Hearing Aids...

mlucitt

mlucitt

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Jun 24, 2011
Messages
3,585
Location
Jacksonville, FL
I have been told during a recent checkup (that included a hearing test) that I am a candidate for hearing aids in both ears. My Audiogram is not very pretty. In a perfect world it would be flat, showing no hearing loss across the frequency spectrum. Mine takes a dive at 3kHz and another dive at 6kHz. it was this second "valley" that had the pretty Audiologist all excited. There is "significant" hearing loss, which you get from listening to PL amps all your life; and then there is "profound" hearing loss, which you get from listening to WOPL amps for a few years.

I have borderline profound hearing loss in the higher frequencies, which is where it occurs first. So, I am waiting for an appointment for the latest and greatest hearing aids. They will be tweaked to raise only my HF loss back up into the normal region. They can be adjusted with a smart phone for home, office, theater, or restaurant use. I can also use them to block ambient noise (a la Bose) or take a call with them. They cost about $8,000 but the military is picking up the cost because I was a Sonar Technician and I told the Doctor at the VA I used to sit in Sonar Control and listen to whales at 3-6kHz in my headphones all day and all night.

Anyway, does anyone else on the Forum have hearing aids? Now that we are getting older, they are becoming a fact of life. I am wondering if the sound of the WOPL will improve once I can hear above 6kHz?
 
I'm thinkin it will....and there's always a little more clockwise...
 
My answers are yes, getting old too, if Lee is saying turn the volume up clockwise these is what I do, but then this is probable what you already have been doing with the WOPL any how.
 
mlucitt said:
I have been told during a recent checkup (that included a hearing test) that I am a candidate for hearing aids in both ears. My Audiogram is not very pretty. In a perfect world it would be flat, showing no hearing loss across the frequency spectrum. Mine takes a dive at 3kHz and another dive at 6kHz. it was this second "valley" that had the pretty Audiologist all excited. There is "significant" hearing loss, which you get from listening to PL amps all your life; and then there is "profound" hearing loss, which you get from listening to WOPL amps for a few years.

I have borderline profound hearing loss in the higher frequencies, which is where it occurs first. So, I am waiting for an appointment for the latest and greatest hearing aids. They will be tweaked to raise only my HF loss back up into the normal region. They can be adjusted with a smart phone for home, office, theater, or restaurant use. I can also use them to block ambient noise (a la Bose) or take a call with them. They cost about $8,000 but the military is picking up the cost because I was a Sonar Technician and I told the Doctor at the VA I used to sit in Sonar Control and listen to whales at 3-6kHz in my headphones all day and all night.

Anyway, does anyone else on the Forum have hearing aids? Now that we are getting older, they are becoming a fact of life. I am wondering if the sound of the WOPL will improve once I can hear above 6kHz?
Click to expand...


Mark, the sound of the WOPL will always be awesome. It's whether or not you can hear it but it will ALWAYS sound sweet.
 
I built Helen Keller a WOPL and she flipped me the bird because she couldn't hear the phone ringing. (PC Police???)
 
If the PC police were here we’d all be in trouble....except for Marco and the pimp stick, they’re just nice guys...
 
Thank God for the oilfield...we're still pretty coarse out here...
 
The funny thing is, you can't hear what you can't hear.
Try this experiment if you have access to a frequency/function generator and a good db or AC voltmeter. More qualitative than quantitative.
Place everything in a quiet room.
Connect your frequency/function generator (Fun generator) to the meter and to a small speaker. Almost any small speaker will do, but not headphones, you might damage your hearing.
Set the frequency to 1kHz Sine Wave and turn up the output so you can barely hear the tone, note the db or AC voltage level and try to keep it constant.
Turn up the frequency dial slowly, but don't look at the dial because you might cheat. You may need to change the frequency range scale if you run out of range, but keep the output level the same.
When you can't hear it anymore, look at the frequency dial. You can verify the frequency by connecting a frequency counter, but the dial should be close enough. You may be surprised at the result.
For me it was 12kHz. that means my hearing stops around ambient 12kHz and all the tweeters in the world going from 12-20kHz, do nothing for me. For my wife the cutoff was 16.2kHz, she has not had the pleasure of listening to the WOPL 700 as much as I have...

I am going to try it again after I get my hearing aids. I would be curious to know what you all find out about your hearing.

Mark
 
The good side is not hearing half the crap on You Tube.
 
I had a similar problem with my father ( now 93 ) .
When he was 88 ,89 he said me : Can you help me ?
PLs ( stock ) are too " aggressive "
I saw the hearing tests ( similar to yours ) and I "equalized " the PL 4000 to compensate his hearing curves ,
and I adjusted the peak unlimiter to compress always the dynamic range .
More or less it was O.K.
Two years ago I bought 2 headphones : a wireless Philips for TV and a Bose for the music .
Now he uses a Yamaha 2010 with two small AR 8 BX and he's " happy ".
Infact in the last 6 months I had to buy a tuner ( Yamaha 1010 ) , a CD player and a Dual TT
to complete this system .
My father's problems are related to the age , but he had to forget PLs .
The sound of Yamaha is very " soft " .
This is my experience and I hope it could be useful.
Ciao
Marco
 
I have seen your like . Thank you !
Consider that ear ampifiers are simply micro amps with an equalizer .
At the beginning use the tone controls of your preamp in the same way .
Try , before spending a lot of money !
Ciao
Marco
 
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