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Better hearing aids

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Even non-musicians who have hearing loss complain about hearing aids. It’s hard to distinguish voices when there’s background noise, sounds are tinny, etc. For musicians, it can be particuarly excruciating. The New York Times writes:
After he lost much of his hearing last year at age 57, the composer Richard Einhorn despaired of ever really enjoying a concert or musical again. Even using special headsets supplied by the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway theaters, he found himself frustrated by the sound quality, static and interference.
 
Then, in June, he went to the Kennedy Center in Washington, where his “Voices of Light” oratorio had once been performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, for a performance of the musical “Wicked.”
 
There were no special headphones. This time, the words and music were transmitted to a wireless receiver in Mr. Einhorn’s hearing aid using a technology that is just starting to make its way into public places in America: a hearing loop.
 
“There I was at ‘Wicked’ weeping uncontrollably — and I don’t even like musicals,” he said. “For the first time since I lost most of my hearing, live music was perfectly clear, perfectly clean and incredibly rich.”
There may be hope yet.

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  1. I received a set  Siemen’s hearing aids a year ago.  On different settings, I can distinguish speech in a noisy room, or have a flat response throughout the vocal spectrum, or have an incredible frequency range from 50 – 20K+ Herz.  I hear better than I have in years, and can hear the faintest whisper of pressed phonation or hypofunction in someone’s singing voice.  Yes, it was expensive, but my audiologist has been a great help. It IS a digital sound, it took lots of adjusting, but it is possible to hear very clearly.  (I can also fanatically attentive to the details of what I hear, like the individual instruments in a string section or a choral section!

  2. Allen and Marie:  I’ve been through several generations of hearing aids, and the newest technology is truly a breakthrough.  I was first diagnosed with high frequency loss back around ’91, and tried hearing aids, but couldn’t deal with them at that time.  I was still actively directing a show ensemble, and had to tell my audio techs that I would keep telling them what I heard, but that they should use their judgement whether to belive me or not!
     
    I tried a new generation of aids starting in about ’99, and managed to live with them in spite of understanding that what I heard would NOT be what others heard.  (By that time it was obvious that what I heard without them was ALSO not what others heard!)  They were reprogramable, which the earlier ones were not, but could only be reprogrammed through a computer program.  And for a musician it’s pretty frustrating that audiologists ONLY check up to about 4k or 8k hz, which is fine for speech but definitely not high enough for the overtones we depend on in music.  Those were the stick-in-the-ear and block off the ear canal type, which may have been sort of invisible but had problems regarding accuracy.  (For the record, I’m not at all sensitive about wearing aids, no more than I am about wearing glasses, but some people definitely are.)
     
    About 2 or 3 years ago I bit the bullet and put out the money for the more recent technology, and am I ever glad I did!!  They are so light and non-intrusive that I forget whether I have them in or not.  They work well with a phone without needing the older magnetic pickup.  And I had the option of getting Blue Goose compatibility (or whatever it’s called) so my phone and TV and computer could play wirelessly directly into my aids, but bypassed it because none of my electronics were recent enough to have that capability.
     
    Hearing loss in older men is normal and predictable.  I’ve never been in a rock band, but I’ve been performing music for the past 60 years or more, and that has certainly contributed to it.  And the things you need to understand are that in speech the female voice is much more difficult to understand than the male, and that yes, there’s no electronic way to deal with background noise that our brains can ignore but the mics and amplifiers can not.  I can have several different programs available in my aids, but the one for “Music” is for LISTENING to recoded music, not exactly what a music professional needs.  And nothing I’ve tried can deal with crowd noise or a noisy classroom, even though there are settings that are supposed to.
     
    Oh, and something else you need to know is that in this state, at least, audiologists now have to have a doctorate rather than a masters degree in order to be certified, based at least in part on new laws that require all newborns to be tested for hearing.  (No, I don’t understand the connection either!)
     
    Marie’s right; the cost is pretty horrendous, and it’s a closed market because you can’t really get them properly fitted and programmed without paying a professional to do it.  I certainy don’t mind paying for the service, but I suspect that the profit margin on the units themselves is sky high because there’s basically no competition to bring it down.
     
    I remember my grandfather’s hearing aid, wired to a unit that sat in his pocket and was about the size of a cigaret pack, with nothing adjustable except the volume. 
     
    So if you think you might have a problem, get tested!  Especially if you’ve done rock, or have used earphones or ear buds for a number of years.  I worry about my students, who walk around all day wired to their iPods.  Beethoven remained a superb musician even though he went completely deaf, but he did have to change what he was doing.  We have more choices.
     
    All the best,
    John

  3. My church is installing a new sound system, and I’ve just learned that it will include the hearing aid loop technology; evidently it isn’t that expensive. But not all hearing aids (maybe half) are configured to receive it, so we’ll have to have a redundant headset broadcast as well.
     
    I also have a friend who got hearing aids early (around age 50), and she has a job as a church secretary, and her aids have this feature: when she answers the phone and holds it to her left ear, the right hearing aid automatically shuts off to reduce distractions. Evidently this feature which is pretty universal in office phones, although uncommon in cheapo consumer phones. (Obviously your hearing aids need to know about it too.)

  4. Hi Allen,
     
    Every once in a while, I mention my long-time, long-suffering spouse is an ENT doc.  And yes, he is.  But he’s also a hearing scientist, with a MS in pyscho-accoustics as well as an MD. And while he does enjoy care of the professional voice–he did marry a wacky soprano after all, so he better–his real love is the science of hearing.  In addtion to his private practice, he has a hearing aid business with an excellent audiologist on staff.
     
    Wonderful things have been happening in the hearing aid business.  New advances such as you mention–the hearing loop–and others such as a hearing aid so tiny it is placed against the timpanic membrane! One thing to think about if you need a hearing aid–make sure your audiologist KNOWS what your needs are, music-wise, so you get exactly what you need.  And don’t be afraid to tell them if it isn’t working out–they can be adjusted and re-programmed. You may be shocked by the cost but if it fits your needs and is a well fit, well chosen device, it will be worth it!
     
    Marie

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