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Musician, first time with hearing aids

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New with hearing aids. Musician. Had hearing like a dog until a few years ago, still have low end hearing but moderate loss on higher end. I’m no stranger to audio in my ears with IEMs on stage and in the studio but these are WAY different. I’m so frustrated…I know sound/audio, but this is not helping me with my audiologist so far, I think my questions are bothering her. Maybe some of you can help me?

Audiologist fit me with top model Resound with Marie technology but I don’t think they work correctly.

#1 - should I hear the 2 mics on the hearing aid when touching or tapping on the hearing aid? I don’t hear anything when doing that. It seems like ONLY the receiver mic is active.

#2 - I find the bells and whistles on the app very annoying and so artificial. When I have these OFF should the sound be changing so much? I get drastic changes to the quality of sound for seemingly no reason.

#3 - I’m told it will take months to get used to hearing the things I’ve been missing. However, what I hear is simply not normal. I’m perceiving or hearing distortion on the beginning of words in a variety of environments it’s a clicking sound.

#4 - I have no spacial awareness (closed tips) and some sounds appear to be away from me while some are right in my ear…at the same time. Like the jazz guitar coming from the speaker but the rim shot inside my ear – again, not normal to me at all.

#5 - I really miss the low end when using these closed hearing aids. No warmth or boom at all, really nothing below 250hz now. But I’m told that open or vented will feedback before my other hearing loss is amplified enough to help me. There must be a way to accomplish what I need or a compromise?? Trying some custom molds but my audiologist was unresponsive to my venting questions (and other things) so I’m not expecting good results.

Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :wink:

26 people in this conversation24 min readJump to latest

I’ve said this a hundred times here but will say it again.

  1. A musician needs to learn to adjust his own hearing aids, it ain’t hard.
  2. Find a good audiologist that will help you get proficient DIYing
  3. Use the section of this forum.

Yeah I have to second this, your a perfect example for projects, you’ll get far better results, it’s pretty easy enough to do with your background.

Welcome to the forum! Thanks for posting.
From my experience, ReSound has been having major firmware and hearing aid OS problems, particularly for (Apple) compatibility of hearing aids, and especially during the past three years.
Personally I’m finding that their code changes appear to be chasing Android, and perhaps also non-US, functionality, at the expense of American Apple iPhone users. YMMV.
Thanks again, and good luck. is king, in the absence of a robust knowledge base of your provider! :wink:
Best, Bob.

Edited
@iplayagrand said:

2 - I find the bells and whistles on the app very annoying and so artificial. When I have these OFF should the sound be changing so much? I get drastic changes to the quality of sound for seemingly no reason.

Please read the information about the bells & whistles that Resound/Jabra hearing aids offers.

https://pro.resound.com/en-us/research/features-explained17

Especially
-Environmental Classifier
-Noise Tracker per Environment

grafik

Muso here as well.
It was very annoying. I always felt “in-between” of using and needing them when playing. Took them off only to realiae i need them but having them in felt unnatural.
I succumed to the fact I’m and decided to wear them full time after many years battling this. Had the same issues you state.
After many months i think my brain just got used to the new “normal” and it now feels weird without them.
Though i did go down the route. The Audis only adjust for hearing speach and have very little to no underatanding of our musucal needs.
I made a specific setting for music to not auto-process or adjust anything. This works a treat.
I wish there was a button or function to “freeze” the auto program setting…like you say, a perfect auto adjustment works and then all of a sudden for no apparent reason it auto adjusts and wiah it didnt.

@iplayagrand said:

#1 - should I hear the 2 mics on the hearing aid when touching or tapping on the hearing aid? I don’t hear anything when doing that. It seems like ONLY the receiver mic is active.

Which microphone is active is adjustable in the programming software.

@iplayagrand said:

#5 - I really miss the low end when using these closed hearing aids. No warmth or boom at all, really nothing below 250hz now.

Hearing aids typically do not amplify below 200-250 Hz. Although help with feedback, this also interferes in your ability to use your natural lower frequency hearing. Earmolds can help direct the speaker in a way as to better avoid feedback without sacrificing natural lows (with venting). Missing or misinterpreting natural cues like you mention in #4 is related to this. However, it sounds like your audiologist is trying to replace missing sounds, but in order to avoid feedback it is being done at the expense of already detectable sounds. Going with an open dome and perhaps backing off on high frequency targets can help the hearing aid “get out of the way”.

I run the piano scale and find the parts that sound crazy and tune those frequencies since I know exactly what the frequency of the notes are. Your loss is minor except for higher frequency so those notes are going to be an issue. You probably won’t get it right until you acclimate to the hearing aids. New users all hate it since their brain has not adjusted. There are some things that not all audiologist know. For example noise reduction and cause issues with musicians. I am told Widex is the musicians most popular choice. Read this and find an audiologist that understands it. Being a new user you will struggle to do this yourself. There are many musicians that have gone through this and it is never as good as it was. I used to have perfect pitch. No more.

