The 67-year-old hearing test results! You need hearing aids.

[dtaylo1066]

Just back from the audiologist. First hearing test in 7 years. I am 67. Hearing has declined since 2017. Within normal range to about 3-4K then drops like a 12db crossover curve. Probably down 30 db at 8K. Also have had mild tinnitus which has gotten worse in the last year. I go for a hearing aid evaluation and information meeting in two weeks.

I'm not surprised, as I have realized I do not pick up information in the music on my main stereo that I used to hear more clearly.

So, question for you hearing aid people: when listening to music do you wear hearing aids or rely instead on EQ? I have no idea what the SINAD is of a pair of hearing aids. Is music pretty transparent with them or are they distortion city?

Ideas? Suggestions.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Had a hearing test last week age 64. Only a slight drop below normal at 8k which is as high as they tested. Probably still need to keep all my music no lower than 192 khz. Isn't that the rule of thumb, sample rate 20 times your flat hearing range?

I can still hear to 11 khz in one ear and a bit more in the other, but it does need some EQ.

More seriously, I don't EQ extra for my hearing loss. I don't use hearing aids (yet). My guess would be 30 db boost at 8 khz or more might speed up hearing loss. A younger friend who has hearing loss from working in an industrial environment takes that approach and jacks the treble way up. I cannot listen to it or most people with close to normal hearing. Another friend who likes to do karaoke with us, has very serious hearing loss. We found boosting 200 hz to 6 khz is what helped him hear himself enough to take part. Of course that is one example. He may be completely deaf above 6 khz.

 

[Ghostofmerlin]

Just back from the audiologist. First hearing test in 7 years. I am 67. Hearing has declined since 2017. Within normal range to about 3-4K then drops like a 12db crossover curve. Probably down 30 db at 8K. Also have had mild tinnitus which has gotten worse in the last year. I go for a hearing aid evaluation and information meeting in two weeks.

I'm not surprised, as I have realized I do not pick up information in the music on my main stereo that I used to hear more clearly.

So, question for you hearing aid people: when listening to music do you wear hearing aids or rely instead on EQ? I have no idea what the SINAD is of a pair of hearing aids. Is music pretty transparent with them or are they distortion city?

Ideas? Suggestions.

Clearly you need better cables. And power cords.

Good topic. Glad you chose to ask this, because I really feel like this is where I'm heading, too.

 

[MattHooper]

I'm 60, still hear up to at least 13.5k. I have a high Q dip around 6k, but I don't sweat it.

 

[Blumlein 88]

My hearing was much better before I started taking part on this forum.

 

[Ninjastar]

Your hearing threshold is 30 dB HL at 8 kHz? Or down 30 dB from the normal range?

If it's the former, that's not too bad.

Generally, hearing aids are set to prioritize speech understanding and music will not sound as natural while wearing them in their default settings.

Your hearing care provider can set up a music specialized program if you are using a RIC style device that you can switch into when you want to listen to music. But if your hearing is in the mild loss range, I would think you can just take them off when listening.

 

[Godataloss]

Following for fellowship in dealing with the indignities of aging.

 

[coonmanx]

I have not had a hearing test. I am 63 and don't like the idea of getting any older. But I can't stop time marching along...

I do have tinnitus in my left ear. It happened one day when I was driving down the interstate and passed under a bridge. Suddenly a motorcycle with obnoxiously loud exhaust passed me and the ringing started. It has never stopped but sometimes I don't notice it all that much.

I don't EQ for any of that. EQ curves are still the same as always so my hearing appears to be decent at the moment. Give me a few more years and who knows. But I don't think I would use EQ to change the way the music sounds to me because then nobody else would want to listen to it like that. God bless my ears that are still good...

 

[MaxwellsEq]

In her late 80s my mother's hearing became poor, but she would not have a hearing test and would not have worn hearing aids even if she could have been convinced that it was her hearing (not newsreaders, friends and doctors etc, "mumbling" - according to her). Her generation saw wearing hearing aids as a sign of senility because presumably only truly deaf people had them when she was in her 50s and everyone else just asked people to repeat themselves, speak louder and slower...

These days it seems different. Hearing aids are more effective and less obvious so much as that people in their 50s and 60s seem quite comfortable accepting that their world is better when they can hear. I know several people who swear by them.

More importantly, there's this study and many more which confirm a link (but limited causality) between poor hearing and neurodegeneration https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38175662/

I'd rather wear hearing aids!

