Analog Vs Digital hearing aids for profoundly deaf people

D

dude

New Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
i am profoundly deaf and speak reasonably good. i have tried digital hearing aids for few months to get used to the new digital sound but i could not hear properly like music, chat, sound background etc. it is like one sound cos I cant hear everything sounds. my speech got bad. i have decided to go back to analog hearing aids because i can hear everything sounds as same as hearing people hear. it helps my speech alot. i have many friends told me that they are not happy with digital hearing aids because it is not good quality sounds. they prefer analog hearing aids which has everything quality sound like normal hearing people hear.
 
I had the same experience even though the audiologists kept shoving digital aids at me to try out. I think I must have gone through 3 or 4 different audiologists! Anyway I finally found a place that listened to me and fitted me up with a Phonak Novoforte analogue aid. It was much cheaper than the digital aids too. I am talking Australian dollars here but I got two analogue aids for $3K as opposed to $7K that the digital aids were going to cost.

Some audiologists will tell you that analogue aids are not made any more, which isn't true.

I'm moving on to CI now as my hearing loss has got worse.

R2D2
 
Yeah....digis are good....but they don't offer the best hearing for everyone.
 
Well, I hear that the digitals have maintenance issues. Never had them when I wore a HA (always had analogs and I swear by them) :thumb: Er...now that I'm using a CI...it is irrelevant to me personally these days...besides being free of earmodes has been fantastic! They were a big pain when I had to get a new one (far too frequently).
 
I gotta log in here more often...always something new.

I'm an audiologist, and I think I can offer some explanation as to why people with severe to profound hearing loss are having difficulty with digitals. At moderate outputs, the sound quality differences of analog and digital hearing aids are almost indistinguishable to human ears. At high output, however, digitals distort less than analogs. This is part of the reason your audiologists keep trying to foist digital technology on you. It really may be clearer sound.

So if there's less distortion in digitals, why is it hard for long-time analog users to switch? When you don't get a lot of signal, your brain does a phenomenal job of using what it gets. That includes distortion. And with a profound loss, without the hearing aid you're not going to hear any normal sounds. So what your brain registers as normal is the distorted analog sound. Switch that to clearer sound, and you lose some signal. Now, a lot of analog users can make that switch...but a lot cannot.

Increasingly the analogs are being discontinued. Oticon has a few, I think; so does Phonak, Unitron (maybe?), and a few others. Siemens does not. The day will most likely come when analogs are no longer available. Where will that leave us in terms of dedicated analog users? Digital technology is very, very flexible. Who knows? Maybe we'll get digitals that can be programmed to sound like analogs.

Are digital hearing aids higher maintenance? I've yet to see a study...and I can't imagine the hearing aid industry running a study that shows their newest, highest tech stuff is also prone to breakdown. Anecdotally, I feel like newer hearing aids, both analog and digital, are not as sturdy as their predecessors. We've seen increased miniaturization, and I'm sure that's part of it, but still, you have to wonder. Rest assured, it annoys your audiologist...nearly as much as it annoys you.

Unless, of course, your audiologist is a schmuck.
 
i like digitals. I think they work better than analogs for myself. I can't handle background noise very well, and like that the digital reduces/blocks out background noise. and I think everything sounds much more clearer with a digital too.
 
I wear a pair of digitial hearing aids for 5 years now and it took me one year to get used to it because the sounds are a lot different than the analog hearing aids. At first I thought I wasn't hearing as well with the digitial hearing aids, but the idea is to block off the background noises and hear better with one person talking to you. I went through frustration and anger because I could not get used to it right away. I loved analog and I have days that I want to go back to it because I'm a music junkie. I must have analog sound for music and t.v. to hear better and actually they sound better. As for conversations, I prefer digitial hearing aids. I love the loudness, but I think that's what destroyed my hearing seven years ago because I blasted my stereo every single day. :dunno:

By the way, the kind of hearing loss I have is moderate to severe to profound loss. It goes from 55db to 110db.
 
That's interesting urs is 55db to 110db. Mine is 60db to 90db. We both have different ha's.
 
The prices on digital hearing aids are ridicilous! I still use analog hearing aids. :P
 
Catmandu said:
I loved analog and I have days that I want to go back to it because I'm a music junkie. I must have analog sound for music and t.v. to hear better and actually they sound better.
Click to expand...

It's interesting that you should say this. While I'm hearing and have never had to pick out a hearing aid, I'm not surprised in the slightest.

I'm a pretty big "music junkie", too (love your word choice! :) ), and with those of us who like music with a lot of synthesizers, you get this argument about whether the modern digital ones or the old analogs like the Minimoog are better. (Maybe you've participated in this argument? ;) ). There are a lot of us who swear by the analog synths because you get one continuous signal instead of the broken-up signal from a digital...and if you listen carefully you can definitely pick out the difference. The analogs just create a warmer sound, for lack of better words. The digitals are more versatile in what you can program them to do, though.

The point of all that rambling is that I can relate to that debate--but from the sound production angle rather than reception. Seems like two sides of the same coin.
 
I'm not profoundly deaf, but I do prefer analog hearing aids over digital hearing aids. I wear only one hearing aid because hearing aids don't work well on my right ear. Instead of a mild hearing loss, it's a wacky hearing loss. With my left ear, the whole level of hearing loss is steady so increasing the volume helps me hear better. With my right ear, the hearing loss is great... but mild when it comes to low sounds. In other words, low bass bothers me... while higher sounds are completely gone.

Anyway, with digital hearing aids... the background sounds seem to be drowned out a bit and the direct sound is annoying. With analog hearing aids, I hear just about everything. I rather be aware of everything than to have a hearing aid that helps me hear only one thing.
 
Please let me kmow where you get your Analog HAs. Cannot find any. Thanks, Kathy
 
Hey you know.....I wonder if the analog vs. digital debate is like the MP3 sound quality vs. tape/CD sound quality.
 
Same here. I can't find Analog's hearing aids images at google.com. It's weird! I know about digital hearing aids but not Analog. I am wearing 2 hearing aids now. I can't wear one hearing aid. I can't hear in background. I have to wear 2 to help me hear better. I need to look what is Analog alike. If it's not find at internet. Can you send a picture of yourself with your ha?
 
Thank you so much! I checked it out. I got it. I am wearing this kind of Analog Phonak. I wasn't sure which is Digital and Analog. LoL

john57 said:
Phonak for example still have three Analog lines with a total of 14 models here is the Url

Phonak hearing systems - Analog

I prefer Analog myself but I would like the Phonak wind blocker program on some of the digital aids.
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top