Golden Earring wrote: > Hi doc! > > Not a medic myself, but I believe that some of the latest (=expensive, > need it buy it yourself... ) hearing aids have a pretty wide frequency > range if needed purely for amplification purposes. However there are > lots of different kinds of hearing impairment, so I would imagine the > precise nature of the actual hearing impairment would be critical in > determining the sufferer's ability to listen to music enjoyably. > > As an extreme example, I would offer severe tinnitus which apparently > can be so bad that another person located next to the sufferer can hear > the ringing for themselves! It's hard to see how one could listen > -through- that level of interference, although vinyl fans will > appreciate that with practice it is possible to some extent to listen > through the low amplitude constant surface noise which has a regular > frequency profile, and that the inevitable pops & crackles are partly > "tuned out" by the mechanism that Arny has already explained by which > our hearing is designed to reduce the impact of high amplitude but short > duration sounds so that we can detect the quiet sounds that might > indicate the presence of a real threat to our continued existence. One > can only hope that Natural Selection continues to regard this trait as > valuable for the benefit of future generations - otherwise they may not > be able to appreciate solo piano music as we do if I have understood > Arny's point correctly. > > So I should imagine that some hearing impairment sufferers can continue > to enjoy their music, whereas others would have to seek solace > elsewhere. > >
Hearing impairment and a bad audio system share many things. For example a common form of hearing impairment is loss of high frequency response in the ear, and a common impairment of poor audio systems is loss of frequency response at the frequency response extremes. Another common impermanent is loss of hearing in dispersed narrower ranges which approximately corresponds to an audio system with rough frequency response. Many audio systems even high end ones have response notches in the upper bass and midrange. You mentioned Tinnitus and this corresponds to interfering sharp ringing resonance. standing wave in speakers and rooms. and also interfering signals in poor electronics It is known that if a system's performance imperfections are within a certain range, the ear can acclimatize to them and "Tune them out". Having good hearing enhances that ability. The acclimatization is persistent and may affect other things that we listen to shortly after listening to the system. There are also longer term effects that relate to expectations. Hearing aids are just miniature audio systems that are highly portable and tuned to address objective failures of the wearer's ears. Interestingly enough one of the world's largest manufacturers of miniature audio transducers for hearing aids is Knowles Research, and a lot of IEMs for high quality audio either use Knowles' components (which are also distributed through many regular electronics parts houses alongside teh resistors, capacitors, and chips) or clone them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ arnyk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=64365 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106519 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
