Prebycusis, the Audiophile and the purchase

[Lightloopy]

Recently my wife has been ( I think jokingly) saying why are you auditioning $,$$$ equipment but you can't hear anything.
I know we will lose some frequencies as we age and I plan to have an audiogram eventually. (I register in the 60-65 age group for runs)
My question for our wiser members is that given that, can we still appreciate the nuances (despite some frequency loss) in equipment that we love as time marches on. Will everything start sounding the same eventually whether it's $500 or $10,000?

 

[spkrdctr]

Not really. You will adjust as your brain makes you think you are hearing just as good as usual. So you will easily hear the difference between a pair of logitech ($100 a pair) speakers and your Martin logans. Until you get fairly bad hearing you will be fine. I'd say until you can't hear anything above 8,000 hz you might not notice anything. It takes a huge drop in hearing before you will really notice it at all. Unless you have a smart aleck younger person telling you that you are not hearing something. That is easily fixed by not listening to said younger person!

 

[Robert D]

My in-laws, both in the early 80s, made a similar claim to me about video. I asked them how the picture was on my LG OLED 4k TV and they said it looked about the same as their Vizio HD TV. I then put on a SD channel on the television and they didn't see any difference between that and HD, except that the picture was no longer wide screen and had the black bars.

I think there is some truth in the audio observation as well. Probably depends on how bad the hearing loss is. I'm 51 with some loss and got tested. Doc said I don't need a hearing aid yet. IMO, spending some $$ on audio when you are older will sound better as long as your hearing loss isn't really bad and requires hearing aids.

I think standard hearing aids ruin music, but the newer ones have special settings for music. I think the standard setup emphasizes the frequencies of human speech. Maybe the music setting takes that away.

So if you have bad loss but use one of those hearing aids with a music setting, your enjoyment of music should be great. Hopefully someone with one of those aids will chime in.

 

[Robert D]

New hearing aids i think can be programmed to amplify the frequencies where your hearing is most affected.

 

[Lightloopy]

New hearing aids i think can be programmed to amplify the frequencies where your hearing is most affected.

OK, As long as the hearing aids don't have tone controls!
Appreciate the comments

 

[Robert D]

OK, As long as the hearing aids don't have tone controls!
Appreciate the comments

I saw an ENT doctor about my hearing and had at test done. He told me about how some hearing aids now are programmable and have a music setting on them. Thats what I would get if I needed one. Expensive though. I think something like that would really enhance music.

 

[Brad225]

My move to purchase hearing aids was inspired by my wife except, I believe it went something like " I will beat you if you don't go to the audiologist". She was, in reality, probably a bit more gentle than that.

I did a search on the web for - hearing aids and music. I ended up with a company called WideX. This is a common brand to some audiologists.

My reason for choosing them was the owner of the company had worked to develop a product for musicians that were loosing some of their hearing frequencies.

As previously mentioned in the thread she was able to use one of the programs to recreate the drop in my hearing centered at 4000Hz. It took me going in 3 or 4 times for her to change the program for my preference but, once adjusted it made a great improvement in the sound of music.

The hearing aids can be an annoyance at times but overall well worth it.

The first week of mandatory mask wearing in public places, I was coming out of the grocery store. Not really thinking about the ear loop of the mask and my hearing aids I pulled the mask off. It pulled the hearing aid out of my ear and tossed it out into the driving lane where it was instantly run over by a car.

 

[Lightloopy]

Thanks for the helpful information. It will be interesting how technology moves on that front, especially from a music standpoint.
Sorry about the hearing aid -you must've felt like Ralphie when he stepped on his glasses.
Hopefully your wife was understanding.

 

[Brad225]

Yes she has known for years I am accident prone and a klutz.

 

[Robert D]

My move to purchase hearing aids was inspired by my wife except, I believe it went something like " I will beat you if you don't go to the audiologist". She was, in reality, probably a bit more gentle than that.

I did a search on the web for - hearing aids and music. I ended up with a company called WideX. This is a common brand to some audiologists.

My reason for choosing them was the owner of the company had worked to develop a product for musicians that were loosing some of their hearing frequencies.

As previously mentioned in the thread she was able to use one of the programs to recreate the drop in my hearing centered at 4000Hz. It took me going in 3 or 4 times for her to change the program for my preference but, once adjusted it made a great improvement in the sound of music.

The hearing aids can be an annoyance at times but overall well worth it.

The first week of mandatory mask wearing in public places, I was coming out of the grocery store. Not really thinking about the ear loop of the mask and my hearing aids I pulled the mask off. It pulled the hearing aid out of my ear and tossed it out into the driving lane where it was instantly run over by a car.

Wow, thats horrible about you running over your hearing aid. How much did each one cost? I think it is considerable. I bet you were upset about that. What you have sounds like a great thing though. Id wear those if my hearing tested low enough to need it. So you wear those all of the time, even when listening to your ML speakers? Do they have a setting for speech too, or is it just set the one way all of the time?

 

[Brad225]

I took it home and made an attempt to bring it back to life but to no avail.
The replacement was $2800 so yes, painful.
I wear them all awake hours. There are 4 programs that can each be adjusted to your preference.