech comprehension in all circumstances, including streaming of phones and televisions. Battery life and wearer comfort were also major considerations. This will certainly be different for someone else, depending on both their type of hearing loss and their priorities. As far as I have been able to ascertain, there is no such thing as ‘the best hearing aid’, only the best hearing aid for you. And to achieve maximum success you need an audiologist who is willing and able to let you try several different brands and is happy to set them up for you. It turns out that buying a hearing aid is no different than buying a pair of loudspeakers. Some will make you happy and others won’t and the only way to ensure the former is by choosing a great audiologist and comparing different brands over reasonably extended periods until you find devices that best fit your needs.
Of course this isn’t advice intended for everyone. It’s advice intended for people who care passionately about the quality of sound they listen to.
As a result I underwent a series of audiology tests, which resulted in the fitting of a pair of hearing aids. The fact that I’ve lost hearing entirely in one ear means that the stereo illusion, fundamental to hi-fi, no longer works for me, so listening to hi-fi is no longer interesting. However I still listen to music but now via the visual medium which provides my brain with the missing directional information. Naturally I wanted to compensate for my loss of hearing so I did several things:
1. I arranged a micro-suction wax removal to ensure that what hearing I do have is optimised. Just to mention at this point that candling is neither reliable nor safe and should not be considered unless other, modern techniques are not available, as may be the case in less developed countries. Likewise ear drops is another popular treatment that can cause as much or more harm than good.
2. A sight test to ensure my vision is 20:20
3. Hearing aids
As a former audiophile I obviously wanted as good hearing aids as i could obtain. Like hi-fi, there are several manufacturers, all offering their own cocktail of both common and unique features.
As luck would have it, the audiologist practice my ENT specialist referred me to has two of the most customer oriented, patient individuals I have ever come across. Starting out with balance tests, tympanometric tests to check for eustachian tube disfunction and hearing tests, they developed a full array of diagnostic data about my ears. From there its was a matter of selecting a pair of suitable hearing aids and setting them up according to my prescription.
The first thing to know about hearing aids is that some degree of hearing must be present in order for it to be ‘aided’. Essentially a hearing aid is like a graphic equaliser, boosting those frequencies where deficits exist. The most common deficit is a rolling off of sensitivity as frequency increases. In older adults there may be an across the board general lack of sensitivity that gets worse with increasing frequency. The audiologist should set up the hearing aids to compensate for the losses in each ear, such that the patient achieves a flatish response between say 500-8000 Hz. All the hearing aids I am aware of are digital, so have a considerable amount of processing capability. Manufacturer’s use this capability to create specific performance characteristics in firmware designed mainly to minimize noise and enhance speech cognition. Specific programs can be developed to enhance different listening situations, for example listening to conversations in noisy restaurants, in groups, listening to music, driving in a car etc. In addition, most digital aids are now equipped with some type of Bluetooth to allow streaming from devices like smart phones, iPads, TVs, specialist microphones, in-car entertainment systems and the like.
Typically each manufacturer offers a range of aids, ranging from the simplest, most economical,
with least processing power, to top of the range flagships with a wide range of features and controls. Many aids offer control of volume, balance, tone (sharp to soft), directionality etc. via a smart phone app. Batteries may be rechargable or replaceable, so battery life is an important feature. A couple of tops aids I tried struggled to produce more than 12 hours service before requiring a recharge, which is really annoying when they start running out of juice mid-evening.
By far the most important aspect of any hearing aid is the audiologist who sets them up for you. Hearing aids can be purchased cut-price off the web, but the chances that they’ll do a proper job are slim to none. There are many different types and degrees of hearing loss. Ear canals are of different shapes and have different acoustical properties. The aids themselves are designed to be configured by a specialist and matched to a user’s prescription, so first and foremost, find a really good audiologist. Then there’s the aspect of hearing aids and hi-fi. Hearing aids do not offer full frequency response, rolling off very early in the bass and extending up to around 8KHz in the treble. In order to hear deep bass, the hearing aid must allow low frequency pressure waves to pass the hearing aid in the ear canal and reach the eardrum with as little attenuation as possible. Given that all naturally occurring sounds above a certain amplitude reach the eardrum, the hearing aid is going to introduce a delay between natural sounds and those amplified by the aids. The longer that delay, the more unnatural the hearing aid will sound. Of all the 7 sets of hearing aids I evaluated, Widex offered the fastest response (minimal delay) and this can be heard, but in my opinion there’s so much more going on with the aids in terms of processing that this is only one of several important differences between the various aids, so while its an important aspect, its not the only one.
