[Don Corleone]

Hearing Aids Just Amplifiers?

mostly

[pingman]

Formerly known as “P.S.A.P.s”, Personal Sound Amplification Products, can often harm your hearing more than help. While genuine hearing aids are indeed expensive, you’re getting a product tailored to your specific loss, not just a boom-box in your ear.

[George from New England]

At age 67 my problem is more my inability to filter through the noise floor. Most quality sound is perfect in my head. And with 9 grandchildren in the house, well there is the noise floor.

Doesn’t help when the wife stopped looking in my direction when talking. Hearing her now resorts to bounced sound off the far wall.

[PUGACHEV]

I think that efective hearing aids are more than just amplifiers. In my case, the doctor first tested my hearing and mapped out the frequencies which were below par. For me, those were in the higher range, above 3 MHz. My hearing loss was not linear from that point, but rather a complex curve up to 20 MHz. This curve was then programmed into my hearing aids to reproduce what I might hear if my hearing were normal. Without the doctor's help, the hearing aids would have amplified frequencies which were not impaired and would have seemed too loud, while at the same time not giving me amplification where I actually needed it.

The doctor scheduled several follow visits, which I found very useful. She told me that because I had adapted to my hearing loss, the corrected spectrum I was now hearing would seem too tinny and sibilant, but that I would gradually re-adapt to normal hearing. Without that advice, I would not have persisted to the point where now everthing seems good.

[Jacquerie]

Mostly not.