Can an audiophile be satisfied with music streaming sound quality from a hearing aid?

Newbie here when it comes to streaming. But I am fussy, having worked in sound all my life.
Music seems to survive BT via the iPhone if it’s not too complex.
Remarkably, I get bass down to 30Hz through my Phonak M70s, if I block the vents. Texture is a bit crude, not really adequate for full orchestra. Likewise DAB radio in UK, based on obsolete MP2, sounds a bit off (compared with FM), and BT is worse.
Anyway… I bought a streamer to link to my CD collection. Could not believe my ears: PITCH changes! Like a tired old record deck. Worse the more instruments are playing, so some kind of data overload I suppose. Apparently this can be caused by the A2DP processing - so i look forward to better codecs as they arise.

Quick reply here: yes equalised headphones can do the job, and with superior fidelity, but it is essential to include compression or comfort-limiting at the high end to protect your ears as it’s not easy to know how much spl is resulting.
Another approach is to add strong high end boost to the hifi or TV - and again with limiting, as would be the case in a hearing aid. One fine day such options should be present in all consumer audio devices, including the ever-indifferent Apple iPhone.

I am getting base down to 30Kz and up to 10Kz with L90s + Activevents and custom Ti molds.

BT Codec I am waiting for is the AptX Lossless (Snapdragon Sound) within AptX adaptive. I have a Nura TWE that has that Codec for receiving but so far only transmitting sources are a very few smartphones.

I haven’t heard music in years.
It depresses me if I think about it too long so I compartmentalize it.
I used to sing/play guitar in a band as a youth. Well, we sucked, but it was a band and we had fun.
As an adult, I played old metal and hard rock (before the “hair bands” came along, THAT old of metal and hard rock) and would drive with the windows down.
The only thing I could do reasonably well in my life, was sing. I was in five choirs at once, all throughout high school. Kept me out of trouble I guess like the garage band that I mentioned earlier.
Anyway, all of that has been gone for some time.
So, believe me when I tell you all, all who can hear music in ANY form, that you have my envy. I can only pick up the LOUDEST of bass, which my Wife can’t handle when home and has apparently alienated our neighbors, who are even older than we.
I’ve burned out so many sets of headphones that I’d stopped wasting money on them years ago.
I listen to music by feeling the bass and compensating with memory, now.
I’m even beginning to forget lyrics. Pitiful, huh. haha
It’s actually why I joined this Forum. Trying to find louder (MUCH LOUDER) hearing aids than the Phonak V-30s I currently have. They don’t help me with music, very much. At all.
Thanks for reading. I needed to rant. But I’m done now, promise.

Ooooo.
I can do that! I have quite the bass bin. Would NEVER have thought of just placing it under the chair and pointing up. I shall try that!! Thanks hugely!

This will supply sub bass quite well as will the sub-bass speaker under the chair but I fear that there will still be a large sonic gap between approx 125-500Hz.

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I had my audiologist add a music mode to my HA’s, I’ve been hearing deficient most if not all my life. After the first try, listening to Hawkwind and a couple of other bands, I’ve never used music mode again. Heavy metal and some other music sounds like um, crap, with music mode :)…
Reading other posts, yes, music does sound better with my hearing aides in normal mode.

@earofthetiger said:

Can an audiophile ever be satisfied?

It would be quite the challenge to meet size, weight, power consumption and reliability goals with vacuum tubes, but at least you wouldn’t have to consider cost

At home I listen to music and audio from various sources via a laptop which has a 32 channel equalizer program optimized for my ears. I use a pair of quality headphones instead of my hearing aids.

I set it up with a sine wave tone generator program. When I listen with both headphones and my older digital hearing aids; I hear two slightly different pitched notes. One note is direct into my ear and the other via hearing aid. I have observed as much as 4 cycles per second difference and I hear the beat note between them. This difference is constant with frequency and likely one of the reason some audiofiles prefer analog aids for music.

Microphones and receiver-speakers are analog so I assume all digital aids undergo a conversion from analog to digital and after the digital processing another conversion from digital to back to analog. If either of these conversions is off frequency the pitch of the notes are off.

2% distortion is another issue for musically trained ears which are still somewhat functional. Hopefully these are no longer issues with the later and greater aids.

Frequency shifting is done deliberately by some manufacturers to reduce feedback peaks.

Thanks for that tip. I plan on updating to Opn or More soon and am now collecting software and hardware to give DIY programming a try.

You can still get good audio from SBC despite what some might think. It comes down to the DAC and the driver. Both of which are probably lower on the totem pole of priorities.

There is a reason cheap earbuds have more “warmth” in their sound over any hearing aid whether a custom mold is use or not. The single balanced armature used are just not going to give sufficient bass. Even if you try to adjust with an eq, you lose the upper end. The day a dual driver HA comes to market is when i expect better audible quality.

Familiar with and understand the DAC area.

Is it safe to assume the bulk of distortion is also a driver problem?

With drivers advertised for less than $30 seems to indicate there is plenty of room in the market for better drivers.

Not so much better: but more. If you want near perfect reproduction of sound between 1-4KHz, hearing aid receivers are fairly unbeatable. Wideband reproduction is another kettle of fish.

It’s all about peak resonance and sitting the correct crossover for the hi-pass/lo-pass filtering.

If you’ve got loads of spare volts (and amps) to play with you can ignore the power economy that hearing aids need to have. Multi transducer drivers are available now with 3-4 drivers that beautifully cover a wide output.