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A sharp hear­ing loss is not only dis­com­fort due to com­mu­ni­ca­tion prob­lems, but also a real dan­ger. If you don’t hear the car’s horn while cross­ing the road, you’ll be in trou­ble. There­fore, for peo­ple who need a hear­ing aid, we offer an overview of the mod­els on the mar­ket today.

A hear­ing aid is a small device that is designed to restore a per­son­’s lost hear­ing. It helps to fil­ter out unnec­es­sary noise, while mak­ing it pos­si­ble to hear sounds. The device itself is quite minia­ture, con­sists of three main parts:

• a micro­phone that picks up sound sig­nals;
• an ampli­fi­er that process­es the incom­ing sig­nal;
• a receiv­er that trans­mits a sig­nal into the ear.

With­out delv­ing into com­plex phys­i­cal terms, let’s explain the prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion of a hear­ing aid: those sound waves that sur­round a hear­ing-impaired per­son enter the device’s micro­phone area and are con­vert­ed into elec­tri­cal sig­nals. This data is sent to an ampli­fi­er, which increas­es its vol­ume, mak­ing the sounds clear and under­stand­able. Fur­ther, these sig­nals are trans­mit­ted to the receiv­er (in oth­er words, the speak­er), which repro­duces the sounds inside the ear itself. The sig­nal from it is much stronger than at the input to the micro­phone, which par­tial­ly solves the prob­lem of poor hear­ing in the patient.

Impor­tant! In every­day life, it is gen­er­al­ly accept­ed that all devices that ampli­fy sound are hear­ing aids. But this is not entire­ly true. There are sound ampli­fiers (the sim­plest, cheap­est devices) and actu­al­ly hear­ing aids. The first peo­ple often choose on their own, they do not require cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and have only a vol­ume con­trol. Hear­ing aids are cer­ti­fied med­ical devices that are select­ed togeth­er with the doc­tor.

Top 10 rating

1. Octave NOTE 16HP

Okta­va NOTA 16HP is a dig­i­tal behind-the-ear hear­ing aid. The heavy duty mod­el is designed for adults with severe to pro­found hear­ing loss. Acoustic pro­grams with dif­fer­ent modes allow you to use the hear­ing aid accord­ing to your own needs. Mul­ti-chan­nel dig­i­tal sig­nal pro­cess­ing and noise reduc­tion sys­tems pro­vide clear sound with­out back­ground noise, harsh sounds, hiss and echoes. Ergonom­ic design and quick adap­ta­tion tech­nol­o­gy increase the com­fort of using the mod­el. The device runs on a 675 bat­tery, which needs to be changed approx­i­mate­ly every 3–4 weeks.

Main characteristics

Pros and cons

Line of hear­ing aids NOTA^® con­sists of 12 behind-the-ear clas­sic mod­els of three capac­i­ties (medi­um pow­er, pow­er­ful and extra pow­er­ful) and is pre­sent­ed in the mid­dle price seg­ment. The cost depends on the num­ber of sig­nal pro­cess­ing chan­nels, applied tech­nolo­gies, such as noise reduc­tion, feed­back sup­pres­sion, impulse noise sup­pres­sion, wind noise sup­pres­sion, etc. Detailed tech­ni­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics of the com­pa­ny’s hear­ing prod­ucts are pre­sent­ed on the offi­cial web­site of Hear­ing aids NOTA^® (oktavasluh.ru).

Octave NOTA 16HP

Heavy duty and com­fort­able mod­el for adults

4 pro­grams with dif­fer­ent fre­quen­cy and vol­ume modes allow you to cus­tomize Octave NOTA 16HP for any user and pro­vide clear sound with­out back­ground noise

Check price­Where to buy

2. Phonak Bolero B70-SP

Heavy-duty busi­ness-class dig­i­tal behind-the-ear hear­ing aid based on the Belong plat­form with the new AutoSense OS oper­at­ing sys­tem. Designed for adults with mod­er­ate to severe hear­ing loss. The device is able to ana­lyze the sound envi­ron­ment and choose from 200 set­tings the one that is best suit­ed for a par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion. The man­u­fac­tur­er promis­es excel­lent audi­bil­i­ty in any envi­ron­ment: at home, on the street, in a car, in a noisy room. The device pro­vides a com­fort­able per­cep­tion of speech and music, sup­press­es var­i­ous types of noise and masks tin­ni­tus (tin­ni­tus). The user does not need to switch pro­grams man­u­al­ly — the device will do it on its own. The mod­el can con­nect to almost any Blue­tooth-enabled device — tablet, smart­phone, com­put­er — and trans­mit their sound in stereo qual­i­ty.

The device runs on 13 bat­ter­ies. IP68 rat­ed hous­ing with nano-coat­ing is high­ly resis­tant to dirt, mois­ture and dust.

