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Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

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Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#11

Post by quercusa »

caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

This sounds like the 'Cocktail Party Effect', which usually gets worse with age. I've started to experience it in restaurants with lots of hard surfaces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#12

Post by 4ad »

caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

I have the same problem. As an additional data point, I have no problem hearing the dialog in documentaries, youtube shows, "casual" TV shows, etc, but I am having a very hard time understanding the dialog in movies and more serious TV shows.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#13

Post by rhubarbcustard »

caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

Sounds like you have Auditory Processing Disorder. You might be able to train yourself to do better in noise with something like https://neurotone.com/lace-auditory-training-program

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#15

Post by phaedrus »

caeril wrote: post #9

Objectively, my hearing is just fine. I can hear frequency sweeps and tones perfectly well, but all my life I've been unable to pick out words in conversation if there's even moderate background noise. "What?" is likely my most commonly uttered phrase. This leads to people constantly telling me to get my "hearing checked", when it's not the ability to hear tones that's the problem. Rather irritating explaining this t…

I have the same issue. Worse, when I did get my hearing checked, the supposed test for difficulty picking up speech against background noise was terribly and obviously flawed. They used a very short (few seconds) clip that looped. My brain quickly learned the loop and subtracted it. What I can't do is filter out unpredictable background noise. Plus the lab is an idealized environment without distractions.

Want to accurately test it? Put me in the lobby of your hearing center with a wall phone and try to have a conversation with me, it would be immediately apparent. Of course they won't do that (too many uncontrolled variables) but they could at least try to make the test more lifelike.

It's very frustrating because I feel like if I could get a formal diagnosis I could ask for accommodations at work like not using the telephone for support calls (email and instant message instead).

It also makes relationships difficult; I've been married four years and my wife is only now starting to actually understand and believe me when I say I didn't hear what she said (vs just not caring / not listening).

I feel like if I could say up front, "I have a diagnosed condition that affects my hearing," I could avoid a lot of problems and confusion. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a diagnosis.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#16

Post by rhubarbcustard »

herodotus wrote: post #5

I have age-related hearing loss: bass frequencies are ok, but high frequencies drop off. When I first got hearing aids, I thought that what they did was boost the frequencies as necessary as (I think) described by this author. But hearing is not a linear system. The hearing aids do boost the frequencies where I am deficient, but by an amount much smaller than the difference between my audiogram and normal. I think th…

You have the classic "ski slope" hearing loss, which is common with age. Your hearing aids should be boosting the high freequencies to fit your loss profile and not somewhat less than you need to make you work for it. I would go back to your provider and ask for an increase in the high freqs. Alternatively, lots of hearing aids these days come with a smartphone app which lets you set base/mid/treble so you could alter them yourself but you don't get the flexability the provider would.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#17

Post by SloopJon »

herodotus wrote: post #5

I have age-related hearing loss: bass frequencies are ok, but high frequencies drop off. When I first got hearing aids, I thought that what they did was boost the frequencies as necessary as (I think) described by this author. But hearing is not a linear system. The hearing aids do boost the frequencies where I am deficient, but by an amount much smaller than the difference between my audiogram and normal. I think th…

> boost the frequencies as necessary

The trick is figuring out what's necessary. The first half of the post made me nervous, because it simply applied a gain of threshold - basedB. As he discovered, that's too loud.

What you want is a compressor. The second half of the post boosts the signal just above the threshold, but it's a little more complex than that. I haven't really studied this, but for starters you want to take into account things like the Fletcher-Munson curves.

I am intrigued by these types of projects. As my hearing gets worse, I'd like to be able to listen to music and watch movies with nice headphones, but with the assistance that comes from hearing aids.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#18

Post by herodotus »

Veen wrote: post #10
herodotus wrote: post #5

I have age-related hearing loss: bass frequencies are ok, but high frequencies drop off. When I first got hearing aids, I thought that what they did was boost the frequencies as necessary as (I think) described by this author. But hearing is not a linear system. The hearing aids do boost the frequencies where I am deficient, but by an amount much smaller than the difference between my audiogram and normal. I think th…

I recently noticed that my high-frequency hearing was going (40-yr-old man). My GF (works in a hospital) brought home a digital thermometer that beeps when it's finished a reading. My GF can hear the beeps clearly, but I cannot. She has to tell me when the thermometer is ready to be read. Perhaps I should go to an audiologist to get a proper exam.

You should: I am told that the older you are, the harder it is to adapt to hearing aids.

Re: Experimenting on My Hearing Loss

#19

Post by herodotus »

rhubarbcustard wrote: post #16
herodotus wrote: post #5

I have age-related hearing loss: bass frequencies are ok, but high frequencies drop off. When I first got hearing aids, I thought that what they did was boost the frequencies as necessary as (I think) described by this author. But hearing is not a linear system. The hearing aids do boost the frequencies where I am deficient, but by an amount much smaller than the difference between my audiogram and normal. I think th…

You have the classic "ski slope" hearing loss, which is common with age. Your hearing aids should be boosting the high freequencies to fit your loss profile and not somewhat less than you need to make you work for it. I would go back to your provider and ask for an increase in the high freqs. Alternatively, lots of hearing aids these days come with a smartphone app which lets you set base/mid/treble so you could alte…

Sorry, I did not mean to mislead - my high frequency boost works well for me. It just that the total DB increment is not the difference between my audiogram and normal.
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