Every once in a while it is helpful to go over a quick recap of the basics of hearing aids. How they work and the various kinds that exist
All hearing aids involve some form of a microphone that brings the sound in. All hearing aids fall under two categories – analogue and digital.
In analogue hearing aids the sound is captured then reproduced via electricity. The process works well but it has its limited. It is much like taking a photocopy of an image and it deteriorates in the same way.
Digital hearing aids take the sound and convert it to a series of digits (ones and zeros). The digital method is a bit colder but it never erodes.
One way to think of digital versus analogue is in the light of the record recording industry. Think back to the lush warm sounds of the Beatles and Boston records in the 70s. These were recorded with analog. The tighter and colder sounds of today’s recordings are all done in digital.
Hearing aids are now offering new technologies as well including allowing people to use their hearing aids as phones. This is a wonderful advance in the world of both phones and hearing aids.
