I have conductive hearing loss in one ear (roughly 60dB loss across the board) and completely normal hearing in the other. I have tried over the years but have always been extremely disappointed with the sound quality - always tinny, like I’m listening to a blown/very low quality speaker, etc.
I know these are common complaints and the usual response is “you haven’t heard high frequencies for a long time so your brain needs to relearn what it’s like to hear them.” While that may be true for age-related high frequency loss, is that really true for single-sided ? I’ve heard perfectly in the other ear my whole life, so I don’t think I need to relearn what high frequencies sound like.
I’ve also read complaints about HAs having inferior sound quality vs. a decent earbud, which is something I find very frustrating as well. The responses I’ve seen are about how (1) HAs are mostly designed for high-frequency loss, and if they were to produce similar sound quality to an earbud, the receivers would need to be much larger (particularly to produce enough sound in the low to mid frequencies), and (2) real-time amplification of real-world sounds is far more complex than playback of recorded sound. But aren’t these just acknowledgements that HAs have inferior speakers/related components vs. decent earbuds and are therefore never going to sound as good, no matter how many adjustments are made? And don’t these contradict the response that the HA user just needs to relearn what normal hearing sounds like?
Are those with across-the-board moderate/severe CHL just out of luck, particularly if they are trying to match the sound of the aided ear with a natural ear (and do not want a /)? (I’ve tried Widex and have not been impressed with the sound quality.)
I know there are lots of similar threads, but they are usually about high-frequency age-related loss (and a similar loss in both ears), which is quite a different situation.
Would really appreciate any advice.
You’re ignoring this member’s posts.