hearing aides

[Mongo59]

Gotta love The Pig, my Thing 2 will be at an Instructor school at KASOTC soon, I believe it will be for the 240 and 249 platforms.

Gotta be a proud poppa. I thought they were phasing out the 249?

 

[Creedmoor]

Gotta be a proud poppa. I thought they were phasing out the 249?

That one is out of the MC, he works for Triple Canopy as a wps 2 contractor.
Good young men, that were easy to raise.

Here he is getting ready for work.

 

[24Carat]

No way to give your questions a solid try without getting quite wordy.
For everyone else, I'll assume a TLDR at first glance.

I have read a bit about tinnitus. I've had some trouble with ringing or roaring for thirty years. I was still working in sound reinforcement when it became noticeable to me.

One set of theories suggests tinnitus is caused by our own brains, not our ears. Almost akin to phantom limb syndrome, where even many years after losing a limb, your brain still makes ones lost limb hurt or itch.
In one study, they presented that the brain is used to hearing tones in the upper registers and after some hearing loss, the brain "makes up" the sounds it's missing most.

Crazy stuff going on out there with electrical stimulants to tongue and ears, with claims to restore some of the brains ability to ignore background noises and focus more fully on the sounds, such as speech or low intensity sounds, after some time spent in these therapies.
John Hopkins is one, but there seem to be lots of universities working on these issues.

As far as compression, I think we both know that tiny digital sound reproduction equipment has some degree of compression and limiting factors built in.
With the cheaper units, I could here the compression functions "pumping" and that was not tolerable.
The better units are not as noticeable and I believe "do less" overall signal compression due to having a higher quality programming, being more specific to the needs of each ear individually.
I dropped serious coin to be rid of that effect!

As far as polar reproduction patterns, you need both ears to identify such tendencies in open air, but I think I know what you're getting at.
Since the hearing aids (good ones) are designed specifically to infuse one ear at a time with "missing" tonal ranges, there is no sense of any dispersion patterns between the two devices.
But, in moving the devices around inside my inner ear they do not seem to change tone or effectiveness much, as earbud type things do when you wiggle them around trying to get a better sound.
So, I would presume that the actual polar patterns presented by the individual inside-the-ear transducers are about as close to an omnidirectional field as possible.

On my first follow up visit, two weeks after being fitted with the devices I chose within my own budget, I sat for another extensive set of hearing tests, as apart of the final "fitting" and programming processes.
I could hear 18K in one ear and my half dead hear could hear 16K, whereas before my "good ear" was only capable of hearing 14K and my dead ear petered out at 8K.

So, I gained a full octave in my dead ear and about 1/3 octave in my good ear.

They don't really like to give out those numbers, assuming it's because some dummy Karen types would not understand any of it and want their money back if their hearing was not "internet said so" perfect.

In both ears, I am still able to hear below 100Hz, normally, no aids, but after so many years of training and experience, I can easily distinguish, with both ears, the lowest tone on their test equipment, which was 16Hz at my new Doc's place.

I haven't done live sound for real in about ten years, but I have offered my assistance to a friend who does permanent installations in homes, churches and small venues.
He calls me in for subwoofer installs, such as one well off fellow who wanted an infinite baffle subwoofer system in his attic for his movie rig. Heard one somewhere; wanted it.

We built a pyramid that would exit through his 3'x3' opening in the ceiling. Pyramid was heavily constructed, dual layer plywood, well braced, tied into the rafters at five points, supporting sixteen Dayton 15" IB drivers.

He had a decorative grille on the ceiling opening he liked, but our LFE system would make the thing whistle at around 80Hz. Horrible! I was first to notice it.
We had another cabinet finish guy come in and recreate a snazzy grille from wood for the client which matched our specifications and did not whistle at all.

This was about a year before I got my new hearing aids, but I could still balance, tune, EQ and match the rest of his system.
Never had any problems with low frequencies.

I mentioned distortion in the lower shelf units that I tried before I sprang for the better hearing aids, but being more specific for the benefit of any who get this, the cheaper units introduced IM and upper order harmonics that made my teeth itch!

At first, I was afraid that this is just how it's going to be, but not so. Good clean, "High Fidelity" excellent resolution hearing aids are available, but they're not cheap. No more so than that Luxman preamp I traded for a couple of years ago.

About mixing with some kind of hearing aids, I am convinced after still having success, knowing my hearing was not what it used to be, I believe that it is not your ears, but that analytical part of your brain is your special gift and as long that part of your craft is still well honed and functional, you can make it work either way.
Only sound tech I ever worked with who used aids was the Brit engineer for the Chieftains, and he did a great job!

What he said !