mastoid bone hearing aid equalizer ????

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Yeah yeah yeah, it's nuts...

A WIRED over the ear music amplifier for the mastoid bone.

RESEARCH FEASIBILITY FIRST
L
"Million Dollar" smart hearing aids are available...
To people with money to burn.

I would like to ask just how well most people with mastoid type hearing aids "hear" music? Is the product distorted to amplify mainly speech frequencies?
With a 32 band PREamplifier feeding transducers that lay against the mastoid bone, Is it possible to restore a significant portion of a normal audio bandwidth?

Below say 200 Hz this may be daunting. But having no practical experience I would rather ask than try and reinvent the wheel

And with a constant power supply no trash of dozens of batteries.

Wen I am done with Beethoven, Mozart, and the Dooby Bros....

I can detach the earphones roll over and go to sleep with neighborhood dogs howling.

[Gdetrailer]

You do realize this thread is well over a year old and was brought back from the dead?

There are situations that hearing aids do not work or are not tolerated by the wearer.

My Dad had to get a hearing aid back in his early 50's, there were times it was helpful to him and then there were times that they just amplified way to much background noise and he just had to turn it off. The best one he had was a simple analog hearing aid that the audiologist prescribed it to be made.

The worst one he had was the "digital" version, he never could get it adjusted correctly and went back to wearing his old analog one until it died. After that, he quit wearing a hearing aid.

They are expensive and there is zero guarantee that they will work for the wearer, you can keep going back and have adjustments made with newer aids but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

There is no substitute for the natural real ear, take good care of your ears, wear hearing protection when around loud noises..

[Cristian123]

I have moderate hearing loss and I know that many people don't want to wear hearing aids, but I bought ones that are worn completely in the canal (I was suggested by an audiologist). I should say, it is easy to find and choose hearing aid supplies online if you consulted with an ear doctor beforehand. Yes, I had to get used to my new hearing aids, but I feel confident, and in most cases, people don't even notice them.

[matthewfox]

I don’t know if this is any help but I have Costco KS6 aids – a Made for Iphone aid. With an iPhone’s setting, you can adjust treble and bass. You can also stream from the phone’s microphone. That should give you access to an equalizer along with using a microphone that can be located by or near the person you are communicating with. That may give you a clear voice to concentrate on.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

My left ear is totally dead. No external aid on earth is going to work. This is from a USA audiologist. A tuning fork held against the mastoid bone produced a LOUD tone. That was when I had 40% hearing loss in that ear. Now any attempt to produce understandable speech using the ear canal is ineffective. People standing close to me can hear buzzing amplified sound.

I guess you missed the part about the 32 band equalizer.

I am in México México not México Missouri.

Hearing aids down here cost two thousand dollars 3 months worth of income and there is no meaning ZERO guarantee spending that amount of money will bring an improvement in music listening quality.

I need to read stuff from a mastoid bone hearing aid wearer who is nearly deaf and does not limit themself to TV situation comedy audio.

Genius doctors were unaware that pneumonia inoculation protects against repeated inner ear infections (JAMA ) I suffered 5 infections requiring injections of antibiotics with follow up oral antibiotics but by then I was deaf.

I cannot afford a thousand dollar trial and error of hearing aids. And audio exams are limited to speech hearing. I need to hear stuff from a perspective of reality. Not like listening to Strauss over a telephone.

[agesilaus]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Pain from extremely loud but totally ineffective ear bud hearing aids make the inner each itch then later scream in pain.

Well that shows that you were not working with an audiologist and ENT physician. The audiologist will give you several hearing tests and map out which frequencies need to be boosted. A modern in ear hearing aid is programmed to amplify the frequencies that you are deficient in and only boost each frequency band by the correct amount.

So go pro and get yourself a good audiologist.

[agesilaus]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Pain from extremely loud but totally ineffective ear bud hearing aids make the inner each itch then later scream in pain.

Well that shows that you were not working with an audiologist and ENT physician. The audiologist will give you several hearing tests and map out which frequencies need to be boosted. A modern in ear hearing aid is programmed to in amplify the frequencies that you are deficient in and only boost each frequency band by the correct amount.

So go pro and get yourself a good audiologist.

[STBRetired]

If you are just looking to use these to listen to music a few hours a day, and not for daily conversations with people in the room with you, check out these reviews.
Bone Conduction Headphones
or just go here on Google.
Google Search
They do handle phone calls if paired to your phone, but not conversations with people in the same room.

[Lwiddis]

I agree with age. It took a week to get used to ear buds.

[ferndaleflyer]

I got mine from Costco maybe 4 years ago. Program from my phone + phone talks directly to them. They gave me a little bottle of stuff for the itching.

[nickthehunter]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
...
With a 32 band PREamplifier feeding transducers that lay against the mastoid bone, Is it possible to restore a significant portion of a normal audio bandwidth?...

NO!

[rexlion]

About a dozen or 15 years ago I tried out some hearing aids from a local place, Miracle Ear (a/k/a/ Sebotek). They were billed as "deep insertion" hearing aids and they occluded the hearing (acted like ear plugs so that nearly all sound came in through the inserted-in-ear speakers). The tech cranked those babies up so high, a closing door sounded like a gunshot. I told him it was too loud, but he said I'd adjust. Driving in the truck was an ordeal; every creak and rattle was magnified. Leaves rustling in the wind sounded alarming. And the itching was unbearable, way way deep in my ear. I took them back.

But then I bought some used ReSound BTE (behind the ear) hearing aids off ebay and had them programmed at another office. Very little itching, and I could kind of reach the spot with my pinkie to scratch it. Those got me through a couple of years. Since then I've gotten some from America Hears (they were pretty good) and now I have a pair of Sonic Enchant mini BTE.... all of the above have had the wire going to the speaker in the ear, not so deep though, and not occluding (unenhanced sound gets in too). On all of these I've had a way to control the volume, which is a great feature.

My point is, after the first bad experience I was gun shy about working with audiologists. So I found ways to get hearing aids to try without having to interact much with them, and I got ones that I could self-adjust. (Those America Hears ones came with software and a programming module.) It took me quite a while, but I finally took a chance on another local audiologist and I've been happy with what he fitted me with.

If you have a Sam's Club or a Costco down yonder, their prices should be better. Sam's sells "Liberty" branded hearing aids (in the US at least) which are actually the same as America Hears. You should be able to get a 30 day trial period on a pair.

About the itching, there is a small possibility that you were allergic to the pliable stuff that attaches to the speaker tip. It is removable, and there are other types of tips (like foam) that could be tried; I doubt anyone could be allergic to all of them. But if it's just a matter of the ear canal toughening up a bit, that should happen within just a few days and major itching should end.

I hope this helps. We have to be able to hear those grandkids and stuff..... 😉

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Pain from extremely loud but totally ineffective ear bud hearing aids make the inner each itch then later scream in pain.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I am in that sub group. Three thousand dollars for hearing aids got a rapid thumbs down by my insurance.

[agesilaus]

You really need to work with an audiologists. Find one you like and let him advise you. I have molded in ear buds and yes they are irritating for a week or so until you get adjusted to them. The mastoid type only works for a sub group of people with hear loss.