If you don't want to grind up your old unused hearing aids in a blender as seen in the funny Blendtec video, and if you have already made your charitable donations for the year and don't feel you need to donate them for recycling, there is another way to get them out of your drawer: you can trade in two of your old aids for $200 off the price of a pair of new digital hearing aids from America Hears. The promotion means you can get a pair from America Hears, the only direct-to-consumer online provider of premium programmable digital hearing aids, for $895 a piece. It's a great deal, as America Hears' flat $995-per-hearing-aid price is already less than half the cost of other premium brands. I recently wrote about my experience with a new pair of America Hears aids, which allow you to make programming adjustments at home. 
Posted by David on May 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Blendtec Shows What You Can Do With Your Unused Hearing Aids
Are you tired of seeing your father’s hearing aids sitting unused in the drawer? Do you want to send him a message he won’t forget? Visit one of the funniest web sites I've seen recently. It's called "Will it Blend?" hosted by Blendtec, the commercial blender company, which created an internet sensation with its YouTube video showing an industrial-strength blender grinding an Apple iPhone to dust. The iPhone video has been viewed four million times and counting. Now click here for Blendtec founder Tom Dickson’s hilarious video of someone who looks like your father donating multiple pairs of hearing aids for the same treatment. The video is a hoot, but the old guy who has tossed his last hearing aid into the blender gets the last laugh when he says “That’s the quietest blender I ever heard!”
Posted by David on Apr 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)
Yes, You Can Buy Premium-Quality Digital Hearing Aids Over The Internet
I recently got a new pair of hearing aids, and I'm as excited as if I'd just bought a new sports car. One of the reasons I'm so happy is that I was able to take ownership of the process for the first time by getting them from America Hears, Inc., which sells and supports hearing-aid consumers directly over the internet. I still love my audiologist, but I'm always looking for something new, and America Hears not only offered a new product but also an entirely new way of getting hearing assistance. I ordered exactly what I wanted, got a set of aids in the mail programmed to my audiogram, and then I was able to make adjustments using software they gave me for my PC with the help of the America Hears audiologist at the other end of the phone. Because the company manufactures and sells direct to consumers, their hearing aids are much less expensive than other premium brands. My expectation was that I'd get a serviceable product, but without the bells and whistles of my high-end Widex hearing aids. However, I was stunned when America Hears sent me full-function, premium digital products that provided me with a much better hearing experience in every way.
Here's the short story, though I will write more about it in future posts. To get an America Hears hearing aid, all you have to do is fax the company a copy of a recent audiogram. They build a fully digital product, and their staff audiologists program it exactly to your specifications. They ship it to you along with software and a simple programmer you can use with your PC to adjust your hearing aids further. Because they sell and support direct without any middlemen, they are very affordable, charging only $995 per hearing aid. That's less than half what other makers of premium-brand hearing aids charge. They charge the same price for any of their models, wihch range from new open-fit speaker-in-the-ear products to traditional behind-the-ear models to numerous in-the-ear designs.
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Posted by David on Apr 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)
'Hearing-Aid Hacking' Gives The Inside Word On Assistive-Listening Technology
I just discovered a LiveJournal site called "Hearing-Aid Hacking" which gives great do-it-yourself advice on using assistive listening technologies with hearing aids. It features tips and new technologies from real hearing-aid users, everything from how to work with the direct-audio-input (DAI) connections on your hearings aids (if they have them), to the latest on new Bluetooth technologies (especially for mobile phone users) and on the new bells and whistles that hearing-aid manufacturers seem to constantly announce. Here is the site's mission statement: "For high end users of hearing aids. We're frustrated that we're behind the technology curve and pay huge dollars/pounds/euros for good hearing aids that are unaware of and incompatible with anything resembling recent advances in consumer audio tech. We're willing to blaze our own path because no one will do it for us until they realize there is money in them thar hills." If you are a new or experienced hearing-aid user, there is probably something there for you.
