+1 on this advice. Who knows, maybe the OP will get an Audi who is HOH and is an active musician?
There is also another company in the US, besides America Hears, that sells self-fitting aids. I can’t remember their name but have read very favorable reviews on them. Just use any search engine to bring them up.
Edit: I found it www.hearsource.com
Don
Here is my audiogram - the audiologist extrapolated the same value at 125 as it was in 250 after I complained about lack of bass. I’m sure it is much worse.
NINE YEAR thread necro. That has to be a record. 
It doesn’t look like bigbeck came over from the old forum either.
Wow. Nine years after starting this thread. I am now hoping to try KS 9 when they arrive in Canada in the fall. So many advancements in nearly a decade.
I am a musician with hearing aids.
I’ve always protected myself with audiologist fitted Etymotic or Westone ear filters. Nothing over 85dba enters my ears. But a 3 times misdiagnosed extreme allergic reaction to what ended up being dust mites left me with damaged ears.
I use Oticon OPM with closed domes. The audiologist set them up for full frequency.
The problem is now without the hearing aids, and the ear plugs I cannot understand what audience members are saying.
So I try to keep volume levels under 85 on stage, and use the ‘connect clip’ to discretely turn the volume down during the songs. If there is audience talk between songs, I can turn them back up again.
It’s not the best solution, but one I can live with.
It’s ironic that the guy in the band who always wore ear plugs is the guy who ended up with hearing damage. Oh well, life goes on. The 3 legged dog still runs, and I still gig.
Bob
I hope others are still reading this site. I have a situation similar to BobbyBoomer. For years, I wore Westone musician hearing protectors when I performed. But my hearing has gotten enough worse that I wear hearing aids (open style) now, and actually hear music better with the hearing aids. However, they offer no protection against overly loud sounds, including music. An example nightmare situation is leading rehearsal of a student ensemble in a classroom: it is so loud that I’m concerned it will cause further damage to my hearing, so I put in the Westones; the ensemble stops for a moment to discuss an issue, but I can’t hear a thing, so I fast and furiously change to the hearing aids - then they start playing and I change to the Westones again … Of course this changing back and forth would be nearly impossible during a live performance, when I want to be able to hear audinece members, hear the band well, but not get my ears fried by the volume of the music.
If you all are familiar with within-ear monitors for musicians, they can block out excessive volume sound. My dream is to have something like these that 1) does frequency adjustment that corrects for my hearing loss, so I can hear music well 2) protects me by blocking out (attenuating) any sound above a certain volume; 3) lets me normally hear everything around me, including audience members and conversations (thus, they would need to have some sort of microphone system, as well as the frequency adjustment).
Does anyone know of any product that does what I’ve described?
Any hearing aid can do this, its the basis for hearing, you’ll want to go down the DIY path to get the best results for you particular use, plenty of people from right here on the forums that can help with software and programming, just use the search tool from right here on hearingtracker.
Thanks for your reply! My open-style hearing aids definitely won’t do this. Although I described this all to my audiologist, the audiologist felt that open rather than closed hearing aids would be a better solution for me. Tenkan, are you saying that you believe regular closed-style hearing aids would adequately attenuate sound from a loud live band situation and, with DIY programming to address issues with music, would sufficiently address the issues I described? If so, I’m surprised and curious why my audiologist recommended against them…
p.s. - I’ve also noticed that older musicians with hearing loss, such as Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, all seem to wear open-style hearing aids. Perhaps they do nothing to protect themselves from loud sounds onstage? I’m not sure …
This is because they are not set up to do that, your audiologist has set them up for speech recognition and not music (loud, outdoor concert, etc.)
Again this is because the audiologist has set them for speech at your level of loss.
Going the DIY path will allow you to see for yourself what can be achieved within the software.
Yes it can be done, with MPO and noise reduction settings, just about anything is possible.
Music is one of the hardest to set up for the individual, but there are a few forum members who have done this for themselves with good results, again just use the search button to find them.
I don’t have any issues with my own music program, find it quite nice and clean sound.
Ha, well if everyone believed everything they said there wouldn’t be a use for a DIY forum like here ; )
But seriously like any good audiologist (or doctor) they can only offer so much, they simply can’t hear what you do, so only you know what you can hear and good you think it is for any given situation, the only way to be sure is doing DIY.
Also can you post your audiogram and the exact model of HAs you are using, this way myself and other forum members could offer more information/advice.
Depend on hearing loss what type plug and aid is the best for that person.
“Again this is because the audiologist has set them for speech at your level of loss.”
And she has to set for speech through mic, not to receive music through bluetooth at home in armchair without environmental sub sounds.
