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While hearing aid technology is advancing faster than even
computers and can be confusing to the lay person, all hearing aids do
one thing and that is to increase amount of information received in the
auditory cortex of the brain.
How that happens differs depending on the type of
technology employed. All hearing instruments a microphone which picks up
the sound in the environment. Some of the more advanced products even have
two and are usually referred to as "Directional".
Conventional: hearing aids
have been around with very little changes except for the size of the
components since the first transistor hearing aid of the late 1950's.
These hearing aids make everything louder and usually have one or two
switching transistors and are known as Class 'A' or Class 'B' amplifiers.
the advantage to a conventional hearing aid is the price which will run
from a low of $395.00 to $1895.00 depending on the size, manufacturer and
features included.
Advanced
:hearing devices first started to appear in the late 1980's and were the
first devices which allowed more precision in the fitting process. Often
having several hundred transistors on an integrated circuit chip they
provided a much clearer sound quality and lowered the high distortion
found in previous aids when background noise started to increase. Most
advanced hearing devices also have compression which will start to automatically
reduce the amount of amplification provided as sounds grew louder.
Advanced devices start at $660.00 and will range to $2395.00 depending on
size, manufacturer and options.
Programmable:
hearing instruments started to appear in the mid 1990's and have become
very good at allowing the hearing professional to make fine
adjustments using a computer while the patient is wearing the instrument.
While all hearing aids can be considered programmable (by adjusting small
screw settings or switching internal components) Industry standards are
dictating the terminology refer to instruments where the parameters are
adjusted digitally (not to be confused with a Digital unit) with the use of a
computer or hand held programmer. Sound quality and adjustments vary
widely as does These units have mostly been made obsolete by the Digital
instruments.
All of the above listed products are known as "Analog"
hearing aids and use an amplifier, to increase the sound. and then send the amplified signals to a speaker
also called in the
industry a receiver. Just like any other consumer product some of the
devices are much better than others.
Digital:
or Digital Signal Processors (DSP) while they will not restore your
hearing to normal, because of the way they function can provide most of
the hearing impaired population all of the auditory cues available to
normal hearing individuals. DSP units also utilize one or two microphones
and a receiver this is the only similarity between the two. It's critical
to remember that while all Digital units are programmable but not all
Programmable instruments are digital. The difference in sound quality
between Analog and Digital has been compared to the difference between
records and CD's. Pricing for Digital devices start at around
$1000.00 and can go as high as $3950.00 per unit
More information can be found in "The
Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids" published by The Wilson Company.
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