I wear hearing aids, and for general purposes, they help alot. As for birding,
mine have a sound compression program, i.e. they lower high pitches to an
audible level. This means you have to relearn the songs. Even so, when I bird
with people who have decent hearing, they still hear much more than I do,
especially high pitched songs. I can only hear a Cape May Warbler if its
singing within 20 feet or less of me, and no wind.
My current aids are a few years old, so perhaps there have been advances since
then. One issue is that they don't amplify high end of normal human range, at
least not without compression, and even with compression, I don't think they
compress pitches above human range.
Scott D. Priebe
Springfield, VA
________________________________
From: va-bird <va-bird-bounces+falco57=msn.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Tom
Thomas <tomtom218@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:11 AM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Va-bird] Hearing aids with birders in mind
Looking for assistance/recommendations from birders regarding
selecting a hearing aid. A few years back there was a discussion on
Birdchat regarding this, but I understand that technology has improved
and wonder if any of the posters here could point me in the right direction.
My wife has been gently (sometimes not so gently) urging me to
get a hearing aid for normal conversation, watching TV, etc. - the
normal stuff. Over the last few years I've noticed that when I go
birding with others, I'm missing the songs and call notes that others
are clearly hearing.
I've heard (!) that some of the newer aids can be programmed back
and forth for specific uses, i.e. high frequency, for birds.
Before I start going to audiologists and getting sales pitches,
I'd thought I'd start here.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Tom Thomas
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