Converting over to digital from analogue

[ben mann]

"I live in NZ at the moment but I am a UK citizen and still own a house in the UK. Do you take referrals from NZ registered hearing aids specialists? I wonder if there is a reciprocal arrangement between the UK and NZ whereby I can get the aids via the NHS but sent to NZ? The aids are for my daughter who is 15 years old.
Alan"
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com

[ben mann]

With regard to reciprocal arrangements, NHS hearing aids are not supposed to leave the UK (although no-one really polices it), so I doubt if the NHS will send them out to you, although you should be able to get them from NZ if there is an arrangement in place.

Your daughter needs to start looking for an upgrade to her hearing aids. She has probably tried digital and wanted to stay with her Pico's, but as we said it won't be a long-term option for her. The manufacturers are only obliged to keep repairing them for 5 years after discontinuing the model. I have come across lots of patients reluctant to swap to digital, but have converted all of them in the end with preferential results.

Kind regards

Ben Mann
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com

[ben mann]

"You are nearly 'spot on' Ben. My daughter has tried four different sorts of digital aids two in the UK and two in NZ. She is a serious flute player and she has a very developed aural 'relationship' with her PicoFortes as she has had them for 14 years. She can tell the most subtle difference between aids, even able to tell older microphone differences on Picofortes. She simply cannot play her flute with any digital aid. It is NOT a matter of habitualising to new digital aids as she has had a complete two-month period of only wearing digital aids. I agree with you that in the end she will have to switch as Phonak have discontinued them but that will mean she will have to give up the flute. Her health specialist here has agreed that she should stick with PicoFortes as long as she can. She can survive on speech-only with digital aids. I think it is wrong that there is no digital aid that can mimic her analogue aids so she can carry on playing the flute.
Any comments welcomed.
Alan"
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com

[ben mann]

What I tend to do to help the die-hard analogue users is run a series of gain and output specs in a coupler, use the computer to try to match the frequency response of the favourite aid and turn off all of the noise reduction and directional mics. As aids are multiprogram now, it may be that for some programmes a little noise reduction or directionality is helpful, but not for a music programme. In this respect digital aids can definitely mimic analogue aids, but your daughter is obviously very discerning and also has a trained ear.

I think that this is a really useful point for discussion, do you mind if I paste it on the forum and we can continue it there as many people have similar problems and I am trying to populate the forum as it's really new?

You can click through and register on the forum from www.clickhearing.com.
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com

[Garry]

This raises an extremely interesting point about analogue vs digital, and the fact that digital isn't always better. A good example is the sorry state of digital tv and radio with ridiculous compression resulting in worse quality than the old FM and UHF.

Personally I love my digital aid and am so glad I switched, but it would be a shame if the manufacturers are not considering the customers with specialist needs who require absolute fidelity without digital alterations. Perhaps a "pure" mode similar to hi-fi systems, bypassing the frequency filters would be all that's needed?

Garry

[Gilvrie]

I have never experienced analogue, I became aware I had hearing loss in 2003 (age 35). I was devastated when I found out I required 2 aids. I now wear 2 Phonak digital micro BTE aids. They are so good I forget I'm wearing them, when I socialise, people are not aware that I have hearing loss. The sound is so natural. Ben Mann has done a brilliant job fitting them.


Gilvrie

[ben mann]

Thanks for your comments Gilvrie. I'm gald to hear that eveything is still going well.
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com

[Gilvrie]

I was surprised how clear the sound is when wearing a waterproof analogue hearing aid. It seemed a long time since I had heard so well when I was in the swimming pool. An old lady asked me to read the number on her locker, little did she realise that my hearing loss was probably worse than hers, I wear my contact lenses underneath my goggles so I could see and hear. It was great to be young again.

Gilvrie.

[Gilvrie]

There are different colours, which is good. I used to wear my digital aids for running to make sure I could hear the traffic. The moisture caused endless hearing aid problems. I now feel confident that I can look after my digital aids and wear the waterproof aid every time I do any sort of exercise. I can even wear the waterproof aid in the shower, which is really helpful as I always used to miss the post.
Gilvrie

[lornawest]

I have recently enquired in visiting click hearing and was delighted to see that they had this forum on here.

