Its something I’ve always wondered about. Are there any dopers here that loved music before hearing loss and still listen to music through a hearing aid?
Does it sound different? Can you distinguish the individual instruments (guitar, bass, horns, strings- violin)? Can you tune an instrument or sing in tune with a hearing aid? Any distortion of the sound? Overall, Is the experience the same?
I ask because as I understand it, hearing aids aren’t just tiny amplified speakers. Don’t hearing aids vibrate on bone to conduct the sound?
I just got hearing aids 1 year ago after losing my hearing in 1 ear. I expected the sound out of the hearing aid to sound “amplified” in some way – but it’s not. It just sounds completely natural, as if I am hearing the sound. Of course, I’m hearing MORE of the sound now, in frequencies I didn’t know I was missing, so that’s a little different. But it still sounds natural to me.
As far as music goes, I can’t hear stereo anymore, so that’s a bit of difference, but I still seem to like music as much as I did before my sudden hearing loss.
How music sounds through a hearing aid depends on a person’s type of hearing loss. Hearing aids do a great job but they aren’t going to bring sounds back that a person can’t hear. So if a person cannot hear high or low frequencies, music is going to be somewhat lacking in those frequencies. You can still hear music, you’re just missing out on part of it. I think. And the way it sounds will sound different to each person.
I say this as a deaf 25-year-old, who has worn hearing aids since I was 4. (Most people don’t realize I’m deaf when I talk to them, but it’s a big influence on my life.) It’s difficult for me to express how music sounds to me and also difficult for me to understand how it sounds to people who hear normally. I feel like I’m missing something when people talk about music, but I don’t know what it is, exactly. If I concentrate I can pick out individual instruments, sometimes, in some songs. Video games where you can play guitar/drums/bass guitar, etc, really helped me figure out how to pick out instruments, and how songs are composed.
Bass is awesome. I love, love, love heavy bass and feeling it is the closest thing I can get to understanding how music as a whole affects other people.
I do still enjoy music though. But I don’t mind hearing songs over and over, as some people do, and my mp3 player is fairly limited in terms of its library. I like stuff where I can hear the words well and I always prefer to learn the lyrics before listening to a song. Some of the songs I like the best are ones other people say are repetitive. I think it’s just because I can come to know how they sound.
My mother just got hearing aids a couple of years ago - she likes that she can take them out and amp up her mp3 player for what she says is *exactly *the same effect.
The only difference in hearing she’s noticed is that she now finds it difficult to ‘selectively hear’, that is, to concentrate on one person’s voice in a social setting, or the TV over the ambient noise from outside.
Having said all that - apparently she’s lost the ability to hear anything in both higher and lower frequencies and no amount of amplification will bring those back. The loss was so gradual she honestly can’t tell if things sound different.
She’s also taken to smiling and nodding when she can’t hear you talking - very disconcerting if you’re talking about a natural disaster or your friend’s cancer diagnosis…
And I swear Stars’ post wasn’t there when I started typing.
ETA, she was offerred the choice of aids that would work better (perhaps the bone vibrating ones you mention) but they were about 10 thousand per ear.
My mom started losing her hearing after she turned 72. Within 3 years we were begging her to get a hearing aid. My grandmother had gradual hearing loss starting in her mid 60’s and got really deaf about 8 years later. Grandmothers hearing aid always squealed (this was 1980’s). So far moms hearing aid that she got in 2009 doesn’t.
I expect if I live long enough there’s a hearing aid waiting for me too. Hopefully not until my seventies. I worry about the server that was in my office. It had 4 fans in the case. More noise than I should have been close to. Especially sitting there all day long. I finally had it moved elsewhere.
My uncle has been very deaf for most of his adult life and does not have the self awareness or insight that StarsApart shows in their post. I wonder if it’s the harmonics that SA’s missing? It’s a result of the combination of sounds rather than how they sound separately.
My mum prefers her mp3 to listeing to music with her aids in because of the ‘selectiveness’ issue I mentioned above. With hearing aids, the background noice is amplified along with the music.
M y mom has that selectivity problem too. If there’s any distracting noise like the tv or dogs running around the room, then conversation is impossible. She can hear only one thing at a time.
She used to love Mantovani and Percy Faith’s instrumental music. She would turn it on for hours while she read her favorite books. She rarely plays music anymore.
\I’ve always tried to protect my hearing as much as possible. I never use ear buds or headphones. I keep the stereo at a reasonable level. So far I’m doing ok. But aging can cost anyone their hearing no matter how careful we are.
If heredity has anything to do with it, I should pre-order a set now
(btw, for me it wasn’t a server, it was more fun: early Springsteen concerts, feeling the wind as the giant speakers pistoned into our faces).
I’m getting ready by listening to podcasts… there are some days I walk around with earbuds in for six hours straight.
ETA: I’ve read that earbuds can be good for your hearing AT LOW VOLUME, because they block ambient noise, which can be more deleterious to your hearing than soft music/audiobooks/podcasts.
It’s not exactly a hearing aid, but here is an article on a man with cochlear implants working with the software for his implant to be able to hear music again.
Agreed with StarsApart. I am a 32 year old HOH person.
I hear through bone conduction. (born with no ear canals and no eardrums) I don’t hear through air condunction at ALL. I can hear (and LOVE music…I love Broadway and folk the best) but hearing to me prolly isn’t the same as it is to a hearing person.
I feel the music rather then hear it…
I lost most of my hearing five or six years ago. Though the audiologists say I’ve lost some frequencies, I don’t notice it with music; it sounds the same with hearing aids as it did before, from baroque to rock.
Some people find hearing aids uncomfortable at first. Ask how long you should wear your hearing aid each day while you are adjusting. Depending on the type of hearing aid you have, it may take a few days or more to become used to wearing a hearing aid.