Posted by David on Dec 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Buy Oticon Delta 'Think Pink' Hearing Aids And Fight Breast Cancer
Oticon is putting its money where its mouth is with donations to the American Cancer Society tied to purchases of its Delta hearing aids during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Oticon has introduced its "Think Pink" Delta Lifestyle Edition hearing aids to match the pink ribbons and other apparel people wear to create awareness and raise money for breast cancer research. Oticon points out that many cancer survivors wear hearing aids, because side effects from otoxic, platinum-based chemotherapy drugs can kill the inner ear's tiny hair cells, which convert sound vibrations to nerve impulses enabling hearing. Tying your corporate philanthropic donations to causes you are already involved with is a sensible approach and also has marketing benefits.
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Posted by David on Sep 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Microbattery.com Offers Hearing-Aid Battery Ratings Along With Low Prices
I've finally wised up and decided to get my hearing-aid batteries from a less expensive source than my local pharmacy. There are a lot of battery sites on the web, but the best I've found for hearing aids so far is Microbattery.com. In addition to a huge choice of small batteries for all kinds of devices ranging from wrist watches to digital cameras to electronic dog collars, the site offers a comprehensive selection of hearing-aid batteries from all the top vendors. It promises to be the lowest-price supplier, and it offers comparative data if you are inclined to shop on performance as well as price, with a great rating chart based on surveys of users of the life of different hearing-aid brands and sizes when used by real customers wearing different models of hearing aids. I've decided to stick with my Duracell 13's, partly because in an earlier life Duracell was a client of mine, but also because I like their plastic cases. I can't get the four-pack holder which I prefer at my local CVS Pharmacy, so the fact it's available online is a bonus. Plus you can't beat the price. Whereas CVS sells two eight packs for $14.59, or 91 cents per battery, Microbattery.com sells a lone four pack for $2.96 (74 cents per battery) and a carton of 10 four packs for $24.95 (62 cents per battery).
Posted by David on Sep 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Bernafon Brite Hearing Aids Win Prestigious Red-Dot Design Award
Shortly after my 80-year-old mother-in-law got a CIC (completely-in-the-canal) hearing aid, we got a panicked phone call one evening. "I just ate my hearing aid," she screamed into the phone. it seems she had mistakenly dropped her small hearing-aid into a bowl of nuts, and when she grabbed a handful, she chewed it right up. I chalked up the mishap to her age and her failing eyesight, but with the release of Bernafon's family of Brite hearing aids, I'm more sympathetic to anyone who might make the same mistake. The new hearing aids look like little pieces of fruit, small vegetables or candy. And they've won the prestigious Red Dot award for design. Bernafon is a susbidiary of the William Demant holding group, which owns other prestigious brands including leading hearing-aid maker Oticon as well as Sennheiser, the manufacturer of high-end headsets and other hearing-enhancement products. The new Brite hearing aids feature leading-edge features as well as leading-edge design.
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Posted by David on Sep 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Siemens Gets Active With New Cielo And Nitro Hearing-Aid Families
Siemens Hearing is the quiet giant in the hearing-aid industry. While Phonak makes noise with its splashy Audeo ads, while Oticon promotes its stylish candy-colored open-fit hearing aids, while Widex keeps itself busy being the "blingi-est" hearing-aid company, and while GN ReSound makes headlines not getting itself acquired, Siemens Hearing just goes about its business developing new products based on cutting-edge technologies. Siemens has recently introduced an open-fit, behind-the-ear hearing aid for "active" users. The Cielo 2 Active family has a nanotech-based coating that is water resistant as well as a special ear tip that guards against wax and moisture. It also has a rechargeable battery. At the same time, Siemens has bucked the open-fit, behind-the-ear trend with another new product that some users (myself included) will see as a revolutionary advance: the first completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aid for people with severe hearing loss. The new Nitro CIC is the first I've seen that solves the feedback problems usually associated with high-amplification in-the-canal products. That is not an easy trick, so it must incorporate some pretty slick technology.
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Posted by David on Aug 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Songbird Hearing Gets Re-Start Financing For Disposable Hearing Aids
Songbird Hearing, the disposable hearing-aid company which mysteriously suspended operations several years ago, has recently received venture capital financing to re-start its operations. NewSpring Capital and The Provco Group of Pennsylvania have put $4 million in new financing into the New Jersey company, according to the VentureWire newsletter. Songbird originally spun out of the famed research labs of Sarnoff Corp. (formerly RCA labs). The idea was to market a very inexpensive completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aid for people with mild to moderate hearing loss that could be thrown out when the battery died after a month or so of use, just like disposable contact lenses. But after selling its product for several years, Songbird quietly shut down its operations with minimal explanation in 2005.
