I am a professional classical singer. I am likely going to use Costco for my hearing aids. Which brand might be best for me?
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I don’t think there is any clear brand superiority for music. I’d say the one your hearing aid fitter recommends. You’ll be getting their recommendation based on what they think will be most successful for you. Do let them know music is important to you.
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Yeah there’s no “best” as such, the best HAs are the ones that work “best” for you, you’ll need to trial a few to find this out, good luck.
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A more practical question is which hearing aid brand/model has a wide enough input dynamic range so that high intensity music level (including the vocal sound) would be captured with enough headroom to avoid clipping/distortion. General, many aids have as high as 113 or 115 dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level) for their input headroom. Avoid aids that can only support up to 96 to 105 dB SPL input dynamic range. Ask the Costco HCP for the input dynamic range spec of the brands/models they recommend or those that you want to consider.
Below is the link and also an excerpt from an article that talks about hearing aid processing at high input levels. This is a 2014 articles so it’s kind of outdated in terms of what the limit of the input dynamic range of hearings aids are. Back then, the limit was around 96 dB. Now many aids can support 113 or 115 dB SPL already. You want to make sure you get those that can support the highest SPL level.
Evaluating Hearing Aid Processing at High and Very High Input Levels | The Hearing Review.
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Just make sure they setup a music program in the HA. It might help to play some music & sing while they tune the aids after you get use to the aids.
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After trying for 2 years I have had my hearing aids setup by someone that really knows how to do it.
The gentleman confided in me that engineers and musicians are the hardest to fit. I’m an engineer.
I’m happy now and predict things will only get better. I’ve read a number of musician’s posts here.
I believe that setup is key!
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Another thing: many audis don’t know that they don’t know how to set up a musician program. As a result, they’ll tell you that they’ve done everything possible, when in fact a few simple tweaks will make a world of difference. But they don’t know about these tweaks. As such, it’s best to email them with something like this beforehand:
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Thanks for the post! Very helpful
About 6 months after I got my Phonak Audeo Paradise p90’s from him I had him set the “Music” program as the default program. Reason: I couldn’t hear the way he set them up. I didn’t know that he didn’t know how to set them up. My wife did. She said after every visit, “You can’t hear. He doesn’t know what he’s doing” I should have listened.
When I hear music on the tv streamer I can’t believe how clear it is. In fact when I listen to my 10 year old backup Phonaks they sound so much better than my P90’s did back then.
I’ve moved on and found a setup expert. With a quick fit I hear so much better than I have for 2 years.
My story isn’t important. I hope to help others advocate for themselves so they may improve their hearing. And truth: those 2 years were so painful I have a lot of trapped emotions…
Why do we accept a world where our hearing aids don’t play music? Why do we accept devices that limit us to such a narrow frequency bandwidth. For $6,000 here they should play music too. What’s life without music? Well that’s been my life. Time for change.
I’m looking forward to the answer. “Best COSTCO brand for musician.” We could all benefit.
DaveL
Toronto
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@jeffrey &@DaveL
IDK any mfg of modern HAs that do not incorporate a Music Program, optimized for for your RX.
Oticon, Widex, Phonak, etc all have Music programs, all the audi needs to do is assign it to one of your program slots.
The Music programs can all be fine tuned, as well, so it isn’t just accept the defaults, but based on your listening preferences.
Exceptions are:
Lowest technology of a given model may not have adequate input headroom, so do make sure you choose a model with 113 to 115dB:
Here’s a look at the older Oticon OPN solution:
There are other considerations, but if a patient explains the need for music enjoyment, the audi should have the info to provide the proper tech level.
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The Musician Program,that comes pre installed on Signia AX7s simply didn’t work. Feedback suporession was reduced but not turned off, as it needs to be. As a result I had a near constant warble when playing. Likewise wind block and some other programs were still turned on. It all has to be turned off. This freaks out most audis. By the way, I visit a site called Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss. Universally musicians state that pre installed music programs in aids still need to be tweaked. My audi was sceptical when I told her this. Signia brags about their musician program. When I finally was able to have additional tweaks performed, teh aids performed great!!!
there’[s a more thorough PDF than the one I linked above discussed a number of times on this site. Try searching for it. This topic comes up three times a month. I’ve begged the moderators here to provide a simple link to the severeal pdfs discussing this, but it hasn’t happed. So spend ten nminutes searching and you might find it.
You hit the salient programming points for successful Music program!
Now all one needs to do, is use a good set of speakers, and music source, or over ear headphones, that are neutral, like the Sennheiser HD600 series, and do some fine tuning of the Soft/Medium/Loud gains to reach the sound you’re looking for.
It’s great if you can DIY, but if not, a skilled understanding audi can be helpful.
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Setup is key.
Showed up at “Hearing Well Matters” Talked a lot about the supplying audiologists setup. The son-of-a-gun said my hearing had improved! So my hearing aids were setup quieter in his last setup that didn’t work.
Note to self: find out how he improved my hearing! this is a first! All those little hairs in my inner ear must be young again! He should pattent his method. He’ll be rich.
Sincerely the new dispenser of hearing aids has worked miracles for me. When I left I could tell what instruments were playing on the Jazz channel I had turned on in my Jeep. It’s been 15 years of hearing aid use. That’s how long! I thought I would never hear them again.
DaveL
Toronto
Follow up. Workman’s comp procedures…I finally had a new hearing test with my hearing aid practitioner. In fact I saw him 3 times.
Result. My hearing is 10-20 dB worse than determined by the previous audiologist.
I’m still trying to hear as well as I can