AirPods Pro Real Ear Measurements on My Ear

[terryvarlow]

Would you be able to enlarge on the problems of audibility and over-amplification which you see arising with a product like the new Bose hearing aid which has no requirement for a traditional hearing assessment. Many thanks

[katerumble33]

@terryvarlow

Perhaps how well a device meets a prescription won’t be a criteria in the future!

@AbramBaileyAuD

Maybe not, but today it’s still a good objective way to quickly assess differences between products. And everything else is anecdotal … Until we have large scale double-blind research showing real-world comparable benefit and satisfaction, I’d be hesitant to jump to conclusions about audibility and over-amplification no longer meaning anything.

I read the post differently. I didn’t see the suggestion that it wouldn’t matter how well a prescription was met. Rather, the need to meet a prescription well wouldn’t be an issue if there was no requirement to meet a prescription in the first place. I mentioned earlier this was the expected situation with the new Bose hearing aid. It arises because their approach, beginning with the Hearphone, has been to give priority to addressing loss of dynamic range rather than to a loss of amplitude across frequencies. To that end, they are giving their hearing aid a WDRC system in addition to the existing loudness technology. Such an approach not just avoids issues of over-amplification etc. but can be expected to address issues of loudness associated with loss of dynamic range.

[terryvarlow]

@terryvarlow

It seems remarkable that Bose have dispensed with the traditional hearing assessment and still have enough in the locker to satisfy the FDA their new product can be designated a hearing aid. Perhaps how well a device meets a prescription won’t be a criteria in the future! The benefit people are reporting with the airpods seems to be defying the numbers!

@AbramBaileyAuD

Maybe not, but today it’s still a good objective way to quickly assess differences between products. And everything else is anecdotal

If there is greater personal satisfaction of the user but is at the expense of the audiologist being less able to evaluate or compare the technical attributes of a product that is achieving it, I would consider that to be a worthwhile trade-off. We are beginning to see it with the Airpods. However, it won’t be an issue if such products aren’t dispensed through traditional audiology outlets.