Guidelines for Musicians with Hearing Loss to Bring to Their Audiologist.pdf (213.1 KB)

In reply to @PaulC

Thanks for the info. You communicated what I was thinking. I’m trying custom molds and hoping to get enough vent to satisfy my need to hear lows while reducing feedback. My audi seems to only stay in her lane with the computer results and doesn’t like my questions, I’m trying to get with one that works with performing artists.

Part time luthier/composer here… one word, Widex. Nothing else come close for musicians because of the higher sampling rate, lower processing delay/distortion.

For socializing sure, other brands have better noise cancellation and smarter at picking out/tracking individuals speaking around you.

Trial Windex and another top brand and decide for yourself what you want, need, can live with.

I have Phonak aids, that also have a multi-channel Automatic, which switches between them as it deems fit. I’m a guitar player, which is also why I’m here :slight_smile:

Like you, I don’t like “being told what to hear”. I do have it as an option, but I use the “Music” programme as default. It has most noise reduction elements disabled. I have speech programmes I can manually select if needed.

You seem tech savvy, so would be perfect for you. The only thing I need an Audiologist for now, is Mo(u)lds. The last ones I had made were deep, with a 3mm vent. Feedback management doesn’t interfere, and I don’t get any occlusion. Your very high frequency loss is more severe than mine, but you might get away with something similar.
Peter

one word, Widex, one word, Plastic

Widex has very successfully marketed to the musicians community. I think its a bit of a scam but there are 2 definite advantages. There is a lot of support within the musicians community and most audiologists who specializes in Widex seem to at least understand the difference between speech and music.

I am a life-long piano player and can still tune my own piano. I prefer Phonak over Widex but, your milage may vary.

Totally blind hearing aid user here. Widex or Phonak are IMHO the best when it comes to shall we say, not tampering with the sound. I would ask your audiologist to fit you with the latest models of either of these, my preference as a musician would be Widex Allures and see how you go from there. Now on these might be very difficult as they are using cloud software, but I think the sound will be more pleasing to you.
widex has the 0delay pure mode which sounds lovely with music and the Allures do allow more band tweaking with this. Pure mode turns off the compression as well so you should not be getting fluctuating sound. You also want to make sure sound expansion is set correctly so that soft sounds don’t suddenly become loud. I’m happy to chat to you about this over PM and help if I can.
’s are never going to sound quite right and you are going to be frustrated a lot of the time. That is the bugger with using HA’s, but your brain will adapt, over time. It’s about finding the HA’s that cause you the least irritation and you may have to rethink how music is piped into those aids.

My first pair of hearing aids were Widex. Chosen selected by my audiologist who was also a user. She was very experienced and said Widex was generally the aid preferred by musicians for sound quality. Any program changes were notified by simple words not multiple rings. Have changed to latest Phonak Ionic sphere 90 . They are excellent in noisy conditions but really miss the spoken program change and yes to have annoying bell signifying program change. Rely heavily on using iPhone app to adjust sound conditions. Wasn’t given choice to test latest Widex.

Switching from Beltone/Resound to Widex smartric. I’ve got a ways to go but the audiologist is bearing with me (though she is not a muso.) So far, I found that the music program delivers better than I’ve heard in decades esp. in streaming. I also find that lower frequencies do better in my ears with custom molds - much better than the open things the beltone guy had me using. I actually like the music program better than the normal speech one. Away from a music environment, I’m still getting a lot of enhanced transients (dish clattering almost hurts!) and we’re still working on reducing wind noise (I actually have devised a windscreen in the meantime.) I expect it will take a couple of months but hey, they’re telling me that these units are going to last my 5-7 years, if you can believe that.

They could easily last that long or more, just look after them, the thing is tho, the technology increase over that amount of time, you could potentially miss out on better advancements in hearing, 3 years is a long time with now starting to dominate everything in electronics.

If your audiologist is not listening to you, time to find one who will. It’s been 12 months with my new Phonaks and they’ve been a PIA with multiple failures and other tuning and software issues requiring at least 15-18 visits to my audiologist to get sorted out, but he’s been very patient and responds positively to every concern I’ve had. I have turned off ALL the bells and whistles.

Drummer here. I still using my first pair of Widex Evokes that I got 8-10 years ago. I wear them pretty much all my waking hours except for when playing music or listening to loud live shows. They’re great for helping me hear speach and keeping me engaged in group settings. I’ve adjusted quite well to them after a couple repeat visits to the audiologist to dial them in.

For music, I need serious protection. I take the aids out and use either active earplugs (Etymotic Music Pro) or IEMs with built-in ambient mics and limiters (ASI 3DME).

Edited

UK based audio engineer/designer here, who uses self programmed Phonaks and who has also set up for a musician friend (and very well known hi-fi designer) whose audiologist also doesn’t get it. His is similar to yours - mine not quite so bad at HF - and we both successfully use HAs with music (minimal processing) settings where appropriate.

I am going to suggest you talk to the guys at Sensaphonics in Chicago. Either the owner (Michael Santucci) or one of his audiologists. They are very experienced in these matters and at the least should be able to offer advice or recommend someone nearer to you who understands the issues.

Full disclosure - I have known Michael for about 10 years through the AES (Audio Engineering Society) hearing loss prevention committee. There’s no business connection between us but he knows his stuff :slight_smile:

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

John Dawson

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