Characteristics

3. ReSound LiNX Quattro RE588

Pow­er­ful, pre­mi­um dig­i­tal BTE hear­ing aid for mod­er­ate to severe hear­ing loss. Thanks to Noise Track­er II tech­nol­o­gy, it neu­tral­izes extra­ne­ous noise with­out affect­ing the speech sig­nal, so the user hears well in noisy envi­ron­ments. The unit sup­press­es feed­back with­out drown­ing out music and oth­er tonal sounds. And the tin­ni­tus gen­er­a­tor helps to neu­tral­ize your own tin­ni­tus. The device sup­ports audio stream­ing from iOS and Android devices. Con­trol is car­ried out using the but­tons on the case and through a mobile appli­ca­tion.

The device has 4 pro­grams that can be con­fig­ured remote­ly using ReSound Assist and the ReSound Smart 3D appli­ca­tion. There is a tele­coil and direct audio input (DAI). Nano-coat­ed hous­ing is resis­tant to mois­ture and dirt.

Characteristics

4. Oticon Xceed 1 BTE SP

This super-pow­er­ful behind-the-ear dig­i­tal hear­ing aid is suit­able for peo­ple with severe to pro­found hear­ing loss. Thanks to open sound tech­nol­o­gy, it allows the wear­er to active­ly talk to sev­er­al peo­ple at once. The device is able to sep­a­rate speech from noise and con­trol sound sources. Easy to use and man­age thanks to sep­a­rate but­tons for switch­ing vol­ume and pro­grams. Sup­ports audio stream­ing and works as a high-qual­i­ty head­set, so the own­er can com­fort­ably watch TV, lis­ten to music, and talk on the phone. The mod­el is com­pat­i­ble with a range of devices and acces­sories via Blue­tooth. The device has a water­proof case with a nano-coat­ing.

Characteristics:

5. Source Audio Bagheera Pro-01

16-chan­nel dig­i­tal hear­ing aid with pro­gram­ma­ble pow­er. Used to com­pen­sate for mod­er­ate to mod­er­ate hear­ing loss. Equipped with a four-lev­el noise reduc­tion sys­tem, can mask the feed­back and your own tin­ni­tus. Sev­er­al tun­ing options allow you to make the sound per­cep­tion more accu­rate and nat­ur­al. The built-in pro­gram auto­mat­i­cal­ly ana­lyzes the acoustic envi­ron­ment and opti­mizes the oper­a­tion of the device for a spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion. The mod­el has options such as FM com­pat­i­bil­i­ty, tele­coil and audio input. Hous­ing with an IP68 pro­tec­tion index is resis­tant to mois­ture and dust.

Characteristics:

6. A&M XTM XP P6

Heavy duty behind-the-ear hear­ing aid with dig­i­tal sig­nal pro­cess­ing. It is used to com­pen­sate for severe and deep hear­ing loss. Accord­ing to the man­u­fac­tur­er, it effec­tive­ly sup­press­es feed­back and pro­vides acoustic com­fort for peo­ple with severe hear­ing loss. The noise man­ag­er neu­tral­izes non-speech sig­nals, detects voice activ­i­ty and “cleans­es” speech from extra­ne­ous sounds. The machine is oper­at­ed using a but­ton, remote con­trol or smart­phone via the Smart Remote App. The mod­el is equipped with an induc­tion coil and comes in a hous­ing with an IP67 pro­tec­tion index.

Characteristics

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7. Bernafon Inizia 3N

Com­pact dig­i­tal behind-the-ear hear­ing aid for com­pen­sa­tion of I‑II degrees of hear­ing loss. Runs on 312 bat­ter­ies. The mod­el imple­ments chan­nel­less dig­i­tal sig­nal pro­cess­ing, which improves speech intel­li­gi­bil­i­ty. Adap­tive noise can­cel­ing sys­tem helps you hear well in dif­fer­ent sound sit­u­a­tions. The adap­tive feed­back sup­pres­sion sys­tem pre­vents the occur­rence of whistling, which increas­es the lev­el of com­fort when using the device. Built-in detec­tors ana­lyze the acoustic envi­ron­ment and help the device func­tion more effi­cient­ly. The device comes in a nano-coat­ed case.

Characteristics

8. Widex UNIQUE U‑FP 330

A pow­er­ful behind-the-ear dig­i­tal hear­ing aid in a dust- and water-resis­tant hous­ing helps to com­pen­sate for severe and pro­found hear­ing loss. Sound clas­si­fi­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy allows the device to cap­ture and cor­rect­ly process acoustic sig­nals of dif­fer­ent fre­quen­cies — from low to high. The device sup­press­es back­ground noise, includ­ing wind noise, harsh impulse sounds, and unwant­ed qui­et noise such as the sound of a refrig­er­a­tor run­ning. The tin­ni­tus gen­er­a­tor neu­tral­izes sub­jec­tive tin­ni­tus. The man­u­fac­tur­er guar­an­tees nat­ur­al and com­fort­able sound in any envi­ron­ment. The device is con­trolled using a but­ton, remote con­trol or through a mobile appli­ca­tion. The mod­el is ful­ly com­pat­i­ble with Phone+.

