Hello Experts!
I am getting a hearing aid for my right ear (the one with the hearing loss) and am curious - are there headphones out there I can use? I know there is the option to have music/etc. stream to the aid, but I would like to listen to music in both ears.
Has anyone used headphones with RIC aids? Anyone with a unilateral loss used headphones?
I am an avid headphone enthusiast and listen to music with them frequently. Many circumaural headphones are large enough to easily clear RIC hearing aids with no problem (they don’t touch the ear at all). Mine are large enough that there is enough space inside the earcup for the hearing aids to process the sound and boost my lost frequencies (as if I were listening to speakers).
You will need a full size circumaural headphone to get this benefit.
I have one hearing aid, too, and so far I’ve been taking it out and putting my earbuds in. I have the sound on my computer boosted to my weak side. Working for me so far, especially since I can still hear without my hearing aid (if someone comes by and wants to talk to me), it’s just easier with it.
A couple of suggestions: Use earbuds and put the earbud in your ear along with the hearing aid receiver. I do this. Also, I have been looking at bone conduction headphones (Aftershokz and Audiobone). I haven’t tried these, but I probably will soon. Good luck.
Your loss is not very large. I would take the hearing aid out and just use your headphones or earbuds directly. If you want to leave your HA’s in for convenience sake, then use circumnaural phones as palmfish has suggested.
I’ve been wearing hearing aids for 40 years and have many (too many) thousands of dollars invested in various headphones and headphone amplifiers. In my experience, the sound quality through a hearing aid is nowhere near as good as that directly through good headphones. Of course your mileage may vary, but that’s been my experience.
btw haven’t setup my hearing loss yet, but it is now in the severe range. I will dig out my last audiogram and add it as a sig when I get time.
I was actually surprised by how good my headphones sound with my hearing aids. Before I got HA’s I thought my HD 800’s sounded good but since I have become acclimated to my HA’s, I can’t listen to music without my HA’s - its just too muffled and muted sounding. It took a bit of tweaking to get a “Music Program” for my Phonak’s that sounded good, but I’m mostly there now.
I suppose I could experiment with EQ and boost the treble range of my audio system, but I dont have EQ available for all of my music sources, and then other family members will have to learn how to bypass my EQ when they want to listen to music. Nah, I’m happy overall with listening to music with my hearing aids in place.
Your hearing isn’t that bad at all, I don’t see why you would need a headphone for unilateral hearing loss. Why can’t you use a normal headphone? I wish my hearing was like your hearing lol
feedback technology today seems to have pretty much eliminated the worries of yesterday of using headsets with hearing aids. I’ve used lots of different types of headsets and they all seems to work well with my ric.
But I have to say you should be extra cautious not to jack up the volume to adjust for that right ear. all adjustments should be to cater for your good left ear. and keeping your aid in while you use headphones is a good idea.
Yeah, I actually don’t want a headphone for unilateral hearing loss, I was asking if I could still use normal headphones. And it sounds like I can! 