balance restored or why didnt i do it earlier?

[Pieoftheday]

Many years ago i had a couple of operations on my right ear to remove a false membrane, basically some skin grew infront of my eardrum:( both opps failed in that it grew back but the infections and pain stopped so i was happy with that. hearing test showed that id lost some hearing but it didnt really bother me so i didnt give it much thought. Now for a while i havnt been enjoying music as i did and couldnt think why, my set up is pretty good, i still like the same music, and then it dawned on me, perhaps my hearing is worse than i thought and a recent test proved this18731 so i got one of these18730 its a NHS hearing aid:) what a difference!! it isnt perfect ,theres some distortion with some music and it isnt exactly a natural sound, though im still getting used to it but its restored balance to my hearing and made listening to music much more enjoyable. im going to save up for a more advanced one after xmas:) hope this post is in the right place, it is about an upgrade, kind of;)

[speedyj]

Thought provoking.

Definitely an upgrade. Do we all take our hearing for granted?

I'm sure it would be interesting for us all to have a hearing test and see how we are doing........especially those in or approaching their 50's like myself.

Really pleased to hear this has improved your experience.

[Stryder5]

It's an interesting thread, I'm a little older than 50😂, but recent tests have indicated that my hearing compares with much younger ears 😀.

I was reading about the latest digital hearing aids, and how they can be tuned to your specific requirements, speech and music may require different settings.

We do indeed take our hearing for granted!

[Pieoftheday]

Definitely worth booking a test if you're concerned about your hearing, it's free too:)

[Gordon Steadman]

Make sure you get a speaker in the ear model when you upgrade. I assume the NHS models are digital but with a tube that transmits the sound.

Since I got the SIE models, my listening has been transformed and I'm enjoying the hi-fi again. I will be 70 in April and suffer from a family genetic inheritance - thanks Mum!

There is a guy on eBay who sells them at remarkably good prices and will even set them up if you send him an audiogram. Out here, a decent pair would cost €4 - 5000 but from eBay, mine cost just over £350! Obviously, if you can afford it, it's best to go to a specialist but I've been well pleased with mine. There are other online direct sellers too of course.

Glad to hear about the improvement:)

[Pieoftheday]

Make sure you get a speaker in the ear model when you upgrade. I assume the NHS models are digital but with a tube that transmits the sound.

Since I got the SIE models, my listening has been transformed and I'm enjoying the hi-fi again. I will be 70 in April and suffer from a family genetic inheritance - thanks Mum!

There is a guy on eBay who sells them at remarkably good prices and will even set them up if you send him an audiogram. Out here, a decent pair would cost €4 - 5000 but from eBay, mine cost just over £350! Obviously, if you can afford it, it's best to go to a specialist but I've been well pleased with mine. There are other online direct sellers too of course.

Glad to hear about the improvement:)

Yes the NHS one is relatively basic but a great door opener.music/ TV specific ones are £1500 to £2500 a pair, and are apparently very good.

[walpurgis]

I'm deaf in one ear and daft in the other.




Seriously though. The hearing in my right ear has been a bit iffy since I was a youngster, all upper frequencies are missing. It's not getting noticeably worse so far and doesn't affect my Hi-Fi enjoyment.

But I'm just a mere stripling of 68, not a crumbly old 69 year old like Gordon. ;) :D

[Pieoftheday]

I'm deaf in one ear and daft in the other.




Seriously though. The hearing in my right ear has been a bit iffy since I was a youngster, all upper frequencies are missing. It's not getting noticeably worse so far and doesn't affect my Hi-Fi enjoyment.

But I'm just a mere stripling of 68, not a crumbly old 69 year old like Gordon. ;) :D

But if you have a free test and a free hearing aid could be useful you could improve your enjoyment!! I'm glad I did it anyhoo

[walpurgis]

Prices for hearing aids are ludicrous. A decent watch is far more complex but a tenth of the price.

[Pieoftheday]

Prices for hearing aids are ludicrous. A decent watch is far more complex but a tenth of the price.
This NHS one was free Geoff, I know the better ones ain't cheap, but what I've got back here is almost priceless to me. I also like a nice watch:) my dad left me his Eterna, beautiful

[farflungstar]

Ears are the most overlooked component in the HiFi chain - which is ridiculous considering without them there'd be no music, no hyped audio gear - no snake oil. Or bliss.

