Absolutely true for most here, especially when the issues are solely related to speech. But not necessarily true or difficult for a musician.
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I’m a musician. I play classcal guitar and various recorders. My audi has all the necessary software available for my particular hearing aids already installed in his office. Moreover, he’s familiar with all the quirks of these particular aids from having worked with them a hundred times. He also has a good understanding of the needs of musicians when it comes to setting up a musician program. Of course I bring my guitar in with me to his office. and of course, things aren’t dialed in perfectly on a first visit. Again, it’s FAR easier for me to work with an experienced and trained audi who understands the software for my particular aids–and should I attempt this myself, the software would have to be learned for any individual brand–ands general instructions on line NEVER take into account the actual HAs one is working with, but only “Ha’s in general”–given all this, and more, it’s far easier and for me to work with an experienced audi. the results are better than if I tried to learn the whole process and attempt to download all the software and interface with my precious HAs without effing everything up a hundred times, which I would. Others here have a lot of time and patience and enjoy messing with technology. For me, it’s hell. I guess this last sentence says it all. Why wade into hell when an experienced audi can quickly get better results?
Oh and P.S. all of this is free to me with my provider. It’s included in the initial cost of my HA’s.
Well It’s not likely you would screw up your hearing aids as a DIY, because you can always revert back to the last saved program.
I did fiddle a lot with the programming at first, but now I have everything dialed in to my satisfaction, so I seldom have a need to change anything.
I too used to play Classical guitar & recorders but being in my late 80’s, my hands don’t cooperate like they used to so I now use a an electronic digital wind synthesizer. It allows me to play any instrument in any key. My main interest is, Elizabethan, Renaissance, & baroque music.
Because I purchased my hearing aids off Ebay very inexpensively and program them myself, it’s worked out well for me.
I must confess that having spent my life working with technology, I do enjoy tinkering with stuff. Actually I can’t keep my hands off of anything I own that can be modified or adjusted. being a gear head can be a bless or a curse at times.
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Hey, dactuttler, I’m in Berkeley, so we’re neighbors!
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+1 SF , Cal grad , go Bears !
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I don’t think there is a best hearing aid for a musician, but rather a hearing aid that best suits your hearing loss.
I don’t have mine yet (I’ll get them next week), but I have a couple of assumptions and wanted to make sure they’re correct…
First, I’m also a drummer, but whenever I play I use in ear monitors (Etymotic IEMs with excellent isolation). My Etymotics fit deep into the ear canal, and so whenever I’m playing drums I expect I will just remove my hearing aids, pop in my IEMs, and swap them out again at the end.
And when I go to concerts, I always use hearing protection. Would I continue to remove my hearing aids and put in my musician’s earplugs for this, or would I want to look at tips for the hearing aids that offer better isolation and then allow me to adjust the levels of the frequencies coming in? Since I don’t have them yet and only have moderate loss (and only on high frequencies), I don’t know if I’ll go with open or closed tips… most guides seem to indicate that for my level of loss, open tips that allow ambient sound through and then augment it from the hearing aid is going to be best, and in that case I’d certainly need something different to deal with high-volume situations.
Am I on the right track?
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My HAs provide nowhere near enough isolation. I pulled and plugged at the one concert I’ve gone to since getting HAs. And it wasn’t even “supposed to be loud” at the concert. I guess I’m officially old.
WH
@RhythmMachine I struggled a lot with this same question and spent a lot of money to find that out for myself. Tried to find a way to enjoy my music playing alone and in groups as well as speech recognition and loud sound protection. So here’s some of my personal knowledge.
Tried all kind of moulds and hearing aids and made custom changes. Open and closed domes and even the automatic receivers from Phonak. Tried ITC, ITE and BTE of different makes.
No way to just use one kind of HA or one kind of receiver in all the circumstances.
In case I went for protection and playing music my best solution was a self modificated custom made Pluggerz variant as protection combined with a HA programmed for my personal music appreciation with the possibility to turn off all kind of amplification. Not every HA offers that possibility.
In case of rehearsals with speech combination in between I could not use any of the variants as the speech was an unforseeable component so I had to choose for leaving out the noise protection as the speech was most important. Which could be undoable under circumstances…
Best solution for open and closed domes was the closed one. Great second the automatic ones only available from and for Phonak which I didn’t try out with the custom Pluggerz as they are fixed to my Titanium custom moulds. The occlusion effect you have to get used to and not think you get rid of that after just some weeks or months! It takes time and you can learn it by being persistent all the way.
If the most important thing is loud sound protection in my case the only way was using the appropriate customized hearing protection. None of the other solutions gave me by far that same protection measured by tone generation. Solution otherwise could be extra one sided over the ear protection or use of two different makes of HA solutions.
So far for my own experiments and conclusions which maybe not be applicable for everyone. My most important feature now is hearing and understanding people. Unfortunately the musical ability I have to put on second place. You can’t have it all.