Hearing Aids

[yathis]

They are just so expensive. The item itself is only a few hundred bucks even for a top of the line item, but the hearing stores got you by the balls so they charge thousands of dollars. The hearing test in many places is free, I always hated those when I was young and did them at the hearing specialist doctors office, so clinical. The little sound proof room I never liked. I must have done 100's of tests.

 

Saw an ad in NGS magazine where you can buy a hearing aid for $399 each, it was in last months NatGeo mag. I will have to go to a used book store to find it again as my cleaning lady throws mine out.

 

I am interested in if anyone else has looked at hearing aids, bought hearing aids, knows anything about them.

I just wonder about the programability of these hearing aids or any hearing aids in general.

I shit you not there is actually used hearing aids available.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Not really helpful, but of all the people I know who have a hearing aid, they all say they're crap, regardless of the cost. My grandmother has ones that cost close to £3000 a set and they're no better than the £1000 ones she had before. 

[yathis]

15 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not really helpful, but of all the people I know who have a hearing aid, they all say they're crap, regardless of the cost. My grandmother has ones that cost close to £3000 a set and they're no better than the £1000 ones she had before. 

Yaaaaa I hear that from people too, but those people have insurance plans that cover hearing aids that is why the hearing aid market survives.

 

Quote

he human range is commonly given as 20 to 20,000 Hz, though there is considerable variation between individuals, especially at high frequencies, and a gradual loss of sensitivity to higher frequencies with age is considered normal. Sensitivity also varies with frequency, as shown by equal-loudness contours. Routine investigation for hearing loss usually involves an audiogram which shows threshold levels relative to a normal.

Like I said, hearing tests are free, so getting the hearing curve is easy. Go with a non programmable generic hearing aid or find with that is programmable.

[NumLock21]

Does hearing aid work the same as a pair or earbuds? Is there a way to say use bluetooth wireless ear buds and your smartphones microphone to pick up other people voices or surrounding noises and then transmit that to your ears.

[yathis]

I was thinking of that today, be great for transit bus drivers to connect a bluetooth radio to a in canal hearing aid. There are different sizes of hearing aids, from very small that fit inside the ear canal, to the classic big object behind the ear and tube going into the canal, to the ones permately screwed to your skull called Coklear Implants, yeah Im not going to google it. I wouldnt mind using a used hearing aid if I knew it was top of the line, but paying little for it.

 

I think it was CBC that had a tv show on hearing aids and how cheap they really were, and how huge of a markup the sellers of them made. Like lets say you spent $5k for one ear on one, the actual cost was like $400 tops for one.