Best over the ear headphones to wear with hearing aids?

hellooo ~ i currently use Phillips 9050 hearing aids and i have custom earmolds with them. i’m looking into getting over-the-ear headphones for things like the gym or just while i’m at school studying. i have airpods and i love them a lot and i use the frequently at home or when i just want to tune everything and everyone out, but it’s difficult having to take my hearing aids out and put the earbuds in and then take those out and put my hearing aids in when i’m done.
i’ve just started going to the gym again and it was just difficult having to have my airpods in and not being aware. even in transparency mode, and with my music paused, i can’t hear anyone and i did let the girl at the front desk know to just wave me down if she needs me, i’d rather just have an easy fix.
my hearing aids do have bluetooth streaming but for some reason, when i listen to spotify the quality is not good. watching videos is fine and so are phone calls or even listening to songs on like instagram! but spotify is just not it :sob:
i’ve looked at the jlab headphones (JLab JBuds Lux ANC Over Ear Headphones Graphite) and i had seen some tiktoks of hearing aids users saying they were good but i don’t know. i can’t afford anything too expensive. i like bass and i had looked into these skullcandy ones (https://www.skullcandy.com/products/crusher-evo-sensory-bass-headphones-with-personal-sound?variant=44215710416953) but $200 is a lot! the jlab ones are looking awfully good for my budget right now! but wanted to see with other, more experienced people.
any suggestions??
thank uuuu <3

3 Likes

My suggestion would be in the first place asking my HCP if he/she could fix my HA’s programming so that I could better appreciate my Spotify listening as it is not good enough. These are expensive HA’s which must be able to do a better job.

OtE headphones will do a better job at the end I think. So that would be my second choice.
As no ears are the same no one can tell you what will be the best solution for your ears.

The only possibility you’ll have is try it out. But this will not be depending on reviews and theory.
How comfortable they’ll sit on your head and the kind of music you listen to or the volume or sound is individually different and of great importance.

Take your HA’s and go to an electronic shop where you can try them out. Maybe I am lucky to live somewhere I can trial everything that exists in big shops around me.

Sony has the best headphones with noice cancelling and also Bose is very good, but it is way over $200. Therefore you can use them several years.

The sound of the OtE headphones (Sony and Bose) give me the best results, but my BT music programms of my HA’s are almost good enough to stream Spotify hours per day and make me happy without wearing my headphones over the HA’s.

Good luck in deciding and sorting out.

2 Likes

Do you have a music program in your hearing aids? If you don’t, then that’s your fist step.

You may still prefer headphones, simply for a noise cancellation feature.

2 Likes

I have amassed a load of headphones over twenty years. And I tell you that wearing headphones atop hearing aids is a needless unpleasantness. Please try if at all possible to get some program set up in your aids to best satisfy your hearing needs.

You will be physically more comfortable, cooler, less gear to lug around, less mechanical friction applied to your aids; fewer controls to operate, and over time, you will get to excel at adjusting the aids for the enjoyment you want.

Also, powering the headphones to achieve the “BANG” you are looking for might adversely affect your hearing… so maybe check into that with your medical experts.

1 Like

Although I have only been wearing hearing aids for a couple of months, I was very disappointed with the sound of streaming music. Regardless which program I use in my hearing aid app the music sounds very tinny. I have the Jabra Enhanced Pro 20 hearing aids from Costco. My conclusion is that the little tiny speaker inside your ear canal was designed to reproduce human voices and not music. Even music through the hearing aid microphones sounds differently from listening to music without wearing them.

2 Likes

I use the JLab headphones that you linked to. They work great for me when I wear them over my Oticon Intent 3 hearing aids. I don’t listen to music with them, but the sound seems good. I use them when listening to / watching Spanish language videos on my Chromebook, which can’t seem to stream to the Oticons.

2 Likes

Wouldn’t over the ear headphones make it even worse so you were not aware of your surroundings?

I find my Airpods Pro 2’s work really well in transparency mode. Flying I can go from noise cancellation to transparency when the aircrew come to round with service. I can hear them and talk to them very well.

For working out (indoor bike, core strength etc) I use my Airpods Pro 2’s.

For running the Airpods Pro 2’s will work - but I prefer using the now discontinued Plantronics Backbeat 3150’s with open earbuds.

For the rest of the time I use Eargo 7’s and really don’t find it an issue to switch to the Airpods Pro 2’s (or Backbeats) when needed. Edit: I just saw you have custom earmolds which probably makes it harder switching.

The Airpods are definitely the best for music, podcasts etc.

Edit 2: I have tried over the ear headphones with the Eargo’s - they sound OK - but the Airpods Pro 2’s defintely sound better.

Hearing aids are designed for human speech, not music. But there are some excellent discussions on here about how to program your hearing aids for music. I’d find info on here and take that to your hearing aid provider to use in programming your HAs. The standard music programs never seem to be satisfactory without tweaking them.

Hi. I also hate the quality of streamed music through HA’s and will never understand hwy anyone likes it. Then again, I do have enough residual hearing to appreciate some music so maybe that is why. Also much of my loss is in bass frequencies. anyway, back to your question.
I recommend sony headphones, specifically the altwear or WH1000xm5. if you’re willing to wait a few months, Sony might come out with even newer ones. You can get covers that stop sweat getting into them here:

They work great in the gym. They don’t sell any for altwear but you can use the wh1000xm5 covers for those.

another thing that I really like about these headphones, they have a graphic equaliser, which means you can adjust to suit your hearing preference. If like me you’ve lost bass freqs, the altwear have a huge huge thumping bass which for everyone else blows their heads off, but for me sounds quite nice and normal :slight_smile: if you have higher freq loss, the xm5s will give you a lot of control over the high freqs and less bass.
The actual ear pads are also replaceable at least for the xm5s and again wicked cushons sell them. The reason I mention that is that the thicker pads they offer mean more room inside for your HA’s.

As for your airpods, do you have them configured in hearing aid mode? that might work for you in the gym as well, go from noise canceling to HA mode. It may not work though they’re not as good as HA’s, but still something to try.

hope that helps :slight_smile: