Yesterday I posted about my experience at a concert venue where the sound was way too loud (and had a very muddy mix). I ended up leaving because it was simply not enjoyable (or even bearable).
I wear RITE hearing aids with perforated domes. If the sound is too loud, I can turn them down or even off, but the perforations still allow a lot of the sound through. If I remove them completely, I can use foam earplugs, but then I hear poorly and suffer from that stuffy feeling in my ears.
The ideal situation would be to have a set of ear protectors that (1) surround my ears completely with space for my hearing aids, (2) reduce the sound level overall by, say 20 - 30 dB, (3) are comfortable enough to wear for about 90 minutes at a time, and (4) are “low key” enough that I’m not getting weird looks and attention from everyone.
Active ear protectors that are often used for shooting are not helpful because they basically shut down when the sound gets too loud. (Or, at least the ones I’ve tried so far do this.) They would have been shut down at all times at this show.
My Sennheiser 569 Closed Back Headphones work pretty well and are very comfortable for long periods. Of course, they are huge and obvious. I was hoping to find something with a band that sat low on my neck or under my chin.
Anybody have any experience or suggestions? Using my hearing aids helps a lot with intelligibility and in controlling tinnitus, so I’d really like to keep them in the mix. I just need to get the sound level down to something reasonable.
Watching this thread, because I wear hearing aids and am going to a concert Wednesday night, and I’ve never come up with a good solution other than leave them in and turn them down or off.
I wear Phonaks and the Power Domes (which I don’t normally use) do offer quite a bit more isolation than the standard domes. I may try that in the future. But I’m not sure that this would have been enough sound isolation at this particular concert.
Mine are Oticon. I have an appointment with my audiologist next week - I’ll have to ask her if she has any recommendations. (Too late for this particular concert, but might be helpful in the future.)
Hearing aids/ear plugs at concerts.
Amidst the discussion in the above link, there’s a suggestion that one could wear hearing aids dialed low and wear noise-cancelling headphones atop them if you want to protect what hearing you still have. As a physician, this seems to me like the most practical advice. Otherwise just turning down the hearing aids does not prevent further hearing loss from noise exposure.
Right, Qadcop_the_Mercotan. My perforated domes are basically transparent to ambient sound. However, the processed signals from my aids help control tinnitus and (possibly) vertigo, so I would want to use them. A sealed-back headphone that comfortably covers the entire ear seems the best direction to go.
But I don’t think that noise-cancelling headphones would help that much, unless the ambient sound was pretty consistent (or as muddy as it was at the recent performance).
I’m considering using a small stereo mic (Sony) with a high-gain portable headphone amp and my Sennheiser 569s. The headphones would provide significant sound reduction, while fitting over my ears while I’m wearing my hearing aids. I could then adjust the amp to provide an appropriate level of sound to the headphones. Complex, but i have everything in my closet to do it.