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I have some hearing loss and had a personal interest in what was happening in the area of personal listening devices. I bought one product for my own use and demonstration that incorporates a lot of new technologies. A basic personal fm system allows for more directionality and for me is a more useful product than my hearing aids in situations where there is a lot of background noise. The product I purchased takes basic fm technology and adds new technologies to it. For example, this unit incorporates noise reduction technology. (This is the same technology Bose uses in their headphones that are great for airline travel where they bring the sound of the jet engines down to a whisper. And it does this with the headphones connected to a music source or simply put on to reduce the background noise. In the fm system this has several advantages. If there is background noise even with the more directional microphone, turning on this feature further reduces background noise. For children needing this technology, especially those who have attention deficit disorders, this technology helps to remove distractive sounds so the student can focus on what the teacher is doing. (The system can be configured for larger classroom use where a transmitter from the teacher brings her voice to the user. This is even more effective than the microphone. Some of us have hearing loss in parts of the sound spectrum. For hearing aid users, only digital hearing aids can be set up to raise amplification levels on part of the sound spectrum. On the device I purchased, this technology is also built in. While not as sophisticated as the programs used to program hearing aids, this allows you to raise or lower just parts of the sound spectrum with controls for low, middle and high sound ranges. While this feature is best adjusted by your hearing aid professional, it adds to the devices range of functionality. |
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