AZFiddle - bummer. My hearing sucks too - from years of barking dogs and teaching spin.

DH has hearing aids and he says the difference between the cheap ones and the $4K ones (his were $5K) is amazing. He never wore the cheap ones because the background noises were so bad.

Being a musician, I would think that you should have the better ones. It's like getting a bike - if you buy a cheapo, beer can aluminum frame with pot metal components, you won't ride it. (Trying to put this into terms we can all understand!)