HOW TO COMPARE HEARING AIDS BEFORE

BUYING

- Compiled by

Best Hearing Aids Blog

People with hearing loss, naturally you look out for the various styles, designs and brands of hearing aids available to find a suitable one.

You need to be well informed in order to distinguish different hearing aids and make a sound decision yourself.

Always the first comparison is done between whether to buy analog or digital hearing aids.

The analog hearing aids are very less expensive. 

Analog hearing aids plainly pick up a signal from microphone, amplify it and transmit louder sound to the ear.

There is a type of hearing aid that falls between the analog and digital categories i.e. they are not completely digital.

They are called either digital programmable or analog programmable.

The concept behind such hearing aid is that it is an analog hearing aid.

The only advantage it has is that of a certain amount of customization in programming by using software. 

Using this advantage you can adapt or adjust your listening preferences in various listening situations by manually switching to various settings.

The settings can be brought to original by reprogramming again. 

These hearing aids are expensive than the regular analog hearing aids but lesser than the complete digital hearing aids.

Digital hearing aids are the costliest among all. But it can be justified for more than one reason

The digital hearing aids provide the best results without a doubt.

The quality of sound that they provide can be compared to that of the digital music or mp3 which is far advanced.

This quality is achieved through a function called Digital Signal Processing.

OTHER COMPARATIVE DIFFERENCES IN HEARING AIDS

The programming of hearing aids is very important.

The number of channels or bands is very much significant because if the hearing loss is not the same for all the frequencies then you will require various frequencies corrected differently.

The number of bands required by an individual may differ.

Some may require only a couple while some may require many bands.

Another important feature to compare is if the hearing aid comes with the directional microphones.

This very feature accentuates the sounds in front of you and not the sounds coming from behind. 

If the hearing aid is a ‘smart’ hearing aid. Such hearing aids are of highest capacity.

They determine one’s preferences by the usage of the hearing aids.

They are interactive and user-friendly.

The smart hearing aid automatically sets itself on your convenient mode as programmed by you.

Finally to check the reduced feedback and wind noise.

To check the compatibility of hearing aids with phones or mobiles.