Starting this thread to share experiences with enhancing hearing aids to achieve satisfying sound quality from streaming music sources such as Tidal, Amazon Music, etc that come from high quality sources such as digital audio players (DACs) and smartphones with USB DAC dongles.
My experience has been very rewarding and surprising. I have Phonak L90s with ActiveVent receivers and custom Ti molds. When typical familiar tracks that I use for reference comparisons are streamed thru my HAs the sound quality closely approaches the best I hear from several high quality totally wireless earbuds (TWS) that I have (Bowers & Wilkins PI7; Apple AirPods Pro 2; Fiio UTWS5 (with Fiio FH-9), Nuratrue Pro (With nura BT 5.3 Audio Transmitter).
I get frustrated listening to familiar music. My memory says hey wait a minute whereās that piece of sound that Iām sure I remember should be there. I ask the able-hearing spouse and they say yup I hear it. Sigh. Or even subtle sound overlays where I primarily hear whatās going on but thereās another sound that was there from memory.
My thought is that as we lose more and more of our hearing that we spend more and more on external technology to try to keep up with the loss. I think thatās a losing battle.
2 examples: Beatles Day in the Life after the first crescendo just before Paul comes in thereās an alarm bell. Gone. Or Boston Smokinā in the middle instrumental section where my memory says there should be kind of a springy sound. Gone.
If I blast the volume I think I can pick up the alarm. That springy sound I donāt know what to do.
I have completed given up on listening to music. I can somewhat enjoy to piano, drums and guitar. But donāt add singing to it then it is just garbage.
Not really a Bās fan, but Iām guessing both those sounds are in or around that 3k dip in your audiogram.
You may want to have your audi add more gain in that range in your Music Program.
Streaming from amazon UHD tracks is not really doable with HAās or streamers, they only use the SBC codec with android.
When LE Audio becomes reality, weāll see some improvement.
When I wish to hear detail, and fidelity I either use my Sennheiser over ear cans with my HAs on, or for walking about, my Etymotic IEMs. WIRED!!
Yes probably. I wonder if those sounds are in those frequencies.
I ripped all my cdās to flac and then out to mp3 variable rate for the sd card for my phone music player. I donāt stream.
I did ācopyā a bunch of others where I already have the vinyl or 8-track or cassette. I otherwise have no other ācopiesā.
But at the end of the day I really actually rarely listen to music like I used to due to the frustration. New stuff can be enjoyable since I wouldnāt know what I might be missing.
One way would be to use a Frequency Analyzer app on your phone.
Or play the section for your audi, and ask them. At that time, you could have adjustments made.
I ripped my entire vinyl and reel to reel collection to WAV, and copied to VBR MP3 as well.
Now we have great streaming service, and my physical collection gathers dust!
I guess I should have said I donāt stream from online sources. But yes I can listen to the player āstreamingā to the HAās. Certainly not out of the tinny little things they call speakers in a phone.
For the subject line - HAās canāt do low bass and high frequencies let alone your own ears being able to. Low bass can be nice fill out the bottom end and high frequencies are generally just harmonics of the ānormallyā heard frequencies so are we missing that muchā¦
I would like to add some additional experimentation I am doing utilizing a DAC streaming source (Sony Walkman 707) with USB-C patch cable to the Roger One. The One wireless output to the L90 HAs is stated as: āRoger offers a comprehensive audio frequency bandwidth from 200 Hz to 7300 Hz. The internal signal-to-noise ratio of the system is approximately 55 dBā. I find the range of signal is much greater than bluetooth. Sound quality is quite impressive.
I tried the Beatles, I can hear the alarm but not loud.
Paradise naida 30 up with full moulds from Samsung tablet, utube source.
Perhaps you could try an adjustment.
Streaming music from the internet can be a āhit and missā situation, as far as music quality is concerned,for example,I use a Bluesound NODE to stream wirelessly from Amazon Unlimited,plus Radio Paradise and I have listened to maybe close to maybe 1000 tracks since I bought my streamer one year ago and have āwittledā those 1000 tracks to just 110 so far that have IMHO,some descent sound quality.
When I was searching for HAās I checked around and first I trialed Widex Moment 330RIC,then Phonak Audeo Paradise 90 RIC,then went to and stayed with the Widex Moment 440ās RIC and my music has never sounded better!
I can mute the HAās while music is playing and I am surprised how much of the top-end of the music I am missing,even though I knew my upper range was gone,being able to actually hear the difference
while listening makes me appreciate the HAās even more.Huck
I also enjoy listening to Radio Paradise (MQA) and Amazon Unlimited tracks from the Bluesound Node 130. Nice to have their curated streams to mix it up from your most familiar tracks.
HAs use SBC codec, for energy efficiency, which is the worst one currently, arguably. Itās 16kHz at 16 bit with my Signias. So high quality sources are useless.
Iām quite satisfied with the sound though, the bass is lacking ( I know it could improved) but theyāre very detailed, sound locality is amazing, and voices sound great. Also, they last forever and I keep forgetting that Iām wearing them.
LE Audio and LC3 codec should change things for the better.
I am bi-modal, CI one side, HA the other. Listening to music from speakers (AKA āthru the airā) was a distinctly unpleasant experience. I had to turn the volume waaay up and still wasnāt getting much of it. I only listened to music I knew from ābeforeā, since new music was indecipherable, just a bunch of noise.
Then I started streaming, phone to ears. Itās like someone lifted a curtain. Music is crisp, clear, I hear nuances I hadnāt heard in decades. I can actually distinguish individual instruments.
I now stream all the time. I listen to new music all the time. A whole new world!
Hearing Aids low frequency sound will be attenuated, particularly if the HA has open domes.
You can probably notice the bass response improve markedly if you put your fingers in your ears!
This is because the HA is creating pressure in the space, rather than pushing air in a large space like a speaker has to.
One option open to apple users is to enter your audiogram into the iPhone, and use good quality headphones, that way the iPhone will automatically correct the frequency response for all sources.
Seems that this is the right crowd to source for beginner advice on streaming audio quality.
Is there a possibility that some of you could start a new thread on quality HA audio for Newbs?
Iām close to my first hear of HA use, with Jabra Enhance Pro & M&RIE. The sound quality is particularly poor from the Resound Streamer 2.
Surely there are many here who have tried multiple audi fit adjustments but canāt quite get even a moderate level of sound accuracy for music & movies. Some guidance on the basics would be very much appreciated!
I worked with an audi at Costco. She said she had a couple of users who liked the M&RIE, but most of the people who tried it didnāt like it. I know I didnāt. I live the streamer, which allows me to actually hearing what is said; I no longer need closed caption, unless the speaker has a non-standard accent. TOSLink from my TV to an receiver is just not as clear as HDMI.
Whatās your frame of reference for sound form TV and music? Mine is live blues, bluegrass, and orchestra, and an analog hifi system that is not modern, so I donāt expect much from streaming to HAs, but Iām in a small minority - I like natural, not boomy, bass.
