Relative to hearing aid receivers, however, they are huge, no?
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A few days before this thread appeared I wrote to my audiologist and the musicians clinic in Toronto asking whether a zoom visit with me in my audiologist office might be possible. He has not yet responded. I am only a 5 Hour drive away, but will try hard to work things out locally first. I just ordered the remote fitting device for Widex and bought a copy of Chasinās latest book to share with my audi. Fyi I am a violinist and use Evoke aids with nonvented molds when playing to control both noise and correct my loss. Even Evokes need Scotch tape to prevent distortion of brass.
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HI! I would love to know more about your work with Musicianās clinic, if that happens. Is the ābookā youāre referring to the new textbook released last year? Is that were he mentions the scotch tape? Please keep me/us posted and I will do the same
No, they go DEEP into the ear canal with a dome.
I use Shure foamies, which give exceptional sound isolation, and fidelity.
hereās a link
Also a link to Knowles BA page
I assume the $7,500 is Canadian dollars. Thatās roughly equal to $5,500 US, which may āsoundā a bit better.
I use Phonak and have the software and now do everything DYI. My audiogram is similar to yours, and if you understand EQ, compression, etc you would be way happier DYI.
I donāt know what the non Phonak software offerings are, but you could get terrific results with Phonakās Marvel, Paradise, or Lumity hearing aides (last 3 generations). The newest ones (Lumity) may be worse because the auto programs will mess with what you want.
I would be happy to help if you use Phonak hearing aides ā send me a PM.
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Suggest you look up the work of Richard Einhorn, a prominent musician who experienced sudden sensorineural hearing loss in 2010 He has become active in the Hearing Loss Association of America and consults with hearing aid companies on hearing aid design. Perhaps he has published something of value for you.
As for the cost/benefit value, if my ability to earn a living depended on hearing music accurately I might find consulting an audiologist with specific music expertise worthwhile. In fact, I am not sure the advice to rely on learning how to do it yourself is well placed, simply because of the professional stakes for you. Also, you might be able to claim a tax deduction for the expense, including travel and meals, reducing the ultimate cost to you (check on this, Iām not an expert). Are you able to get some musician references from his office? Perhaps follow through with them.
My area of Washington DC is amply blessed with ENTs and audiologists, yet I have never found any local practitioner knowledgeable about hearing music, which really sucks. I gave up playing the cymbalom, a complex hammered string-instrument that is predecessor to the piano, because I could no longer hear well enough to tune it. No one who hasnāt experienced that loss can tell you whatās worth it and whatās not.
I would suggest, though, that you factor in the brain-adjustment time in evaluating your experience with a device. If Chasin gives you five years to work through the tweaks, and thereās no limit on the number of times you can consult with him, to me that seems reasonableāplus you have an ally on your journey. Donāt underestimate that. He should be coaching you on what you can do on your own behalf as well so you do develop those DIY skills.
I wish you courage.
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I canāt find dimensions on the ERS4 but they look bigger than hearing aid receivers. I bet they also take a lot more power.
I am a guitar player too. I have tested simultaneously the Phillips 9030 from Cosco and the More 1 from Oticon. I obtained Genie 2 (the software from programming the Oticons)and downloaded HearLink suit for the Phillips.
I ended up keeping the Phillips. Not only they sounded very close to identical to the Oticons and a third of the cost, but I acyually found the settings inside Hearlink to be better.
In both cases, I prefer the āMusicā setting for mostly everything, as they sound the most natural to me, without compression artefacts. In a noisy restorant, I use the general or speech-in-noise setting and that really boosts the voice over the background noise.
When I told my audiologist that I wanted Real Ear Measurements for my Music program, they told me they can only do it in the General program and the software just uses your prescription (audiogram) for the music settings.
The music setting is very linear and tens to match your hearing los curve.
I wonder if this GOAT doctor can calibrate the music program with Real Ear Messurements.
