@alwysnomi: I believe the answer is 2 hearing aids.
@SpudGunner
Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed response. I might have overemphasized my attachment to music!
I’m no studio musician; just a programmer / techie who plays an electric guitar for an hour or more most days a week. I play into an amp, but I live in a small apartment in a city, so I can’t imagine I play loud enough to cause hearing loss. (Especially since I’ve never heard a peep from my neighbors 
)
Pre pandemic, I’d go to about a dozen concerts or live shows each year, and often would have earplugs with me, so I doubt that kind of exposure would cause this type of severe loss. When it comes to listening to music on my own, I usually listen with some pair of IEMs or even airpods, usually at no more than 75% volume on an iPhone.
My audi and ENT both seem to think that my hearing loss is likely genetic; they are both surprised by how well my brain seems to compensate for the loss, which bolsters their idea that it’s been like this for quite some time. Perhaps music and the like has exacerbated it, but I don’t think it’s the root cause.
I understand that my hearing loss isn’t recoverable, I’m not looking for a pure and natural sound. I think what I was trying to get at was this: given that I prefer a very open feeling hearing aid, how does any user with a similar dome / fit listen to music? Obviously with vents you don’t get the same isolation as you would with IEMs or even airpods with silicone tips, a lot of the bass escapes and the resulting sound is tinny and very mid / high end forward to my ear. Does that make any sense?
Super interesting, I would love to learn more about this and how venting and mold fit impacts / shapes the sound.
I will ask my audi again why he isn’t recommending custom molds. He never brought them up with me, I asked about them offhand last time I saw him and he didn’t seem too hot on the idea. That being said, it might go right back to my preference for as open a fit as possible (though you might be correct that a fit as open as I desire may not be optimal for my loss).
I was definitely having some occlusion with the first pair of domes that I used, but my audi was able to “adjust” some of it away.
It makes perfect sense: I did get the sense, until your clarification, that you were perhaps a performing musician, which is hard on cochlear hair cells.
You’re correct: apartment playing or hearing protected concerts won’t do to your hearing what your audiogram shows.
What Rick @Raudrive says about domes is true: they let too much low frequency sound leak out to give you the tone you want.
FWIW, I wear hard acrylic moulds with 100dB receivers into them, and I honestly forget they’re there.
They seal off the ear canal, allowing a buildup of SPL in there that can actually begin to sound good.
The key to success with moulds is the fitter. I think you can trust what Rick and @Um_bongo are advising you in that regard.
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… and keep coming back here. There aren’t many (any?) other places on the internet that boast this Forum’s depth of knowledge and genuine empathy with your challenges and desires.
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I think I’m mostly planning to try RIC-style aids. Can you get custom molds with those, or do you need to have BTEs for that?
Yes, you can get custom moulds with RIC HAs.
Here’s a shot of my LH Oticon More3. [Hmmm … you wear Signia, making you a “Signiac”, in the list of “The Tribes of the Ear”.]
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Ah thanks, good to know! Just looking at mold types I wonder if my audi would be open to fitting me with a semi-skeleton earmold or similar. Guess I’ll ask and see what he says!
I think next week I’m going to be trying Phonak, so what’ll that make me then, a Phoenician 
?
What is a “semi skeleton ear mould”? In the beginning, you might want to let the audiologist “drive the bus” - if you trust them. OTOH, if you’re current audi is not pushing hard to fit you with RIC moulds, well … I dunno.
[You would be a “Phonakite”, in that case. I’m a dyed-in-the -wool Oticonian! LOL!]
Yeah, being so new to all of this, I’m definitely trying to figure out how to tell whether or not I can trust my audi. He does do REM, and seems fairly open to all brands of aids, so I’m not sensing that he’s trying to push any one thing on me. I do feel like there was marked improvement after the last adjustment, but I’m not sure I’d know a red flag if I saw one!
As for skeleton ear molds-- here is a link to a pic I pilfered from google search (https://twitter.com/UnitronUS/status/741143112551149568/photo/1). It kind of looks like a hollowed out mold (which I would hope might help with the plugged up sensation I’m really keen to avoid in everyday environments). Obviously not a professional, but wondering how much to advocate for my preferences / ideas when my audi isn’t proactively suggesting options…
Do a Google search for earmold types.
You will find there are a bunch of different styles of ear molds. They are also made out of different types of materials.
Each has a purpose based on hearing loss. Your fitter should understand this very well!
Something we see a lot on this forum is bad fitters as well as good ones. You need to understand the difference and try to pick out a good one who will really do what’s right for you. Try to do some reading about best practices here on the forum. Dr. cliff has some good videos that can help too.
Good luck with your hearing.
IMO, you don’t need a big mould like that …
I would disagree with you, I have an ear molds with canal locks, and I am going to ask for full skeleton ear molds when I go back in the middle of May. I am having problems keeping my left ear mold in my canal correctly
A good audiologist would be able to counsel him better than I, Chuck. I admit that.
I have had no trouble with my RIC moulds moving on me.
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I have always had issues with my left ear keeping my hearing aids in the canal correctly. I told my Audiologist that my head is lopsided. Also I have the 100 dB receivers that require hard ear molds
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Would you Tarrs say it’s “listing to port”, then?
[Just funnin’, Chuck! Thank you for your service!]
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Probably all of the times I beat my head against the buckhead trying to get some officer to listen to commonsense need for repairs
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Hey there,
I’m also a cookie-biter. I’ve been wearing hearing aids for about two years although I know I had a problem long before that. I have Oticon ITE. I preferred to go with ITE and an open vent. Try different things and see what you prefer - you are the one who has to live with it, and different things affect people in different ways. You’ve already done a good job explaining the sounds you hear and getting improvements, so I imagine you will end up with good results. You sound like you have a good audi too - doing REM, not afraid to fit different brands or push you in a certain direction, and listening to your feedback to improve the fitting.
I’ve heard Widex has a great sound and has a reputation with musicians. My dad plays guitar and switched to Widex a couple of months ago and is enjoying the difference.
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Hi there
I had the same problem. All I needed was for the sharpness to be turned down. However everyone experiences sound differently.
It can take a lot of tweaking to get hearing aids just right. My suggestion is telling your programmer exactly what you’ve written. A good programmer will understand what kind of adjustment is needed based on your description.
I am trialing the signia pure ax and it has an “ai” that can make sound adjustments to your aids just by answering a few questions via the phone app. So far it has been great. I have worn widex for 11 years now and am finding signia to be better for speech clarity. Not a lot, but definitely there.
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