Ears: Next Phase

I never did follow up on my recent hearing aid trial. The idea was that the correct units would help with my recruitment. Well, no such luck. Hundreds of dollars poorer, I'm back to square one.

Or am I?

My various little jerry-rigged gizmos. (See my ‘$50 Headphone’ post) have all led in a specific direction: cut out ambient sound and then control the volume level using technology. While playing with the aforementioned hearing aids, I tried plugging them straight into ear moulds that normally held ER-25 filters. The result was promising (but not worth $3700).

My next stop was a visit to another audiologist who specializes in musicians. Rhonda and Glenn at Hear for Life were very enthusiastic about my little idea, and they set me up with a hearing-aid maker who is eager to tackle the problem. So the next step is to meet with two of their top technicians to see if we can come up with a solution. And here's the best part: Because they are the manufacturer, they propose to build something from the ground up tailored to my hearing condition and my goal of a 'personal, self-contained monitor system'.

I'm very excited about this project because if it works, it's a solution that other musicians could use. In fact, I've already got two orders should the item do the trick. I'll keep you posted.
-rb