Hearing aids & headphones...

[Billyjoe42]

Due to hearing loss from Army service, VA provided top-notch hearing aids to compensate for hi-freq tone losses. I had to use them for MDing, UNTIL I laid the money down for a pair of premium headphones. Truly amazing how the subtle tones come thru, without the $8,000 hearing aids.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I am deaf and I use vibraphone. Vibraphone 280 that I use it to change from sounds into vibration. Work good for me. It work for all metal detector except Minelab and I think Fisher. I used special plug from Radio Shack that vibraphone work on my Minelab E-Trac. My deaf friend use vibraphone on his E-Trac and CTX 3030. You can buy it from Windy City Metal Detector or KellyCo. You can see picture of me hold my E-Trac and you can see red vibraphone 280 just below E-Trac's box.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

As a Military Retiree I am eligible to purchase hearing aids at the actual cost to the military. I do have to drive about 100 miles each way to take advantage of this program but that is a minor cost compared to the cost of hearing aids from a civilian provider.

I wear inside the ear aids and can wear them with my headphones. I find that I can hear the difference in tones much better. Both my detectors are Tones only and with good headphones I can hear the subtle differences in tones much better. Good quality headphones make a tremendous difference in what you can hear from your detector.

 

[Billyjoe42]

Good for you, ChicagoJohn - finding a method that works . Does that allow you any form of discrimination?

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi Billyjoe42 , I totally agree with you on the VA phones.My 3 years on a Navy Tin Can and 43 years as a construction welder, my hearing was pretry much toast and the VA told me so after testing. I had looked forward to the new VA aids for a long time in hopes of them helping with my detecting. They told me years ago with their first tests that there were no aids that would help me with my range of hearing loss. Now here of late there are some that will help,so I was "all ears" so to speak so lit out and got me some. Having for a long time used some high $ premium phones I soon found the VA aids to be a dissapointment and have pretty much stayed with my phones only when detecting. I feel bad about not using the aids more often because of the money I know that went into them and to not use them is a real waste. I do use them some, and they are good for certain situations(Church) but found that some times there are sound situations that are better left unheard, and the VA phones do not descriminate the good times from the bad.Makes me wonder how, though having hearing loss the VA phones can cause some every day common sounds to be absolutely ear piercing , harsh and irritating to the point of real discomfort. Needless to say that was the main reason I had to stay with my premium phones when detecting. HH Y'all !! Charlie

 

[knarfj]

My hearing loss is around 50% and I wear a pair of quality behind the ear, BTE, aids. It took some time before I found an audiologist that was talented enough to get my hearing back to what I felt was somewhat normal. I still laugh thinking about what some of the common, around the house, noises sounded like after getting my first set of aids.

Any way for years I hunted with the typical headphone set up untill I went wireless. I will assume a quality set of headphones would possibly allow me to hear all the subtle nuances that many feel they require to tell a good target from trash, but for me, using a quality detector with multi tones and it's other VDI features makes the use of an expensive set of headphones a non-necessity. It should also be noted not being wired to ones detector is quite a pleasant experience.

HH

 

[Billyjoe42]

Funny how hearing loss becomes a 'hot issue' when we think we're missing good targets.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I wear the BTE aids too in both ears and mine are for severe and prolong hearing loss as I am total deaf in the high pitch and about 75% gone on the other tones.Was told my next step would be the implants which I don't really want to do. Took me a while to find headphones that will work for me an d the ones I use on my Sovereigns are the Timberwolfs, but on my Explorers i have to use a set of Troy Pros with are both made for detectors and very comfortable. I did find a set made for us that is harder of hearing and those are the Bushmaster and are loud enough on both my Sovereigns and Explorers and also my CTX 3030.
There is no way I can use headphones with my hearing aids in as there is solid feedback, so I have to detect without my aids and those I with say they can hear my headphone when they are 20 feet or more away, so using these that loud I am sure it is not helping my hearing any.

I feel sorry for all those young people that run their stereos so loud in their cars that even the window shake, they are all going to need hearing aids when they get older as we are going to see more and more people wearing hearing aids in the near future.

Rick

 

[Billyjoe42]

Rick, you say "There is no way I can use headphones with my hearing aids in as there is solid feedback". Ask your audiologist about 'headphone-compatible' hearing aids. Your unique hearing problem may (or may not) allow this type aid. Mine get no feedback from headphones. Again, using premium phones, I don't need the aids while detecting. Good Luck out there.