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Posted by David on Aug 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
$50,000 Widex Hearing Aid Is One Of The Nuttiest Promotions I've Seen
I stumbled across a news release purporting to be from the Widex people in the U.K. promoting a gold- and diamond-encrusted hearing aid with remote controller priced at 25,000 UK pounds ($50,144 U.S. dollars). Advertising itself as the "blingi-est" hearing aid in the world, it is a version of the new Widex "M" family of hearing aids. The M family apparently is Widex's attempt to get hip and with it in the same manner Phonak has with its Audeo family and Oticon has with its Delta hearing aids. Featuring attractive colors and different styles, including open-fit, thin-tube behind-the-ear models which are particularly appealing to aging baby boomers, the M family leverages Widex's excellent Inteo digital signal processing technologies that reduce feedback, enable better hearing in noise, and provide automatic adjustment to different acousting environments. Phonak and Oticon have done a lot of aggressive marketing, sometimes going over the top in their efforts to appeal to oldish hipsters, but I've got to say the bling-bling gold-and-diamond Widex UK promotion takes the cake and wins my prize for nuttiest hearing aid promotion yet.
Posted by David on Aug 23, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
'Boomer Babe' Says Phonak Audeo Hearing-Aid Ads Are Okay With Her
The Phonak Audeo hearing-aid advertising campaign is the gift that just keeps giving. I ridiculed the campaign when it first broke, but shame on me. By blitzing consumer magazines popular with baby boomers (Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, etc.) with its edgy ads, the new Audeo open-fit behind-the-ear hearing aids have turned more heads of fashion-conscious boomers than anything I've seen. I really enjoyed the latest writeup on Boomer Babe's blog on the Inventor Spot web site. Boomer Babe writes about all sorts of gadgets of interest to people in the 40s, 50s and beyond and should be a fun read for many Hearing Mojo readers. One of the best lines in her writeup, which is titled "Hearing Aids Just Got Cool and Sexy," is in the comment section, where a reader observes: "Biggest cause of hearing aids? To much phone sex." That about sums up the Phonak campaign which Sonova CEO Valentin Chapero is touting as a vehicle for the company's bid to overtake Siemens and William Demant as the world's top hearing-aid company, in spite of the collapse of Sonova's long-planned acquisition of GN Resound.
Posted by David on Aug 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Sonova Undaunted By Collapse Of GN Resound Hearing-Aid Acquisition
Valentin Chapero is telling Wall Street that Sonova, led by its Phonak brand of hearing aids, will still vie to become the world's number one hearing-aid company even after the collapse of its bid to acquire GN Resound from GN Store Nord. The German trade authorities blocked the bid with a final decision this past week forbidding the merger in Germany, where the combination would create an effective oligopoly with three companies in control of 90 percent of the hearing-aid market. Sonova CEO Chapero has told analysts he still expects Phonak to grow faster than the rest of the industry and close in on Siemens Hearing and the William Demant companies, the world's two biggest hearing-aid companies. GN Store Nord, which has a highly successful head-set business, now has to decide whether to seek another buyer for GN Resound, spin it out as a separate company, or hang onto it.
Posted by David on Aug 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Sonic Innovations Sees Healthy Increase In Hearing-Aid Sales
Sonic Innovations, a leading U.S.-based manufacturer, reported a healthy 16.4 percent increase in sales to $30.4 million (US) in its latest fiscal quarter, a growth rate apparently well above the rate at which the global market is growing. Sonic Innovations has cashed in on the craze for small, open-fit, behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids with its year-old ion family of hearing aids, and in April the company not only introduced the new and improved ion 200, but also an entirely new family of Velocity high-performance BTE and completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aids. Sonic Innovations reported a very slight loss for the quarter of a little under half a million dollars, or $0.02 per share, due to costs of developing and introducing the new products. But the company is profitable for the first six months of the fiscal year. If new-product sales continue to increase at such a healthy clip, the company should be well-positioned to secure its position as one of the top seven global hearing aid manufacturers.
