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One of the issues of being HOH as opposed to being deaf is that I’m very much on the periphery of the deaf community and not seen as ‘disabled’ by most abled people. As a consequence the support I’ve received over the years has been incredibly patchy and most of the knowledge I have about my condition is a result of technical curiosity. I think I knew most of what you said, but hadn’t thought it because moaning is easier 
I think that's very common for HOHers to feel less understood and 'seen' as people who are dis-abled by society around them. You hear enough to feel like you're not "legit deaf enough" while experiencing a lot of the same challenges of more deaf people. One of the good things about social media starting more discussions is more people realising "no one feels deaf enough" and even with a spectrum of deafness/impact, we have more in common than not, therefore should collaborate more.
In my work, I find the "less auditorily deaf" people are often the most dis-abled in everyday life because they are not perceived as properly deaf "just a little hard of hearing" and no one teaches HOH people that even a little deafness is very different from having normal hearing (and indeed that people with normal hearing often struggle too in certain situations). Those people who like myself clearly can't hear for shit if we take our hearing aids off, can't be perceived as hearing, have a stronger sense of identity/legitimacy in our deafness.
I know with my hearing aids in, cos I don't sound deaf, people often forget that I am deaf and get frustrated when I don't hear well, or need them to make specific effort like getting my attention first, facing me, slowing down just a little and maybe speaking a little clearer/louder...
I am unusual in that I now live with someone who has a high tolerance for the "What?" and need for maybe 30% of sentences to be repeated at times. Most people have to live with others who are less understanding. In my family home my mum was great, one sister variable and my dad and other sister were pretty bad at deaf awareness and I find even now, my mum has to re-acclimatise to me because she doesn't see me enough to have my level retained. I think it also helps that Kim is a former theatre sound tech and engineer with sound experience cos she understands technically where/why I can't hear well and that the hearing aid really is a bodge and without it, we are into sign language and accidental occasionally correct lipreading territory only.
As to the 5:1 setup, I’ve thought of this in the past to overcome the problems sans HAs, but lounge tech must pass the spousal test, and HiFi has fallen foul of this in the past. Admittedly speakers and speaker cables were involved last time I tried it. I will have to look into 5:1 processors though I think I’ll be looking at high end kit if I want a fibre output for post processed mixing. And that will fall foul of the financial controller. Sometimes being married can be restrictive 
Ah, difficult. I am lucky we don't care about wires. Would Dr B be more tolerant of wires/£££ if she understood it as an accessibility thing for you? I think sometimes hearing people don't really understand that.
