I’ve had a mild hearing loss since birth–use aids in quiet conversation and in singing. Problem is, when singing with a group I can only hear the persons next to me. My hearing aids are old and cheap, and nearly dead. Can a new hearing aid help me hear others parts in the harmony?
The Aids by themselves will probably not help much. Some help will be attained by the Aud giving you a program for music/singing that keeps the aids omni directional and does not supress niose, but you will still get more from the person next to you than the ones 6-12 feet away (just the same as you would if your hearing was perfect)
BUT Aids with a T-Coil, bluetooth or FM capabilities open up a lot of options for you to create a personalized “stage monitor” In that case, locating a microphone in the center of the singing action (or linking to an Audio system if one is being used) and sending the sound from those sources directly to your aids can be a matter of buying the right accessories and deciding if you need to be totally wireless or not…
Which Aids & accessories would work best for you would depend on the singing venues and audio gear you would be trying to link into.
So LOTS of ways to skin this cat…
The least expensive option would be to use use something as simple as the “Pocket Talker” It has a remote wired mic function and the output can go to either a headset, ear buds or a T-Coil Loop. This would be a fully wired solution but is cheap, portable and easy to set up & use. (not great audio but you are only trying to monitor the other singers right?)
Another example would be a microphone located centrally to the singing group that was plugged into a device like the Sennheiser SET 820 (it comes with a mic), which, in turn, sends via RF signal to a reciever & loop worn by you and links to the Aids by T-Coil. (Your Aids must have a T-Coil for this to work) This would be a mostly wireless set-up.
FM systems work much the same way but have an FM “Boot” that attaches to the bottom of the aids or an FM reciever that then goes to a T_Coil Loop
If you are in a church choir, and the choir uses amplification to a audio system, you may get lucky and find the church also has a loop or fm system in place for their parishioners. If so, you can link up to that.
The only potential problem trying to use the new bluetooth links (iCom, Streamer or Tek) for the purpose of singing in a group is the delay found in bluetooth. It would create an echo effect and make it difficult to stay on tempo woth the others. However, all 3 of those devices allow for a wired connection to the Sennheiser & some will link to FM In this case, those devices ARE the neck Loop to your Aids. But they only work with certain model of aids as opposed to any aid with a T-Coil.