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Speakers for high-frequency hearing loss

Gang-Twanger said:
Maybe by then they'll just be doing ear transplants and that sort of thing. Remember that movie where the guy gets a double eye-transplant and then starts seeing all kinds of crazy s**t, like murders that are about to happen, or something like that? Imagine the same thing, except with ears...
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There is some sort of inner ear device...the name escapes me right now, but Rush L. had it done. Dunno how well it works with music, or if the frequency response is any better then the usual hearing aids.
 
jhtstone said:
Here are some links about a newer technology for theatre patrons. It is called Induction Loop or Hearing Loop among other names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_induction_loop

http://www.ampetronic.com/Loop-Basics

http://www.hearingloss.org/content/loop-technology
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My Phonaks have an extended range transmitter that I can hang around someone's neck, or place on a conference table that enables me to hear up to 100 feet away. The mike has 3 settings for directionality.
 
The way I see it, a stereo's job is to reproduce music as it sounds. if you go to the symphony and can't hear the harmonics in the upper octaves, well, that's how it should sound at home, too.
 
Pablo Belgik said:
This post got my attention because high frequency hearing loss definitely seems to be my problem, too.

Please, BillyBatts: how exactly do you connect these? Do you just connect your "normal" speakers to the amplifier (like to Speakers "A") and then the supertweeters to Speakers "B"? Does that mean the entire sound spectrum is fed into those supertweeters (no crossover, nothing?). Doesn't that distort any lower frequencies being fed into those tweeters?

Paul
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Paul, these Realistic Super Tweeters have been around for decades, first introduced around 1978 ish. They have their own crossovers built in to their tiny cabinets and are free standing. You simply place them on top of your existing speakers. There is no need to wire them in to your cabinet's crossover network. You may either use jumpers to connect them to your A channel speaker wiring, or you may connect them on a separate B channel, which is what I do so I can cut them out if I wish, but I seldom do.

I originally bought a pair in 1978 or 79 to go with a new set of Optimus 10's that were lacking in high frequency response. I think Op 10's top out around 17 or 18k and back then I really needed the extra 3 k of high frequency or the speakers were no where near bright enough for my young ears. Now, I enjoy them on most speakers as they push out high frequency that seems to compensate for my HF hearing loss.
 
Harvey/ Ga said:
There is some sort of inner ear device...the name escapes me right now, but Rush L. had it done. Dunno how well it works with music, or if the frequency response is any better then the usual hearing aids.
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Cochlear implant, they don't work for music as they are too sonically coarse.
 
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jlovda said:
I have very poor hearing. I am not an audiologist but if you have an inner ear loss there is no "plateau," the ear's sensitivity to high frequencies just keeps going down forever (frequency wise). Adding a hearing aid brings up some of the "lower" high frequencies, enough to handle speech. The big problem is recruitment. If your aid is supplying 40 dB of gain at, say, 5KHz, your three middle ear bones are receiving a 40 dB louder signal than the next guy and the signal is 40dB closer to the threshold of pain. When the volume is turned up for the sound to get clearer, you hit the threshold of pain, about 120dB, and your ears will hurt after 5-10 minutes. You don't notice it at first.
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Modern digital domain aids use an algorythm that comps for dynamics vs ear response and selectively adjusts gain to allow the ear to carry more directly at higher levels in a natural manner.
 
AFAIK, one of the better modern aids for music is the ReSound Verso, I have their predecessor Aleras from the VA.
 
I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned, but be careful with boosting that treble, even if you can't hear something, it can still damage your hearing. If you shoot a ton of high-end into your ears, you can do further damage to your ears and potentially get tinnitus.
 
kirk57 said:
The way I see it, a stereo's job is to reproduce music as it sounds. if you go to the symphony and can't hear the harmonics in the upper octaves, well, that's how it should sound at home, too.
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I agree with this.
 
kirk57 said:
The way I see it, a stereo's job is to reproduce music as it sounds. if you go to the symphony and can't hear the harmonics in the upper octaves, well, that's how it should sound at home, too.
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JoeESP9 said:
I agree with this.
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While I am relatively young and fortunate to be able to still hear well (for the time being), which means I am speaking speculatively at best here, I have to vehemently disagree with this assertion. Why on Earth would I choose to deny myself hearing sonically-relevant information just because my own frequency sensitivity has aged (or been damaged or whatever)? This doesn't make much sense and even seems quasi-masochistic.

While your audiophile goals may be different than mine, the job of my stereo is to provide me with musical enjoyment, and for most of us that means to reproduce the music as it sounds. However, if my aural perception is such that I need a little assistance, and I can reasonably compensate for that using the myriad of controls available on many sound systems, why would I ever choose not do so? For purity sake? Really? And miss some of the music?

I'm a musician and when the days come that I can't hear the important stuff anymore, I am probably going to be willing to do whatever I can to correct that or compensate for it in some way. And to ignore that my stereo might help me out in that regard is just silly.
 
Another on-subject angle, if you allow me, I've found that (seated on the sweet spot in front of my speakers) cupping my ears with my hands leads to far+ better sound and perspective. I wouldn't want to do that all evening, though.

Just for curiosity's sake, I searched the internet and found some "ear cups"...which search I was thereafter not able to duplicate, so I "lost" those darn things (which they would definitely not ship outside the USA anyway, so no great actual physical loss was, in fact, suffered, except for the initial hearing loss :D).

I do perceive having to wear such "bat ears" well, wouldn't want to do it in public...which is all my fault, though.

Has any one ever tried placing some (large?) device behind one's back (or laterally?) which would "concentrate" (especially) the high frequencies; maybe some wooden or otherwise non-absorbing "boards"? Just a question...

Paul
 
I've done that ear cupping thing before hearing aids to "normalize" for critical listening.
I remember Sam Tellig of Stereophile trying something made like that ("ListenEars"?) some decades back and being favorably impressed. Someone tried with something like commercially not so long ago but no sign of it anywhere.
 
Yep, before aids I held curved pieces of cardboard behind my ears to listen to TV dialogue. They actually worked pretty good !!! But I did look kind of stupid holding them like that. LOL. Before my wife put her foot down I was thinking of hooking wire to them so I could wear them like ear muffs !!!
 
Pablo Belgik said:
Another on-subject angle, if you allow me, I've found that (seated on the sweet spot in front of my speakers) cupping my ears with my hands leads to far+ better sound and perspective. I wouldn't want to do that all evening, though.

Just for curiosity's sake, I searched the internet and found some "ear cups"...which search I was thereafter not able to duplicate, so I "lost" those darn things (which they would definitely not ship outside the USA anyway, so no great actual physical loss was, in fact, suffered, except for the initial hearing loss :D).

I do perceive having to wear such "bat ears" well, wouldn't want to do it in public...which is all my fault, though.

Has any one ever tried placing some (large?) device behind one's back (or laterally?) which would "concentrate" (especially) the high frequencies; maybe some wooden or otherwise non-absorbing "boards"? Just a question...

Paul
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I think these "Earglasses" available from Amazon may ship outside the States:

http://www.amazon.com/Earglasses®-S...TF8&qid=1360260626&sr=8-1&keywords=earglasses

I notice a distinct difference when I cup my hand. I may give these a shot for home listening.
 
Pio1980 said:
AFAIK, one of the better modern aids for music is the ReSound Verso, I have their predecessor Aleras from the VA.
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The Atlanta VA uses Phonak hearing aids. Mine is the Audeo Q-90 model that I got a few weeks ago...a bit better for music then the old Excelia Art model.
 
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