Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Different hearing aid question

I'm sure that a lot of you guys are in the same boat as I am. Did way too much shooting, circular saws (my Dad was a small general contractor), chainsaws, etc.... with no hearing protection. I was in my early twenties at a police academy range when first used hearing protection. Already had tinnitus.
I can't carry on a conversation in a setting where multiple people are talking. I haven't heard crickets or other insects in close to 40 years. I live in the woods. Lots of songbirds. Can't hear most of them. Pretty much sucks.
Question- After you got hearing aids, were you able to hear crickets, songbirds, etc...? Hearing individual conversations in a crowd would be nice, but mostly I miss listening to mother nature. Thanks.

I can hear crickets and songbirds now. The most irritating noise is when I eat, I hear nothing but me chewing.

Definitely. In fact, at night the crickets can get very loud. It's hard to tell if it's a natural sound or if it's being over amplified by the aids.

Going to have to start looking at hearing aids.

They can also make you aware of a mouse chewing inside a wall.

Yes, I can now hear crickets, and other things I used to not hear. But as said above, in a room with lots of people talking, it’s very hard to hear one person talking to me.
I have bad hearing mostly from gunfire when I was young, but also worked around lots of noisy machinery in my younger days.
My advice, go to an audiologist, get tested, and get the aids that help the most for your situation.

I highly recommend Costco. They have very good brands at a fair price, and free testing to find the frequencies your hearing is lacking. No high pressure, and good follow up and service after the sale.

Yes, there is that.

I learned that my stairs creak! Hear a lot more birds. Also hear more car squeaks. Eating sounds like machine gun fire. At first, those and things like paper rustling, silverware jangling and such were irritating.

The all "new" high-pitched sounds quickly became the new normal, though. My brain quickly re-tuned itself. I still hear all that stuff at an enhanced level, but now it's a lot less irritating and nearly normal. Restaurants, however, are worse. My aids have a "Restaurant" setting that turns off the rear set of 360-degree mics and focuses on the front-facing ones. Helps some, but sounds still bounce around and come from all directions in eateries. I turn the volume way down and just go "naked" on my own hearing.

The mother in law was always bragging about the super quiet dishwasher he bought years ago.

After getting her ears she heard a noise and walked around the house looking for it.

It shocked her that we had put up with that noisy machine for so long.

Thought my truck gave a quite, smooth ride until I got my aids. Found out it squeaks and rattles all the time. Turn them down when I drive.

The first morning after I got mine - I thought "Damn, that was a meadowlark!"
Hadn't realized that I hadn't heard one in years.

That could also be a roach in your ear hole.

😂😂

Do they help with tinnitus? Mine gets worse every year, drives me crazy.

I think maybe it's louder than the tinnitus. I don't notice when I've got them on.

That's about it. Your aids will more or less "cover up" the tinnitus by virtue of being louder than it is, and at roughly that frequency. Or at least that's how it seems to me. I notice my "little screamer" less when I'm wearing my aids. Nothing stops or cures tinnitus, but you can do things that make it a bit less noticeable.

Depends on you degree of loss and the tones that have been destroyed.

The frequency of the sound in tinnitus is the frequency of the sound that your ear has lost sensitivity to and is the result of your brain doing gain control - cranking up the volume on the frequency the ear doesn't hear good anymore. Modern hearing aids will generate that frequency so the ear hears it and the brain tones down the gain control. Weird but true.

What ??








Had to be done 😁

If you go to an audiologist vs. some cheaper setup they’ll test what range of your hearing needs to be amplified, and you’ll be good.

NOW... in noisy rooms, it’s still a bugger to hear people...

Do NOT just by a walker game ear and crank them up, it can actually damage your hearing more (they exceed what the hearing aid standards allow ... to prevent it).