“That’s great,” answered the neighbor. “What kind is it?”

“Twelve-thirty.”

Hearing aids are most often problematic.

When I want to truly hear a good piece of music, I must [...]]]>

A man was telling his neighbor, “I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me $4,000, but it’s state of the art. All my hearing problems are over.”

“That’s great,” answered the neighbor. “What kind is it?”

“Twelve-thirty.”

Hearing aids are most often problematic.

When I want to truly hear a good piece of music, I must take the hearing aids out of my ears. Only when the music reaches my ears directly, have I really heard the music in all its fullness. Why?

Lots of reasons, but lets focus on total harmonic distortion. Its a shortcut to describing the sound quality from equipment. As a percentage, I think it can be thought as a measurement of “scrambled” tones. Anything over 3% is obvious. I (used to) window shop a lot for stereos and I learned what distortion was from reading many many datasheets and from hands on with the hi-fi equipment.

In the days of tube amplifiers, 0.5% total harmonic distortion (THD) was a common number to advertise. Later, as transistors and semiconductors replaced those , 1/10 that much distortion, or 0.05% became a common standard.

Hearing aid manufacturers have a hard time keeping THD below 5%. They think they are doing good if they can hit that mark.

I would not excuse the manufacturers because the devices are small. This is 2009, for goodness sake!

Even in 1982, the Sony Walkman, had a 0.05% rating! (didn’t it?) I remember comparing my hearing aids to the Walkman, and there was just absolutely no comparison, the Walkman blew the doors off anything else I put in my ears.

Heres what came up at the top of a Google search on total harmonic distortion in hearing aids.

This study examined the harmonic distortion levels of 1170 hearing aids submitted to the Veterans Administration for contract evaluation during the last six fiscal years. Measurements were made, with a 75 dB SPL input, at 500, 700, and 900 Hz and at the frequency at which maximum distortion was found. The gain of each aid was set with a 62.5 dB SPL input to that point at which distortion at all amplified frequencies was less than 10%. Based upon average gain and average saturation sound pressure level, each aid was placed in one of three power categories. The results show that the levels of maximum distortion appear to be inversely proportional to the rated power of the aids. Also, at all frequencies, the levels of harmonic distortion found in aids during the last two years generally equaled or exceeded those found in 1962, the first year for this study.
Roger N. Kasten, Stephen H. Lotterman. 1967 article found for sale on the ASHA web site (Journal of Speech and Hearing Research) which I do not endorse.

Does not seem so wonderful, to find the highest result on Google is a 42 year old article?

Another Google result is this 1982 commentary from a researcher , where it appears that between 32% and 43% of the hearing aids made FAILED to meet industry standards. Yikes!

Performance of new hearing aids using the ANSI S3.22-1976 standard.

One hundred new hearing aids were tested to determine their compliance with ANSI S3.22-1976 specifications. Thirty-four models representing eight manufacturers were included. Estimates of the test equipment’s accuracy were utilized as required by the standard to correct the tolerances permitted for the 11 measurements made. Results revealed that 68% of the instruments tested met all specifications, when the accuracy of the test apparatus was accounted for, while 11% fewer hearing aids passed all tests when it was excluded. No greater than a 10% difference was found in the performance of various types of aids, such as automatic gain control, directional, linear, or nondirectional.

by TH Townsend. Abstract is for sale at National institute of Health web site which I do not endorse, but i am curious about

Brent Edwards of the Starkey Hearing Research Center brought up a topic I haven’t heard before — the brain strain that faces people with limited hearing.

“We know that the hearing impaired are a [...]]]> …..hearing is still crucial, and an estimated 10 percent of people worldwide suffer from hearing impairment. Enter increasingly sophisticated hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Brent Edwards of the Starkey Hearing Research Center brought up a topic I haven’t heard before — the brain strain that faces people with limited hearing.

“We know that the hearing impaired are a lot more stressed,” he said. People can actually become fatigued after straining to listen for an hour. That’s made noise-reduction technology crucial for the advancement of hearing aids. “Noise reduction does reduce the amount of effort necessary to understand speech through noise,” he said.