I am unfortunatley a analog lover. I did have a Widex Analog which worked fab for me. I never had any real trouble.dispite my hearing loss. All my family and friend just cant beleive how well I have done I unfortunatly lost my aid 2 months ago and finding teh right aid for my at this present moment in time seems very distressing as my life seems to be on hold.

I can see why the digitals are taking over the analogs buts I dont understand why the manufacturers have to completly wipe out the analogues for those minorities!!

Is there anyone out there that has managed to adapt to digital aids after being so attached with the analogues!!!.

[lornawest]

I have recently enquired in visiting click hearing and was delighted to see that they had this forum on here.

I am unfortunatley a analog lover. I did have a Widex Analog which worked fab for me. I never had any real trouble.dispite my hearing loss. All my family and friend just cant beleive how well I have done I unfortunatly lost my aid 2 months ago and finding teh right aid for my at this present moment in time seems very distressing as my life seems to be on hold.

I can see why the digitals are taking over the analogs buts I dont understand why the manufacturers have to completly wipe out the analogues for those minorities!!

Is there anyone out there that has managed to adapt to digital aids after being so attached with the analogues!!!.

[lornawest]

:(

I have recently enquired in visiting click hearing and was delighted to see that they had this forum on here.

I am unfortunatley a analog lover. I did have a Widex Analog which worked fab for me. I never had any real trouble.dispite my hearing loss. All my family and friend just cant beleive how well I have done I unfortunatly lost my aid 2 months ago and finding teh right aid for my at this present moment in time seems very distressing as my life seems to be on hold.

I can see why the digitals are taking over the analogs buts I dont understand why the manufacturers have to completly wipe out the analogues for those minorities!!

Is there anyone out there that has managed to adapt to digital aids after being so attached with the analogues!!!.

[Gilvrie]

I couldn't wear my Phonak ha's on my Placement. Every time I tried to wear them I had whistling. I had to wear my NHS Spirit 3s. Although the Spirit 3s are digital I could not hear the children well enough. It turned out the cause was wax. I could not believe how much. Now I have got rid of the wax, my Phonak HA is functioning normally again. It actually seems that my natural hearing is better- I think I'd had the wax a long time and this was stopping me from hearing properly. I really like hearing again!

Gilvrie

[Toe]

just came here as a response left on a thread i created, on the bbc see hear forum.
you say you can convert anyone to a digital device from analogue?

well Ben, il lay the challenge down for you.
and if you can do it, you can tell the audiologists at the liverpool royal hospital how to do it.

i got a couple of siemens digi devices here that i cant use, 1 reason being they programmed them in a dead room with no real niose to test them against, and plus them telling me according to the audiograph they know how much hearing i need. which is not what i am used to.

they are dull in sound, i got them to take the compression off, but they still clip. just shoddy quality, i like to hear everything, if the sound is there , i want to hear it, as this is what natural sound is all about.
its a shame they dont listen to what the wearer needs, instead they read off the screen and decide what you get.
last time i was there, i asked them if it was possible to program them in a more realistic enviroment , so atleast that would give them a fighting chance of getting it right.
Guess what they said?? No.

its all too clinical. im a human being not a robot.

for the moment, they managed to refurb my BE36, but its not as good as it used to be.

[ben mann]

Dear Toe,
I do like a challenge and i'm very pleased to say that the 1 person that i'd failed to convert to digital is now delighted with her Unitron Yuu digital CIC's!!

Programming hearing aids in realistic environments is tough. We can play sound samples, but nothing is quite like real life. We can use live speech mapping to plot what parts of speech will be audible to you, but this is still done in a quiet environment, and probably isn't equipment that you will find in most NHS audiology departments.

I would say that it's pretty crucial that you get this resolved before your BE36 packs up. At the moment you have a 'template' that works well for you, and using a coupler we can try to match the frequency response and MPO of your digital aid to it. It's a much harder job if we can't measure that sound that you've grown accustomed to.
_________________
Ben Mann
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Dispenser.
www.clickhearing.com