Thoughts on New Pair of Analogs

[elijahlovejoy]

Originally Posted by NaidaUP

You can turn digital aids in to work like analog aids.

Your only bet for getting analogue aids is eBay.

try lloydhearingaid dot com for analogs. i just bought a body aid from them, am impressed. they sell NEW analogue hearing aids.

elijah

[ronfab1]

Originally Posted by bwaylimited

Besides my pair of Siemens Touching digital BTE aids, I also have a pair of Acoustitone Pros. The Touching aids sound very similar to the Pros but have superior feedback management; obviously, because the Pros are completely analog, they have no feedback cancellation circuitry . In fact, the feedback cancellation on the Touching is so good that I can hold a telephone receiver right next to the microphone on top of the aid without any whistling or feedback whatsoever, something I can't do with the Pro. Also, the Touching has a trimmer screw which allows more precise adjustment of the frequency response than the Pro, which has no user adjustable controls. The Acoustitone Pro is an excellent analog aid, but the Siemens Touching digital aid for $95 on EBay is a better value and sounds very natural and open, like an analog aid. And if you need extra power to deal with a severe to profound hearing loss, you might consider the Siemens Lotus SP models, which have the same acoustic characteristics as the Touching but offer additional trimmer controls and additional power. All Touching and Lotus models can be purchased on EBay.com. Gerald

Well just got my Siemens Touching digitals today. Very quickly actually since I screwed up on Ebay and wound up ordering from Asian country somewhere. Near the lowest price anywhere but they came with foreign language instructions... But in just a little over a week....it was like international express.

Yes they sound very similar and I have not tried the screw (pot adjusting) mechanisms yet. But laugh my you know what off at any suggestion in their marketing that there is any kind of effective feedback reduction capabilities, and I imagine the same for any sudden loud noise damping. They squeal just as loud in all the same situations. I can work around that on the Acoustitones.

So since no improvement there, I actually find more functional the Off...Hi Range....Full Range switch on the Acoustitones to be much more handy to have. And the rolling dial for volume is no harder to adjust than the up / down button mechanism on the Siemens. With the added benefit with the dial you can actually see your volume level indicated when you take them off.

As far as Loud or Soft modes on the Siemens with the mode button, can effectively probably dial in your need better with the combination of controls on the Acoustitone.

Same battery size, but with the Siemens....you have to pull the battery to shut off whereas the 3 way switch mentioned above on the Acoustitone allows you to do it much more conveniently.

At some point I will probably get to a Costco and do a trial with one of the "hot" current digital brands and see if $2,500 more gets me that much more satisfying help with my hearing. Money needs to go elsewhere next couple months.

Thanks for the suggestions.


Edit:
OK I think I need to back off my stance a bit on the feedback issue with both the Acoustitone and the Siemens Touching. Just by coincidence I was in for a second visit today to my ENT doctor for an issue with my left ear not completely unpopping for 6 weeks now. 1st time in my life my ear has ever stayed like that. No pressure, no pain, just annoying hollow sound to my own voice and the feeling of it almost being clear but won't quite do it. He will monitor it with me....maybe a polyp in the eustacian sp? tube / nasal area that we will have to catch with a CT scan if doesn't finally clear. Nothing else serious he is certain from his exam. My numbers from a hearing test 5 years ago (1st one ever) are below. Had the second test yesterday from the audiologist in his office and they actually read real close to 5 years ago when I was 61. So the doctor agreed with me when I said well that's good isn't it at least no rapid degeneration going on.

And he understood why for now, financially, I am making do with the inexpensive analogues and digital, and also said I didn't have to spend $4,000 - 6,000 for a good set of digital aids....I could go to Costco and come out with very high quality pair like the Kirklands for only the $2,500. It was a refreshing, understanding and non condescending conversation with him. The audiologist yesterday had much more of a "tude" about him with my using for now the inexpensive analogue set.

Anyway I said to the doctor that actually for conversation and TV the Acoustitones were giving me a nice bit of assistance, aside from the annoying situations with the feedback. He said that was just because I wasn't using fitted earpieces....it would go away with that. Actually by design I have been using the smaller ones as can hardly even feel them in and I figure it's more like the "open air" types of the generic round earpieces you get with these inexpensive aids and goes a long way to having my voice sound natural to me.

But to test what he said I just popped the largest plug in the pack that came onto the tube from the aid, and stuffed it up inside as certainly that should block anything coming back out. And it worked. Bingo. No feedback even with the gain up pretty loud. And to the veterans on this forum I'm sure no surprise there. But that is too plugged of a feeling for me and would be uncomfortable for long periods plus the hollow voice thing.

So my little rant about the Siemens in that regard was unfair. Maybe they would be slightly more forgiving with their supposed feedback canceling circuitry with only a tiny bit of air and sound escaping.

But I still very much like and value the on/off / high / full range "switch" options on the Acoustitone. Rather than having to pull the darn battery out to completely shut the unit off. Was walking out of the medical building with it in just my right ear and had it at a decent level for what I need for conversation and all of a sudden encountered a gardner with a bleeping leaf blower coming around the corner. YOWZA! But hey no problem just quickly reached up to the handy switch and turned the sucker off, and that was that. I don't know if the "LOW" "mode" on the Siemens would have taken care of it with one button push, since you can't just turn them off in an instant. Or if I would also have to have been scrambling too to turn the volume button lever downward as well.

Hope this is of interest to someone....just sharing some observations from someone new to the hearing assist game.

Thanks

Ron

Left:
250 - 25
500 - 30
1000 - 30
2000 - 30
3000 - 40
4000 - 55
8000 - 65

Right:
250 - 15
500 - 25
1000 - 25
2000 - 40
3000 - 50
4000 - 60
8000 - 60