So … this raises a question: should I be returning to my audiologist with this possible recruitment issue and requesting further testing/adjustment? Or do I just “grin and bear it”?
After all , the neighbour only mows once or twice a week.
[I don’t want to ask for adjustments for this one, relatively minor issue, at the potential expense of the good performance of my More1s.
Hi @SpudGunner
Having read through this thread , I am not sure your Audi can do anything about it as - if I am correct - you have the issue with or without your HAs being turned on and with our without your (shooting) ear muffs. You have extensively looked into and trialled the options immediately available to you. ie it is not a direct HA issue - it is a Spud issue 
. I can’t imagine what an Audi could do to ameliorate the issue, they can’t ‘turn down’ the world at a specific frequency to below what you have with the HAs in and turned off and wearing muffs. 
The only thing I can see working are more effective - universal - sound protectors rather than the ones you have for shooting.
It sounds like an extremely irritating problem and while I sympathise I can not see a solution otherwise. MAYBE there is a possibility of masking the frequency somehow??
Soft silicone ear molds would shut out the mower noise with the aids muted…
The aids could be tuned to lower the mower nose without muting using silicone ear molds too.
Rick, I can’t wear silicone. I react to it.
@Oz-Tack: Thanks for your thoughtful reply … that’s what I’m thinking. It’s a “Spud’s ears” issue. I do need a different model muff, however.
There is one other way Jim, if you are friendly with your neighbour? Explain the problem, and ask if you can fit a mower muffler, to dampen down his mower slightly, eBay or Amazon have them, they are not that expensive, and easy to fit, tis either that or silicone moulds as Raudrive suggested, which I believe you are allergic too? But, if you can reduce or alter the noise, that may solve the issue? Cheers Kev 
@kevels55: I’ve been asking my neighbour to please get a new muffler for her lawn mower since the original one rusted out, 10 or 12 years ago.
She refuses to recognize my discomfort. If you’re mostly deaf, you shouldn’t be bothered by noise, should you? And she refuses to acknowledge that there’s anything wrong with her mower: “The guy who services my mower every year hasn’t said anything about needing a new muffler!”
She’s not the kind of person that you can talk to without her throwing a hissy fit. And we all know how delicate and diplomatic the SpudGunner is, right, Kev?
[She’s also a distant cousin … so her normal “societal filters for strangers” are not applied in our dialogues!
]
Affirmative on the diplomatic front 
In that case a 7.62 straight through the mower, should alter it’s capacity indefinitely Seriously though, in this country we have SEPA, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, noise pollution is considered a menace, and you can request a noisy neighbour to curtail their noise pollution, SEPA or the Council will come in and monitor your complaint, if the noise is over a certain db, they can be made too, through the courts, and court orders…. In extreme cases, they can be evicted, or jailed or both… but it’s never easy to get on with some folks who dig their heals in, I guess I am most fortunate as I have never had a problem with any neighbour…. Cheers Kev
@kevels55: I live in the country, so we have no zoning, no local noise ordinances.
My neighbour’s a good person, but self-centered. If she hasn’t experienced it, or doesn’t react adversely to something, then it doesn’t exist, or it’s not problematic.
But she’s the perfect embodiment of the belief that - if one is HoH - loud or irritating noises shouldn’t be a bother because we can’t hear them, can we?
I have yet to accurately measure her mower’s SPL, but I’ll wager it’s 15dB higher than my other neighbours’ machines. And she doesn’t just lower the deck and engage the blades once or twice (we all have ride-on tractors out here in the boonies). She raises and lowers the deck, engages and disengages the blades every time she encounters a bare patch, or the edge of her driveway, or crosses an already-mown swath.
The effect is one of a loud, whining noise of intermittent presence and variable pitch.
But - all that shouldn’t bother me because I’m pretty deaf, right? Just try, if you will, to imagine the auditory effect on someone who may be experiencing loudness recruitment!
You are describing the blade noise, not the engine noise, correct?
That changes the issue to some degree.
I’m referring to the combined cacophony. How would that matter, Rick?
You’re referring to this?
Not impressed.
