Welcome to the General Hearing Musicians' Hearing Center, a place where musicians can learn about hearing amplicification and protection devices designed specifically for them.

New Orleans: The Birthplace of Jazz

New Orleans has given birth to many influential jazz musicians: Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt and many more. Jazz poured out from the parlors of Storyville, the red light district, to streets corners of the French Quarter where it is still heard today.

Now, there’s a brand new sound coming out of New Orleans - the Musician’s Listening Design (MLD) from General Hearing.

The MLD digital high fidelity devices for musicians are available in two different styles: A micro Over-The-Ear (OTE) device for listening in normal, every day situations; or in a soft, in-the-canal device that offers hearing enhancement and hearing protection. Both devices are powered by the Digi-K high fidelity digital circuit. Designed for musicians, by musicians, the Digi-K offers a true high fidelity listening experience... It is programmed to your specific hearing needs and can be switched between four different memories to accommodate a variety of environments.

Is It Music Or Noise?

Music can be soothing or exciting to some people, but nothing but racket to others. No matter how you personally feel about a particular style of music, when it reaches a certain level of loudness, it can do as much damage as industrial noise.

Being a musician and being around loud sound levels certainly go hand in hand. Whether you play in the "A" chair with the philharmonic, marching in a school band, or are just jamming out in a garage for any period of time, chances are that you may already be suffering some degree of noise induced hearing loss.

Rock bands are notorious for high levels of sound during a concert where loudness levels of 125 decibels have been reported. But what about other forms of music? Classical or Jazz players can also encounter dangerous sound levels. Standing close to blaring trumpet can expose your ears to sound levels of 115 db and piccolos can go even higher.

Satisfying The Musician In Us All

The MLD device is ideal for anyone who wants to hear music as it is meant to be heard. Audiophiles will appreciate the uncompromising purity of the circuit. Digi-K does not use noise filtering or feedback management features, used in most digital devices today. Those controls actually clip the input signal – distorting any signal over 95 to 100 dB. Digi-K's high-coherence signal processing results in fidelity from diminuendo to crescendo.

Musician’s Listening Design devices are dispensed by hearing professionals who are "in-tune" to the hearing needs of musicians. Contact hearing professionals in your area and ask for the Musicians’ Listening Design with Digi-K. Read the foreward by Mead Killion, Ph.D., musician and inventor of the Digi-K signal processor, where he discusses how the design of that DSP hybrid performs in the presence of music.

Hearing Solutions

If you are currently wearing a hearing device, but are just not satisfied with the sound quality, it’s because most hearing devices are designed for speech enhancement, not for music listening.

Digi-K offers these important features:

• A 16 kHz bandwidth that maximizes microphone and receiver performance.
• Patented electronic damping
• True high fidelity sound quality
• Improved headroom
• Thin micro-poly tube offers comfort and flexibility for extended wear and virtually occlusion free (i.e. head not in a barrel)

Small micro case design for the ultimate in cosmetic appeal - gives the instrument a virtually invisible appearance Micro behind-the-ear casing makes the instrument less prone to failure from wax. For in-depth information about the circuit, read the Digi-K article.

Click on the thumbnail below to download the Digi-K Musicians Listening device specification sheet.

Taking The First Step

Have you noticed that the full range of your musical instrument has diminished? Do you find you miss part of the conversation when there's a lot of background noise? Do you ever have difficulty hearing your cell ring? Do you hear better with one ear than the other? You may already have a hearing loss. The good news is that there’s hearing help made just for you - the musician.

Musicians' Listening Design features Digi-K high fidelity circuit. For everyday listening situations. All high fidelity devices are custom programmed at the manufacturing facility to provide the listener with an optimum hearing experience.

Hearing, Not Age Related

Contrary to popular belief, hearing loss is not strictly age related. It can affect the young and old alike. And, it can come from many sources besides playing on stage: Loud work situations, MP3 players, and gas powered yard tools (just to name a few) can cause permanent hearing loss.

Whether you are a musician or not, limit your noise exposure. You should limit your exposure to no more than 85 dB over a period of eight hours. The higher the noise levels increase, the less time you can be exposed to it. Allow your ears to rest for 24 hours after exposure to dangerous levels of noise. For reference, a violin or street corner at a busy traffic intersection generates a sound noise level of approximately 90 dB, the highest level of noise exposure you can safely endure without protection.

Exposure to loud sounds can also cause more damage than just a hearing loss. Loud noises can also cause temporary or permanent tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ear.

General Hearing also offers the first self-forming hearing protection system available without the need of messy, time consuming ear impressions. Visit our section on hearing protectors for complete information.