First of all: Q -- if you get stereo phones with a mono/stereo switch, you may damage your hi-fi by setting the phones to to mono, unless you switch your hi-fi to mono too. It's never happened to me (yet), but if you have an expensive set it's better to be safe than sorry.

Harpgirl ... I have moderate high-freq loss in both ears. I just have the one (analogue) aid, which I can wear in either ear. I got it through the British NHS, who are only now starting to make digital ones availabke (I'll have to wait three years for one of those, or pay for one privately).

I can tell you that the analogue ones can make things worse: the background noise is amplified too, and the problem of separating speech from noise doesn't get any better. I'm told the digital ones do help with this. It took me a month or two before I started to get used to using my aid, and I still occasionally have situations where I can't get a comfortable level. Music especially was troublesome; it's not perfect now, and I think it's my perception that has adjusted itself, rather than my handling of the volume control. The big problem I have musically is hearing my instrument over the others; the Conversor (see above) helps here, but it's not always easy to find a place for it. Non-musically, my ears are my biggest problem [yuckiness warning!!]: they get rather runny with wax after being stopped up with the ear-piece all day, and sometimes one or both can be inflamed for a day or more, which prevents me using that side.

Don't be too alarmed! Most people don't seem to suffer all the troubles I do, and you'll probably adjust without much difficulty. Good luck!

Steve