Hearing aid w/o going through a doctor

[aesthete8]

Any recommendations?

[Michael Black]

On Sat, 26 Mar 2011, aesthete8 wrote:

> Any recommendations?
>
Get an MP3 player, figure out where the audio amplifier starts, and
add microphones. It likely would be easier, more space, with a pocket
AM/FM radio, but MP3 players are smaller these days.

But there will be problems.

A hearing aid is not just an amplifier (which is what you'll get if you
$20 hearing aids out of the back of TV Guide or the flyer insert in the
paper), it includes various bits of processing (so you can hear that weak
sound outside, yet the stronger sound next to you won't overload your
ears) and frequency compensation, to adjust the frequency response to
match the decay of your hearing (it isn't a matter of losing sensitivity
to sound, it's a matter of losing response to the higher frequencies, so
you want a reverse slope rather than just lots of amplification).

Hence one reason for seeing a doctor is so they do the test (or have
the test arranged) to check your hearing to see how it plots, and then of
course configure a hearing aid to match your level/quality of hearing
loss.

Until you grasp what's needed in order to get a proper hearing aid, you
will not be making frugal decisions.

Michael

[The Real Bev]

And even then you might end up wasting money on something you can't use.
My mom bought some of the expensive programmable ones. She went in
for several adjustments and they never found a setting that was less
annoying than her hearing problem (loss of high frequency). They're
still there sitting in the original box with the original batteries
(yes, swung out -- maybe I can use them when I grow up).

--
Cheers, Bev
======================================================
Guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.