FDA Approves OTC....Audiophile Hearing Aids?

[gene]

A 60-day countdown has begun on FDA approved OTC consumer-grade hearing aids, so we should see new products hit the market as early as mid-October. But can hearing aids extend our hi-fi audio enjoyment into old age? And, will our auditory health become susceptible to audiophile snake oil claims? Long story short: Yes and, you can bet your exotic mineral-laced interconnects it will!

Are we witnessing the dawn of audiophile hearing aids?

Read: FDA Approves OTC Hearing Aids - Audiophiles Rejoice?

 

[panteragstk]

Not gonna lie, that's pretty cool.

 

[Replicant 7]

Here's the thing about those OTC hearing "Aids" which I believe will be a blessing and/or a curse. Like anything in the electronic industry, improvements to be improved upon products that exist in the Hearing Aids for medical purposes.

For those who can not afford the Real thing. True nothing can replace a 7K pair of medically approved hearing aids. Will those OTC have, firmware updates, bugs, glitches. Will they cause more harm, sure cool in helping those with impaired hearing.

Also since it's a product that will come in contact with the ear by being placed inside the ear canal. What type of return policy? With infectious diseases on the rise just from breathing. One can imagine trying to return a product that's already been used, placed inside someone's ear.

Fluid can leak into the ear canal, contamination will have to be taken into consideration.

 

[Hobbit]

Curious to where the technology goes? I could easily see these coming with a set of buds or headphones that connect to your phone and an app on your phone that gives you a hearing test and appropriately programs the hearing aids.

What will be interesting is to see how far OTC's takes technology. My guess is the first generations will be just amplifiers. If I had a pair, I could play the TV and Music at a volume to not drive my GF crazy as well as hear her from another room. However, they won't have all the room canceling/directional capabilities like the good ones making them not so good for loud restaurants. BTW, one good part of working from home is people speak into a microphone and I can turn the volume up on my speaker. Which is better than trying to hear soft speakers in a big conference room.

 

[lovinthehd]

While I don't like wearing headphones or IEMs, I suppose one of these days a product like this could be interesting as long as it comes with some decent setup capabilities.....hopefully that's still a bit off time-wise

 

[highfigh]

I can see a few ways that these could be a big winner:

- If they're capable of being tuned via Bluetooth
- If the tuning is done by an audiologist
- If audiologists start to care about frequencies above 4KHz- they typically don't because 4KHz is the upper limit needed for speech intelligibility and their main purpose is to make sure people can understand speech.
- If people CAN'T mess with the settings unless they're well-instructed on how to do it correctly.

I can't wait for someone to come up with 'high-end' hearing aids or audiophile hearing aid batteries.

For those who don't know who he was or what he did, Les Paul did a lot to improve hearing aid technology in his later years and continued until he passed. Even if someone doesn't know who he was, they have heard the results of his invention and the technology he developed.

 

[Wayde Robson]

While I don't like wearing headphones or IEMs...

I'm with you there. I hated them for so long. I never understood how people enduring that kind of violation of an orifice for stock earbuds. But they have improved dramatically in the last decade or so. I recall the old stock earbuds that came with smartphones all had solid, hard plastic earpieces & metal speaker grilles. There were no removable ear-tips, the part that plugged into your head was effectively a wide circular speaker, and I guess we were expected to lodge that hard chunk of plastic into our ear-flesh somehow. Discomfort and pain was required for a snug fit. They sounded like crap and I sometimes used to get little zaps in my ear from the metal grille, possibly the result of moisture and being plugged into the phone.

I've warmed to them in recent years, even if not necessarily for music. They've come a long way since then with silicone ear-tips and aftermarket memory foam cushioned eartips from sources like Comply. When doing work around the house I'll usually wear a single ear-bud and listen to a podcast or audiobook. For music I prefer a full sound system or over-ear headphones.

 

[Stanton]

As someone who used to write CD reviews for Audioholics (see sig), hearing loss in my 50's finally led me to wearing (professionally) fitted hearing aids to compensate. I don't wear them all the time, but desperately need them for things like watching TV and hearing in public/meeting settings. I have been able to enjoy music without H/A's, but am painfully aware of what I'm missing on the high-end. I have been following H/A tech advancements closely, and welcome the prospect of "audiophile H/A's". Since they are geared toward voice/speech, most H/A's have poor dynamic range (especially on the bottom end). Having said all of that, I am impressed with the Bluetooth/iPhone compatible H/A's I wear, and am lucky I found an audiologist that tweaked my settings to better enjoy music (they make a decent pair of wireless headphones).