Jim, I am no longer a power tool user, though I may use them again with the volunteer group. In the spring we do brushing with power hedgers, and some work with a chainsaw, often use a powered wheelbarrow (known as a Georgia buggy too). It has been four years since I have done any of that, and it was always with ear muffs, usually the ones attached to a hard hat that Husqvarna makes. My health issues the last four years have kept me off the trails, but I hope that changes.
I also walk distance often, I average 5 miles a day easily. I no longer have a vehicle, and walk to coffee, shopping, errands, etc., then ride the bus home when necessary. It is often breezy here in the afternoons at least, and sometimes quite windy, like the event I mentioned. So far the HAs have been very good, I occasionally am aware of the wind hitting the mics, but nothing annoying and it is brief, less than a second. During Saturdays strong winds,I would hear the aids momentarily mute when I turned my back to the strong wind.
Prior to the HAs, I always used ear buds of some kind, Jaybirds, then I got the Nuheara IQBuds Boost model that uses the older NAL/NL2 fitting formula. They have an app that does the tone beeps to tune the earbuds for ones hearing. They also process normal sound or you can stream music and mute the mics, or mix music and world sound. They have some noise reduction and directionality features via the app as well. If my hearing loss was mild to moderate, they would work fine for me at $500 USD.
Now I’m trying to work out a system to stream music or podcasts from my phone when walking. The lack of bass is the biggest obstacle, and attempts to boost it give me digital sound warbling. I’m considering full headphones that are noise cancelling as well, hoping I can wear them over the aids, and remove when I need to hear better or converse, shop, order more coffee. I need to work our some of the niggles that I have as an Android user first, then on to better music.
ReSound just updated their Android app today, got me excited with the mentioned improvements:
WHAT’S NEW
• Support for rechargeable hearing aids
• Instant notifications and audio from any app without interruption and without program changes in the hearing aid
• Improved Individual volume control of surroundings, audio streaming and Tinnitus Manager
• Improved interface for Tinnitus Manager
• Minor bug fixes and improvements
Updated
September 3, 2018
Alas, that second bullet “without interruption” is not true, I still get the 2-4 second interruptions and numerous tones and beeps. Ah well, it looks like an iPhone is in my future. I am on Google Project Fi with an eSIM in my Pixel 2 XL, so I need to change service first before I try an iPhone, since Project Fi will not work with Apple phones. Still trying to sort out all the options.