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Thread ID: 126274	2012-08-17 09:11:00	Hearing Aids.	Poppa John (284)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1295207	2012-08-17 09:11:00	Hi All. Has anyone with hearing aids bought noise cancelling headphones. Do they work for you? I have a set now & don't think that they work well at all. Anybody know why? Thanks. PJ	Poppa John (284)
1295208	2012-08-17 10:26:00	Not an expert, but Ithought they had to be set up correctly, if they are not working properly go back to your audiologist and get them reset ,and if they can't do it,get a refund.	PPp (9511)
1295209	2012-08-17 10:48:00	Hi PJ, I've been using various ear-level and body aids for about 40 years. The latest Govt subsidised one I chose is a MiniTech - about the size of a pack of cigarettes and very light. But the headphones supplied with it are not noise-cancelling. My guess is that NC headphones are designed to target those frequencies which are common environmental sounds in both quite low and quite high ranges. My experience with aids is that most of them are matched to target the lossy regions of hearing for a particular person's needs, by boosting those signals in which the loss is greatest. I'm guessing but the specs of the microphone, the HA amplifier frequency specs, the headphone specs as well as your ear's frequency ranges would conspire to hit your hearing sweet spot. Alternatively the SC headphones may be incapable of boosting/cutting where you would notice the difference and these are disappointing. My suggestion is if yours don't work, take em back. There is now a wide range of SC headsets available. Take your time and be quite fussy in your choices. A lot of so-called NC headsets are open-framed headsets and are cashing in in a popular trend - avoid these. The ones I would go for are the closed-frame that have a good seal around the ears against external sounds. Get a good seal, then ajust for best results for you! And don't let the dealer try to sell you one of the expensive ones. Ordinary, cheap, easily replaceable is my motto :) Try googling using "reviews best noise cancelling headphones" or "best noise cancelling headphones for hearing impaired". See what comes up. Cheers ~ John PS: my MiniTech haid/amp sounds great. Best sound I've ever had. To run it I import some high capacity Lithium FeS2 AA batteries from Deal Extreme (www.dealextreme.com). They're rated at 1.5v and will run my HAid for about a month. They're not rechargeable but they're worth it in good strong clean sound. The aid takes two batteries.	braindead (1685)
1295210	2012-08-17 21:32:00	I have some Sony NC Headphones which require a battery for the NC part too work. You can turn the NC part on and off. If yours have a battery perhaps the battery is flat. :)	Trev (427)
1295211	2012-08-17 22:10:00	NC headphones only work on continuous noise, like the drone of an airoplane for example.	Cicero (40)
1295212	2012-08-17 23:50:00	My experience with aids is that most of them are matched to target the lossy regions of hearing for a particular person's needs, by boosting those signals in which the loss is greatest. +1 The fundamental problem with behind-the-ear hearing aids is getting a tiny battery to last a week. My (experimental) aids use P10 batteries, about 3mm dia, which are about 70 mAh and expected to last 70 hours. That equates to only 1 mA drain! nowhere near enough for proper power amplification So their solution is not to amplify all frequencies but only the missing ones. The loudspeakers (yes, that's what they call them) are not 'plugs' but are 90% open to sounds coming into the ear in the normal way [I'm quite interested in your solution, braindead. I've decided that behind-the-ear aids are not good enough. (But I might try ones with LARGE batteries in the hope that they supply more horsepower.) From an engineering point of view I think it's unwise to have the microphone on top of the ear and the loudspeaker only 50mm away. Much better to have a 'ciagrette pack' somewhere that can do proper amplification]	BBCmicro (15761)
1295213	2012-08-18 00:24:00	That would be good, cigarette pack battery with wireless connection.	Cicero (40)
1295214	2012-08-18 01:53:00	In case anyone is interested, here are some links for the Echo MiniTech described above: - actionhearing (www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk) - hear4you (www.hear4you.com) New Zealanders are entitled to a government-subsidised hearing device once every 6 years. The rub is that most conventional aids are way overpriced, sometimes in the $thousands. Many of the ear-level, and some of the body aids are pure crap. The plastic screw assembly holding them together breaks easily and the squeaky scritchy output is enough to drive you crazy. The plastic seems to decay and there is zero tolerance for shock. Ring your local hospital or superclinic and ask for the audiologist. Tell them you need a new hearing aid and that your last one is more than 6 years old (if it is). If you arrange it via the hospital, they can buy them in around $100+ cheaper than one of the parasitic overpriced hearing aid services. The total hospital cost to you of the MiniTech is around $300, which means with the govt subsidy you get the MiniTech for free. I liked the MiniTech immediately. A protective pseudo-leather case, twin battery compartment, good strong clean amplifiers, great sound, an electret microphone and (and here's my only complaint) stethoscope-style headphones. These cost around $30 - $40 to replace and they will break quickly. Where the lead enters the headphone assembly is badly designed, with very little shock absorbtion for normal wear and tear. The good news is that you can use almost any enclosed-style headphones that you can buy for a few bucks at any Big Dick electronics store. HTH :)	braindead (1685)
1295215	2012-08-18 09:40:00	It does look to be a good solution (the MiniTech). Allows use of one's normal in-ear phones A couple of cons: (1) I think it is mono? and (2) the low frequency cut-off is listed as 65 Hz - a bit low for Wellington wind. (But it seems to have a bass control?) I have experimented with a Roland R-05 professional recorder (also cigarette pack size) but it costs $400, available from RockShop. Although it records to SDHC (in WAV or MP3) it provides an output when not recording and can be locked in that position. Has a built-in stereo mic of very high quality, so provides some directionality. Another 'plus' is that the low freq cut off can be set as high as 400 Hz which can be desirable in our winds. Also has line-in and external mic sockets (and the headphone output still works when these are plugged in). The main 'minus' is that if people see it they might think you are recording them, particularly since there is a red light flashing (advising that you are on standby and NOT recording!) I also tried a $100 Sony lecture/dictation recorder ICDPX312 from DSE. Since this provides an output while recording, it can be used as a hearing aid. It is better tailored to speech than the Roland, but is not stereo (Has output for both ears, though). Also has a mic input (and provides an output while the mic is plugged in). Actually, it is not too bad If anyone is interested in binaural microphone-loudspeaker in-ear plugs I can give my experiences: www.bhphotovideo.com nes.html (this is a normal pair of in-ear phones but with a small microphone attached to each one. The microphone signal travels down the (standard-size!) cable and ends in its own stereo plug. So the cord ends in two stereo plugs. It works fine with the Roland R-05 and Sony ICDPX312)	BBCmicro (15761)
1295216	2012-08-18 09:46:00	My nephew in England who was born deaf and had a cochlear implant at 18months of age (now 22) originally had a battery pack in a chest harness was it took 2 AA batteries that had to be changed every day, now has a smaller unit that just sits in his shirt pocket and the batteries last all week, not sure what batteries it uses now must be some small round ones as the unit is so small	gary67 (56)
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