Thanks for a much more technical explanation of hearing aid transducer function. It’s not all that different than a loudspeaker with the voice coil directly attached to cone or dome shaped diaphragm.
A bat can hear up to 200,000 Hz. A cat can hear up to 64,000 Hz and from the majority of information I have read working with audio equipment a human can hear up to 20,000 Hz, rolling off with age. As a kid, I remember hearing the horizontal sweep oscillator running in the family’s black and white TV set. That was 15,734 Hz.
In the first decade after World War II, high end consumer audio products frequency response went from 6,000 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Harry F, Olson designed curvilinear shaped cone speakers helped disperse high frequency much more efficiently. Resonance tuned speaker enclosures allowed big low frequency sound from small packages with amplifier power output as low as 3 to 10-watts.
A hearing aid is not trying to fill a 1000 cubic foot room with sound, only a fraction of an ear canal. Is it that outrageous for me to entertain the thought that maybe it could be done a little better?
I understand that only speech and device size is considered important. I wouldn’t want to miss a word of what most people have to say nowadays but my type of loss is not unusual and it is hearing loss. Maybe it is not as profound as other types of hearing loss and people with more serious loss have my empathy. I’m not surprised that my complaints have been dismissed.
The hearing aid industry has an opportunity here to assist people like me. If we are able to shell out 4 to 5 thousand dollars every 5-years on a pair of aids that really don’t address our specific problem, Imagine what we would pay for a pair that did.
One improvement I would suggest is the shape of the microphone openings. Those square cut little holes do not do a good job trying to pick up directional high frequencies. If the openings had more of a curvilinear shape, they might help reflect high frequencies into the microphone. If I position a glass or soda can near the openings, it reflects high frequencies into the opening and makes a huge improvement.