If you love to listen to music and your hearing isn’t what it used to be, especially on the high end, I have a life hack for you. I have moderate hearing loss in both ears, and before you start in on me, yes, I listened to very loud music occasionally when I was young, and was in a band, but every older member of my family had significant hearing loss. So in my case it’s more genetic than environmental.
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The two loudest concerts I ever attended, by the way, were John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana at the Music Hall (now the Boch Center) in 1973 and Miles Davis’ comeback concert at Kix Disco in 1981, where we had the misfortune of being parked directly in front of a speaker column. In both cases I felt the after-effects for days. (You can hear Miles’ great show from that night, mixed in with some material from New York and Tokyo, at a comfortably lower volume on the album “We Want Miles.”)
Anyway, last fall I got hearing aids, and it’s been a life-changer. Immediately I could hear what my students were saying without having to run around the classroom to get closer to them (I told myself it helped me appear energetic), and I could hear my colleagues at faculty meetings (a mixed blessing; just kidding!). When listening to music live, through a Bluetooth speaker or in my car, I’ll adjust the EQ on my hearing aids to boost the bass and turn down the treble, which as best as I can tell approximates what it ought to be for a person with normal hearing.
I can also listen to music directly through my hearing aids, but that proved to be a non-starter. They’re fine for a phone call, but for anything more than that the sound is tinny. Worse, there’s no noise cancellation. So what to do?
I have a pair of Apple Airpods Pro 2, which I love, and so I would remove my hearing aids and use the Airpods. But now that I had a better basis for comparing the sound to what it should be, I discovered that the Airpods were muddy and bassy, even if I chose “Treble Booster” in the EQ. They would OK for podcasts, but audio quality was a disappointment. Theoretically I could wear good-quality headphones over my hearing aids, but that didn’t seem like a smart solution. For one thing, I’d have to buy headphones, and I had my Airpods sitting right there.
So at the suggestion of some Facebook friends, I started exploring the hearing aid option on my Airpods. Problem solved. Here’s what you do if you use an iPhone: Go into the Bluetooth settings and tap on the circled “i” for information next to your Airpods. Choose “Take a Hearing Test.” I took the test, but you also have the option of entering the results from your most recent hearing test. The graph turned out to be pretty much the same as from my last real test.
After you’ve done that, enter “Hearing Assistance” and make sure that “Hearing Aid,” “Media Assist” and “Adjust Music and Video” are all toggled on. You can do the same with “Adjust Calls and FaceTime” if you like. (See the image.)
It turned out to be transformative, as I was hearing music with a brightness and clarity I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. One of the first things I did was listen to the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” all the way through while I was on a walk, with noise cancellation on. I chose “Abbey Road” because I knew it was exceptionally well produced, and I was blown away by the clarity. I’ll tell you, those boys could play! Podcasts sound much better, too.
A couple of weeks ago I listened to Duke Ellington’s first sacred concert and loved it — but it was muddy. Now I can’t wait to listen to it again.