Millions of people suffer from tinnitus - and are told to go away and live with it. It appalls me that cancer gets billions in research but one of our 5 senses gets f*ck all.

Ade


Sent from my Aquaris E4.5 using Tapatalk

[Pieoftheday]

As can sometimes happen when we change a component in our hi-fi, it can reveal something else, I'm now having to play with speaker placement , just a tad ,I hope,:cool: yes I know a hearing aid isn't really a hi-fi component, but you get my drift

[Puffin]

Ears are the most overlooked component in the HiFi chain - which is ridiculous considering without them there'd be no music, no hyped audio gear - no snake oil. Or bliss.

Millions of people suffer from tinnitus - and are told to go away and live with it. It appalls me that cancer gets billions in research but one of our 5 senses gets f*ck all.

Ade


Sent from my Aquaris E4.5 using Tapatalk

Spot on Ade.

[rdpx]

One large advantage of having NHS supplied hearing aids is that they upgrade them for you every three years or so as improved models are released. As I understand it, the aids that I have from the NHS can't be bettered performance wise and the only reason for buying privately would be if I wanted the in-ear ones, which I don't. The ones I have are Oticon Spirit Synergy which would be I believe about £1000 each were I to purchase their equivalent privately. I expect that these will be upgraded in the next 18 months or so. Also with NHS provision you receive a free supply of batteries which is nice, and also new moulds when necessary.

Hearing aids are very advanced and intricate pieces of technology and to say they are less complex than watches suggests a lack of understanding of what they do. The following is from the blurb about the current flagship model from Oticon which are about £1500 each, and can connect wirelessly to pretty much anything (phone, stereo, doorbell, etc):


Tiny, high-speed computer chip allows for full wireless access so users can stay connected to mobile phones and other external devices;
50 times faster than the latest Oticon platform for quicker, more accurate sound processing;
64 frequency channels ensure clear, precise sound reproduction for better speech understanding;
Scans the environment more than 100 times per second, analyzing and balancing sounds for richer, more realistic 360° sound picture;

Distinct Oticon Opn™ Features:


OpenSound Navigator™
OpenSound Navigator™ scans, analyzes and reacts to sounds in the environment more than 100 times per second. Thanks to this extreme processing speed, Oticon Opn™ is able to continually analyze and balance sounds, removing noise between words. Users can follow the sounds they want to hear and quickly shift attention when desired. Surrounding sounds are available but not intrusive so users can focus on the sounds they want to hear even in noisy situations.

[danilo]

Prices for hearing aids are ludicrous. A decent watch is far more complex but a tenth of the price.

Disagree Recently went thru the Hearing aid adventure with my Mum.
Her in ear pair ran 4000$ A ridiculous sum I thought. (No Gummit freebies here)
However after several Audiologist revisits. I started to realise that these were seriously sophisticated gizmos.
Desktop computer programmable with what seems as a Full and effective DSP control.
Noise cancelling capabilities.
Fully Wifi capable with connection abilities to Remote devices and even a direct to TV (or?) audio link.
A hand held or necklace remote allowed her Significant frequency adjustments on the fly with a fail save return to the audiologist settings.
For the inevitable bungles.
Few Watches even come close in techno sophistication IMO.
Still a silly price but Much less usurious than I first thought... when signing the Bill.

[struth]

this is pretty complicated ;)

http://www.thewatches.tv/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/vacheron-constantin-ref-57260-official.png

[Macca]

That's a different type of complexity, though. Complexity is a complex subject...

[mikeyb]

My Gran was well into her 90's before my mum and aunt persuaded her to try hearing aids, they were fed up listening to her TV at max volume, she caved in and got digital ones.

First week she had them in she was lying in her bed in her sheltered flat when she could hear a sort of dripping/ticking noise, so she got up and went through to the bathroom, nope not there, she then went into the living room ( which from the bedroom was down the hall and past the bathroom ) and realised that she'd been hearing the click ticking on the mantelpiece lol

Went from deaf as a post to Bat lugs !

[archiesdad]

I've got an NHS hearing aid similar to OP's, had it a couple of years and it made a great difference to tv, hifi and social interaction, free is one of my favourite words so I'm no buying a slightly more discrete in ear model, I'll save ma money for yet another (relatively) expensive watch, I'm watching a nice Hublot at the mo.

Didn't know about the upgrade after 3 years, looking forward to a wee bit fettling.:D