HiFi

dfk41

Now I am firmly retired, I spend a lot of time listening to music. I am also a hearing aid user. The aids that I wear, pair themselves to my Macbook meaning any sounds the computer make come straight through my aids. Now, whilst this is convenient even I can detect low quality music. I often see ads for audiophile and other high end gear which got me thinking.

If I bought some top notch head phones, would they work over the top of my aids? If I took my aids out, would the head phones still improve the quality? I remember back in the days of Piratebay type downloads, the quality of the music file reflected the audio quality and I think I often downloaded .flac files. But, with the advent of Spotify, apple music etc are the quality of music they play self defeating on. what I am trying to do.

I want to be able to play certain styles of music like Wish you were here that really do lend themselves. I want to use my Macbook Pro as the source of music. Any comments or advice will be gratefully received!

I should add, that I have increased the options in Spotify to Lossless just now.

BrendaninBrooklyn

dfk41

David

If it is headphone listening you are after, purchase a Stax headphone system (ear speakers and headphone amplifier), that fits you budget; leave off your aids, and enjoy the music.

Have fun.

Brendan

Clodius

Removing the aids often improves sound quality, since headphones deliver direct, uncompressed audio to the ear, bypassing hearing aid processing that can distort music with compression or noise reduction.

https://www.amplifon.com/uk/audiology-magazine/headphones-and-hearing-aids

dfk41

BrendaninBrooklyn I remembered that I was introduced recently who runs a group within an organisation called Deaflink. Rosie will know he technical details and pitfalls. When I started this quest yesterday, as Manuel would say, ‘I know nooooothing’. Today, a few short hoirs later, I know something!

BrendaninBrooklyn

dfk41

good luck – trust your ears; not the salesman ;-)

crimson89

I also enjoy good quality music and sound. My father has a nice set-up, when I visit we’ll spin some vinyl. I have very young children so I need to wait maybe a decade before I consider something similar. For the time being, I’m using a pair of Philips Fidelio X2s. These headphones are probably the best value for money and they sound excellent and you can enjoy lots of hours listening without fatigue given they are not analytical. I connect them to my phone or laptop via a Dragonfly Cobalt DAC. I purchased this at a time it was considered good, now they are much better and less expensive options available, but personally I would recommend the Chord Mojo 2 if money is not a problem. Like in espresso, there are diminishing returns in the audiophile world and if your hearing is affected it might not be very wise to spend a fortune for something your hearing system might not be able to pick up plus the fact the more you push for detail in sound the more tiring the listening session can become as the brain gets overwhelmed with so much information. I stream music using Apple Music mostly due to convenience as I own a pair of HomePods and the fact you can get lossless sound as part of the package. If you are not locked in a specific ecosystem, then I would recommend Qobuz as streaming platform.

DaveLeonard

If you are like me and have a high frequency hearing loss, using headphones without your hearing aids might be a good thing. Fatigue is often caused by high frequencies, and having then slightly reduced can lead to longer listening sessions. If you have a lot of high frequency hearing loss, there are small equalizers that can be inserted between the headphones and source that can be set to almost perfectly compensate for your hearing loss. The more bands of EQ, the more precise you can compensate. Contact whoever checked your hearing for a chart or graph that shows the hearing loss slope. Good luck.

Dave, musician and former audiophile

Pompeyexile

I am into HI-Fi (in an economic way) and when I was a yoof I managed to get a reasonably decent (for the money) system together some new some second hand. When it came to headphones I went down the seperate headphone amp route and decided on one made by a British Company called Graham Slee Projects based in Barnsley. He was I believe a BBC sound engineer and he developed his own phono stage. Years on they still make phono amps but other stuff too including cables and have won awards for their products.

Anyhoo… He has a forum and there was a lot of discussion regarding headphones obviously and Graham waxed lyrical about a specific high end Sennheiser set HD250 Linear II produced back in 1989 and stopped in 2005 which he said was a big mistake. He said many sound engineers used them and studios soon adopted them for their detail-oriented and relatively accurate sound.

Just out of interest I went onto Ebay and did a search and blow me down a pair came up unused still in the original box for just £50 and this was back in about 2008/9. I snapped them up and when I told Graham on the forum he was as sick as a pig. I also managed to get a new set of ear pads for them and still to this day they sound great.

I have over 800 LPs and with the resurrection of vinyl and a record shop opening up near me in Selby a few years ago I had my Linn Sondek serviced a new stylus and am back re-living my youth… Wonderful!

Adrianmsmith

Pompeyexile and still to this day they sound great.

even with shot ears :-)

Cuprajake

audeze are my go to headphones

although audio technica msr7b are very good

MattH

In my past I have owned some Stax headphones - the are the oddest things to look at - expensive but sound amazing… I also like Grado of which there is a range for every price point so you may want to try one of those.

Like speakers the tech has not moved that much (outside of wireless/BT/Noise cancelling features) so you should have lots of options on eBay and other used forums to see what works for you.