Is Hearing Aid High Fidelity Music an Oxymoron?

I would not bet on the technician knowing much about these settings. I brought in material I had found on the web and it was all news to my tech. My take, again from memory, is that the recorded setting would be best for listening to recorded music.

@TraderGary said:

To me my Marvels are delivering the full beauty of what I hear when I play my piano and what I hear at the symphony

Is that with autosenseos? Or with a special program? Did you have other hearing aids the past to compare your current experience with?

@gsl said:

Is that with autosenseos? Or with a special program? Did you have other hearing aids the past to compare your current experience with?

You can look at my audiogram and see what problems I have. The Marvels are the very first HA I’ve ever had. I was fitted on Dec 26th, so I’m not quite two months in. If I had known HA’s were this good I would have done it long ago. I thought all they did was look huge and goofy, squeal all the time, and just make everything louder.

I’ve tried AutoSense 3.0 and I’ve tried the built-in Music Program. I’m convinced that AutoSense is transfering to the Music Program quickly enough that I can’t tell it happens.

I’ve also had good luck with the Marvels listening to music. My new RIC silicon custom molds have a pretty large vent, which is really impressive to do without getting whistling with my amplification levels. I was using the power dome initially and streaming music is much different now. The power dome was very occluded, but music sounded amazing when streaming. With the larger vent the music quality or fullness is much lower. We’ve been tweaking and tuning the hearing aid programs and my phone equalizer settings, but have not found a way to bring that richness back to the music. In the end it’s a trade off and I’ve noticed I hear much more of the natural bass from my theater system than before and I love hearing more sound with the remnants of my natural hearing day-to-day, so that’ll be the way it stays for now. A little quiet music streaming is still pretty enjoyable for me, but it’s not nearly as satisfying as it was before.

Thanks for the article. As a starting point I am going to ask the fitter to do two music programs, one for live and one for recorded, so I can see what the difference is. I am hoping that with vented sleeves I am going to hear some of the bass and possibly some of the highs through the vents? Not sure if the fitter is going to be able to tell me, but I would hope these specific music programs would eliminate the speech in noise stuff, and use an extended dynamic range and extended frequency range? I guess it is a starting point. I am a straight wire with gain philosophy guy when it comes to recorded music. My pre amp bypasses the tone controls. However, over the years I have had to turn up the volume for the left speaker more and more. It will be interesting to see how much I can restore the balance control with HA’s.

@gsl said:

With music you mean streaming, correct? Is there a difference between streaming through Bluetooth or the tv connector?

I meant without streaming. My last hearing aids didn’t have programs, (Phonak Lyric) so it was always a compromise. These Marvels seem to be doing a great job recognizing music when I sit down at home just to listen to music and the music program gives me a full range without all of the frequency filtering. I have a lot of testing to do with these still, but so far so good. I also have a Music specific program and I’ve had adjustments to that to bring up the lower frequencies to my liking.

@Sierra said:

As a starting point I am going to ask the fitter to do two music programs, one for live and one for recorded, so I can see what the difference is. I am hoping that with vented sleeves I am going to hear some of the bass and possibly some of the highs through the vents? Not sure if the fitter is going to be able to tell me, but I would hope these specific music programs would eliminate the speech in noise stuff, and use an extended dynamic range and extended frequency range? I guess it is a starting point. I am a straight wire with gain philosophy guy when it comes to recorded music. My pre amp bypasses the tone controls. However, over the years I have had to turn up the volume for the left speaker more and more. It will be interesting to see how much I can restore the balance control with HA’s.

Sierra, the HAs should compensate for your loss and play the music straight through without any compression, noise cancelling, etc. I have a dedicated music program that I switch to when needed, but so far I’ve found it to sound the same as when I’m in Autosense which is telling me that Autosense is figuring out that I’m listening to music and making the switch for me. If you are a pure/direct sound lover then you will probably prefer to have a dedicated program to just to make sure you are in the right mode. It also prevents unintended switching during pauses in the music. I noticed some of that when someone talks to me while I’m listening to music as it switches around. A music program would avoid that. Also, some of my music tastes apparently sound like noise to the HAs, and suddenly try doing some filtering. I haven’t had a chance to test that out with these Marvels, so maybe I’ll put that on the agenda for today. The Smashing Pumpkins always fooled my older hearing aids. Billy Corgan would be offended!

@GR8Dane said:

Thanks Gary. I forgot about that. I had to create a 2nd login/profile due to some forum issues and the new profile didn’t have my audiogram. I’ve added that now, so hopefully that will help give a frame of reference for you. You’ll be happy to know that I also enjoy playing the piano on occasion. I used to play a lot when I was younger, but I haven’t touched the keys in months and it always sounded terrible with my last hearing aids. I need to see how these new ones will do. I’d love to start playing a little more often. You sound pretty hard core with your setup!

Yes, I do love studying piano. Here’s where I spend several hours every day…

That’s awesome! Acoustics are probably pretty decent in that room shaped like that. I’ve got an upright Steinway, but I think having these pianos against a wall is less than idea.

WOW!! What a beautiful room!! I really love all the tile and rock work.

@gsl said:

Would, in your opinion, someone who has been wearing hearing aids his whole life be able to learn a new music instrument? Which one would be the easiest to learn?

I think the piano can be one of the easiest and conversely one of the most difficult to learn. The easiest beginner pieces can be simple, easy and very rewarding to play. Virtuoso pieces can be extraordinarily difficult to learn and play.

The best advice I can give is to get a good teacher and put in at least an hour of intelligent practice every day. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Thank you for the advice

I have downloaded Connexx 8 and played around with the simulation feature. I believe I now understand the difference between the Music Enhancer features. Both default to having frequency and amplitude compression suppressed.

Recorded Music mode - All noise reduction features are shut off. The microphone is in the iOmni mode (essentially all around).

Live Music mode - The automatic classifier is turned on, and the iWindNoise feature is turned on and set at maximum. The microphone is set to be Directional Adaptive, rather than omni.

Since I almost never would listen to a live concert, and especially outside, I think I will just settle for the Recorded Music mode.

Great job. This is the kind of stuff you’re not likely to get from a fitter and the only way to access is with the fitting software.