UKC

I wear hearing aids in both ears but occasionally still mis-hear what somebody(Mrs) says to me. She complains  that my hearing aids are not working but I contend that hearing aids, however good they might be, can never restore perfect hearing. Am I being unreasonable or is it Mrs not understanding that no "aid" can restore perfection and that it is unlikely that perfection ever existed in the first place

Maybe you need to get a hearing aid specialist to adjudicate (or something you've googled)?

Edit:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hearing-aids-and-implants/#:~:text=Hearing%20...

Here you go, 'Hearing aids will not make your hearing perfect...'

I wear both and my mrs forgets and complains the TV is too loud etc, it’s one of those disabilities that is easy to disregard as you can’t see the disability. Last couple of years has been a struggle at times for me simply because of face masks. I can’t lip read ‘properly’ but it’s surprising how your brain can fill in the gaps if you miss a bit of conversation due to other noises. 

Don’t dis the wife as it’s convenient to ‘not hear’ what she says when it suits you 😉

If you think they are not working get a test done.

Don't expect logic from the Mrs though. Years in industry have left me with hearing damage, not bad enough to need aids but enough that if there is any background noise I can't discern voices without looking directly at the person. The Mrs will say random crap to me whilst I'm watching TV then gets pissed off with me for not listening.

They are all nuts 

I wear NHS hearing aids mainly for watching films with poor sound, birdwatching - well listening/identifying bird song and lectures/talks I sometimes attend.

My experience is much the same as yours in that I still miss bits sometimes.  The difficult bit of course is that even when your hearing is perfect you can and still do miss bits of conversation etc., 

Incidently the NHS guy who programmed mine - on request - an extra programme which especially amplified the highest end of the spectrum of bird song frequencies so I could hear them really well and better, perhaps than I could before my hearing got bad!!

Interestingly, not that I'm a bird person, I've been aware of birds singing - which I don't think I even noticed before. In fact there's one I hear now in our garden(breed unknown) and attimes I'm thinking "why don't you shut up you noisy bugger"

I don't wear hearing aids but I often struggle to make out a conversation when it's noisy or when my wife mumbles from the next room. I figured my hearing was trashed from years of loud music and motorbikes, so I went for a hearing test. Turns out my hearing is normal for my age. It must be that I'm just not paying attention Or, I'm more inclined to think, deciphering speech in less than perfect conditions requires considerable cognitive effort for me, so I get lazy and don't bother. If that's the case for you too, no hearing aid is going to fix it.

FWIW I think there's a bigger issue here which is not generally recognised, although it may not be relevant in your case.

Even in her 90s my mum could hear a pin drop - but she was always complaining that she couldn't hear/understand what people were saying. The thing is, a lot of 'hearing' is about understanding and anticipating what people are going to say ... you 'hear' what other people are saying because you expect it. As we get older we have fewer connections with people who are speaking, and have less idea what's coming next - so it seems less clear.

A gay friend once talking about having the sense of liking straight people's company, but only understanding other gay people on a deeper level, leaves me thinking that it's likely the differences between ourselves which can leave us all thinking 'They're nuts'.