Hearing aid for low frequencies

Hearing Aids
#1

Had otosclerosis in the right ear. Fixed with Laser Stamp procedure (different from the normal procedure) six years ago. Worked great, but my nerve of taste was cut and apparently did not reattach. Can’t have the procedure on the left ear as I’d rather be able to taste food than hear in the left ear. I’m looking into a hearing aid as a way to keep the tinnitus away.

Anyway, since the low frequencies are where the work is needed, are there certain types of hearing aids that would not take away the good frequencies? I’d like things to sound as natural as possible. What makes a person choose BTE over in the ear designs? Which sounds more natural? I spoke with an audiologist on the phone (not ready for the full appt yet), and she seemed to think that Widex would be good for low frequency loss. Why? Anyway, my hearing loss is not that bad yet, mildly annoying. Thanks

#2

I agree that Widex hearing aids sound more natural in the low frequencies. I have used Widex for many years and now I am using Oticon Agils. I must admit that I miss the bass in the music that Widex had. It is just like the Oticon hearing aids have no bass at all. Perhaps the technical reason is that Oticon’s hearing aid compression is based on FFT which has poor frequency resolution in the lows. Widex, on the other hand, uses a filter bank, as far as I know.

#3

Thanks! Do phonak hearing aids have good bass tones?

#4

Traditionally no. Their algorithm has always had a fairly high tone output.

If you were in my centre today, you’d be looking at a choice of a Widex or possibly Starkey CIC depending on your needs/preferences.

There is a reasonable risk that you might reject both though, as mic/circuit noise may be audible to you given your good HF results.

#5

Thankyou very much. You’re right that I would not like to hear high frequency noise. I’m trying to get rid of the noise I hear now by increasing the low tones.

#6

arni: I don’t know but I would think Widex uses the usual WDRC type of dynamic range management. I would be surprised if Widex doesn’t use the standard fast fourier transform (FFT) to convert the amplitude signals to the frequency domain for processing. Don’t think you could fit many amplitude pass band filters into a tiny hearing aid.

Bass reproduction is a function of many factors one of which is the receiver (speaker) My guess is that Widex buys their receivers from Knowles like everyone else.

You know that vent size (impedance) is an important factor in the amount of bass delivered into the canal hence to the ear drum.

It seems to me that any manufacturer can produce good bass if it’s engineers want to emphasize bass.

But doesn’t the fitting software allow control of the gain at low frequencies…most do. Ed

#7

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes/Depends

It would take a dispenser who is actually willing to ignore the prescribed gain from most of the software and a bit of careful trial and error to find out whether the original poster could get along with the suggested amount of gain. This setting may make it harder to hear in noise as there would be more interference from lower frequency sounds.

Most of the prescription algorithms tend to err on the side of caution at 250 and 500Hz in order to stop the aid sounding ‘boomy’.

Furthermore the unusual nature/shape of this loss could indicate a low frequency dead-spot that is ‘hidden’ by the very good HF performance.

#8

Great info. When trying hearing aids out next week I will pay attention to the bass settings. See if I can get her to up them if they are low. The reason I want the bass is that I believe the tinnitis is from my brain amplifying the highs to compensate for there being less lows. I want to up the lows to stop the mental amplification. Of course I can be wrong.:wink: Won’t find out until I wear it for a month though.