Posted by David on Aug 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Beltone Touts New Hearing Aid As Smallest And Lightest In Its Class
Beltone has introduced the Beltone Marq, an open-fit receiver-in-the-ear hearing aid that the company describes as the "smallest and lightest hearing instrument of its kind." The GN Resound subsidiary is a well-known brand in the U.S., where it serves the market for low-to-medium-priced hearing aids through numerous retail Beltone hearing centers. The technology and design are similar to other manufacturers' tiny behind-the-ear designs with near-invisible wires to a speaker (receiver) with a soft, open tip inserted deep in the ear canal. Like the others, it is so lightweight and comfortable that the user can barely feel it on or in the ear, and from a cosmetic perspective it is truly near-invisible. The only catch is that GN Resound's parent company, GN Store Nord, is trying to sell GN Resound and its subsidiary brands to Phonak, which is intent on becoming one of the world's largest hearing-aid companies through both acquisitions and aggressive introductions of new products.
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Posted by David on Jul 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
New York Times Style Section Puts Hearing Aids Front And Center
When The New York Times devotes nearly the entire front page of its Style section to new hearing-aid designs and baby boomers' attempts to get over the stigma and start hearing well again by embracing the new technologies, you know the industry has entered a new era. Attracted by expensive marketing campaigns launched by Oticon and Phonak to promote their user-friendly thin-tube, open-fit behind-the ear hearing aids, the Times did a comprehensive survey of the new hearing-aid landscape and the high-concept designs that are attracting aging but still-hip consumers with enough money to spend $7,000 or more on a pair of hearing aids. It's one of the best and most readable surveys of the current state of the hearing-aid market that I've seen and is the kind of thing that will help jump-start an industry that's settled for single-digit growth far too long in a global market that should be growing by ten to twenty percent a year.
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Posted by David on Jul 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Startup Bionica To Market New 'Personal Communication System'
It's not every day a new hearing-aid company is launched from the ground up. A group of entrepreneurs in Providence, Rhode Island, yesterday announced they formed Bionica Corp. to develop and market a new "Personal Communication System." With $250,000 in backing from the Slater Technology Fund, a New England Venture Capital firm, the new company sits in the shadow of Brown University. With broad and deep experience in technology development and industrial design, Bionica's founders, Ralph Beckman and Kipp Bradford, have impressive start-up credentials. And they have recruited a CEO with world-class hearing-aid experience, Peter T. Hahn, the former President of U.S. Operations for Oticon, the world's third-largest hearing-aid manufacturer. Their personal communicator, Clio, apparently will be a next-generation hearing aid that is "based upon leading edge technology in microprocessors and sound transmission technology" but which is "carefully designed for user friendliness." I can't wait to hear more.
Posted by David on Jun 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
AdRants: Do Hearing Aids Really Need 'Dolce and Gabanna Treatment'?
AdRants, a top web site covering the advertising industry, picked up our recent post on how Phonak is using some over-the-top advertising imagery in an attempt to make the new Phonak Audeo hearing aids more cool. The AdRants story is worth reading because it points out that the evolution in perceptions of hearing-impaired people is on the same positive track we've seen with other conditions -- as when things once labeled "disabilities" are now labeled "challenges." It shares my question whether hearing-aid manufacturers need to bend over backward to eliminate the hearing-aid stigma by trying to make their products impossibly cool: "Some things don't need the Dolce and Gabbana treatment." But it quite rightly points out that ads featuring buff dudes are often what it takes to get the attention of an aging generation of Baby Boomers desperately trying to hang onto their youth.
Posted by David on Jun 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Phonak PR On Slow-Growth Hearing-Aid Market Misses The Point: It's Not The Product, It's The Price!
