[FRIAM] A First Look at the Bose Hearing Aid - Self-Fitting Bose "Hearing Aid" Resembles Bose Hearphones

Thu Mar 14 15:12:04 EDT 2019

Thanks, Dave, for that report.  Very useful.  

What consumer reports says is that you really need the help of an audiologist to properly tune hearing aids and keep them operable.  So, for instance, as part of the 5 grand (!) I paid for my pair I got a cleaning, adjustment of the program any time I wanted, and excellent free coffee and cookies anytime I went in.  As we struggled with the ramification of being a double hearing aid family, this proved comforting, if not useful.  A lot of money for “Tea and Sympathy.”

What the advertising for the Bose suggests is that it has some sort of self tuning feature.  I can’t imagine what that would be or how it would substitute for consultation with an audiologist.   But one could buy 10 hours with a shrink and LOTS of coffee and cookies for the difference.  

What does the smart phone angle do for you?  

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2019 11:56 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A First Look at the Bose Hearing Aid - Self-Fitting Bose "Hearing Aid" Resembles Bose Hearphones

Nick and Steve (and anyone else listening in),

The only difference between the Bose "hearing aid" and the "hear phone" is the FDA classification. The FDA examined the hear phone  and gave Bose the approval to market it as a hearing aid. I suspect that there will be software differences, but minimal to no hardware changes when the hearing aid is released as an actual product. If there are software differences I would expect them to be available as upgrades - probably to the phone app that you can use to alter settings.

That said:

I can use the Hear Phones to listen to TV with the sound setting on the TV at '35' instead of at '100' that I have to use without them.

You can adjust the noise suppression feature to focus on a 'wedge' immediately in front of you, a semi circle in front of you, or a 360 field. The focus works great and most noise is filtered out. 

Most of the time I am using them in the basement with, currently, concrete walls on all sides. This means that the pellet stove and its incessant droning motor sounds bounce across the entire room, including into the focus field, so it is never filtered out sufficiently. Constantly annoying. That does not happen in other settings.

In a FRIAM like setting, I would use the wedge-focus setting but would have to look at the person or persons I was talking to. If one person was to my left and the other to the right, I would have to turn my head for the focusing to work. This is kind of an obvious limitation.

A quirk, again because I am in a basement with no ceiling except insulation between joists, if sounds from upstairs are transmitted through the floor joists into the focus-wedge I hear them very well. This means I can 'evesdrop' on conversation upstairs if people are in a specific area of the house.

All in all, I would recommend them to others.  Go to a Bose store and get the demo before deciding. 

davew

On Thu, Mar 14, 2019, at 9:27 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:

Right, Dave,

I think this is a bit trimmed down, and gussied up from what you showed me.  Did you look at the description?  Let me know. 

Mike keeps pointing out that the ear is not really doing Fourier transforms  at all … it’s representing the geography of the cochlea from micro second to micro second.  What I never can understand is what MORE information is in the signal than timexfrequencyxintensity to be extracted.  Mike has explained it to me often but I have never quite been able to HEAR him.

[sigh]

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2019 7:35 AM
To: friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com> 
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A First Look at the Bose Hearing Aid - Self-Fitting Bose "Hearing Aid" Resembles Bose Hearphones

Nick,

The Bose Hearphone  is the product I showed you at the coffee shop on a visit a few months ago. I have one and use it regularly with mixed results. If anyone is interested, I can provide details of my experience.

davew

On Wed, Mar 13, 2019, at 10:32 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:

Dear Friammers,

One of the things we have talked about for years is the possibility of smartphone/hearing aid integration.  This looks like a beginning.

 <https://www.hearingtracker.com/news/first-look-at-the-bose-hearing-aid?utm_source=Hearing+Tracker+Updates&utm_campaign=5ff252547f-cvsupdate_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_790a5b8263-5ff252547f-455404113> https://www.hearingtracker.com/news/first-look-at-the-bose-hearing-aid?utm_source=Hearing+Tracker+Updates&utm_campaign=5ff252547f-cvsupdate_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_790a5b8263-5ff252547f-455404113

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