So having evaluated flagship models from 6 different manufacturers, my take away was that the second most important aspect in making a good selection of hearing aid is to understand where your priorities lie and pick the best hearing aid for that/those job(s). Due to my type of hearing loss I need hearing aids all the time and I need them to hear everything, so my choice was based on the aids that offered the best speech comprehension in all circumstances, including streaming of phones and televisions. Battery life and wearer comfort were also major considerations. This will certainly be different for someone else, depending on both their type of hearing loss and their priorities. As far as I have been able to ascertain, there is no such thing as ‘the best hearing aid’, only the best hearing aid for you. And to achieve maximum success you need an audiologist who is willing and able to let you try several different brands and is happy to set them up for you. It turns out that buying a hearing aid is no different than buying a pair of loudspeakers. Some will make you happy and others won’t and the only way to ensure the former is by choosing a great audiologist and comparing different brands over reasonably extended periods until you find devices that best fit your needs.
Of course this isn’t advice intended for everyone. It’s advice intended for people who care passionately about the quality of sound they listen to.
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Hi Zumba,
As an audiophile, you’ve learned much the same vocabulary as an audiologist learns so just explain it like you did above. I tried the same Widex aids you mentioned and found that on their ”Pure‘ programme they sounded a little ’sizzly’ and hot in the treble. Sounds like splashing water or crinkling of a cellophane packet were unnatural and uncomfortable. I found their ‘Universal’ program to be better.
A realistic frequency balance should sound ‘transparent’, ‘pure’, ‘fresh’ and ‘clear’ and give you the ‘feeling’ that you are hearing ‘perfectly’ rather than feeling like some frequencies are being emphasised and are ‘unrealistic’ and slightly ‘irritating. Don’t try to analyse the sound….you don’t have a reference….analyse your response….how they make you feel. Good sound should make you feel ‘better’, without negatives or dislikes. Note where they make you uncomfortable and communicate that to the audiologist in ’audiophile’ terminology. The audiologist should be looking at your ear’s response to the audio spectrum and setting up your aids to give you a flat response. That will likely add quite a boost in the higher frequencies but that should still sound natural. Also, when you evaluate how they sound, make sure which ‘programme‘ you are using.
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So here's my latest "discovery":
As I mentioned earlier, I've had my Widex Moment 440 hearing aids since last fall, so I've been in the club for about nine months. My hearing loss is fairly typical for someone in his early 70s (mostly above 8k), and I don't wear my hearing aids every day...maybe about 50% of the time.
I also have some tinnitus. I think it's relatively mild, but I'm pretty sure that it's also around the 8-12k range.
But...if I wear my hearing aids for two or three days straight, I'll often get a break from the tinnitus (it's diminished or gone entirely). But that break also usually continues for the first day or so that I DON'T wear them. The tinnitus eventually comes back, but it may be gone for two days.
And here's the thing: when I listen to my hifi system WITHOUT my hearing aids during those couple of days without tinnitus, it sounds incredible! I especially notice spectacular imaging and detail.
My speculation is that tinnitus "replaces" my lost hearing frequencies to some degree with ghost tones, but when my hearing aids recover those frequencies, they make the tinnitus "unnecessary." It doesn't come back until a little while after I've been without those frequencies again (through not wearing the aids).
Somehow, tinnitus also diminishes the effect of my hifi system in creating imaging and detail, perhaps by masking the same frequencies in the music I'm listening to?
I've repeated this several times over the past couple of months, and for me, at least, it's consistent.
As I mentioned earlier, I've had my Widex Moment 440 hearing aids since last fall, so I've been in the club for about nine months. My hearing loss is fairly typical for someone in his early 70s (mostly above 8k), and I don't wear my hearing aids every day...maybe about 50% of the time.
I also have some tinnitus. I think it's relatively mild, but I'm pretty sure that it's also around the 8-12k range.
But...if I wear my hearing aids for two or three days straight, I'll often get a break from the tinnitus (it's diminished or gone entirely). But that break also usually continues for the first day or so that I DON'T wear them. The tinnitus eventually comes back, but it may be gone for two days.
And here's the thing: when I listen to my hifi system WITHOUT my hearing aids during those couple of days without tinnitus, it sounds incredible! I especially notice spectacular imaging and detail.
My speculation is that tinnitus "replaces" my lost hearing frequencies to some degree with ghost tones, but when my hearing aids recover those frequencies, they make the tinnitus "unnecessary." It doesn't come back until a little while after I've been without those frequencies again (through not wearing the aids).
Somehow, tinnitus also diminishes the effect of my hifi system in creating imaging and detail, perhaps by masking the same frequencies in the music I'm listening to?
I've repeated this several times over the past couple of months, and for me, at least, it's consistent.
Very interesting to read members experiences with hearing aids. I have some tinnitus and high frequency hearing loss, so have experimented with some fairly basic hearing aids. I can still enjoy my system without aids, however, recently I have been experimenting with the parametric equaliser in Roon. Giving a gentle boost to frequencies above 1K hz sounds really good to "my ears" increasing separation, depth and presence.
This is fine for digital but not for vinyl so will need to investigate some high quality aids at some point. My current Phonak aids sound quite un-natural with music.
Thinking of investigating the schiit range of equalisers.
This is fine for digital but not for vinyl so will need to investigate some high quality aids at some point. My current Phonak aids sound quite un-natural with music.
Thinking of investigating the schiit range of equalisers.
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