Phonak has cranked up its PR engine for the launch of the snazzy new Audeo hearing aid family, scoring a beautiful piece in BusinessWeek magazine on the wonders of its expensive new digital hearing aids with their jazzy colors and names. BusinessWeek gives Phonak CEO Valentin Chapero a bully pulpit to promote his company's strong financial performance and to tout Phonak's contested acquisition of GN Resound. But he fails to mention what should have been the main point of the story -- that manufacturers' too-high prices are responsible for the slow growth of the global hearing aid industry. Chapero tells BusinessWeek that, in spite of the mushrooming population of hearing-impaired baby boomers, poor marketing and product development have meant slow adoption by consumers. He even makes the stunning admission that, "It's very difficult when you are making a product that actually nobody wants." He goes on to predict the situation will change when the hearing-impaired public discovers the "hip" new Audeo family and clamors to spend upwards of $3,000 per hearing aid, more than double and even triple what you pay for comparable digital aids from other manufacturers. While the article gushes over Phonak's profit performance, it misses the main point entirely: that as long as the oligopoly of seven (soon to be six) leading manufacturers in the global hearing aid industry continue to charge thousands of dollars for a collection of digital components with an original cost of no more than several hundred dollars in total, growth in the hearing aid industry will remain stagnant, and millions of consumers will remain priced out of the market no matter how dire their need or how seductive the design of the manufacturers' new products may be.
Posted by David on Jun 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
Phonak Aims Its Colorful New Audeo Hearing Aids At Aging Hipsters
There’s a marketing bug going around the hearing-aid industry. First Oticon caught it with its Delta hearing aids, whose array of pop colors would have made Andy Warhol proud. Now Phonak has caught the bug with its Audeo hearing aids, which come in 15 hues ranging from “Crème Brule” (brown) to “Pinot Noir” (crimson) to “Pure Passion” (red) to “Green with Envy” (light green). Phonak says the new devices are not “hearing aids” but rather “Personal Communication Assistants” (PCAs) aimed at a younger – or at least younger-thinking – breed of consumers accustomed to wearing trendy
Bluetooth earpieces and Apple iPod earbuds. I'm still scratching my head, though, at the photo on their website featuring the tattooed upper torso of a semi-nude man. I guess it's meant to demonstrate there's nothing to stop a hearing-impaired person from looking like a hunky model. That's fine with me. Sex sells. But then things get stranger.
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Posted by David on Jun 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
Sebotek Patent Infringement Suit Challenges Big Hearing Aid Companies
Sebotek's patent infringement suit against several of the world's largest hearing-aid manufacturers is a David-and-Goliath challenge to protect its intellectual property. It also throws a big element of uncertainty into a significant and fast-growing segment of the market for open-fit behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids. Sebotek was first to market with a "receiver-in-the-ear" (speaker-in-the-ear) hearing aid featuring a nearly invisible wire from a small behind-the-ear sound processor to a speaker situated deep in the ear canal. Separating the microphone from the speaker, which is usually integrated into the same behind-the-ear device, made the hearing aid smaller, reduced feedback and made the BTE's far more cosmetically appealing. Subsequently, other manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with their own "receiver-in-the-ear" designs, and now Sebotek is crying foul.
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Posted by David on May 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Oticon Integrates Wireless Bluetooth Receiver In New Epoq Hearing Aids
Oticon’s latest new technology is whiz bang, integrating a Bluetooth receiver inside its new Epoq family of hearing aids. Epoq also provides wireless binaural communication between right and left hearing aids to make stereophonic sound more natural. But to me the most exciting innovation is the integrated Bluetooth, which enables mobile phone reception directly by the hearing aids. I get that benefit currently with a pair of Hatis silhouettes which plug directly into my cell phone and hang behind my ears next to my behind-the-ear hearing aids. They work well but require that I be tethered to the phone in addition to taking them on and off and constantly making sure the silhouettes are set properly next to the telecoils in my hearing aids. Getting phone reception directly into the aids through a wireless Bluetooth connection is the holy graille. But the nifty new solution isn’t without its drawbacks.
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Posted by David on Apr 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
And Then There Were Six: GN Store Nord Puts GN ReSound On The Block
I wrote about the "seven sisters" of the global hearing aid industry a while ago, but now it appears there will be six. Consolidation among the largest manufacturers continues as GN Store Nord considers selling GN ReSound, the world's third-largest hearing-aid brand, to one of the other majors. Analysts expect there will be several suitors. William Demant Holdings of Denmark, the world's second-largest hearing-aid maker with the Oticon and Bernafon brands as well as Phonic Ear assistive listening devices and Sennheiser headphones, would be a natural fit. So would Phonak Group, the world's fifth-largest manufacturer. There are a number of reasons for consolidation among the majors, some of them good for hearing-aid customers, othters not so good.
