I need some advice on hearing aids, any takers on which brand for musicians?

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Alan Carruth

I wonder if it's more 'out of phase' than 'out of tune'. Reactive elements in the circuits, such as capacitors, introduce phase shifts at certain pitches. I think there may also be processing delays in digital stages that can have similar effects. Noise cancellation relies on producing a signal that is the same as the noise, but opposite in phase, so that the two sum to zero. A slight delay in one branch of the circuit could cause the 'warbling'. I note that the heterodyne rate seems to vary with pitch of the notes I'm playing, with chords being particularly 'crunchy'.

Removing noise cancellation on my Costco Kirkland KS9s, made by Phonak,eliminated this issue for me immediately. I honestly forget if we made that change across the board or just on my "Music" setting.

Originally Posted by SCVJ

I have an apptmnt on 12/13 to purchase new HA's at Costco. Has anyone bought the new Jabra behind the ear models they've just started offering? Or their new Philips models?

I'll be looking to you for a report, because it's time for me to update and my appointment is just a bit later!

[PassingThru]

In the same boat SCVJ. Waiting on your report or others with Jabra experience to offer comments.

[SCVJ]

I've read this thread carefully and discussed the noise cancellation, feedback suppression, and other suggestions with the audiologist. We will be trying these out as we adjust the new ones.

I'm leaning toward the Jabra over the Philips. One reason is that he pointed out that the Philips is slightly larger (behind the ear part), and the wire running to the in-ear part is larger and stiffer, so doesn't lie as flat to the ear as the Jabra. The importance of these differences could vary from one user to another.

I asked the tech if one brand or another was "better for music". He said that the HA industry was geared toward maximizing results for speech. He also said the tiny speaker inside the ear is never going to be capable of hi-fi sound reproduction compared to quality headphones or loudspeakers and that the key to improving music listening is in the adjustment, not the brand of equipment, assuming the brands being compared were of similar quality.

I'll definitely report back as soon as I have something to add. I'll let you know my 1st impressions, but it may take a couple of appointments to fine tune them.

[GuitarinBb]

Greetings, This is a little late to this thread, but maybe for reference later it would be helpful. I've had similar issues with trying to find HA for musicians, and the tech side of nearly all HA companies is horrible in terms of the consumer being able to ask questions and get useful specs. I found that having my ear completely plugged, like what seems to happen with all of the models you wear behind your ear do to be too limiting. I finally found a pair of pretty small (even smaller in current production) Starkey Livio ITC aids that are bluetooth, rechargeable, have decent sized vents, and when set up without all the noise cancelling crap produce pretty amazing sound. I play a lot of guitar, but also violin, flute, sax, harp, drums, accordion, and they all sound good to great through my aids. Ironically they designed these with a special "music" setting where they supposedly did a ton of research to make hearing music work well, and that setting is awful, but on essentially a flat setting, they work very well.