Yeah, this (smartric 440) and custom molds and when I’m wanting to listen closely, (I’m only rarely a background listener) I actually reseat them a little deeper. Also, I find that if I put it ON my phone (as opposed to from “far away”) I get better response. Bandcamp is my best friend cuz it tells me what bitrate I am consuming. But you won’t find the oldies on there (I’m tired of them anyway ever since I was in a band of genXrs who seemed strangely stuck in that era…)
aging audiophile here that also adores bandcamp. so much great music there, new and old, and many downloads are hi-res (24-bit/88khz or better). plus the artists get ~85% of sales so i truly feel like a patron when i purchase flacs there.
can i truly hear the difference between cd-quality and higher-resolution in my compromised state? i believe i can when comparing those to the 16/44 originals i’ve either ripped or purchased to their higher-res equivalents. anyhow, despite my auditory challenges, i’m not quite ready to throw in the towel on my hifi music hobby and i’m glad to see i’m not alone.
I am sort of laughing as I read all of this. My husband and his good friend went to MANY concerts over 40 years and they still go to multi day music festivals. They wonder why they need hearing aids now. And the friend recently installed a high end sound system in his basement for 10s of thousands. Nothing will ever return our hearing to what it was, so finding something that sounds good enough might be the best option.
That aside, I note that your right ear is quite bad. You might consider having an evaluation for a cochlear implant. I got mine 2.5 years ago and while music with just my is lacking, the combination of my Advanced Bionics brand CI and the Link Hearing aid to go with it is better than each alone. And better than before my CI. Nothing will bring back our youth or our hearing, but I can now communicate much better and I still enjoy music even if it is not quite the same.
Note - getting a CI evaluation in no way commits you - it’s completely your decision. However the more complete, 2 hours eval can provide some further information to ponder. Hearing generally just gets worse and never better.
Note that even young people with excellent hearing cannot hear a difference between hi-res (24-bit/88khz or better) recordings and a well made CD copy of that recording.
The differences are all in the mastering of the music.
Madison, WI
