Rud,<div><br></div><div>Great reply. You prove my point that we LEARN how to hear. We would be better to fit teenagers with hearing aids, regardless of how well they hear. You re-learned the screwups. I have a friend who got aids when she was in her 50's, and she is totally OK with them. My friends and relatives who got aids in their 70's hate them, regardless of brand, source, provider, technology, or price. And my 50-year-old friend is almost 70. It's about decades of psychoacoustics in the wearer's head, and almost nothing about technology. You are unique and fortunate because we all lose our hearing, but your brain learned decades ago how to change.</div><div><br></div><div>I have not read all your reply. Might have more later.</div><div><br></div><div>Best to you,</div><div>John Swindle<br><br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Rud Merriam via DPRGlist <dprglist@lists.dprg.org><br>To: dprglist <dprglist@lists.dprg.org><br>Cc: Rud Merriam <rudmerriam@gmail.com><br>Sent: Sun, Jan 20, 2019 09:08 PM<br>Subject: Re: [Dprglist] Sample Retrieval vacuum cleaner<br><br><br><div id="yiv1455870414"><div>
<p>I've been wearing hearing aids since I was 25 and am now 70. I
have always been able to localize sound sources. Perhaps not as
accurate as someone with normal hearing but well within the
quadrant and likely to with 15-30 degrees. With the current SOTA
DSP I can probably hear tones better than someone with normal
hearing if I tweak the settings. The challenge is speech
comprehension in noisy situations. <br clear="none">
</p>
<p>I need the power of BTE aids. Current aids have two mics one
facing forward and the other back. DSP uses them for noise
canceling and probably for lessening the rear sounds to mimic
normal hearing. Haven't looked into the details of the processing
but am generally familiar with DSP. <br clear="none">
</p>
<p>On my soapbox for all: once you turn 50 get a hearing test and
repeat it every 5 years. You won't notice the loss so you need a
test to detect it. If you wait too long the brain loses the
ability to 'hear' the sounds, especially for speech comprehension.
If you get aids wear them even though they will annoy the heck out
of you. That's because you're now hearing stuff, like the HVAC air
movement through ducts, that you couldn't because of the loss.
You're brain will relearn and sort it out if you do it soon
enough. They won't work as well as possible at first because the
hearing tech will set the gain below what you really need,
probably 85% or so. After a few months you'll get comfortable with
them and the tech can increase the gain to 100%. They can also
tweak the DSP settings if you pay attention to when you're having
difficulties. Restaurants are the absolute worst places because of
all the noise. <br clear="none">
</p>
<p>I have never lost a hearing aid because I (1) always get shirts
with breast pockets so if I have to take them out that's where
they go and (2) at home there are only 2 or 3 places where I will
put them down. We just got kittens so at home now only keep them
in a box on my desk. Previously there was a spot in the kitchen,
the bathroom vanity, and my desk. I do have small case I can take
with me if I know I will be taking them out - like going someplace
for swimming or exercise. It goes in my pants pocket but is not
comfortable. </soapbox><br clear="none">
</p>
<div class="yiv1455870414moz-signature"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="#000080"> <br clear="none">
-73 - <br clear="none">
<b>Rud Merriam K5RUD</b> <br clear="none">
<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://mysticlakesoftware.com/"> <i>Mystic Lake
Software</i> </a> <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
</font>
</div>
<div class="yiv1455870414yqt6076962546" id="yiv1455870414yqtfd58796"><div class="yiv1455870414moz-cite-prefix">On 1/20/19 1:05 PM, John Swindle via
DPRGlist wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;">People with hearing aids can't
figure out who is talking to them because hearing aids are in,
or on, their ears (behind-the-ear has a piece in the ear),
changing the ear canal that the wearer grew up with. The ones
that aren't in-the-ear also mess up the pinna. Have you
wondered how we can know sound is in front of us, behind us,
or above us, when we only have two ears? It's the pinna and
the ear canal. The pinna and the ear canal screw up the sound.
They are not flat transducers of the sound. We learn how to
hear as we grow up. We learn what the screwups sound like. If
the pinna is cut off or interfered with, and the ear canal is
plugged with an aid, the wearer loses all but left-right info
about where sounds come from, until they re-learn how to hear.
A few decades ago, head models were used for recordings and
head response transfer functions were created. After 30 or so
years, just a couple years ago, the Audio Engineering Society
published a standard for measuring and using HRTFs. The only
use I've seen for them so far is virtual reality games.</span></font></blockquote>
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