Re: [Phys-L] Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA)

[Paul Nord <paul.nord@valpo.edu>]

Ludwik,

I shared your hearing aid alternative ideas with a professional in the
field.  Not surprisingly, your claims about the technology were not taken
well.

"I have a computer that is ten years old. It works just as well now as it
did when it was new. But, please don't compare it to what is available now.
You will just hurt its feelings. The man is used to his analog hearing
aids. He accepts what they sound like as normal. He is sure the new hearing
aids won't sound any better. PSAP's have been compared to OTC reading
glasses. Okay... When I got my "cheaters" they helped in a particular
environment--reading labels. Great! When I wanted to see in all
environments, I went to the eye doc and got glasses to help me in all
environments. The professor really doesn't understand much about how
hearing loss affects the whole person. He thinks it's mainly about volume
and price. Normal hearing people who use PSAP's could damage their hearing.
The professor's ideas about potentiometers are as outdated as his hearing
aids. We used to use them, but they severely limited our flexibility on
programming. His 6-8 year life span is a little exaggerated as
manufacturers won't repair their own aids that are over 5 years of age. The
update on hearing aids is usually due to the changing needs of the
individual's lifestyle as well as the technology. Our professor's idea
about slowing fast speech in the device...REALLY?! Has he thought this
through at all? Sure people will do better on a test sentence. Try that in
real life. Is the fast talker going to magically wait for a response from
someone who is taking "valuable" time to process what's been said? No, in
all likelihood the fast talker has moved on to a new topic, or a new
conversation partner. Would I adjust a person's PSAP if they bought it
somewhere else? Absolutely! And, I'd give them a demo aid to see what good
hearing really sounds like. One never knows the value of something until it
is gone. When I take my demo back, they will recognize the value of the
"expensive hearing technology" that the professor seemed loathe to try.
Sorry about the rambling...but I could go on and on about this topic."

Paul

On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Ludwik Kowalski <
kowalskil@mail.montclair.edu> wrote:

> Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA)
>
> Hearing aids are very expensive, typically from $3000 to $6000 a pair.
>
> But some people might wearing them, for many year.
>
> I describe this alternative at my university website:
>
> http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/aps.htm
>
> Feel free to share this short essay with others.
>
> Comments will be appreciated.
>
> Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)
>
>
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