Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones

Subject: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 10:36 AM

I have two of those little silver NHS hearing aids. They are brilliant. The quality and clarity of my singing has increased amazingly. (?)

But I seek advice on listening to music on headphones. Should I remove my aids and use stuck in the ear phones or get some of those big ones that cover the ear and in my case my aids? Will this second strategy damage my aids?

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 11:06 AM

Assuming your aids have a LOOP setting one of these

http://www.deafequipment.co.uk/product/2930420/MZMNL90/NL-90-induction-loop

will connect iPods etc directly to your aids.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 11:31 AM

Thanks Guest, my aids do not have a jack socket so I guess a loop is out of the question?

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 07:27 PM

I've had heading aids for four years now. I happily leave them in without a thought from soup to nuts, except for making phone calls and using headphones or earphones (my hearing loss is in the high frequencies). In those situations I'm just better off without them. In fact, if I leave them in and use over-the-ear headphones, I get feedback, so I just don't do it. I've never thought to look into solutions. Whatever loss of sound quality there is when I'm listening with phones and no hearing aids, I haven't really noticed anything significant. I suppose a lot depends on how bad your hearing loss is. It's worth remembering that hearing aids can never give you back perfect analogue hearing. These days I try hard to dwell more on the quality of performance rather than sound quality. I think I'd drive myself potty if I did otherwise.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 08:28 PM

As a wee side issue to this, I have only monaural hearing, being profoundly deaf in one ear since childhood, beyond the reach of any hearing aid (one has been tried unsuccessfully). Thankfully my other ear is not too bad, though probably declining as I get older. So stereo anything is pretty useless to me, and every bit of equipment seems to be geared up to those lucky enough to have binaural hearing.
I do use over the ear headphones when editing recordings on computer, which is helpful. However, I found that when writing music harmony and using the playback facility in my scoring software, it sends one part to one ear, and the other line to the other, so I end up having to take the headphones off to be able to hear both parts together! It would be nice to have some way of feeding all the sound into my one good ear.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 27 Feb 16 - 11:31 PM

In the scoring software that I use (Noteworthy Composer), each channel (that is, each part) has its own stereo pan control, used to adjust the left-right balance. A similar control ought to exist in other products.

If you look up "pan", "stereo", or possibly "balance" in your documentation or help file, you should be able to see how to set your different channels or instruments to all have the same pan. That will get rid of the stereo difference, so the good ear accurately hears the volumes you've assigned to each channel.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: BobL
Date: 28 Feb 16 - 03:33 AM

Les, my NHS ears have a connector used when reprogramming their characteristics, amongst other things. One of the other things is to accept audio from a player or other such device via a suitable connecting lead. I tried one: it was utterly useless.
I now use a pair of Sony MDR-EX450 ear buds, chosen on the basis of their report in "Which?" magazine, and find them excellent.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 28 Feb 16 - 05:10 AM

Thanks folks I think you have solved my problem.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hearing aids and music on headphones
From: artbrooks
Date: 28 Feb 16 - 10:39 AM

I have worn aids for many years (over 40), and can appreciate the changes in technology. Unless your loss is straight-line, and most are high-frequency, you will loose accuracy if you either take them out to use a headset or buds.

I have the same problem with feedback noted with the over-the-ear cans, but I found a headset that works for me. The Sony MDR-ZX330BT is about mid-way in size between the big cans and one of those flat jogging headphones, and I get no feedback from it. It's bluetooth capable, so you can put a small bluetooth transmitter next to your source, and not bother with a wire tethering you to it.

Another option, if your aids have this capability - some newer ones do, some don't - is a direct bluetooth feed to the aids. This may require a special black box designed to work with those particular aids. I have one, and I find its battery lifetime is very short (2-3 hours) when used for listening to music, but the sound response is terrific.