What Are The Best Hearing Aid Features

Hearing aid technology is constantly evolving and improving, with a wide range of additional and advanced features now on offer. However, with such features impacting cost as well as function, identifying the ones that will be most useful to you and your individual needs is vital. Fortunately, you can read about hearing aids and the benefits they provide below, something that will help you reach an informed decision for your next purchase. 

Directionality

Hearing aids are great at amplifying all sounds for the user, but this can make being able to discern the difference between what is being said across the room and what the person speaking directly to you difficult. This is where the feature of directionality comes in. It’s a clever feature too as it uses the microphones in the hearing aid to work out where each sound originates, then honing in and amplifying on the sounds that are happening directly in front of you and lowering the volume of all the others. 

The main benefit of choosing a hearing aid with advanced directionality features is that it can make things much easier for those that spend lots of time in places where there is a lot of background noise. 

With that in mind, if your job or social life has you spending time in large gatherings or out of doors, investing in an aid with directionality features is a smart bet. 

Feedback Suppression

Any hearing aid user that has ever experienced the shocking and uncomfortable screech of feedback will understand why many people wish to avoid it at all costs. The good news is that hearing aids that include a feedback suppression feature can help here. 

Such aids are fitted with a chip that listens out for signs of a feedback loop and intervenes before they have a chance to happen by immediately matching them with an opposite but equal signal. Of course, if you are a hearing aid user that experiences feedback as if it were nails being scratched down a chalkboard, then investing in an aid with this tech is a smart choice. 

Channels

Cable TV and DAB radio have created the impression that more channels are always better than fewer when it comes to digital audio devices. However, this is not necessarily the case for hearing aids. 

Indeed, a hearing aid with more channels is only useful to people experiencing certain forms of hearing loss such as those with more complex hearing profiles. A complex hearing profile is when a person experiences loss involving more than one position on the hearing spectrum. For example, hearing loss at both the high and low ends of the spectrum. It is in these cases that hearing aids with multiple channels are most useful because each channel can be set to amplify to a different part of the spectrum, something that not only makes it easier to hear but also creates a more natural experience for the listener. 

However, for people with hearing loss that hits only one part of the spectrum an aid with a greater number of channels may not provide any additional benefits to their experience. 

Noise Reduction

Discerning the difference between constant and dynamic sounds, a hearing aid with a noise reduction chip can further enhance your experience as a user. Dynamic sounds change in pitch such as in-person speech or speech and sounds on the TV. Constant sounds stay at the same pitch and tend to be things like the noise from the washing machine or the buzz of the refrigerator. 

Indeed, having a hearing aid that can differentiate between the two, minimizing constant sounds and boosting dynamic ones can greatly improve the experience for the user. Therefore, if you find yourself in a situation, either at work or at home where there are a lot of constant sounds, choosing a hearing aid that includes advanced noise reduction can be most helpful. 

Wind Suppression

For those users that love to spend lots of time out of doors, wind suppression can be another very helpful feature to choose. Functioning similarly to noise suppression, wind suppression isolates the noise of the wind and reduces its volume. This type of suppression is of articulate use to people that love to spend lots of time out of doors, hiking, skinning or even sailing. 

Want to Know More About the Features of Hearing Aids?

Discover more about the advanced features of hearing aids, and how they can be matched to your specific individual needs by contacting the hearing instrument specialists at Audio Hearing Aid Service at 330-244-9881 or 330-364-6637.