IS IT TRUE THAT HEARING DEVICES ARE HIGHLY ADVANCED?
Yes, this is one area where medical research and technology have combined to greatly improve the experience of people using them. This means that hearing devices have become smaller and more discreet, and can deliver a much better listening experience.
In particular, recent developments have focused on trying to replicate the natural sounds that people with normal hearing would hear. After all, the human ear is a perfectly designed listening system – and the ears of some of our fellow mammals are even more impressive. If you’ve ever been alerted to a delivery vehicle by your dog’s ears pricking up minutes before you hear anything, you’ve seen the power of an animal’s hearing in action.
SO WHAT’S NEW
ABOUT THE LATEST
HEARING DEVICES?
Recent developments have focused on improving speech understanding and listening comfort.
Struggling to make sense of speech is often an early indicator of hearing issues and can be a source of great frustration.
Hearing conversations against noisy backgrounds can be particularly difficult – and that’s where the latest hearing devices excel.
WHAT DOES LISTENING COMFORT MEAN?
Again, this development is all about trying to replicate the way the human ear works – gently tuning out background noise to effectively amplify the sounds we need to hear – or want to hear. A hearing device that simply magnified every sound in the environment would be very uncomfortable to use.
They’re very smart! They are able to process a whole range of sounds, and automatically decide what’s important and what is, well, just noise. We live in a loud world, with sounds ranging from the beautiful and uplifting to the frankly annoying.
Today’s hearing devices reduce the effort you have to put in to listen and make sense of things and let you concentrate on the sounds you enjoy.
CAN A HEARING DEVICE REALLY DELIVER A NATURAL EXPERIENCE?
Yes, if it has some of the latest features. With two ears, you can judge the relative distance and direction of sounds – a vital ability if you want to make sense of the world around you. Modern hearing devices can reproduce this effect and let you hear in 3D. In other words, they provide realistic surround sound.
This is where the latest hearing devices really deliver. By selectively reducing background noise, they let you hear – and enjoy – the sounds you’ve been missing. It could be the dawn chorus, a favourite piece of music, or your grandchildren’s laughter.
A modern hearing device can do just that. Forget about the tinny, fake-sounding noise and static that people used to have to put up with. This is a whole new era of hearing technology. We’re talking balanced, natural sound that lets you take part in conversations and hear speech without the noise.