I think I may have not used the correct terminology when I said “open-style” hearing aids, as some comments don’t make sense to me. I have Unitron Moxi Fit - there is a small speaker that goes in each ear but I said “open” because it does not fill the entrance to the ear. Therefore any loud noise sounds painfully loud just as it would without hearing aids. What I’m looking for are hearing aids that attenuate the volume when I play with a loud band, yet let me hear the music with the frequencies adjusted to compensate for my loss in high frequencies. The within-ear monitors my friends use are custom-fitted to fill their ear canals and go fairly deeply into their ears; they cut out all sound from the outside. (In fact, they were so completely cut off from audience sounds that they added a microphone and fed that into the mix that was sent to their ears). So, in order to reduce the volume from very loud music onstage, I obviously need something that will fill the ear canal - thus my question. I know a different style of hearing aid fills the ear canal, but I don’t know if it is custom fitted and goes deep enough to really block out loud noises - do they? Thanks!
p.s. - not sure my audiologist ever gave me the audiogram, but I will look for it - might take me a couple of days to find it.
Its ok i understood what you meant, open fit is open domes fitted to your receivers (speaker) common for mild to moderate hearing loss, you most likely have good low frequency (bass) but tapes off in the higher frequencies
(ski slope)
edit:I see you state high frequencie loss.
Yep its gonna get painful with completely open domes, your going to have to use closed domes or even better still custom made moulds with the smallest vent you can tolerate, so as not to get the “occlusion effect”
This is no problem for just about any hearing aid, its all in the fitting
(programming + acoustics)
Yes they do, your going to need to see your audiologist, or if they are not wanting to help, find another that will.
You’ll need impressions for your moulds + REM first fit.
From there you can try your hand at DIY, everyone here will help, but you need to see a pro to begin with, before going down DIY path.
I can tell you from experience you won’t have much joy with the unitron moxi fit (even the Pro model) these are similar to phonak, unitron are not known for good music reproduction.
Signia, Widex, ReSound are good options that have given decent results for me and others.
I use closed dome hearing aids, it’s the solution for me.
I have Opticon aids and the ‘connect clip’. From the clip I can adjust the gain of the hearing aids.
When performing I keep an SPL meter on stage (A weighted Slow response) and keep the loudness under 95db (typically 90). I feel responsible for the hearing health of my audience, so when we do a sound check, my partner makes sure the volume at the first row of tables is 85dba average.
A couple of down clicks on the connect clip in combination with the closed domes act to keep the volume at a comfortable level. Between songs I click the up on the clip until I hear the double-beep telling me I’m at the set level, and I can hear talking.
I used to use the Westone passive aids, and kept 15 and 25 plugs and had a similar situation as you. Between songs if an audience member said something I couldn’t get it. My duo partner always covered but I was in the dark.
Then at Etymotic I bought active musicians ear filters. This could be a solution for you. As the volume goes up, the filters compress the peaks and lower the gain. The only problem with them is they don’t work for high levels say 95 or above.They take #10 hearing aid batteries.
https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection/mp915.html
When I explained what I needed to my audi, she recommended closed domes. If I turn the volume on my aids down all the way, or open the battery doors a bit to turn them off, they act like ear plugs.
This works for me better than the Etymotics because between songs instead of just passive listening volume, my aids are active and it helps me understand the speakers.
Bob
6 Months since my last post, I have a question and a comment:
I haven’t posted in a long time, since before this forum converted from the previous owner. I found stuartr’s post (above) after searching for “3DME”. I was specifically looking for more information on: ASI 3DME ACTIVE AMBIENT IN-EAR MONITORS. Stuartr gave a good description of them in his post.
I’ve been a non-professional guitarist, usually electric, for about 55 years. Over the last 10 years I’ve developed some fairly significant high-frequency loss, causing challenges understanding speech. To
deal with that I’ve been wearing Rexton Trax 42 BTE HAs since they first became available at Costco.
The HAs are very helpful with speech, thankfully, but cause serious degradation in my ability to enjoy music; recorded or live. I have a music-optimized program for the HAs, which is an improvement, but is not satisfactory.
I’d also recently read (here) a reference to “Headphone accommodations” with Apple AirPods. What intrigued me was the ability to customize the sound based on the user’s audiogram. I’ve been waiting for that feature for years. However, I don’t use Apple’s phones or other products (although I still have an ancient IPod).
Then, today, I watched a YouTube video of a pro-guitarist raving about ASI 3DME ACTIVE AMBIENT IN-EAR MONITORS. I’ll post the link to that. Now I’m interested in learning more about the product. I’m hoping that the concept of using its built-in equalizer may allow it to have a similar function as Headphone Accommodation with AirPods.
This seems like an approach I’ve been dreaming of. I was hoping I’d find more discussion about it (or anything similar) here, but stuartr’s post is all I found. I’d be very interested to hear what others think about this idea.
Here’s the Youtube link: I’ve NEVER liked In Ear Monitors… UNTIL NOW!
[edit] I should emphasize, as stuartr did, that I wouldn’t be expecting this approach to offer the speech-processing capabilities of true HAs, but I am very interested in the possibility of hearing musical fidelity with some compensation (equalization) for my high-frequency loss. The added protection against damaging sound-levels would be a bonus.
