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From: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Jack O'keeffe)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: HEARING AIDS
Message-ID: <18608@bunker.isc-br.com>
Date: 11 Apr 91 04:40:31 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

  V> It seems like she is approaching it from a "making it louder
  V> will make her hear" point of view.

It's good to have a friend who cares, Vixen.  But that "making it
louder" approach doesn't work for me.  And it just might endanger
residual hearing.  So be cautious.

I have low frequency residual hearing in my "good" ear (the best
one I have :-)  Anaided sounds are weak unintelligible mumbles to me.
With linear amplification, they become LOUD unintelligible mumbles.
That doesn't help at all.  I'd rather hear the weak ones.

So I usually use assistive listening devices in conjunction with my
hearing aids, not as a substitute for them.  My hearing aids have a
non-linear amplifier with an envelope roughly complimenting my
audiogram - as well as this can be done with the archaic analog
technology that the hearing aid industry is unwilling to discard.

The trick with ALDs is to capture the sound you're interested in
as close to the source as possible, and conduct it to your ear as
cleanly as possible, avoiding pollution from ambient noise.

Since Bonnie is an Audio Engineer, you might want to give her a
copy of your audiogram, and let her see what she can do with an
equalizer to "tailor" amplification for you.  Better yet, if she
has access to a digital signal processor she could really tune up
sound for you.  But be careful not to hurt yourself - or your
residual hearing.  And remember that everyones hearing loss is
different.  What works for me may or may not work for you.

... Jack.

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