Good hearing aids for audio/sound professionals/engineers?

Sure I get what your saying, and yes you’ll be able to turn all those automatic features off, I believe they are off by default on any music program, although im not 100% sure for Oticon (as I’m not an Oticonian) they have a new music settings for the more and real, use the search button from right here on hearingtracker to find out more about how this works, as there’s been quite a bit of discussion on it.
@Volusiano has some very good posts.

Post your most recent Audiogram it helps to give advice.

I have never had one done. I don’t have a calibrated way of measuring. But from the best I can tell I pretty much follow the average curve for 70-yr-olds.

The first thing you’d want to know when trying to fit your hearing loss with hearing aids is to know what kind of hearing loss you have and don’t just assume. If you’re going to invest in anything to begin with, invest in getting an audiogram done. Most places do it for free. Get one done at Costco. You only have to invest your time, not even money. Then post your audiogram into your profile here for everyone to see so they can give you appropriate and meaningful advice that’s relevant to your specific hearing loss.

No hearing aid is going to be able to prescribe anything for you anyway if you don’t tell it what your audiogram data look like.

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Can anybody tell me the pinout of the CS53 flex strips? There are three conductors in the strip, and I want to know which pin of the CS44 cable goes to which conductor of the strip.
Thanks.

Sure I do have it, but I’ll need to dig it up for you.

What are you trying to do tho?

I am going to make cables using old PS/2 mouse cords, and solder the wires straight onto flex ribbon strips, bypassing use of the little 4-pin connectors. This is the Do-It-Yourself forum, right?

Hey sure whatever you want to do, good on you for trying it out, still I’m thinking it would be easier to just buy some cables, but if you like to play around with stuff I’m sure you’ll have some fun.

Here you go.

NLCableCat (2)(1).pdf (967.7 KB)

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Fellow music writer/producer, and mixer here. Worse loss than you describe. probably going to settle with Widex Moment Sheer hearing Aids, easy to find and program. Zero delay in the Puresound" programs (no comb filtering against your natural hearing). You could only bypass your hearing test by doing an in-situ with these in your ears, which at least the HAs would detect the accommodations. with Widex it’s Not my natural hearing At ALL, but somehow I’m still working. Any major label stuff I’ll send it out to mix. I might try oticons, but waiting to see.

Thanks for the file! It filled in most of the info I need. I still don’t have any hearing aids, but I’m actively watching eBay for something that I can start learning on.

As to “just buy some cables,” I am an incurable tinkerer, and have been making cables all my life. My garage is full of electronics parts, and my storage unit has even more. I disassemble old electronic gear and put all the parts sorted out into boxes. I got my first soldering iron in 1959. I have a 4-year degree in electronics and a Masters in Computer Science from Calif. Polytechnic. It irritates me to see those CS44 cables and flex strips selling for $25 each or more on eBay, when I have what I need already.

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Sounds great, if you want, you could post your successful DIY projects here on the forum, step by step guides for anyone else wanting to do the same.

Cheers

Yes, I’ve been thinking about how to share the info. I’ll do so as soon as I have an actual success to show!

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Yeah, I’m not a musician per se. I played trombone from age 10 to age 34, but realized I really don’t have that kind of talent. But I have worked with sound systems since about age 15, I have built recording studios, I was into speaker building as a hobby, I have run live sound most of my adult life, until I started losing my high frequency hearing response. I have a 4-year degree in electronics and a masters in computer science from California Polytechnic.

I’ve been somewhat surprised that I haven’t found anything in internet searching relating to hearing aid needs of musicians and audio engineers. None of the promotional materials that I’ve seen have any mention whatever of our needs. It’s all about speech intelligibility, and maybe mention that there is a “music” program you can switch to, but no indication of what that means. Forum discussions sound mostly like laments.

I see a market niche waiting to be filled. If a manufacturer would sell an OTC hearing aid with a mobile app that gives the same controls that a live sound engineer has on his console – real-time spectrum analysis, 1/3 octave band EQ, parametric EQ, compression on multiple frequency bands – as soon as the word got out it would be an instant hit and they would sell thousands.

Another feature that would make them even more desirable would be frequency response down to 30Hz on the low end. That would take multiple drivers similar to what you find in in-ear monitors. I noticed in my KZ-ZST’s, the high frequency transducers look just like hearing aid receivers.

I wonder if the hearing aid industry even has a notion of how many old rock and roll musicians and sound engineers have blown out their hearing (that would not be me), and even those that have tried hearing aids mostly just leave the volume cranked up rather than try to deal with hearing aids.

Hmmm, you’ve missed a lot of info right here on our forum.
Using the search icon at the top right of this page, do a search for “hearing aids music”.

Many of us audiopholes, and general music lovers have posted successful outcomes.

Also google Marshall Chasin. He’s a leading AuD for musicians.

Here’s a Whitepaper from Oticon about their MyMusic Program.

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In my experience, the ability to do you own programming is more important than the latest high tec aids.

For music (I play classical guitar and listen a lot) you want to be able to turn off all the wiz-bang features like compression sound recovery etc. I have my music program set to be as close to analog with graphic equalizer as possible.

I find that open domes allow more bass to reach my ears without distortion.

The microphones in modern aids can be “steered” just like hf, vhf, and microwave yagi antennas. This helps to null out unwanted sound from behind me, or from the sides.

It also helps to pick one brand and software, learn it well and stay with it. In my case it’s Phonak and their Target software, which has a feature called Audiogram Direct making it possible for you to do your own audiogram by sending tones through the hearing aids.

If you’re a diy guy, you have come to the right place. Welcome.

I was steered away from Phonak Lumity L90 by the limited dynamic range - If I remember correctly it was 100 to 5500? Did you go with a different model of Phonak that’s getting you the range for your guitar?

I recently acquired a used pair of Phonak Bolero M90 PR aids. The data sheet shows <100 hz to >7000 hz.

There is a learning curve to programming hearing aids, which is why I suggested picking a hardware /software, brand and sticking with it.

When I first started with hearing aids, it was because I was acusing my wife of mumbling, and I always needed to have the TV turned up past where it was comfortable for others. The improvement in listening to music turned out to be an unexpected bonus.

I have never been to an audiologist, and have used the Audiogram direct function in the Phonak Target software.

Most of this came fairly easy, because I have a ham radio license, commercial fcc license, private pilots license, FAA airframe and power plant ratings. And I just retired from a very technical job.

I love tinkering with gear. I just can’t help myself, it’s an affliction.

If you really get into this, it can be a lot of fun, and very rewarding.

dacuttler, we’re both from the same mold. I never got into aviation, but I did get the FCC 1st class Radio-Telephone Operator’s license. I have a 4-year degree in Electronics Engineering Technology and a master’s in Computer Science from Calif Polytechnic. I’m still just getting started in diy hearing aids. I picked up a serial Hi-Pro on eBay for $43. Having spent probably 10% of my working hours getting modems to work back in the days of DOS and dial-up internet, I just went to my storage unit and pulled out a box of serial cables to get this hooked up to my PC. I definitely enjoy learning new areas of technology. My purpose in getting into diy hearing aids is because I would never be happy with somebody else telling me what I am supposed to be hearing, especially when I can do it myself.

flashb1024 I should have said, “until I found Hearing Tracker!” I really expected to find a consensus or a lot of recommendations by sound engineers, musicians, and audiophiles, or at least advertising in the trade press on where to look for hearing aids for audio professionals, but all I heard are crickets. Hearing Tracker flies under the radar. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it.