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Posted by David on Jul 27, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Varibel Hearing-Aid Glasses Integrate Eight Directional Microphones
Hiding hearing aids in a pair of glasses is an idea almost as old as hearing aids themselves. But Varibel, a Dutch company, has truly put new wine in old bottles by integrating eight sophisticated directional microphones into the frame of new hearing-aid glasses that the company says effectively double the boost in hearing you get from directional microphones in normal hearing aids.
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Posted by David on Apr 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)
Sonic Innovations Jumps Into Open-Fit Fray With New High-Performance Ion Hearing Aid Family
Sonic Innovations has jumped into the booming market for comfortable "open-fit" mini behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids with its new Ion Open Ear family, which it touts as the smallest and most powerful in its class. The open-fit phenomenon -- featuring small BTEs with very thin tubes attached to lightweight, one-size-fits-all, open-vented tips inserted deep within the ear canal -- is driving the hearing-aid industry to new growth and profitability. Because they are practically invisible, extremely comfortable, and avoid the fitting problems of both custom in-the-ear and standard BTEs with traditional earmolds, the open-fit designs appeal to baby boomers worried about both cosmetics and comfort. And because they deliver increasingly powerful programmable solutions for high-frequency hearing loss, they hit the sweet spot of today's market: aging baby boomers who are starting to strain to hear the high notes. Sonic Innovations is staking out leadership positions in both performance and size in this fast-growing market with its new Ion family.
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Posted by David on Apr 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
Starkey 'nFusion' Hearing Aids Eliminate Feedback And Automatically Adjust To Acoustic Environment
With its nFusion hearing-aid architecture featured in a new flagship Destiny hearing-aid family, Starkey Laboratories has taken a giant step forward in the digital world. The American hearing-aid leader claims its new platform entirely eliminates feedback while providing improved understanding of speech in noise along with automatic adjustment to different listening environments. With its new Inspire OS fitting software, the Starkey system also makes it easier for audiologists to communicate with patients, discern their specific needs, and fine-tune the programming of the hearing aids to provide the best possible solution for the individual. While it remains to be seen if the Destiny hearing aids will fully live up to these bold promises, the new architecture and extensive R&D investment make it clear that Starkey, traditionally a sales and marketing powerhouse, is also committed to asserting itself as a bona fide technical leader in a global industry dominated by no more than a handful of vertically integrated manufacturers.
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Posted by David on Apr 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Oticon Gets It 'Rite' With The Next Wave Of High-Function, High-Fashion Behind-The-Ear Hearing-Aids
Last year the hottest innovation driving the fastest-growing segment of the hearing-aid market was the "thin-tube, open-fit" design for behind-the ear (BTE) aids. This year, will the hottest new products be RITE? Oticon will show its new Delta "Receiver-in-the-Ear" hearing aids featuring the RITE architecture at the American Academy of Audiology annual conference in Minneapolis this week. Like the thin-tube designs, the new RITE aids are comfortable and practically invisible, but by placing the speaker deep within the ear next to the eardrum, they also have the acoustical advantage completely-in-the-canal (CIC) aids. I'll be at the AAA conference and will come home with a better understanding of just how exciting this new design may be.
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Posted by David on Apr 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
How To Buy A Hearing Aid If You've Never Had One Before
There are a million ways to buy hearing aids these days. You can buy them through the mail or on the web, you can go to an audiologist, or you can visit a professional dispenser who is a certified hearing professional. You can even go to a kiosk in a department store. And it's a confusing process. Higher costs don't always mean the right product or the right fit. Lower prices don't always mean a worse product. With so many choices, the operating principal is "Buyer beware!" In my recent search for a new set of hearing aids, I discovered some of the latest and greatest information sources for first-time buyers who need authoritative information to get them off on the right foot. Click on the link below to the full article for some helpful hints and useful resources.
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Posted by David on Feb 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
Widex Super-Power BTE Hearing Aids Do The Trick For Me
After losing one of my old Widex behind-the-ear hearing aids, I finally got a new pair of super-powerful BTEs. After thorough research, I came right back where I'd started from, at Widex. I got the Widex Senso Diva SD-19</
