Headphones and Hearing aids

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I've not used headphones since the 80s due to hearing loss.

I now wear hearing aids, which are fine for normal listening.

I would like to be able to use headphones, however the cheap headphones (Sony) I have at home and the Logitech ones I use at work all cause my hearing aids to switch modes as if I am using a telephone. The hearing aids also tend to whistle.

The phone mode goes mono, and cuts the low and high frequencies.

I believe part of both problems is the problems is the close proximity of the fixed magnets in the small headphones trigger the change.

Has anyone resolved this issue?

I am wondering if larger full ear headphones like the Sennheiser HD558 would have these problems.
 
Hi,

Decent earphones with good PC EQ should be far better than going via hearing aids.

Normal ear/headphones don't account for background noise, something I very much
notice using a portable player and relatively low ear volume, but as I understand it
advanced hearing aids use lots of compression in the area of your hearing loss.

Stax Electrostatics via a hearing aid ? That is very pointlessly cart before the horse.

Adding a simple open steel grille to your phones will greatly reduce the stray field.
Cut it to fit and press into a roughly dome shape and fit it into your headphones.

rgds, sreten.
 
Sreten,

That's kind of like saying that since I am highly myopic and astigmatic, albeit corrected by glasses...there is no point in my buying a high quality HDTV. It may surprise you to know that I can easily tell the difference between lo-fi, mid-fi and good sound despite my hearing loss, albeit corrected by hearing aids. As I said I've had the Stax for almost 40 years and they still sound great - the OP requested advice on dealing with a specific problem and I offered a specific solution. Your posts are usually rational and constructive, but on this topic methinks you are operating without the benefit of practical experience.
 
I'm using Phonak ER hearing aids with one mode configured with no adaptive algorithms, no compression, frequency response correction only.

My audiologist at the VA was very accommodating in configuring one mode to my specifications. The only thing I did not think of at the time was the ability of the hearing aids to switch modes for telephone usage. The next time I go to see her, I will query about having it turned off as well.

While not as good as undamaged hearing, the hearing aids are quite good and provide a quite natural sound.

The problem with equalization is that my hearing loss is not the same for both ears. My right ear has a much greater loss above 4KHz than my left, so equalization is out if it is the same for both L&R.

I'm running Linux on both of my home computers that I listen to, so I'll have to look further at what can be done with that.

Any recommendations on programs that will allow parametric equalization with independent L & R channels?
 
I have a simpler idea. How about using 2 small inductive loops (which are like a speaker coil and nothing else) ? The lack of a magnet will not excite "phone mode", but the electromagnetic field will still be picked up by the electronics in your hearing aids (like interference). You can mount them in the headphones My dad diy'ed such a coil for my grandpa , it was driven from the TV audio amplifier. If you have some speaker coils around you can give it a try. Somehow I believe you do :D
 
After trying several sets of headphones at Best Buy, I ended up ordering a set of Sennheiser HD558 headphones a couple of weeks back. They did not stock them, but most of the Sennheiser headphones I tried did not trigger the hearing aids.

In the meantime, I was visiting my daughter, SIL and Grandson, and the SIL loaned me a set of Bose QuietComfort noise canceling headphones.

They don't trigger the hearing aids either. Nice headphones, but they don't quite sound right. It might just be the noise canceling.

Best Buy apparently discontinued the 558s, as they canceled my order.

They would not order the 598s so I ordered them from J&R music world. They should be in tomorrow, so I look forward to trying them in comparison to the Bose.
 
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This is a bit OT to the specific problem but relates very much to headphone use for hearing impairment. A problem with a typical equaliser or tone control such as on a PC is that the range of boost is nowhere near high enough to deal with the hf roll off of a typical ear. An LC circuit can give tremendous boost and is really simple to implement.

This was from an idea in Wireless World many years ago and it works very well indeed. The circuit is all of three components. Look at the scale on the graph to see the extent of boost needed to deal with hearing loss. My dad uses this all the time for TV listening. Without and he wouldn't be able to follow anything.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/soli...aired-setup-new-television-2.html#post2419559
 
Sennheiser HD558 are a no-go. I'll have to ship them back.

Nice looking and feel very nice. Very comfortable.

I didn't bother to plug them in since my hearing aids switch to phone mode every time I put them on.

It looks like I may need to use "On the Ear Headphones" instead of "Over the Ear Headphones".
 
How's the phone mode detection work anyway? If I had to build something like that, I'd probably be trying to detect the static magnetic field from the speaker magnet. If that's the case and it still triggers with circumaurals like HD558s, you're probably SOL. Unless you're going with exotic "ear speakers" à la K1000 or MDR-F1, maybe. Speaking of Sony, MDR-MA900s might be worth a shot. Otherwise, only 'stats (or 'trets) remain.
 
telecoil

Inductive coupling. It turns off the microphone while in the Telecoil mode. I expect it detects the magnetic field of the phone interface.

A perminant magnet will switch it.

I wonder why the Bose QC-15s don't trigger it unless I press them against my ears.
 
Is there any advantage to any specific impedance?

For instance the Sennheiser Momentum are 18 Ohm,and HD598 are 50 Ohm, the Audio Technica ATH-A900X are 42 ohm, and the Sennheiser HD-600 are 300Ohm.

I can see that the higher impedance headphones would be easier to drive.

Is there any other advantage of higher impedance?
 
Higher-impedance cans are easier to drive current-wise but obviously need more voltage given the same efficiency, which may be in short supply with portable devices in particular (some euro-capped models barely get to 170 mVrms). Impedance isn't everything though, efficiency has at least as much effect on sensitivity. Impedance only figures in with 3 dB per factor of 2.

Onboard audio (~1 Vrms typ) has always been just fine for me in tems of volume so far even when using 600 ohm oldies, and that's with ReplayGain turned on and an extra -3 dB. I don't listen overly loud though, my average levels would seem to be between 55 and 65 dB SPL. Even with HD580s I'm still under -20 dB in terms of volume setting. I've never had any truly hard to drive models though.
 
Thanks, that helps.

I'm looking for a set of headphones to use at home. Most listening is in the 50-60dB range (A weighted Slow response according to a RS SPL meter) so it looks like volume shouldn't be an issue.

I've got a set of Bose QC-15s I use when I'm on the computer or out and about.

I build vacuum tube amps and am considering a tube based headphone amp, so driving the 300 ohm HD600s would not be an issue (other than the output transformer selection), and might be a good match up.

I've got a call in to the VA to make an appointment with my audiologist to see if I can get the Telicoil option turned off. That would solve my issue with hearing aids switching modes when I put on headphones.
 
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