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Musician hearing aids: simple is best?

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I wear a aid for everyday living and I’m very pleased with it. Except it’s not good at all for playing music. I play classical guitar and use Signia Ax aids for that.

recently I found an article about Widex Dream aids that stated “simple is best for musicians”. And indeed I have most features turned off on my Signia aids when I use my Musician program–that is, compression, noise reduction, feedback control, etc etc.

Last week I left my Signia aids at a motel way up on the north coast of Calfornia. While waiting for them to be mailed, I’ve been using my back up aids: a lower end set of Phonaks that are nearly twenty years old. The thing is, they have NO issues with playing my guitar in any program. More importantly, the sound of my guitar is very pure and unprocessed. On the other hand, the amplificartion is poor compared to my Signia aids. And both the high and low ends of the sound spectrum are missing.

All of this is to ask: if “simple is better for musicians” since we disable all of the add on features when playing music: and since I use a BAHA for all other circumstances and don’t need those add on features…what’s a good aid for my needs?

the Widex Dream has been discontinued.

P>S. my Signia aids have arrived. They are better than my old Phonaks for music, but really sound over processed to me.

The latest Widex model is the SmartRIC and the previous was the Moments. The Dream was several models back. They all process music with the Widex sound, which for me gives the magic to music. I go to a lot of live events & listen via streaming too.

yes…it’s jsut that the Dream seemed to be designed without a lot of features…I’m not sure. That’s really what I want! a stripped down that has high-end chips for sound quality across the largest spectrum of sound, without a highly processed effect. something natural. Again, I don’t need the features! (well,maybe bluetooth for answering my phone, but I don’t even need that! I can use the phone speaker. )

Turning off advanced features such as compression, noise reduction, and feedback control can help you achieve a cleaner, more natural sound when playing your guitar. However, as you point out, this can also result in under-amplification and loss of some frequencies in the audio spectrum. Your experience with different hearing aid models highlights the importance of tailoring the device to each musician’s specific needs and preferences. It is important to find a balance between clarity of sound and sufficient amplification to satisfy your musical needs.

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