Please, don't list AI answers. Already gone through that. And if you haven't personally experienced, I respectfully ask that you don't answer.

I have chronic mild-to-moderate hearing loss with 24/7 tinnitus that worsened a notch to moderate level earlier this year after an unprotected very loud noise event (that's a topic for another day). After this event, the hearing unsurprisingly worsened, but a new anomaly popped up. All the music that I'm familiar with now sound completely off, because some notes are greatly diminished or absent. It's like listening to completely different songs. Very disheartening.

The worsened hearing loss finally prompted me to try the Airpods Pro 3. Got a set from Walmart for $210. I got to say, wow, I finally can hear people talk again without asking them to repeat themselves. I like it so much I bought another set, when Walmart had it down at $200. But the problem with the music being off stays. My question is, if you suffer from hearing loss with the music anomaly I mentioned, does professional hearing aids fix the problem. I really don't want to waste thousands if the music problem cannot be fixed, because the Airpods are doing just fine helping me with conversations.

I was a musician (I use that term loosely) in a rock band in jr High, high school and first couple of years in college. That, of course leads to what follows, hearing loss and tinnitus. I had perfect pitch believe it or not. I could identify notes cold.

Now I note that trying to listen to the radio, if the volume is too low, the keys of known songs sound wrong. Turn the volume up and it helps. Disconcerting.

Got my hearing aids two weeks ago. I like them quite a bit. However, the volume problem remains. Not loud enough and sounds like it's the wrong key.

Turn the volume up and it gets better. Of course the tinnitus remains an issue that I have just learned to live with over the decades.

Good Luck,

RMD

I love listening to music while working and driving

I have moderate hearing loss, low volume and or higher pitched voices I have trouble hearing them

My hearing aids from Costco did a great job with conversations but to me, music sounded like crap with them. Tinny is the word I will use

My dog got a hold of one of my aids, only found the ear piece, will need to get new ones soon.

I tried the Audien hearing aids they advertise everywhere, I bought their most expensive ones. They have like four different modes and five volume settings. I found that I could hear a mouse fart from 100 yards away but couldn't hear a conversation right in front of me. Trash

If you have the common progression of hearing loss, you are missing over-all volume, but also particularly the high frequencies. You miss some strings, tambourines, etc. I get hearing aids programmed for my hearing loss (increase over-all volume, but more amplification of the high frequencies) about 10 tears ago. Music certainly sounded better with them. I don't know anything about the AirPods, or how you use them for hearing loss. However, I strongly suspect devices specifically designed to mitigate hearing loss, and fit to you by a professional will be more effective.

The perceived changes to music did not improve for me. Hearing loss can be very different, get fitted for other devices and give them a try.

My hearing aids are set up to boost the specific frequencies that are diminished for me.
They also can be adjusted as needed through the supplied phone app, which has a graphic equalizer I can use to (temporarily) adjust the low/medium/high frequency ranges.

That feature is useful to me for sound coming from electronic devices.

I have moderate hearing loss in both ears with chronic tinnitus. I got tired of saying "huh?" a couple of years ago and went to Costco. My hearing aids work great for music and pretty much everything else.

They can be adjusted pretty much any way you want them. I would recommend an audiologist exam and a set of Costco over the ears. They're only $1500 and you can return them within six months if you find you don't like them.

Regarding the tinnitus, I don't even notice it when I have my hearing aids in.

I have 24/7 tinnitus and mild hearing loss. I describe my tinnitus as how high the volume is turned up - it's never off but definitely can be noticeably louder (more later in this post).

I'm in my employer's OSHA hearing protection program due to periodically riding on helicopters so I've been able to track hearing loss over time. I'm not to the point of needing hearing aids, but I do love wearing my AirPod Pros. I don't notice my tinnitus when I'm wearing them as I work, but haven't tried them as a hearing aid.

As far as tinnitus, I do have some personal observations that may help others:

"volume" increases with the use of caffeine or other stimulants such as Sudafed (Pseudoephedrine).

"volume" increases with sinus congestion. Amazing the before and after affects of using a Netipot.

