The older you get, probably the tougher it is to adapt too. Wearing hearing aids is very strange for the first little while since you're hearing all kinds of strange things again. For me everything seemed sharper/harsher initially but that's just because it all had been so muted for so long! It took me months of continuous wearing to get used to the sound so that it now sounds unatural to not be wearing them. He really needs to put them in when he wakes up and take them out for the shower/going to bed and thats it. If he only wears them occassionally, he'll probably never get used to them (my dad/grandpa had the same problem).
His audiologist can also set him up with a "training" program in his hearing aids that softens the amplification while he's getting used to them and after a few months go back to a more normal program. If he's not happy, have him talk to his audiologist...high end devices are highly tunable!
Thanks a lot for the info/advice. I will definitely share. He was wondering if a small directional speaker attached to some part of the ear that allowed the natural sound to just be augmented by an amplified speaker would be better than blocking the whole ear from natural sound and replacing with digital. I wonder what the "digital" effect of these Bose headphones will be. I would expect that they are inferior to hearing aids that have been under development for eons but maybe it will be a different approach that addresses different problems.
I had basically the same problem, but was unable to adapt. I got my hearing aid when I was 17 or 18. Everything sounded tinny and harsh, and my hearing in my left ear is more or less normal.
I guess the bigger problem was that putting it in my ear made me very dizzy, but I'd have tried to deal with that if the sound weren't so bad.
His audiologist can also set him up with a "training" program in his hearing aids that softens the amplification while he's getting used to them and after a few months go back to a more normal program. If he's not happy, have him talk to his audiologist...high end devices are highly tunable!