This ‘state of the ark’ hearing aid from 100 years ago weighed in at over 3 pounds

There’s an interesting TED driven debate here examining the emotional effect of music.  It’s powerful stuff but unfortunately when you have lost more than half your natural hearing it’s quite difficult to relate to some of the comment and sentiment.

As my hearing has continued to decline in recent years I have lost more and more music. Pieces of classical music that I enjoyed 5, 10, even 15 years ago have increasingly lost their attraction.  They become unrecognisable as more and more layers of the music drop away and don’t sound anything like you remember them.

There reaches a point where pumping the sound into your ears at higher and higher volume removes all the subtleness of the music and the type of basic digital hearing aid provided by the NHS does not provide the quality of sound to compensate, making even the heaviest music sound harsh and uncomfortable.

For me, the net result is my musical tastes have retreated to mainly punk and heavy rock that I enjoyed in my youth where quality and subtlety of sound makes very little difference to the end result.

This week I took delivery of a set of new hearing technology the price of which equates to a sparkling new 500cc motorbike – hmmm…. The aids themselves are so small and light they hardly tip the scales at a miniscule 2 grammes each. This is at least 4 times lighter than my old aids and when you wear these things 16 hours a day, every gramme makes a difference. In terms of quality difference I’d say the sound produced by these high-tech little units is at least a factor of 10 better than standard NHS issue.

What then, set the tears rolling down my cheeks? Thinking how much 4 grammes of equipment can cost? Thinking how else that money could be spent? Continue reading →