Characteristics

9Aurica Pixel 860DP

The Auri­ca Pix­el 440DSP dig­i­tal eight-chan­nel hear­ing aid is designed for peo­ple with II-III degrees of hear­ing loss. Thanks to the adap­tive direc­tiv­i­ty of the micro­phones (ADM tech­nol­o­gy), the device reduces noise behind and to the side of the wear­er to high­light the inter­locu­tor’s speech and cut off extra­ne­ous sounds. The device can enhance soft speech, sup­press feed­back and sub­jec­tive tin­ni­tus. Data Log­ging or data log­ging diary cap­tures infor­ma­tion about the mode of oper­a­tion of the device. This data will be use­ful for a spe­cial­ist to more accu­rate­ly con­fig­ure the device. The mod­el comes in a water­proof nano-coat­ed case and runs on a 675 bat­tery.

Characteristics

10. Rhythm Mond P

The dig­i­tal chan­nel­less hear­ing aid is designed for peo­ple with II-III degrees of hear­ing loss. This inex­pen­sive mod­el has all the nec­es­sary options, includ­ing an adap­tive noise reduc­tion sys­tem, a sys­tem for sup­press­ing feed­back and wind noise, and auto­mat­ic analy­sis of the sound envi­ron­ment. The Qui­et Noise Man­ag­er can­cels out low-fre­quen­cy sounds, and a tech­nol­o­gy called Speech Pri­or­i­ty makes speech more intel­li­gi­ble. The Data Log Diary stores infor­ma­tion about the user’s most pop­u­lar fea­tures and set­tings, allow­ing for more pre­cise cus­tomiza­tion of the machine in the future. The mod­el has a tele­coil and an exter­nal vol­ume con­trol. The device runs on 13 bat­ter­ies.

Characteristics

How to choose a hearing aid for an adult. Doctor’s advice

We dis­cussed with audi­ol­o­gist Anna Khugaye­va the choice of hear­ing aids, pos­si­ble con­traindi­ca­tions to their use.

Hearing aid types

Accord­ing to the prin­ci­ples of oper­a­tion, hear­ing aids are divid­ed into ana­log and dig­i­tal. Until the ear­ly 1970s, hear­ing aids used lin­ear ampli­fi­ca­tion, that is, the ampli­fi­ca­tion of the sound was the same for both soft and loud sounds. A dig­i­tal appa­ra­tus is a micro­com­put­er in which dig­i­tal sig­nal pro­cess­ing allows sig­nal pro­cess­ing to be car­ried out eas­i­ly and flex­i­bly. The sound is divid­ed into sev­er­al fre­quen­cy chan­nels, in each of which it is pos­si­ble to use an inde­pen­dent indi­vid­ual ampli­fi­ca­tion and fur­ther pro­cess­ing.

The fol­low­ing three types of hear­ing aids are most com­mon­ly used today:

• behind the ear,
• intra-ear
• intra­canal.

On a note

How to choose a hear­ing aid for the elder­ly

l For fas­ten­ing, options are pos­si­ble:

• hand­held devices — a wired ear­piece is insert­ed into the ear, and the unit is worn in a pock­et.
• intra-ear mod­els are invis­i­ble, minia­ture, insert­ed into the vestibule of the ear canal. Due to this, they are not suit­able for every­one.
• behind-the-ear mod­els are attached behind the ear of a hard of hear­ing per­son, con­nect­ed by a tube and an insert to the ear canal.
• intra­canal are placed inside the ear canal itself, giv­ing a good sound. but they are capri­cious in care and are not suit­able for every­one.

Pock­et hear­ing aidswhich appeared in the 1950s, devices in which a hear­ing aid was placed in a box (it could be car­ried in a pock­et or hung around the neck), a sig­nal was trans­mit­ted through a spe­cial wire to a receiv­er (tele­phone, emit­ter) attached to a cus­tom-made ear­piece.

As hear­ing aid tech­nol­o­gy has advanced, the size of hear­ing aid com­po­nents has decreased. By the mid-1960s, it became pos­si­ble to place cir­cuits inside hear­ing aids—behind-the-ear hear­ing aids emerged, con­sist­ing of a plas­tic hous­ing that con­tained the hear­ing aid’s elec­tron­ics, from which the ampli­fied sound was deliv­ered to the ear­mould.

Towards the end of the 1970s, they began to use in-the-ear hear­ing aids, which are placed inside the ear and con­sist of only one part (body), in which the elec­tron­ics of the hear­ing aid are inte­grat­ed. The hous­ing is made accord­ing to an indi­vid­ual cast of the exter­nal audi­to­ry canal of each patient. The in-ear hear­ing aid sits deep in the ear canal and, despite its tiny size, is in no way infe­ri­or in qual­i­ty to larg­er mod­els.

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