Now here’s the really neat part:

“We’ve also shown that memory is improved through hearing aid technology. If fewer resources are being applied cognitively to speech understanding, they can be applied to other tasks.”

Is he right? The jury is out on this one. Acoustics designers, take note: We need you to design better conference rooms.

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear (retrocochlear) to the brain. Sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically or surgically corrected. It is a permanent loss. Sensorineural hearing loss not only involves a reduction in sound level, [...]]]>

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear (retrocochlear) to the brain. Sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically or surgically corrected. It is a permanent loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss not only involves a reduction in sound level, or ability to hear faint sounds, but also affects speech understanding, or ability to hear clearly.
Sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by diseases, birth injury, drugs that are toxic to the auditory system, and genetic syndromes. Sensorineural hearing loss may also occur as a result of noise exposure, viruses, head trauma, aging, and tumors.

Courtesy of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association web site.

This is an eye opener. At age 55, I am still learning about my hearing. I inherited my hearing loss. I have uncovered things on the Internet that I only suspected were possible about my hearing. I thought that a major part of my communication problems were a defect of character, and that my hearing aids were doing the job they were intended to do: “correct” my hearing. But it has also impacted on my relationships and defines who I am.

Now I know that hearing loss has impact way beyond the sound level or ability to hear the sounds of speech (called phonemes). Those are the consonants and vowels that make up word syllables. My hearing loss, like most, mainly cuts into the reception of consonants.

My wife says I have gone an amazing distance to get to this point. A little like Tiger Woods being a blind champion golfer.

AUDIOGRAMS
FYI, my audiogram has a common sloping loss that declines from -40 dB @ 60 Hz to -70dB @ 2000 Hz and higher

This means I can hear vowels decently, because they reside in the lower frequencies. But consonants are in higher frequencies. The F and the S sound are almost impossible to tell apart anymore, hearing aid or no. Many other consonants are equally tricky.

image courtesy of this blogger, Abbie, http://contradica.blogspot.com/

Hearing loss impacts understanding.
I had suspected this, but did not think that this was true in my case. But why, when I am alone with a few people or when I listen to the TV or radio, I can always hear and understand every word. I often struggle to hear with more people in the room. (Most public speakers or professional announcers do, in fact, speak and enunciate much better than the average Joe, which may explain this.

I am extremely intelligent, say those who know me and have met me. I know I can do most anything I set my mind to.

But no amount of intelligence can make up for the listening, hearing and comprehension handicap. Hearing aids are overrated. I was taught early on to believe that my disability was well resolved by the hearing aids. (Brainwashed is the word my wife uses)

I have my first audiogram from 1961, where a note says: “Patient is eager to wear the hearing aid, and no difficulty in adapting is foreseen.” At age 7, that may have been the last time I believed that a hearing aid would give me the ability to hear normally.
For years I have accepted what I was given. But I have gradually learned about my hearing through the Internet that hearing and hearing aids are generally problematic. I think many, if not most, people want to believe that hearing aids are a panacea.

Now I am considering a Blackberry or IPod to replace my lost cell phone. Its unbelievable what they pack into these little devices. They have 50x the technology [...]]]> My GNResound behind the ear hearing aids cost $1800 each. Not top of the line, but they were considered state-of-the-art for 2006.

Now I am considering a Blackberry or IPod to replace my lost cell phone. Its unbelievable what they pack into these little devices. They have 50x the technology of a hearing aid built into a device that costs 1/9 the price! Seems like hearing aid technology is just stuck in the frikking mud!

Why don’t Research in Motion, (the manufacturer of the Blackberry), or Apple Computer make a hearing aid ? I bet they d crush the existing makers and make a ton of money. A product for the masses of hard of hearing people.

I’d be very happy to pay them $1000 for a pair of hearing aids, not $1600- $2500. (I will, on Ebay) Digital hearing aids are not anywhere near the value the builders and audiologists would like you to believe. They are biased, they depend on this broken system for their livelihood.

If you still think hearing aids are great, just read this article on hearing aids sucking in Wired magazine.

Then there is the happy opposite view by the same publication,Bluetooth solution?????. Go figure.