Spinets and Hearing Aids

[Sarah Fox]

Michael!!

For £5000, Sir John could afford a better piano!  :-P

Seriously, I know an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who was recently fitted 
with a hearing aid.  The device (one ear only) has been checked, rechecked, 
and re-re-checked, and it functions as it should.  Even her psychometric 
test data confirm this.  Although she can now understand us when we are 
speaking, she complains that ALL sounds are obnoxious to her, including 
anything with frequency components that were in her hearing deficit range 
(e.g. onions frying in a skillet).  She is happiest with the hearing aid 
turned down or even off (serving as an ear plug).

Because her sensitivity curve changed with her hearing loss, she became 
accustomed to hearing the world in muted tones.  The "normal" sound of a 
piano, for instance, would be very muffled and heavy on the bass, probably 
including a spinet.  (Think of one of those booming, consumer-grade, muffly 
stereos from the early 1970's.)  When you change that sound envelope by 
restoring higher frequency hearing (the range most frequently lost), sound 
becomes tintier (as it normally sounds to someone with healthy ears).  Thus 
higher partials, buzzes, rattles, etc., etc. -- sounds with higher frequency 
components -- sound obnoxious.

So the problem isn't Sir John's spinet, per se <cough, cough>, but the fact 
that he is now hearing this magnificent instrument as it normally sounds to 
the rest of us.  He may in fact have preferred the spinet's sound to a 
larger instrument's sound because of its relatively greater emphasis on 
higher frequencies.  That would enable him to hear the melody better, for 
instance.  Now that his "tone control settings" have been diddled with, he 
doesn't like the sound.  Ask him to listen to a larger, better piano and see 
if he likes that more.

In short, he's going to have to accept that the world sounds differently 
from what he's previously experienced.

Peace,
Sarah,
in a calm, warm, but overcast village of Seaford (VA) by the Chesapeake Bay, 
thankful not to be in coastal Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, or Louisiana. 
(Good luck, y'all!!)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Gamble" <michael@gambles.fsnet.co.uk>
To: "Al Pebworth" <ralp1938-ptg@yahoo.com>; <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Spinets and Hearing Aids


> Hello Al and List
> I have a client - yesterday, in fact - who was complaining of much the 
> same thing, only he had the courtesy to tell me that he wanted me to tune 
> the piano so he could then judge whether his new, very expensive £5000 
> (that's a lot!) Swiss made hearing aids were distorting the sound he was 
> used to. I asked Sir John (for that's his name) why his previous Danish 
> hearing aids didn't exhibit the same problem. He said he's sending the 
> Swiss ones back (warranty issue (S&S? Ha! Ha!) and he's going to approach 
> the Danish company for a new hearing aid. The piano is a newish small 
> Yamaha upright.
> Why beat about the (GW)Bush? In Dalek-Speak "We shall Exterminate" :-)
> Michael G.(UK)
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Al Pebworth" <ralp1938-ptg@yahoo.com>
> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 5:42 PM
> Subject: Spinets and Hearing Aids
>
>
>> Could anyone share their experience with small
>> spinets owned by Senior Citizens wearing hearing aids?
>>
>>
>> My customer hears "Buzzes", "Twangs", "Noise"
>> from a 1960's vintage Wurlitzer Spinet.
>>
>> She wears twin hearing aids, turned up loud.
>>
>> I have even carried my wife AND a fellow piano tech to
>> the house, and they, along with me, cannot hear these
>> noises.
>>
>> Any obvious solutions, other than just telling her to
>> turn them down?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Al
>>
>> Al Pebworth
>> Chesapeake, Va
>>
>
>
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