Otherwise, i see no point. I eventually gave up the idea of having āmy earsā ācalibratedā to what I was expecting to be the āstandardā curve of hearing and I realised that is all your subjective perception. If I was you, I would get the HA that you can tweak at home. I have spend hrs adjusting the bands until I was happy. You will never get that from your audiologist. At the end of the day, the audiologist is just going to ask you: Do you like it like this? and try something and wait for your feedback. No one is going to tell you āThis is how you suppose to hearā, so I think is better to do it yourself. You can keep the adiologist program as a reference, and make another 3 with little differences and try them for a while. Then change them again, until you are settle. You can always go back to the prescription and original REM fitting. If you get the philips, you only need to buy Nohalink to connect to them and the software is available from their website. If you buy Oticon or Phonac, you have to search this forum for Genie 2 or Target (the programing software) as they dont share it with the public. Itās such an obscure industryā¦ Good luck, and shoot me a message if you want more details.
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They are bigger, but the BA is encased in the shell of the IEM as opposed to the RIC, so difficult to tell the difference between HiFi BAās and HA BAās
The Knowles site shows the specs for them.
Source voltage is around 0.5mA rms
@ViolinMichael - any updates to your attempts to see chasin?
This response has been very helpful, thank you. Iām enjoying reading about Richard Einhorn. I am kind of watching and waiting as my hearing aids make more sense to my brain, and thatās good advice. Oddly enough, i has already become easier to work on some music. Iā m sorry to read about your cymbalom retirement. I have a friend who after some sudden loss and tinnitus, gave up piano tuning, and he was devastated. recently, however, he tried it again and was successfully able to do so again. It sometimes becomes a āhearing confidenceā thing. perhaps thatās still in store for you. I wish you the same courage - we certainly need it.
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Well Iāve been hearing impaired and wearing HAs for over 20 years. I bought the cymbalom after I started wearing hearing aids, I guess in the mid-aughts, when my loss was fairly mild. I could manage it at that time. But hearing kept dropping, and then I had a sudden drop in hearing capability in my left ear in 2018āand tuning just got impossible. The cymbalom a rather early instrument, and its tuning is quite complex and not stableāeven fully hearing people struggle with it. So I donāt think that is in my future, unfortunately. I do pretty well with a borrowed ukulele, though! Thereās more nuance to that instrument than is immediately apparentāand only 4 strings!
Another huge loss to me is the ability to understand and enjoy music I havenāt heard before. When Iām familiar with a piece of music my brain fills in what I donāt hear, but if itās new to me, itās really really hard to make sense of it. Like with new music using manufactured sounds and quickly spoken wordsāIām just helpless. Iām told I should try highly sensitive ear pods specifically designed for listening to music instead of my hearing aids.
Do you like ear pods for listening to music? Which brand do you like? I heard on a podcast that Apple Airpods Max are exceptional, but they require headphones, which I donāt prefer. Would rather get ear pods.
Thanks for writing. Iād be interested in learning more about your experience if you spring for that specialized audiologist in Canada, and hope youāll post about it.
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The top ear buds are definitely getting better but the top headphones are still much better.
which headphones are you thinking? I do like that the apple earpods max, a headphone, will adjust to your audiogram. Might be a good studio headphone.
My Audi is away for a week. I see her 3/2. Dr Chasin said he would prefer to work directly with her and suggested she set up a consultation. But first I need to ask her to modify the music program and raise the maximum input setting. And I discovered that much of the distortion I heard was from me not pushing the receivers all the way in. She also could not (yet?) find a way to have a custom program for the molds at a lower volume for the loud stage but return to normal when I use bell and tulip.
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which hearing aids are you using? please let us know if Chasin is helpful. Very interested
ain;t it the way. Sometimes the failures of our aids are due to our own unfamiliarity with how they work. HAs are complex, with many parts!! programs, domes, molds, clogged ventsā¦oy!
I use a pair of Widex Evokeās about three years old. My good ear has sunk to the level of my bad ear and my audi tweaked the settings to improve speech discrimination. I like listening to music with the Universal program and use the music program for apple āspatial audioā sources which distort otherwise. I do not find soundsense useful. My need is to find a way to live painfree on stage with 100DB of brass/drums/piano and still hear myself and my section. My violin is 80DB+ at my left ear so I practice with a heavy mute.
are you concerned about the 100db stage volume? I play locally in some jazz quartets and Iām concerned about the level of my drums - even though we play quietly. Putting in plugs means I canāt hear the subtleties when using brushes, I havenāt yet figured out a way to keep my mind at ease, so have been subbing out of those gigs, even though I miss them. I wish I could find a definitive sound level meter to know exactly what levels Iām exposed to
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