Just trying to help as others are.
@Raudrive: I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you are referring to. I took the trouble to see what blade noise was about and came up with this very interesting Master’s degree thesis which explains the difference to which you’re referring.
In fact, twin, counter rotating blade wash creates loud, low frequency tones that are, indeed, different from engine sounds. These low frequencies may be part of the problem.
Is that what you were alluding to?
Chill…
I’m inclined to agree with @Oz-Tack: this is just one of those irritations life throws at you that you just have to suck up.
While there may be an explanation of the cause, understanding the etiology of my discomfort doesn’t suggest anything to mitigate it. [Mower blade wash is something that never crossed my mind, but the physics of spinning blades in an enclosed mower deck certainly has the potential to generate intense, low frequency quasi-pure tones that could induce recruitment. Think 50Hz @ 105dB. As @Raudrive suggested : blade noise is, in fact, different from engine noise, as I discovered after doing a little digging.]
Recruitment is another phenomenon of which I was unaware… I think anyone/everyone with SNHL should become acquainted with this phenomenon, early in their HA journey. Now that Kev @kevels55 has made me aware of its practical implications, I intend to read up on it, because it explains several quirks in my (damaged) hearing…
Somehow, though, knowing all this doesn’t solve the problem. I’m tempted to try some Bose noise-canceling headphones to see if that helps. If @Deaf_piper had been correct about the time involved in my neighbour’s mowing being short, it wouldn’t be worth forking out cash for those headphones. But, we’re talking 2 - 2 1/2 hours of whatever is going on in my ears, once or twice a week from May through December (some years). Perhaps that would be worth the money to eliminate that degree of annoyance.
I, however, am in the same camp as Chuck @cvkemp: I want access to more sounds of life, not fewer. Perhaps my neighbour’s mower has just gotta be part of my “symphony of sounds”! (Several posters seem to have forgotten that not all lawn tractors trigger my auditory over-reaction - it’s just my one neighbour’s!)
Appropriate earmuffs are another possible means of addressing the problem. More $$$ …
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, silicone ear moulds aren’t an option for me. Repeated suggestions that I use them are not going to change my sensitivity to silicone and cause me to switch mould material.
[I have, however, followed up on @Zebras suggestion that my acrylic moulds might not be sealing properly by sending my left one back to Oticon for a rework to improve the fit in my left ear canal. This will not, however, help my recruitment/hyperacusis problem, which occurs even when I’m not wearing HAs or when they’re fully muted.]
I’ve learned about a lot of things that had never entered my mind before I posted this topic, and I’m grateful for those leads. (But I don’t intend to pursue HA tuning options for the simple reason that I don’t think they’ll work.)
So, on balance, my best options seem to be:
Do nothing and suck it up when the neighbour mows;
Suit up and mow when she does, since my John Deere masks most of her sound; or
Try out some noise-canceling headphones that will permit me to go about my business in peace while she’s mowing.
I think that’s all I can learn from this discussion. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.
[I’ll be 10-7 on this subject, as of now.]
Humans may interpret very low frequencies (8-20hz) as painful, because it approaches the resonant frequency of your own body. Your internal organs match the frequencies with very little internal damping. So, it might not be your ears, but your own organs (ie, liver, heart, guts) clanging into each other. Personally, I find large helicopter rotors flying over my house as disturbing.
Try not wearing any hearing aids outside when your neighbor operates the mowers, ans see if the pain still exists…then, you will know the source freq.
Interesting, that her previous mower also caused the effect.
Now it sounds like a echo or vibration phenomena based on location.
That is some crazzzy stuff!
Your 4th option is get the hell out of Dodge, when she mows!
She’s only had one mower. It’s just her muffler that rusted out. It’s a lawn tractor.
@stulew: I get your point, and agree about choppers. But I dont experience pain - just discomfort. It may even be visceral. I never thought about it in those terms. “Disturbing” is an apt term.
It is like me I love to ride my Vespa Scooter but I cannot stand to be anywhere close to a motorcycle, truck or and vehicle with loud exhaust.
Ahh so, seems I misunderstood.
But there’s still; option 4.
