Listening Device for the Hard of Hearing

I have an elderly neighbor who has difficulty with his hearing aids. It's
fairly common at his age. I think he and others would profit greatly if he
had a listening device he could hang around others, so that he could hear
them speak. RShk sold one a few years ago, and I've even seen one person
wearing one. Are there others? It was somewhat bigger than a matchbox, maybe
like an Ipod.
--
                                W. eWatson

              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
               Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

                     Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/

On Feb 21, 11:54 am, "W. eWatson" <notval...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I have an elderly neighbor who has difficulty with his hearing aids. It's
fairly common at his age. I think he and others would profit greatly if he
had a listening device he could hang around others, so that he could hear
them speak. RShk sold one a few years ago, and I've even seen one person
wearing one. Are there others? It was somewhat bigger than a matchbox, maybe
like an Ipod.
--
W. eWatson

(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/

See these:

http://www.heartlandamerica.com/browse/search.asp?GUID=F7E47847-57E3-4B8E-9860-C41F5DA44B22&storefront=1
It shows zero found. I see turbo ear, but that's like a hearing aid. The

The problem may be that the hearing aid(s) aren't configured for the
person. Nobody loses their hearing at the same rate or the same
frequency loss as anyone else. A proper hearing aid allows for
configuration for the specific person's hearing.

Cheap off the shelf "hearing aids" are mere amplifiers, and all
a mere amplifier will do is amplify the sounds, which won't deal
with lousy high frequency response (by the time it's loud enough
up there, a straight amplifier will supply way too loud low frequency
sounds), or the loss of dynamic range in the ear[...]

Stuff we don't tend to think about.

Been traveling for four days. I've found a walkie-talky very effective with
him. I don't need my end to listen to him, but do need it to talk to him.
However, casual visitors that see him just don't see it that wait. Instead
they fall into the habit, along with him, of shouting to make themselves
heard. If I could find the box I initially described in my original post, I
think it would be better than the walkie-talky arrangement. No fuss, and no
muss about getting it into his ear. He would just hang it from him neck onto
his chest. Hard to lose and no need for the other person to have a receiver.

When one reaches 80+ years, his case, then hearing aids are a continual
problem. The very elderly get very careless and forgetful. On top of that,
his case, fingers don't work well, so getting the aid in place is difficult.
He has very expensive aids. In my view, for him, they are worthless.

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:31:56 -0800, "W. eWatson"
notvalid2_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Been traveling for four days. I've found a walkie-talky very effective with
him. I don't need my end to listen to him, but do need it to talk to him.
However, casual visitors that see him just don't see it that wait. Instead
they fall into the habit, along with him, of shouting to make themselves
heard. If I could find the box I initially described in my original post, I
think it would be better than the walkie-talky arrangement. No fuss, and no
muss about getting it into his ear. He would just hang it from him neck onto
his chest. Hard to lose and no need for the other person to have a receiver.

When one reaches 80+ years, his case, then hearing aids are a continual
problem. The very elderly get very careless and forgetful. On top of that,
his case, fingers don't work well, so getting the aid in place is difficult.
He has very expensive aids. In my view, for him, they are worthless.

Yes to all you have said.

I am soon to be 69 years old and have been using hearing aids for
several years. My hearing loss is ok until 2 kHz then drops off
rapidly. One would think that would not be a problem since
communication equipment usually cuts off at 3 kHz. In reality, the
bass frequencies set up a rumbly noise that masks everything else.
Turning up the whole spectrum does nothing to help (I have an
amplifier by MFJ that works as advertised but does not help me).

This morning my wife spoke one of those sentences out of the blue that
came out "today er birthday". I had no clue as to what she was saying.
It turned out that without my hearing aids I lost the "s" sounds and
what she really said was "Today is Sarah's birthday". If I had been
watching her lips I would have understood.

I think it would be handy to have some kind of headset that has
complete response control for each ear. I don't believe any of the
tools in the Audiologist's bag address the spectrum above 8 kHz. I
would like to see for myself.

