dealing with hearing loss

If 16 actual auditory input channels in a cochlear implant can interpolate to 120 channels through software, surely 500 actual auditory input channels can interpolate to 3500 channels at some point (the number that actually exists in the ear.)

Hopefully, they'll have this hearing loss issue licked in 30 years, so I can continue listening to my iPod headphones.

Until then, I'm following the progress.

Also, best lines:

In his studio, Rettig plays me Ravel's String Quartet in F Major and Philip Glass' String Quartet no. 5. I listen carefully, switching between the old software and the new. Both compositions sound enormously better on 121 channels. But when Rettig plays music with vocals, I discover that having 121 channels hasn't solved all my problems. While the crescendos in Dulce Pontes' Canção do Mar sound louder and clearer, I hear only white noise when her voice comes in. Rettig figures that relatively simple instrumentals are my best bet - pieces where the instruments don't overlap too much - and that flutes and clarinets work well for me. Cavalcades of brass tend to overwhelm me and confuse my ear.

And some music just leaves me cold: I can't even get through Kraftwerk's Tour de France. I wave impatiently to Rettig to move on. (Later, a friend tells me it's not the software - Kraftwerk is just dull. It makes me think that for the first time in my life I might be developing a taste in music.)