Best hearing aids for musicians

@jeffrey said:

one doesn’t have to become a mini-audi and download all the necessary sofware and learn all the steps on one’s own to get very good results.

Absolutely true for most here, especially when the issues are solely related to speech. But not necessarily true or difficult for a musician.

I’m a musician. I play classcal guitar and various recorders. My audi has all the necessary software available for my particular hearing aids already installed in his office. Moreover, he’s familiar with all the quirks of these particular aids from having worked with them a hundred times. He also has a good understanding of the needs of musicians when it comes to setting up a musician program. Of course I bring my guitar in with me to his office. and of course, things aren’t dialed in perfectly on a first visit. Again, it’s FAR easier for me to work with an experienced and trained audi who understands the software for my particular aids–and should I attempt this myself, the software would have to be learned for any individual brand–ands general instructions on line NEVER take into account the actual HAs one is working with, but only “Ha’s in general”–given all this, and more, it’s far easier and for me to work with an experienced audi. the results are better than if I tried to learn the whole process and attempt to download all the software and interface with my precious HAs without effing everything up a hundred times, which I would. Others here have a lot of time and patience and enjoy messing with technology. For me, it’s hell. I guess this last sentence says it all. Why wade into hell when an experienced audi can quickly get better results?

Oh and P.S. all of this is free to me with my provider. It’s included in the initial cost of my HA’s.

Well It’s not likely you would screw up your hearing aids as a DIY, because you can always revert back to the last saved program.

I did fiddle a lot with the programming at first, but now I have everything dialed in to my satisfaction, so I seldom have a need to change anything.

I too used to play Classical guitar & recorders but being in my late 80’s, my hands don’t cooperate like they used to so I now use a an electronic digital wind synthesizer. It allows me to play any instrument in any key. My main interest is, Elizabethan, Renaissance, & baroque music.

Because I purchased my hearing aids off Ebay very inexpensively and program them myself, it’s worked out well for me.

I must confess that having spent my life working with technology, I do enjoy tinkering with stuff. Actually I can’t keep my hands off of anything I own that can be modified or adjusted. being a gear head can be a bless or a curse at times.

I don’t think there is a best hearing aid for a musician, but rather a hearing aid that best suits your hearing loss.

I don’t have mine yet (I’ll get them next week), but I have a couple of assumptions and wanted to make sure they’re correct…

First, I’m also a drummer, but whenever I play I use in ear monitors (Etymotic IEMs with excellent isolation). My Etymotics fit deep into the ear canal, and so whenever I’m playing drums I expect I will just remove my hearing aids, pop in my IEMs, and swap them out again at the end.

And when I go to concerts, I always use hearing protection. Would I continue to remove my hearing aids and put in my musician’s earplugs for this, or would I want to look at tips for the hearing aids that offer better isolation and then allow me to adjust the levels of the frequencies coming in? Since I don’t have them yet and only have moderate loss (and only on high frequencies), I don’t know if I’ll go with open or closed tips… most guides seem to indicate that for my level of loss, open tips that allow ambient sound through and then augment it from the hearing aid is going to be best, and in that case I’d certainly need something different to deal with high-volume situations.

Am I on the right track?

My HAs provide nowhere near enough isolation. I pulled and plugged at the one concert I’ve gone to since getting HAs. And it wasn’t even “supposed to be loud” at the concert. I guess I’m officially old.

WH

Emiele,

I have a pair of Phonak Bolero m90 rechargeable aids set up for general purpose with the ability to switch between automatic, a dedicated music program, and a noise program. Presently they have open domes. These work to my satisfaction in almost every situation but one. In a noisy restaurant too much background noise is bypassing the open domes making me so miserable all I can do is think about how soon can I leave. It got to where I was avoiding going out with family and friends to eat in places they were happy with.

Hoping solve this problem, I recently set up an aggressive noise reduction program in an inexpensive used pair of Phonak aids I picked up off Craigslist for $120.00 to use as a backup pair, and fitted them with closed domes. I haven’t tried them in the real world yet, but they are sitting on a table in the hallway along with a remote control & some batteries waiting for the opptunity to come along.

Based on some tests I ran using the different noise simulations included in the Phonak Target software, I have high expectations they will do the job. It helps that I can do my own programming as it really saves me time and travel.