I am the old audio guy with "pretty good hearing". I said I could hear frequencies from DC to green light. I love to hear the sizzling high frequencies in music. I was wrong.
My wife said I could not hear her and other people. My excuse was that they mumbled or turned away from me when talking to me.
I had trouble understanding young people and TV. My excuse was they had problems, not me.
A flyer came in the mail. FREE hearing test. FREE 2 weeks trial of the latest Widex (from Denmark) digital hearing aid. I phoned for an appointment but they said they were booked up. I said everybody will not come, can I wait there on standby? They said no, they confirmed all appointments. Come on Monday at 9:00AM.
Ding-a-ling. They called after a few minutes and said they had a cancellation, can I come immediately??
Hee, hee, they don't want me to know that probably hardly anybody replied to their promotion.
I joked with the receptionist that the pretty young lady on the flyer was an old photo and she is probably an old hag today at head office like real estate sales people. Nope. The audiologist is the pretty young lady. I went in a sound proof room that sounded like I died in there, got earphones and a pushbutton. "Push the button when you hear the tone". I did for many frequencies from 250Hz to 8kHz at various levels in each ear then with wideband noise added.
She spoke in the earphones for me to repeat each word she said. I missed a few.
She said my hearing is normal for people (old geezers) my age (69):
1) Word Recognition Score (%) right 68, left 78. Pretty bad.
2) Hearing losses. 250Hz= -22dB. 500Hz to 1kHz= -40dB. 1.5kHz to 4kHz= -60dB. 6kHz to 8kHz= -70dB. Severe Loss is -71dB to -90dB. I tried higher frequencies at home and I can hear them if they are loud enough. The tiny hearing aids were programmed to match my hearing losses and various rubbery-plastic ends were tried for the best fit. They keep sliding out of my ears so more ends are ordered for me to try.
OVERWHELMING!! I heard things I shouldn't and heard things I haven't heard for years. I heard a doctor talking on the other side of a wall in the next office. My own voice was loud. Outside the road traffic was fairly loud and I hoped a motorcycle (no mufflers) would not come blasting past. I heard people talking behind but near me. I looked around and they were 1km away. I heard seagulls and smaller birds chirping. I had to turn down the treble controls on my car radio and TV sound system. I can hear my dogs breathing. Music now makes me feel a little emotional that it sounds so wonderful, like the vivid colors and clarity after my cataracts operations and my complete survival of a heart attack.
They seem to adjust their gain to match the average sound levels but I did not notice an awful compressor effect like on TV.
Their frequency response is very wide and they have an option of changing very high audio frequencies one octave lower but I do not know if that feature is turned on. They mess-up occasionally and make a short BEEP. A clock chiming the hour? The hearing aids are tiny (mostly the small battery) and weigh almost nothing.
The demo is the most expensive version at $5500 per pair with the promo discount and government subsidy already added. The mid version is $3300 and the cheap one is $2900. If she can make them fit then I might haggle down the $3300 to $3000 and buy them. The appointment lasted 2 hours.
My blind eyes (cataracts) were fixed. My teeth were fixed. The arteries feeding my heart were fixed and now my hearing is about to be fixed. Am I "born again"?? I feel great.
My wife said I could not hear her and other people. My excuse was that they mumbled or turned away from me when talking to me.
I had trouble understanding young people and TV. My excuse was they had problems, not me.
A flyer came in the mail. FREE hearing test. FREE 2 weeks trial of the latest Widex (from Denmark) digital hearing aid. I phoned for an appointment but they said they were booked up. I said everybody will not come, can I wait there on standby? They said no, they confirmed all appointments. Come on Monday at 9:00AM.
Ding-a-ling. They called after a few minutes and said they had a cancellation, can I come immediately??
Hee, hee, they don't want me to know that probably hardly anybody replied to their promotion.
I joked with the receptionist that the pretty young lady on the flyer was an old photo and she is probably an old hag today at head office like real estate sales people. Nope. The audiologist is the pretty young lady. I went in a sound proof room that sounded like I died in there, got earphones and a pushbutton. "Push the button when you hear the tone". I did for many frequencies from 250Hz to 8kHz at various levels in each ear then with wideband noise added.
She spoke in the earphones for me to repeat each word she said. I missed a few.
She said my hearing is normal for people (old geezers) my age (69):
1) Word Recognition Score (%) right 68, left 78. Pretty bad.
2) Hearing losses. 250Hz= -22dB. 500Hz to 1kHz= -40dB. 1.5kHz to 4kHz= -60dB. 6kHz to 8kHz= -70dB. Severe Loss is -71dB to -90dB. I tried higher frequencies at home and I can hear them if they are loud enough. The tiny hearing aids were programmed to match my hearing losses and various rubbery-plastic ends were tried for the best fit. They keep sliding out of my ears so more ends are ordered for me to try.
OVERWHELMING!! I heard things I shouldn't and heard things I haven't heard for years. I heard a doctor talking on the other side of a wall in the next office. My own voice was loud. Outside the road traffic was fairly loud and I hoped a motorcycle (no mufflers) would not come blasting past. I heard people talking behind but near me. I looked around and they were 1km away. I heard seagulls and smaller birds chirping. I had to turn down the treble controls on my car radio and TV sound system. I can hear my dogs breathing. Music now makes me feel a little emotional that it sounds so wonderful, like the vivid colors and clarity after my cataracts operations and my complete survival of a heart attack.
They seem to adjust their gain to match the average sound levels but I did not notice an awful compressor effect like on TV.
Their frequency response is very wide and they have an option of changing very high audio frequencies one octave lower but I do not know if that feature is turned on. They mess-up occasionally and make a short BEEP. A clock chiming the hour? The hearing aids are tiny (mostly the small battery) and weigh almost nothing.
The demo is the most expensive version at $5500 per pair with the promo discount and government subsidy already added. The mid version is $3300 and the cheap one is $2900. If she can make them fit then I might haggle down the $3300 to $3000 and buy them. The appointment lasted 2 hours.
My blind eyes (cataracts) were fixed. My teeth were fixed. The arteries feeding my heart were fixed and now my hearing is about to be fixed. Am I "born again"?? I feel great.