The behind the ear set I am currently using does very good with the
2-8 kHz range but is unsuitable for lower frequencies. It seems to me
that amplifying the lower frequencies could further damage my hearing.
I have a pair of in-the-canal aids that are in the $4,000 range that I
just cannot seem to adapt to. They are just uncomfortable. It is
important that the subject use the aids all the time so the brain can
learn to make the best use of them.

My audiologist is very eager to work with me and we have actually
tweaked the high frequencies up a little. I find it helps in all forms
of listening.

Keep us posted, what we have can be improved and reduced cost wise.
John Ferrell W8CCW
Listen Up! That's the name of the RS device. It's $8.00. I had looked for

John Ferrell wrote:
On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:31:56 -0800, "W. eWatson"
notvalid2_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Been traveling for four days. I've found a walkie-talky very effective with
him. I don't need my end to listen to him, but do need it to talk to him.
However, casual visitors that see him just don't see it that wait. Instead
they fall into the habit, along with him, of shouting to make themselves
heard. If I could find the box I initially described in my original post, I
think it would be better than the walkie-talky arrangement. No fuss, and no
muss about getting it into his ear. He would just hang it from him neck onto
his chest. Hard to lose and no need for the other person to have a receiver.

When one reaches 80+ years, his case, then hearing aids are a continual
problem. The very elderly get very careless and forgetful. On top of that,
his case, fingers don't work well, so getting the aid in place is difficult.
He has very expensive aids. In my view, for him, they are worthless.

Yes to all you have said.

I am soon to be 69 years old and have been using hearing aids for
several years. My hearing loss is ok until 2 kHz then drops off
rapidly. One would think that would not be a problem since
communication equipment usually cuts off at 3 kHz. In reality, the
bass frequencies set up a rumbly noise that masks everything else.
Turning up the whole spectrum does nothing to help (I have an
amplifier by MFJ that works as advertised but does not help me).

This morning my wife spoke one of those sentences out of the blue that
came out "today er birthday". I had no clue as to what she was saying.
It turned out that without my hearing aids I lost the "s" sounds and
what she really said was "Today is Sarah's birthday". If I had been
watching her lips I would have understood.

I think it would be handy to have some kind of headset that has
complete response control for each ear. I don't believe any of the
tools in the Audiologist's bag address the spectrum above 8 kHz. I
would like to see for myself. The behind the ear set I am currently using
does very good with the
2-8 kHz range but is unsuitable for lower frequencies. It seems to me
that amplifying the lower frequencies could further damage my hearing.
I have a pair of in-the-canal aids that are in the $4,000 range that I
just cannot seem to adapt to. They are just uncomfortable. It is
important that the subject use the aids all the time so the brain can
learn to make the best use of them. My audiologist is very eager to work with
me and we have actually
tweaked the high frequencies up a little. I find it helps in all forms
of listening.

Keep us posted, what we have can be improved and reduced cost wise. John
Ferrell W8CCW
Listen Up! That's the name of the RS device. It's $8.00. I had looked for this
repeatedly over a six month period, three times I think looking for them or
anything helpful. I walked in again today, and saw the salesman I usually with
he immediately showed me where they were.

I tried them on my neighbor and they worked fine. They have two ear plugs that
come out of the receiver box. If he has problems with them, then a cheap
headset will probably do. I'll curious how this all plays out over the next
few weeks.

I have a neighbor who has very bad hearing, and has probably gone some of the
same pains as you. He advised me of a web site that might be helpful to you.
Surf over to www.hearmore.com and download their catalog. It has a lot of aids
for the hard of hearing, including the around-the-neck units, ear buds,
headphones, radios, etc. Perhaps you can find something there that would help.
I noticed that a few of the devices have tone control. Maybe one of those would
help control the low frequencies.

I have an elderly neighbor who has difficulty with his hearing aids. It's
fairly common at his age. I think he and others would profit greatly if he
had a listening device he could hang around others, so that he could hear
them speak. RShk sold one a few years ago, and I've even seen one person
wearing one. Are there others? It was somewhat bigger than a matchbox, maybe
like an Ipod.