 

[JeffGB]

I'm turning 68 this week and haven't had a hearing test in decades. I equalize for my basic speaker anechoic issues but won't think about any kind of hearing aid until I can't hear normal conversation etc. If my ears have a few issues I can't see myself trying to equalize for them because I hear everything that way so it's "natural" to me. I think a life of living in an apartment where I can't listen loudly wasn't actually a bad thing. I wear hearing protection when on the train or near a rock concert.

 

[Robin L]

I've got a Stereophile test CD, includes test tones from 20 hz to 20 khz. Am 69, found that my AKG K371 headphones were fully audible up to 13 khz. Every now and then have tinnitus symptoms, but they disappear quickly. Do not listen to music at loud volumes, am not worried about hearing loss for the moment.

 

[August West]

I am now on my 3rd pair of hearing aids. Beginning of 2018 I had an ear infection which I didn't get taken care of soon enough. My first impression for hearing aids in general, it was like hearing through your own personal p.a. system Music wasn't very smooth. I got a second pair about a year later which was optimized for music professionals. They were better. My hearing regressed and so the 3rd pair. These hearing aids have a music setting. IT WORKS! I leave it at the music setting because everything sounds better. My listening to music has become much more enjoyable. I am not an ad for hearing aids, but if anyone asks I will tell which brand and model I ended up with.

 

[DSJR]

Just back from the audiologist. First hearing test in 7 years. I am 67. Hearing has declined since 2017. Within normal range to about 3-4K then drops like a 12db crossover curve. Probably down 30 db at 8K. Also have had mild tinnitus which has gotten worse in the last year. I go for a hearing aid evaluation and information meeting in two weeks.

I'm not surprised, as I have realized I do not pick up information in the music on my main stereo that I used to hear more clearly.

So, question for you hearing aid people: when listening to music do you wear hearing aids or rely instead on EQ? I have no idea what the SINAD is of a pair of hearing aids. Is music pretty transparent with them or are they distortion city?

Ideas? Suggestions.

Sad to say - Join the club... My bad is severe in the mid kHz region with a very partial recovery over 7khz - speakers in a well carpeted and heavily furnished room to me sounded dull but with some 'tinsel' on top pre hearing aids. A lively dem room I'm familiar with was fine for sound reproduction... I've had my tinnitus return since my late forties, so I now take it for granted. I have a very-low bass loss issue in one ear as well, lower in frequency than the audiology ear and bone tests show and maybe due to the repeated ear infections I kept getting, but I just have to live with that.

Today, my hearing aids work well when listening to my sound rigs, but I turn them down a couple of notches as even the ever-so-genteel Harbeths can sound a bit too intense if I don't. In fact, I use this setting all the time and it's fine. When in crowded spaces, I have the option on the aids of minimising external noise (a kind of noise-gate) although these new ones with added bluetooth don't seem to need it so much. I use the bluetooth option for playing DVD's in the kitchen while preparing dinner as I can move around unimpeded while hearing the dialogue, even if I can't always watch the picture 100%.

One side effect is that I feel less and less inclined to want to play much music right now although this could be depression, when thirty years ago, the ATC's were powered up as soon as I walked in the door of an evening and I even used them for TV sound too from time to time. The Zero 2 earphones have been a revelation on the cheap, as the direct in-ear suits the hf well and the low bass is wonderful to behold - my brain kind of balances the bass as well thank goodness.

My hearing doesn't seem to have deteroratred further fortunately (I'm also 67 and wondering what happened to the last thirty years - oh I remember, I opened a new life-book, got married, became a dad and the bloody stereo and my former life went awol )

 

[dtaylo1066]

Your hearing threshold is 30 dB HL at 8 kHz? Or down 30 dB from the normal range?

If it's the former, that's not too bad.

Generally, hearing aids are set to prioritize speech understanding and music will not sound as natural while wearing them in their default settings.

Your hearing care provider can set up a music specialized program if you are using a RIC style device that you can switch into when you want to listen to music. But if your hearing is in the mild loss range, I would think you can just take them off when listening.

I saw my plot/chart after the test, but don't yet have access to post it from my health portal.

Per your quite accurate statement regarding 30db HL, below is what a hearing test chart looks like. After a pretty level plot up to 3 - 4K in the lower normal area, my curve began sloping downward significantly into passed into the mild, then moderate and finally into the moderately severe area as frequency increased to 8K.