"volume" increases when I think about it. For example, reading this thread since I'm actively thinking about it and the "volume" increased.

is at the same frequency/tone as some hearing tests. This is a pain in the ass on cheaper hearing tests (e.g. the kind employers use to fulfill OSHA requirements) as if I have any congestion or stimulants then I can't hear very many of their tones. I thought it was my lot in life, but in 2019 had a hearing test at an ENT's office and mentioned this to the audiologist who said "no problem" and found tones different than my tinnitus.

Yes. As an amateur musician, I notice a big difference with hearing aids. My loss is moderate with 24/7 tinnitus in my left ear, and episodic tinnitus in the right ear. Hisses, chirps, various high pitches, the occasional low hum or thrumming.

Hearing aids have reduced the tinnitus noticeably. As you probably know, the hypothesis is that the brain is creating sounds. It has always had those frequencies, so now that they are missing the brain imagines them.

As far as distortions in music, without hearing aids music can sound crunchy. Definitely it sounds muted or as if the tone control is turned way down, but there is that crunchy distorted sound sometimes, but not the same as amplifier distortion.

My hearing aids were expensive for sure. There are multiple programs for different uses, such as speech in a noisy environment, regular uses, and a music listening program.

The music program from the factory was not good. But my audiologist tweaked it and now it is superb. You can find forums and discussions on the internet of what people have found works well. In general, turn off all the fancy stuff like compression, feedback control, noise cancellation, etc. Just have the curve which compensates for your hearing profile.

My audiologist loaned me a set of the make and model hearing aids that she recommended for me. They were programmed to my needs, and it was obvious they were good. There was something like a 30 day money-back guarantee on the ones I bought if for any reason I didn't like them.

Before you do anything, get a through, complete hearing test from an Audiologist. That will pinpoint exactly what is wrong and how to address it;

My hearing is moderately bad, damaged from engines and guns and tools mostly.

I used the older airpods and they helped.

I have not tried the new ones.

My Costco hearing aids help more, but I do not enjoy music like I used to.

I have found using headphones over my hearing aids let me get the most out of music.

Costco adjusts the hearing aids to your profile.

She looked at my hearing loss graph and adjusted the hearing aids to match me as best she could.

Not perfect but much better than it was.

My hearing aids have a hifi music setting, I can toggle on and it also helps some when I listen to music.

It all depends what frequencies are hearing damaged.

You can get a free hearing test and try them out.

I am not asking people to repeat anywhere near as much, but still do daily.

The hearing aids are supposed to work with my iPhone.

They don't really work well, I can hear fine but people mostly say they can not understand me.

So I switch to the phone speaker and they work fine that way. I can hear and so can the people I am talking to.

similar situation to you - due to gun shots and being around jet engines and other miscellaneous aircraft

I developed it when I was in my early 20's and I finally got hearing aids late last year. I ended up getting Oticon's.

The aids have 4 settings controlled by my iPhone app - one for music actually which while not great is better than the general or the comfort setting. I can no only set the volumes of each aid independently but they also come with with a rudimentary equalizer so I can tailor the sounds
to my liking.

The difference was quite noticeable from the minute I put them in.

For me the driver was that I couldn't hear the other guitar players in my group tell me what song we were going to do next.

Some funny things the first two days. I didn't know that blinkers made a noise, I've only ever seen a flashing light. I thought my microwave was really quiet. Lastly, it took me three days to find out that my washer and dryer both played music when they finished their cycles.

Full disclosure - I don't wear them every day, but I always put them in when I go out, and when I'm playing golf I can now hear the ball hit a tree.

This is the range of my 24/7 tinnitus. https://szynalski.com/tone#2787,v0.5
You can adjust to find where yours is. I’ve been wearing hearing aids for close to 20 years and am at the moderate to severe range currently. I always enjoyed early classical music but have pretty much given up listening to music period. At this point I read the closed captions more than watching the program. I’ve pretty much given up and just read books, averaging 2+ a week.

