4 ms·

Pretty sure that in my country Western imported hearing aids start around 300 or 500 dollars—mostly European ones. And afaik those aren't the ‘just blare at 5x

by aasasd 7y ago

Pretty sure that in my country Western imported hearing aids start around 300 or 500 dollars—mostly European ones. And afaik those aren't the ‘just blare at 5x the volume’ type but tuned by the audiologist to the patient's hearing profile. And they go behind the ear. 2000 bucks are the type with a dozen advanced effects, bluetooth connection to work as music player headphones, and adjustable with a remote or an app. So, people in the US might find it cheaper to order European aids or smuggle something from Canada. (BTW, afaik plane tickets cost way less if you buy them in the airport just before the flight.) ---- Also, personally I'd be wary of twiddling the params of a hearing aid since I'm not an audiologist nor any kind of doctor at all and don't know if my choice would cause more damage in the long term. And if audiologists mostly reside at hearing aid dealerships then I'm not sure they will just give you a chart of your hearing so you can walk home and tune your aid by it. Ah, and azalemeth's comment reminds me: if the board just has jacks for headphones then you can't even use the hearing charts without also knowing the frequency response for the headphones.

jjeaff 7y ago
If it were that simple, people would be importing them and selling them already. Black market or not. But high end hearing aids take multiple in-person visits with experts for in-depth hearing tests and then impressions for a perfect fit, then hand adjusting to tune the fit and return visits to tune the sound and fit. The technology is probably not the most expensive part of high end hearing aids. It's the service.
- hadlock 7y ago
  My eye doctor puts me in front of a bunch of lenses and then says "better... flip or worse?" over and over and we end up with a set of lenses. Without access to a trained doctor, at first glance (no pun intended) it seems like you could do a 95%+ job of fitting a hearing aid's sound profile using a better/worse UI on a phone app and some prerecorded sounds/speech samples. I have zero experience with hearing loss, though.
  - aasasd 7y ago
    Well, you see, sound has this magic quality that the more you jack it up, the more you hear. Ever been to a concert of a warm homey Ninja Tune artist, such as Coldcut or Amon Tobin? They turn out to be eye-popping industrial hardcore on a club's 10000 watt system. The problem is, it's not good to put too much sound into the ears.
    - computator 7y ago
      The person you're replying to didn't say anything about jacking up the sound. He said, "you could do a 95%+ job of fitting a hearing aid's sound profile using a better/worse UI on a phone app and some prerecorded sounds/speech samples". You'd train it--at a constant sound level--by listening to sample audio recordings and repeatedly saying "better" or "worse". The same way you need to train a speech-to-text dictation system by repeating a bunch of phrases, or a fingerprint scanner by repeatedly swiping your finger, or voice recognition by repeating some words. It sounds like a totally reasonable way to eliminate high-priced fitting sessions.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - wtallis 7y ago
        Hearing testing for the most part isn't about the patient giving better/worse feedback. It's about determining the quietest levels at which you can hear each frequency, and how much loudness you need to accurately identify sounds and speech. The tester has to assess when the patient's performance is better or not, because it's blind testing. The patient's feedback is in the form of either signalling "I heard that", or repeating the words that were just played.
        computator 7y ago
        > The patient's feedback is in the form of either signalling "I heard that", or repeating the words that were just played. Why is a human tester needed? I'm not seeing any reason that couldn't be automated.

by aasasd 7y ago

jjeaff 7y ago

If it were that simple, people would be importing them and selling them already. Black market or not. But high end hearing aids take multiple in-person visits with experts for in-depth hearing tests and then impressions for a perfect fit, then hand adjusting to tune the fit and return visits to tune the sound and fit. The technology is probably not the most expensive part of high end hearing aids. It's the service.

hadlock 7y ago
My eye doctor puts me in front of a bunch of lenses and then says "better... flip or worse?" over and over and we end up with a set of lenses. Without access to a trained doctor, at first glance (no pun intended) it seems like you could do a 95%+ job of fitting a hearing aid's sound profile using a better/worse UI on a phone app and some prerecorded sounds/speech samples. I have zero experience with hearing loss, though.
- aasasd 7y ago
  Well, you see, sound has this magic quality that the more you jack it up, the more you hear. Ever been to a concert of a warm homey Ninja Tune artist, such as Coldcut or Amon Tobin? They turn out to be eye-popping industrial hardcore on a club's 10000 watt system. The problem is, it's not good to put too much sound into the ears.
  - computator 7y ago
    The person you're replying to didn't say anything about jacking up the sound. He said, "you could do a 95%+ job of fitting a hearing aid's sound profile using a better/worse UI on a phone app and some prerecorded sounds/speech samples". You'd train it--at a constant sound level--by listening to sample audio recordings and repeatedly saying "better" or "worse". The same way you need to train a speech-to-text dictation system by repeating a bunch of phrases, or a fingerprint scanner by repeatedly swiping your finger, or voice recognition by repeating some words. It sounds like a totally reasonable way to eliminate high-priced fitting sessions.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - wtallis 7y ago
      Hearing testing for the most part isn't about the patient giving better/worse feedback. It's about determining the quietest levels at which you can hear each frequency, and how much loudness you need to accurately identify sounds and speech. The tester has to assess when the patient's performance is better or not, because it's blind testing. The patient's feedback is in the form of either signalling "I heard that", or repeating the words that were just played.
      - computator 7y ago
        > The patient's feedback is in the form of either signalling "I heard that", or repeating the words that were just played. Why is a human tester needed? I'm not seeing any reason that couldn't be automated.