Musician and Non-musician Hearing Aid Setting Preferences for Music and Speech Stimuli

If you want to purchase a hearing aid or if you have a hearing aid, then it’s important that you look into the settings that are available. If you don’t then you may not be using your hearing aid to your full advantage and you may even find that you are not able to get the best result out of it.

Slow or fast compression

Slow-acting compression can help you to pick out the main tune or the sound of an instrument even when there’s a lot of background sound. The main reason for this is because it doesn’t cut the sound level too quickly, so this can be a good setting if you are a musician. The issue is that it doesn’t actually restore the loudness perception and it’s also not as useful if you have various sources of sound that are playing at different levels. A lot of Memphis musicians do like slow compression, but it all comes down to the type of music that you play and whether you play live or not. If you have any questions about hearing aid compression, then an audiologist should be able to help you out.

Low-frequency gain

The low-frequency gain that is on the spectrum for a hearing aid can be an issue for some. You might not get a level of amplification from the lower pitches. If you are concerned about this then an open fitting might be beneficial. This essentially means that there is a natural acoustic use for lower frequencies. It’s important to understand that music is louder than speech so even though you might experience some LF loss, you will still be able to hear the lower frequency cues without actually needing any amplification from the aid. It’s an idea for you to go for the widest bandwidth possible on the aid. Some hearing aids come with lower frequenting technology but sometimes this can make both high and low harmonics sound out of tune. This isn’t a problem if you are listening at over two kHz because if you have high-frequency hearing loss then you might not be unable to detect the mistuning of harmonics anyway.

Considerations

If you have a hearing aid microphone, then you should note that directional microphones can be useful. The main reason for this is because they can pick out individual instruments even though there are competing sounds. That being said, they do come with some downsides. They make it hard for you to hear the overall separation of sounds. This is essentially when sounds come from different sources. There are ways for you to improve this, such as by tweaking the listening settings or by repositioning yourself so that you are closer or further away from the source. Either way, by taking into account the type of microphone your hearing aid has, you can be sure to improve your listening experience.

A lot of musicians believe that a hearing aid won’t help them and that they just need to push through. This isn’t the case at all, and it’s remarkable to see how something like a hearing aid can improve your overall perception of sound. A hearing aid can help you to hear different frequencies better and it can also help you to improve your overall music experience. This is especially the case if you play the guitar or even piano. The main reason for this is because it can help you to distinguish between the different octaves. If you play percussion then a hearing aid would be able to help you hear the different tones, the loudness of each drum and the nuances of hitting a cymbal in a certain place much more clearly.

There is data out there that suggests that a gain-frequency response that’s made specifically for musicians, or even for music in general might not be necessary at all. There are plenty of prescriptive hearing aids that you can get that would easily be a great starting point. If you take your time and chat with your audiologist about the frequencies that you can hear, then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be able to improve your level of hearing overall. If you’re not sure about the extent of your hearing loss then your audiologist will be able to help you with that as well, so you can feel confident knowing that you are being given the best level of care. If you have any questions, chat with the Hearing & Balance Centers of West Tennessee, by calling our Jackson office at (731) 256-5973 or Memphis at (901) 201-6761.