I have moderate to severe hearing loss with tinnitus. I have noticed an improvement while listening to music. Before the hearing aids, certain tones almost didn’t exist for me.
Like others have said, see an audiologist. They can program the hearing aids to compensate for your loss. The AirPods just amplify everything and do help, but they aren’t tailored to your needs.
On another note, depending on your insurance they may cover anywhere from 50-100% of the cost of your hearing aids. I’m on my second pair in 5 years. The first time around I had Blue Cross and they covered 100%. They were top of the line and total cost was about $6000. My second pair with an Advantage plan and they paid 50% of the total cost. It was still a lot of money, but well worth it in my eyes. It’s worth a phone call to your insurance company to see what is covered.

ETA: My first pair was Oticon, and the second time I tried Signia. Not all hearing aids are the same. I returned them in favor of another pair of Oticons.

I can't speak to how well (or poorly) the AirPods do at music, or what exactly is off on the music quality you're experiencing, but I will say a good audiologist and good hearing aids, programmed to my specific hearing issues, made a big difference for me. That said, my issues were not triggered/worsened by any specific events.

For an audiophile, changing the balance of frequencies (either by goofing with playback settings/EQ, or as in our cases, by our ears changing their responsiveness to various frequencies) can definitely make the same song sound unfamiliar.

I like my Phonaks but there are other good brands. The Phonak apps let you tweak settings and levels on the fly. When I first bought hearing aids, I got good advice through the "Little Book of Hearing Aids" but I see that book hasn't been updated for 6 years. I suspect much of the general advice in it would still be good but its brand/model references would be long outdated.

quote:

Airpods Pro 3.

Bought the same Airpods, not for the hearing aid portion specifically, but that is an advantage to this model.

Did have a hearing test done at Sams Club, basically a few holes in my hearing but overall really still good, I was missing some conversation on TV having to keep the volume down at night. Test said I would not benefit from hearing aids.

The searching I did on them did come up with an interesting article on how to improve sounds coming through the Pro 3s/. You have to scan down through the typical BS it takes 5 paragraphs to get to the one that you want with the information.

That tip is, to improve hearing clarity with the Pro 3 you need to turn ambient noise reduction down, not up. It's in the settings for the AirPods on the phone, so try that and see if it helps.

If you haven't probably get a test done and see how bad or not so bad it really is, since AiPods do a good job they are not full on hearing aids.


Link

Get thee to a Dr of Audiology

No tinnitus but moderate loss especially at the high end. Earbuds or headphones worn w/o my hearing aids leave the high end missing. Can’t replace what is no longer there. Headphones or through speakers with the hearing aids in return some of the high end. Music/tv with or without the hearing aids is night and day. My hearing aids are user adjustable to a point and can be further tweaked by the guy at Costco.

I have moderate hearing loss and I've had tinnitus for over 30 years. My hearing loss got to the point where conversations were terrible and listening to music wasn't as pleasurable as it once had been. I would listen to favorites with the knowledge that certain instruments or voices were happening at certain points in the music but I could no longer really hear them. After getting proper hearing aids, Phonak first and Oticon currently, the missing items could be heard again. I needed hearing aids for general life and they did improve music for me. As far as the tinnitus situation is concerned, mine is totally separate from my hearing loss. It comes and goes on its own from day to day and the hearing aids seemingly have no effect on it.

As others have suggested, a visit to a true audiologist could prove helpful.

Q, I agree with those who say get an audiogram, including word recognition testing.
I had one two days ago at Costco--it was free. And it was very extensive, better than tests I had done at Kaiser Permanente Hearing Center.
A short-term hack is to go to Hearing Test Online

This is an online test, take it using your AirPods. Once you have an audiogram, whether online or from a professional, you can upload a pdf of your audiogram to your iPhone and the AirPods will be equalized for your specific hearing loss. With this modification, AirPod Pro 3's sound great with music--better than with a hearing aid.

Now regarding hearing aids: I found out that for some reason after moving from southern Cal to northern Cal my Kaiser Senior Advantage no longer covers headphones. I also found out that the Philips 9050 sold for $1600 a pair at Costco are from the DeMant Company in Denmark that also makes Oticons--and these MAY be equivalent to top-of-the-line Oticons.

I am picking up my Philips aids today at Costco. They do a Real Ear test, where a small microphone is inserted behind the receiver in the canal and actually measures the sound being produced in your ear canal.

More later.