3 ms·
Love the idea, but it does precisely nothing for me at the moment. I have significant hearing loss in one ear. The app doesn't seem to distinguish between ears
by Osmium 13y ago
Love the idea, but it does precisely nothing for me at the moment.
I have significant hearing loss in one ear. The app doesn't seem to distinguish between ears(?) So when I try to calibrate it, I can hear practically the lowest noises on all the screens, so it doesn't really seem to do much whether I turn it on or off.
It's not uncommon for people to have one considerably worse ear; in fact, I would guess it's a lot more common for someone to have one bad ear (due to an infection or similar) than it is to have equal problems in both, though I may well be wrong about this, but even if still think it's worth considering. (Edit: I can't find specific figures comparing incidence of unilateral vs bilateral deafness, but there are certainly plenty of people out there in a similar position to me, e.g. see [0] and [1])
I'm actually in a privileged position of having the results of a professionally-taken hearing test, so I know exactly which frequencies my hearing is bad at too. But the app doesn't seem to show the results of the test it does, so I can't verify its accuracy.
Still, I hope it improves, because I've always wanted an app like this (or, more precisely, an app that would generate a custom corrective EQ curve for each ear). I'll watch with interest... Certainly won't be deleting it yet anyway, and it's nice to see the app itself being so polished.
Edit: I almost think the set-up screens are too simplified. If someone does have significant hearing problems, they'll be more than prepared to spend a few minutes setting it up if it results in a better correction (e.g. more frequency samples and one for each ear).
[0] http://www.hear-it.org/Single-sided-deafness http://www.hear-it.org/Single-sided-deafness
[1] http://www.singlesideddeafness.com/ssd_report.pdf http://www.singlesideddeafness.com/ssd_report.pdf
- adamfeldman 13y agoThis was my experience with the app as well. I could easily ear the lowest noise at all 3 ranges the app presents (lows/mids/highs) (does the app even play anything when it's at the absolute lowest volume setting?). I have what a doctor called "bionic" hearing in one hear and some loss in the other (got too close to a speaker while filming a concert), so testing each ear separately is important to me.
- varunsrin 13y agoCo-founder here - thanks for the great feedback Osmium. You're quite right in that the number of people who have unilateral hearing loss is pretty high (it's close to 40% from some recent studies). We're working on developing a test that works well for people with single ear hearing loss for a future app update - would you be interested in trying out our beta? Please drop me an email if you are: varun [at] soundfocus [dot] com.
- Osmium 13y agoWould love to try out the beta! Thanks :) Email sent.
- whbk 13y agoI've had significant hearing loss in one ear since birth and finally got around to getting a hearing aid after finishing school last year. Right now I typically put the standard Apple earbuds over my hearing aid when walking around, but strongly prefer my Bose QuietComforts when I'm coding and want noise-canceling. This obviously isn't ideal because my hearing aid and the QCs don't play nice together, so I end up just taking out my hearing aid to use them. Really looking forward to seeing what's in store, and happy to help however possible - I'll email as well re: beta testing.
- varunsrin 13y agoAlex (my co-founder) had this exact problem except in both ears, and he uses our app every day for the same reason - hearing aids just don't play well with earbuds or headphones. Thanks for signing up whbk, it's always great to get more beta testers to validate the changes to the sound processing as we keep improving it.