[Elecraft] Headphones for Hearing Loss

[David Woolley]

Firstly, nothing above about 3.4kHz is relevant for communications, and 
for typical SSB that is down to about 2.7 to 3kHz.

However, with a large hearing loss, you really need to find a solution 
that uses the hearing aids, as digital aids will have safety features 
and dynamic range compression that will minimise further damage to your 
hearing.

You didn't mention which style you had.  Whilst open fit would be common 
for people with good low frequency responses, I'm not sure that they 
would be used with that level of loss.  I have full moulds, because I 
have an atypical loss in one ear, so I'm not sure of the limitations of 
open fit, but as they normally bypass the low frequencies, they may be 
unsuitable for a direct audio feed.

I'm not sure to what extent that also applies to receiver in the canal.

I suspect the direct bypass means they are less stable against feedback.

For full moulds, and over the ear, I think you would normally get the 
options of electrical connections to audio shoes, induction loop, 
bluetooth (and 3.5mm audio) adapters that you wear on the body and send 
a very short range transmission to the actual aids.  Some aids would 
directly support bluetooth.

Incidentally, it may well not be well known, but hearing aid 
prescriptions generally under-compensate by about a factor of two in the 
dB values, so an aid for a 60dB loss would, typically, only have 30dB 
gain at the frequency in question.

-- 
David Woolley

On 26/01/2021 16:22, Joseph Shuman wrote:
> I have severe high-frequency hearing loss, up to 85 dB at 6-8KHz and 60 dB at 3-4KHz.  Lower than that my hearing is close to normal for my age.  I use hearing aids and the style I have won’t work with headphones.  I have the equalizer on the KX2 set to boost the highs, OK with an external amp & speaker but it is not enough with the headphones I have.  Any experience/recommendations with headphones that have a built-in equalizer or treble boost?  SSB operator.  (KX2 #3007, KXPA100 #2802)
>