A Question from a Musician.

[BlueJazz]

I certainly don't know much about HOH although I've don't believe I've ever made some of the idiotic mistakes and "Rude actions" that I have read on this forum tonight.

Anyway, I'm curious about one thing concerning hearing aids.
...and Maybe only those who have had full hearing at one time or have a small hearing loss in only one ear can answer this question.

Do Hearing Aids sound Hi-Fi or are they mainly "Tuned" for speech?
I mean,If your hearing is fine in one ear and you only need a hearing aid in the other, does the hearing aid side sound like a cheap radio or is the clarity of Music still retained ???

THANKS MUCH :)

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I can't exactly answer your question

Because I have no way of comparing the sound you hear with what I hear when I'm wearing my hearing aids. I've been hard of hearing in both ears since I was quite young and now have hearing aids for both ears.

I can tell you that I've always loved music, but since I got my hearing aids, just over two year ago, I enjoy it even more. It sounds much better, fuller, richer with my heearing aids in than not. I never knew how much of the sound I was missing.

My hearing aids don't give me fully normal hearing, just much improved hearing. Now I'm envious of people with normal hearing because I assume they get even more out of music than I do when I'm wearing my hearing aids (a.k.a., my occasionally annoying but beloved little friends).

[BlueJazz]

2. With some of the Music out there, you're not missing much...

.. :)

Do you hear the same thing in both ears or are they very different?

Boy..I was just thinking...about how hard it would be to explain sounds to someone totally deaf.
Even harder to explain colors to a blind person (since birth)
very interesting though...

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Oh, by "music" I really mean "classical" :)

But also oldies rock, including stuff that was new when I was a teenager (long ago -- 1950s). I loved that rock then, for its energy and all of that teenaged stuff, but now when I listen to it on the radio, I can hear it in a way I couldn't then.

My ears are very similar. I don't know what it would be like for someone with hearing loss primarily in one ear. My wife thinks she's losing high-frequency hearing in one ear and is going for a hearing test soon. She might end up with a hearing aid in one ear. It'll be interesting if she notices much of a difference with music, especially since she comes from a musical family (music teachers and performers of various types) and used to play the viola fairly seriously when she was a teenager.

As for trying to explain sounds to someone who's totally deaf, well, you'd have to shout REALLY LOUD!

[BlueJazz]

4. I was a Classical Clarinet player, then turn to Sax (Alto) and Jazz.

I've got some hearng loss in my right ear but still hear around 12,000 cycles
which is really not very important since most intruments don't put out much information above that.
I've had thoughts about a hearing aid but DAMN!...they're expensive.


Having perfect pitch is nice but after about 6,000 cycles even I have a hard time saying what the note is....

Your last sentence reminded me of what I was going to do when I posted my first post on this forum.
I was going to use all Capitals but then thought that most HOH folks would think I was just a Smart-Ass ! LOL

[DavidDvorkin]

5. I think it's like any other group

If you're a member, you make jokes about its characteristics. If you're not, you can't.

Yes, they are awfully expensive. Maybe that will change, thanks to the aging of the baby boomers and the resulting leap in demand. The technology is improving constantly, presumably also because of demand, and the price is coming down in the sense that last year's expensive, new model is this year's second- or third-tier, less expensive one.

[recoveringrepublican]

6. it depends on the quality of the aid, the amount of loss,

how long a person has had the loss, what frequency they can't hear, and how long the person has had the use of aids.

I had perfect hearing until I was 17. I played piano, violin, and clarinet. Music was one of my complete enjoyments.

As I started to lose my hearing it was so subtle I didn't miss out on anything. When I got my first aids I bought digital. I didn't really see a difference, as my loss involves high frequency sounds, which is mostly conversational.

My loss progressed, but I couldn't afford new hearing aids. I stopped listening to recent music as I couldn't hear the lyrics, and to be quite honest, the actual music really wasn't all that impressive. So I just listened to music that I considered my staple. My mind would matrix the words I wasn't hearing, so in my head I was hearing what I had always heard before.

I got a job after 5 years of being a SAHM. Vocational rehab bought me new hearing aids, but these were lesser quality analog ones. I CANNOT listen to ANYTHING over the radio/cd player/speaker with these, as it sounds like listening to music over a radio which is the played over another radio (does that make sense?). My RATM and lovely Doors just do not sound the same. Any music I'm unfamiliar with just sounds like noise and hurts my brain.

Now when I play the piano it is lovely.

It really depends on so many factors for each individual.

Some hearing aids are I guess what you would say "tuned for speech", as they can filter out background noises. Analog hearing aids just make everything louder, which doesn't really help me much.

[uppityperson]

7. Not sure if this is what you mean, but when I first got my bilat aids, it sounded like

everything was coming through a speaker. Yes, they are tiny speakers in my ears. Now I am used to them and things sound normal. I have digital ones, music sounds clear to me, not tinny. Actually, for the first minute or so I put them in things sound tinny, then my body adjusts and all is fine.