I can hear fine when conversing on phones and don't blast the TV like my wife does. Both my ears tested about the same, so things are even. And they did all the pressure and bone tests.

The audiologist indicated that hearing aids will often assist in patients like me who have had increasing tinnitus, something I was not aware of. By improving the impaired frequencies, you brain is struggling to hear and interpret, the hearing aid can help your brain adjust (no guarantee or to what level) the effects of tinnitus, thereby diminishing it. Sometimes to a significant degree. The longer you wait to correct your hearing loss, if you also have tinnitus, the less likely this positive outcome.

So instead of a nice RME DAC or Eversolo Streamer I will drop 1.5-2K on hearing aids. Such is life as a senior.

I am glad I got into Hi-Fi in High School, so I had many years of non-impaired listening, and at this point things are not that bad.

 

[BlackTalon]

Just back from the audiologist. First hearing test in 7 years. I am 67. Hearing has declined since 2017. Within normal range to about 3-4K then drops like a 12db crossover curve. Probably down 30 db at 8K. Also have had mild tinnitus which has gotten worse in the last year.

Ideas?

Yes -- apply for a job reviewing audiophile-grade stereo equipment. It sounds like you are close to being qualified. In another couple of years it should be a slam dunk.

 

[dtaylo1066]

On this interesting on-line tone generator if I crank it up abit on my iFi iDSD Micro Black Label with Zero Red ear buds I can hear the signal tone clearly to 8K, and to 10K if I crank the volume way up as I pass 7K. Toast after 10K, as in carbonized Melba.

When Amir completes his neuro-EQ implant I will be in good shape!!!

One moment, please...

All right you oldsters, and youngsters, try the tone generator with some HPs or on your stereo and see your upper limit!

Since there are few young audiophiles out there, I am wondering where people will top out. Be prepared, it may be worse than you were thinking.

This would make a good post and survey question. How high In Hz can you hear?

Clearly a DAC filter rolling off too early at 17K is not an issue for me!

 

[SSS]

Got 76 years now. Still hearing is not bad, just deteriorated above 12 kHz depending on SPL more or less. Can hear and follow conversations and TV at slightly elevated volume. During my life I always protected my ears when working with lawn mowers and chain saw and other loud tools. I think this helped. The only time listened to live punk music like Ramones and UK bands decades ago I got jingle bells in my ears.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I am still OK the Fundamental.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I saw my plot/chart after the test, but don't yet have access to post it from my health portal.

Per your quite accurate statement regarding 30db HL, below is what a hearing test chart looks like. After a pretty level plot up to 3 - 4K in the lower normal area, my curve began sloping downward significantly into passed into the mild, then moderate and finally into the moderately severe area as frequency increased to 8K.

I can hear fine when conversing on phones and don't blast the TV like my wife does. Both my ears tested about the same, so things are even. And they did all the pressure and bone tests.

The audiologist indicated that hearing aids will often assist in patients like me who have had increasing tinnitus, something I was not aware of. By improving the impaired frequencies, you brain is struggling to hear and interpret, the hearing aid can help your brain adjust (no guarantee or to what level) the effects of tinnitus, thereby diminishing it. Sometimes to a significant degree. The longer you wait to correct your hearing loss, if you also have tinnitus, the less likely this positive outcome.

So instead of a nice RME DAC or Eversolo Streamer I will drop 1.5-2K on hearing aids. Such is life as a senior.

I am glad I got into Hi-Fi in High School, so I had many years of non-impaired listening, and at this point things are not that bad.



View attachment 365650

I don't have a copy either, but the chart used by my doctor was like that except it had a shaded area for normal hearing that covered 10 db above 0 db and 15 db below 0 db.

 

[MRC01]

I'm 56 and have noticed some HF hearing loss over the past 5 years or so. But I can still hear the whine of the LCD screen on my remote, which measures about 14-15 kHz, so I guess my hearing isn't too bad for my age. My left ear isn't quite as good as my right, probably due to years of playing (acoustic) musical instruments. My wife is a few years older and her hearing rolls off sharply after 8 kHz. She is a gardener and can't hear the birds outside unless they are very close, which is sad.

Opinions differ on whether to correct for natural age related hearing loss when listening to music. I opt for no, because I listen mostly to acoustic music and I want the music to sound as close as possible to what it sounds like in real life. Others opt for yes, it's just a matter of preference.