Gordy7:

 

@azzura

 

Are the Costco HA prices shown in $NZ ?

 

 

 

Yes...NZD.

@Gordy7:

 

 

Gordy

 

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Sorry slightly off Topic - I listened to the 1968 Apollo 7 & 8 launch and splash downs early in the morning via a home made crystal set using the wire woven bed springs as the aerial whilst at boarding school. I had to whisper updates to the rest of the boys in our six bedded room. Great Fun Days as a young teen.

Where does she live? What reason?

backfiah:

 

Where does she live? What reason?

 

Auckland

Reason? she can't hear

i looked at rechargeable hearing aids but they were $500 extra and that was nearly 10 years worth of batteries to recover the cost so unless you find the batteries hard to replace is it worth it.

blackjack17:

 

backfiah:

 

Where does she live? What reason?

 

 

 

 

Auckland

 

Reason? she can't hear

 

Lol sorry, I meant region. If she was in Welly then I'd have a good recommendation :)

Eva888: Tell us your recommendation for Wellington.

Dr Lisa Wildmo-Seerup: https://tinnitusandhearingclinic.com/?page_id=128

She is the president of the hearing association and is an independent audiologist. Basically, you pay her per visit (well, not even all of them), but she doesn't have any pressure to push certain brands or models. In fact, she often has the lowdown on the best deal/what is *actually* important and what is marketing fluff.

Most big chains will sell specific brands that they have the most lucrative agreements with and will push you to get the much more expensive models that add features that 99% of people won't really notice. 

I've found this thread fascinating. I have minor (I think - who knows?) tinnitus from spending too much of my 20's in loud nightclubs. When I moved to Sydney, I quickly found out that people over there routinely wear earplugs in nightclubs - If only I'd stumbled across that life hack a little earlier...

I can find it extremely hard to hear people talking to me in busy restaurants, bars or anywhere with medium-loud background noise. If they are right next to me I am generally ok but I still have to lean into them sometimes. But if they are a few feet away such as across the table, I can hear the noise coming out of their mouth but can't make out the actual words, or at least not all of them. This can lead to me scrambling to piece together their full sentence in my head. There can be a delay while I compute, and often the chance to reply/comment in a group conversation has passed by as the conversation has moved on, so my witty responses go to waste lol. 

Anyway, being in my mid 40's I am sure it will probably only get worse going forward. The interesting thing would be to find out the extent of my hearing loss, so I might do something about that as a result of reading this thread.

I remember when I did a vision test at school when I was about 12. I didn't know I was supposed to be able to see the blackboard clearly from the back of the classroom - I just assumed nobody could, so it was a real eye opener 🤓 

This thread is very informative as I am about to take the plunge. I was tested last year and I have 'old-age' higher frequency drop off in both ears. This means I lose the consonents and thus the word. TV dramas are useless to me as I miss too much. Women are harder to hear, especially if they go squeaky!! 

Also interesting that the Veterens Affairs could come to the party simply because I enlisted in the Army before 1974! BUT, hang on, it looks like you have to fill out 16 pages and get Dr statements etc etc etc. Bloody, hell, what a performance. That has put me off. Any one tried it?

I have decided to try Specsavers next week.

Will report back.

johno1234: I was exactly the same with high frequencies and consonants.

One more thing. The hearing aids have soft latex domes that fit in the ear canal called click domes. These are a consumable. You pop them off and replace then when they become too mucky to clean and they are sized to fit you. I started off with “closed” domes that really seal in the ear but found them a bit less comfortable so switched to “open” ones that are perforated with holes. They’re more comfortable but the hearing augmentation is much less effective to me. Thinking of going back to closed domes.

It makes big difference so try to get some of both in your trial.

Thanks for the info - will report back!!

linw:

 

This thread is very informative as I am about to take the plunge. I was tested last year and I have 'old-age' higher frequency drop off in both ears. This means I lose the consonents and thus the word. TV dramas are useless to me as I miss too much. Women are harder to hear, especially if they go squeaky!! 

 

The issues with TV clarity seems to be quite a wide one and not always hearing related.

I have hearing aids and had been having issues - the hearing aids help somewhat.

But the audiologist said that many people now complain about the clarity (or lack of) with TV/streaming content. Even people with ok hearing.

He said that it seems that a lot of the issues stem from multichannel sound mixing. The sound studios have all the best gear and do their work with full surround gear - No doubt it sounds superb on properly calibrated gear in a purpose built facility with all those lovely extra sounds effects...

Switch to people at home with varying audio setup and room environments and it all goes to hell.

Back in the old mono/stereo days of TV the sound recordists were mainly trying to catch the dialog. The actors had to make sure they didn't mumble too. Now days dialog is just a small part of it.

Try watching an old TV program from the 90s or earlier - They seem very clear to me.

I just finished Happy Valley and I have to say it was very mumbly in places. Brilliant - but mumbly as hell.

Just happened to see this the other day - Well worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/28/mumbling-actors-bad-speakers-or-lazy-listeners-why-everyone-is-watching-tv-with-subtitles-on

robjg63:

 

Try watching an old TV program from the 90s or earlier - They seem very clear to me.

 

I just finished Happy Valley and I have to say it was very mumbly in places. Brilliant - but mumbly as hell.

 

That's because TV these days wants to "immerse" you and reflect the world around  you  which has become ALOT noisier than it was 30 years ago...

Also TV show budgets have gone through the roof,   so they have the ability to have many more extras and more on location shoots,  and more sound mixers, 

A typical 80s-90s TV show would have very little music and if it did it would play in clips between dialogue in a moving scene travelling from one location to another....

Now everything is "layered" and often sound is more used much more dramatically  than the words... 

Although that said I had to have the subtitles on for Season 1 of the Wire a few years ago, because I couldn't work out WT% they were saying... :)

robjg63:

 

Just happened to see this the other day - Well worth a read:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/28/mumbling-actors-bad-speakers-or-lazy-listeners-why-everyone-is-watching-tv-with-subtitles-on

 

Similarly, if you want to watch rather than read a piece on exactly this issue (kinda interesting to hear examples of what they're talking about!), Vox released this video a couple of weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8