I am hearing impaired and my loss is mostly conductive (I have otosclerosis). I’ve been wearing hearing aids for the past two decades. Hearing aids are great for speech in different situations, but when it comes to music, they're are kind of lacking.
I really enjoy music and have a few mid-fi headphones and dac/amp (DT 770 Pro, DT 900 Pro X, AirPods Max, FiiO Q3, and Dragonfly Red). I have the APO/Peace combo installed on my PC and use the Oratory 1990 references for my headphones.
Problem is… I also really need to “eq” my hearing aids, if you know what I mean. I program my hearing aids myself and I think I have crafted two pretty decent “music” programs. One with a more linear compression scheme that I use when I play my acoustic and classical guitars, and one with compression for headphones and music in general. I created two audio files based on the equal-loudness contours that I use to adjust the 24 bands of my hearing aids. Here are the 65 phons and the 85 phons files.
How can I really be sure my aided hearing is “flat”? Or as flat as possible, given the constraints of hearing aids. Is there any way, tool, app, website that could help me assess whether my music program is flat (say, compared to the ISO 226 standard)? Any tips are really appreciated.
Do you have a stapedius plastic? If so from my experience most people have some 'klirr' (rattle) that increases with volume. I don't really understand what's your goal? Do you want to wear the headphones over your hearing aids? Not a good option because feedback control will alter gain especially in high frequencys. Also the sampling rate on hearing aids isn't on par with hifi standards. Best if you don't waer your aids when listening through headphones. As far as I know you can even set an different eq for each channel (left/right) on Equalizer Apo since your impairment differs quite a bit according to your fitting gains. Another option is use the direct streaming function so you won't have too much ad conversion and signal processing. Direct streaming on phonak and Widex is quite satisfying. Just use double domes or closed otoplastics in this scenario. Carry on
Thanks for your comments and suggestions, /u/ProfessionalTune4357. Let me address your questions:
I had a stapedectomy in my right ear 25 years ago. I do have the rattle, so I assume my stapedius is not what nature designed. This is the first time I've heard of the cause of the "klirr". It becomes uberable around 85 dB. Thank you for your insight; it was already worth the post :). Is there anything I can do about it?
As I mentioned in a previus post, I would like to have a music program tunned to an equal-loudness courve. A flat aided hearing would help me better discern good-sounding from bad-sounding guitars. To some extent, the same goes for headphones and speakers.
I do wear my headphones over my hearing aids. Alternatively, I wear my AirPods Max without them but with "hearing acommodations" ON. However, my DT 900 Pro X on top of my hearing aids sounds much better than my AirPods Max without hearing aids. It is no contest. I have crafted a music program with all the digital features I could disable switched to "OFF". Since I have custom molds, I can also disable feedback control.
I've tried that, and the DT 900 Pro X on top of my hearing aids still sounds much better.
I've never tried that, but it is a route I'd be willing to explore. Thanks for the suggestion.
What I mentioned in an earlier post is that before crafting my music program, I couldn't stand listening to music with my hearing aids on. Hence, I would usually listen to music with an earphone (no hearing aids) at louder levels than I should.
Great point. I listen to my headphones at around 65 dB, though my guitars sound louder than that (around 85 dB). I am going to double check my music program. The screenshot I shared is from a simulation I did on the Phillips software. I wear Oticon More 1; they are pretty good for music.