[edopix]

Greetngs Folks,

I recently became friends with someone who is deaf; she almost can't hear a thing without her hearing aids. In passing she mentioned how much she loved music, especially opera and having heard opera before she lost her hearing, she knows what it's supposed to sound like. Something her top of the range hearing aids cannot reproduce musically enough, so she' stopped going or listening.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of headphones (and amps) designed for the deaf, which are musical? Something which can bring back the magic of opera for her?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts.

Many Thanks,

Edmond

 

[rids57]

Here's a thread started by someone with severe hearing problems

http://www.head-fi.org/t/486547/high-sensitivity-iem-iems-for-the-partially-deaf

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I recently became friends with someone who is deaf; she almost can't hear a thing without her hearing aids. In passing she mentioned how much she loved music, especially opera and having heard opera before she lost her hearing, she knows what it's supposed to sound like. Something her top of the range hearing aids cannot reproduce musically enough, so she' stopped going or listening.

 

Is that hearing aid the one with the EQ function? I know someone with severe midrange hearing loss and can't afford one as it was somewhere around two grand each over here (his HMO only covers the regular kind); the normal hearing aids only make everything louder equally which makes it worse. Have the audiologist reprogram it to have a bit more response between roughly 1khz to 4khz; I assume of course that she can hear everything clearly enough otherwise but the sound is just lacking more subjective coloration (in this case, the midrange bias of human hearing, although this has more to with how the brain sorts out the sounds than the eardrums themselves). That or you set up a headphone or speaker system that uses a general purpose device that has a player app with a processor like Neutron Music Player, then play around with the EQ.

 

Note that many headphones actually have a dip in the midrange; or actually, it's not that it goes lower there, but the bass and treble are tipped up a bit to make them more audible. What sounds "flat" qualitatively sometimes actually has a v-shaped response graph, while what many qualitatively describe as sounding like a v-shaped graph just has a greater boost to either end. So basically, if in fact her hearing loss is some sort of severe and detrimental EQ effect, not even systems specifically designed to sound pleasing than accurate can do without some kind of EQ program/hardware set to compensate for that.

 

[edopix]

  Here's a thread started by someone with severe hearing problems

http://www.head-fi.org/t/486547/high-sensitivity-iem-iems-for-the-partially-deaf

That's very useful, thanks. I saw the thread headline and didn't read it as it mentioned partially deat and my friend's severely deaf (can't recall the exact phrase she used). Thanks

 

[edopix]

   

Is that hearing aid the one with the EQ function? I know someone with severe midrange hearing loss and can't afford one as it was somewhere around two grand each over here (his HMO only covers the regular kind); the normal hearing aids only make everything louder equally which makes it worse. Have the audiologist reprogram it to have a bit more response between roughly 1khz to 4khz; I assume of course that she can hear everything clearly enough otherwise but the sound is just lacking more subjective coloration (in this case, the midrange bias of human hearing, although this has more to with how the brain sorts out the sounds than the eardrums themselves). That or you set up a headphone or speaker system that uses a general purpose device that has a player app with a processor like Neutron Music Player, then play around with the EQ.

 

Note that many headphones actually have a dip in the midrange; or actually, it's not that it goes lower there, but the bass and treble are tipped up a bit to make them more audible. What sounds "flat" qualitatively sometimes actually has a v-shaped response graph, while what many qualitatively describe as sounding like a v-shaped graph just has a greater boost to either end. So basically, if in fact her hearing loss is some sort of severe and detrimental EQ effect, not even systems specifically designed to sound pleasing than accurate can do without some kind of EQ program/hardware set to compensate for that.

I don't know her particular details, but thanks for your input which I shall pass along. Very much appreciated

 

[princessmerida]

Hi, as you probably know by now many HOH and deaf people enjoy music, especially the bass clef ahaha. I'm a S(ibling)ODA.also looking for a headphone or speaker set that would work.  if your friend doesn't, she could consider an FM system. If their aids are bluetooth accessible, they are in luck. just before seeing your post i found a helpful forum chain with suggestions i'm gonna try. hope it helps!
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1994462

 

[edopix]

Sorry for the late reply. Hadn't logged on for a while. Many thanks for the link. Lots of interesting info which I shall pass on