3 ms·

Hearing aids are expensive. I read back then that the first iPhones were capable of lots of volume cuz Jobs had lost hearing. Germany had a limiter I thought.

Hearing aids are expensive. I read back then that the first iPhones were capable of lots of volume cuz Jobs had lost hearing. Germany had a limiter I thought. Cheaper to crank the volume. Or, just get their (grand)kids to stop whispering all the time /s.

amichail 4y ago
Maybe expensive smartphones could do this. If you can afford one, you can probably afford a hearing aid.
- jleyank 4y ago
  Assume 1-2k usd per ear as a starting point for digital aids and (at least in the us) they’re not covered by insurance. They can be finessed by HSA if they’re still active or written off with taxes subject to the 7% agi rule. For most people, that’s something they’d rather not spend disposable income on - saying “what?” Is cheaper. Also, while people seem quite willing to wear glasses to correct their vision, it seems people are (far?) less willing to wear aids. Perhaps it makes the world too loud, or it’s a hassle feeling like somebody has their fingers in your ears all the time. Damned things itch sometimes. But 85-90% of the time they make the world liveable.
  - ksaj 4y ago
    I very often don't wear my hearing aids for that very reason. I have most of my hearing in one side, so I can get by. The world is a loud place, and hearing not-nice things more clearly isn't much fun. So I only use my hearing aids when I know I'll be where I need to hear conversations in a crowd or whatever. Most people have no idea my hearing is so bad, unless they are walking on the wrong side while trying to carry a conversation. Mine were a bit over $1500 each, so your pricing is pretty much correct. Also, to address something said earlier in the thread, modern hearing aids control more than 8 frequency bands, and the improvement is quite noticeable. Some people have fairly "wide" hearing loss, but for most people it is very specific frequencies, and variable frequency width (q) is the difference between good audio and great audio hearing.
    - amichail 4y ago
      Why doesn't the computer inside the hearing aid make sure not to make the world a loud place? Maybe it should focus on speech (and even then there would be a limit to how loud speech can get)?
      - jleyank 4y ago
        They do, at least the higher end digital ones. But the dsp’s aren’t all knowing and some sounds get jacked when I would have thought not. Restaurants w/o sound dampening are brutal and when a child lets go, on man…
        ksaj 4y ago
        Pretty much this. Modern hearing aids have settings for different environments. But none of them are perfect, and nobody likes to be constantly switching programs. Speech in Noise is the setting that probably fits for the most part. But it isn't pleasant in other environments, and horrendous around road noise. Mine really glom onto the sound of tires on the road if I forget to change the settings on the way out the door. It is funny sometimes that you'll catch snippets of female voices across the road or in passing cars so clearly they might as well be right behind you. The settings for music are the best when it comes to full frequency representation, at the expense of everything else in the environment sounding too extreme. It does sound amazing when on a nature walk, except things like rippling water take on a movie audio quality where it sounds like it was overdubbed. All shrill and hissy sounds (babies crying, sirens, etc) are overwhelming at any configuration. Although I shut mine off in transit if a baby is crying and sometimes joke "Baby, what baby?" (even though I can actually still hear it without my hearing aids) Also, environments with heavy echo/reverb are seriously annoying. There are settings to cancel that out, too, but again, it's a setting you never want on all the time, because it affects far too many other sounds, too.

amichail 4y ago

Maybe expensive smartphones could do this. If you can afford one, you can probably afford a hearing aid.

jleyank 4y ago
Assume 1-2k usd per ear as a starting point for digital aids and (at least in the us) they’re not covered by insurance. They can be finessed by HSA if they’re still active or written off with taxes subject to the 7% agi rule. For most people, that’s something they’d rather not spend disposable income on - saying “what?” Is cheaper. Also, while people seem quite willing to wear glasses to correct their vision, it seems people are (far?) less willing to wear aids. Perhaps it makes the world too loud, or it’s a hassle feeling like somebody has their fingers in your ears all the time. Damned things itch sometimes. But 85-90% of the time they make the world liveable.
- ksaj 4y ago
  I very often don't wear my hearing aids for that very reason. I have most of my hearing in one side, so I can get by. The world is a loud place, and hearing not-nice things more clearly isn't much fun. So I only use my hearing aids when I know I'll be where I need to hear conversations in a crowd or whatever. Most people have no idea my hearing is so bad, unless they are walking on the wrong side while trying to carry a conversation. Mine were a bit over $1500 each, so your pricing is pretty much correct. Also, to address something said earlier in the thread, modern hearing aids control more than 8 frequency bands, and the improvement is quite noticeable. Some people have fairly "wide" hearing loss, but for most people it is very specific frequencies, and variable frequency width (q) is the difference between good audio and great audio hearing.
  - amichail 4y ago
    Why doesn't the computer inside the hearing aid make sure not to make the world a loud place? Maybe it should focus on speech (and even then there would be a limit to how loud speech can get)?
    - jleyank 4y ago
      They do, at least the higher end digital ones. But the dsp’s aren’t all knowing and some sounds get jacked when I would have thought not. Restaurants w/o sound dampening are brutal and when a child lets go, on man…
      - ksaj 4y ago
        Pretty much this. Modern hearing aids have settings for different environments. But none of them are perfect, and nobody likes to be constantly switching programs. Speech in Noise is the setting that probably fits for the most part. But it isn't pleasant in other environments, and horrendous around road noise. Mine really glom onto the sound of tires on the road if I forget to change the settings on the way out the door. It is funny sometimes that you'll catch snippets of female voices across the road or in passing cars so clearly they might as well be right behind you. The settings for music are the best when it comes to full frequency representation, at the expense of everything else in the environment sounding too extreme. It does sound amazing when on a nature walk, except things like rippling water take on a movie audio quality where it sounds like it was overdubbed. All shrill and hissy sounds (babies crying, sirens, etc) are overwhelming at any configuration. Although I shut mine off in transit if a baby is crying and sometimes joke "Baby, what baby?" (even though I can actually still hear it without my hearing aids) Also, environments with heavy echo/reverb are seriously annoying. There are settings to cancel that out, too, but again, it's a setting you never want on all the time, because it affects far too many other sounds, too.