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Hard-of-Hearing Advice? (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter gthang
- Start date
Briv
New member
Hello, everybody,
New to the Forum, having hearing problems and was looking for ideas. Rather old questions and replies, but somebody may have a look anyhow?
The hearing aids are continuously improving and many types (digital, programmable) can closely match your loss curve (if you need an aid). But is that what you want? Remember that your loss is not just an attenuation, nerves are actually dead, so the intact remaining ones have to transfer the sound as best they can. Therefore you will hear familiar sounds and birds different. So far the manufacturers have no good means to shape the amplification to give you the best fidelity for say, bird listening, perhaps due to lack of understanding, time and feedback from demanding users?
Years ago I got hold of a little device, "Whisper" said to let you hear neighbour's talking behind closed windows. A simple mono 0 - 80 dB 50 Hz - 15 kHz amplifier using head phones and priced at around £ 3 or $ 7. I now find it useful by wearing the phones outside my hearing aids, so I could add another 60 dB to what the doctor prescribed, just for listening to birds far away.
Another interesting feature of some of today's hearing aids is frequency transposing or shifting, I just wonder how it would appear. The danish firm Wistex offers one type that is supposed to let female voices sound like men's. Perhaps the warbler song comes an octave down? And how would music sound, will the treble instruments be out of tune?
Lots of interesting things to be taken up in this thread, isn't it?
Best regards, Briv
New to the Forum, having hearing problems and was looking for ideas. Rather old questions and replies, but somebody may have a look anyhow?
The hearing aids are continuously improving and many types (digital, programmable) can closely match your loss curve (if you need an aid). But is that what you want? Remember that your loss is not just an attenuation, nerves are actually dead, so the intact remaining ones have to transfer the sound as best they can. Therefore you will hear familiar sounds and birds different. So far the manufacturers have no good means to shape the amplification to give you the best fidelity for say, bird listening, perhaps due to lack of understanding, time and feedback from demanding users?
Years ago I got hold of a little device, "Whisper" said to let you hear neighbour's talking behind closed windows. A simple mono 0 - 80 dB 50 Hz - 15 kHz amplifier using head phones and priced at around £ 3 or $ 7. I now find it useful by wearing the phones outside my hearing aids, so I could add another 60 dB to what the doctor prescribed, just for listening to birds far away.
Another interesting feature of some of today's hearing aids is frequency transposing or shifting, I just wonder how it would appear. The danish firm Wistex offers one type that is supposed to let female voices sound like men's. Perhaps the warbler song comes an octave down? And how would music sound, will the treble instruments be out of tune?
Lots of interesting things to be taken up in this thread, isn't it?
Best regards, Briv
