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Headphones for Hearing Impaired.

#21
Maybe try an adjustable HPF on your in-ears/hearing aid? It’s probably the low bass that’s causing distortion but the mids and upper mids are what help you hear the bass. Move the HFP up until there’s no distortion. The low bass you should still be able to feel.

I’d think you need good EQ and balance control over your in-ear monitor mix. That way you can dial in “more me”.

Maybe over the ear headphone cans with your hearing aids in?
 
#22
craigie said:
Maybe try an adjustable HPF on your in-ears/hearing aid? It’s probably the low bass that’s causing distortion but the mids and upper mids are what help you hear the bass. Move the HFP up until there’s no distortion. The low bass you should still be able to feel.

I’d think you need good EQ and balance control over your in-ear monitor mix. That way you can dial in “more me”.

Maybe over the ear headphone cans with your hearing aids in?
Click to expand...

My experience with over the ear headphones with hearing aids is "feedback city".
 
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#24
craigie said:
Maybe try an adjustable HPF on your in-ears/hearing aid? It’s probably the low bass that’s causing distortion but the mids and upper mids are what help you hear the bass. Move the HFP up until there’s no distortion. The low bass you should still be able to feel.

I’d think you need good EQ and balance control over your in-ear monitor mix. That way you can dial in “more me”.

Maybe over the ear headphone cans with your hearing aids in?
Click to expand...

I don't know about an HPF filter. I had a PM conversation with @agedhorse regarding frequencies and hearing aids. I agree with him that hearing aids are designed for human voice frequencies. I do not believe they are set for ultra lows or ultra highs. The reason for this (and this is just my observation with my hearing loss), when playing bass through an amp, wearing hearing aids at a reasonable volume, I am hearing the mids and feeling the low bass. If I turn the amp up loud, the hearing aids are over powered and distort. This is much better than further hearing damage.

When I try to run the bass directly through the hearing aids (ComPilot), they are being over-driven and distorted from the start. The only way I can practice privately with hearing aids is with the ComPilot, turning the bass down on the bass and amp (or interface like Apogee Jam). I am hearing the mids but not feeling the low bass and the volume has to be low.

I have tried good quality headphones without my hearing aids but, because of my hearing loss, the volume I need causes the headphones to distort. In addition, I am completely isolated from the outside world (no fire alarms, police sirens, wife screaming at me), one of which is not that bad!

In any event, maybe Andy or someone else has a better description of what is going on...
 
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#25
Years ago I worked on some headphones for a Catholic priest that was working with hearing impaired people.
The headphones had an additional vibration transducer on the top headband that would transfer vibration to the top of the skull for bone conduction. If I recall correctly, they were made in France. Perhaps something like this might help you out.
 
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#26
byacey said:
Years ago I worked on some headphones for a Catholic priest that was working with hearing impaired people.
The headphones had an additional vibration transducer on the top headband that would transfer vibration to the top of the skull for bone conduction. If I recall correctly, they were made in France. Perhaps something like this might help you out.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting concept. The closest I have got to a good sound was with secure fitting, in the ear buds and with Apple wired earphones but, they had to be held in place with good pressure. I am thinking they had something to do with bone conduction but I could not maintain the pressure or seal so they would lose the bass frequencies. I couldn't hold them in and play bass at the same time!

Thanks for the tip, I will check it out:thumbsup::thumbsup:.
 
#30
Interesting contributions, everyone.
Tomorrow night I'll be trying a combination for the first time on a gig:
- one custom-made Westone TRU ear plug in the 'bad' ear - to attenuate 25dB of band volume
- one Westone UM-20 In-Ear Monitor coming out of the Headphone jack of the bass amp and passing through a Behringer Powerplay PM1 - to turn down the bass amp volume on its way to the 'good' (left) ear.

I almost envy you cats who wear hearing aids. My two ears are so different; they have to be treated like a set of fraternal twins: very similar on the outside, but eager to remind me how different they are on the inside.
 
#32
Sorry, but have not tried anything to mitigate background noise specifically; the Westone TRU plugs cut out a lot of background noise, but they also cut out a lot of Everything.
(As to your not being able to hear most women's voices: I'll refrain from counting how many not-so-good singers I wish I'd had that problem with...)

By the way: the Behringer Powerplay PM1 did not work at all. Three different cords made no difference; the unit failed to lower the volume of the IEMs.

But a session last week provided the most desirable hearing since the onset of the hearing loss.
The studio was well-insulated, each isolation booth a quiet tomb. My upright sounded warm and clear as I tuned up, so I decided to shove the headphone forward - and maybe, as some have pointed out, picked up some "conductive" lows in the process. The other instruments came through clearly enough in the right headphone.
A weird thing happened when we assembled to listen to each take in the control room: the bass disappeared! Apparently the overtones of each bass note spread out among the sounds of the piano, horns and drums. I couldn't hear the notes I had heard so clearly in my little bass booth.
I wanted to sing that Xmas carol, "Do You Hear What I Hear," but it's mid-July.
On tomorrow's quartet-plus-singer gig, I'm going to show up again with the one IEM and an earplug in the right.
 

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