whats the difference between digital and analog hearing aids? and how do each work?

Question

To get more specific, what components are in these hearing aids and how do they work together to provide sound?

Answer 1

Most hearing aids are made with the same basic components:

- A microphone that collects the sounds (some hearing aids have two to provide directional hearing).

- An amplifier that amplifies the sound in accordance with the hearing loss.

- A receiver which is a loud speaker that plays the sound into your ear.

Optional features may also include a volume control and small adjusters that can be adjusted with a small watch makers screwdriver. Their function will vary from aid to aid.

Also some aids are also equipped with a multi memory button or a telecoil switch.

Now an analog hearing aid takes the sound in through the microphone converts the sound into an electronic signal which is enhanced by the amplifier and played out through the loudspeaker into your ear.

A digital hearing aid adds an extra step. The sound wave going into the microphone goes through an analog to digital converter. This converts sound waves into a series of numbers. To visualize this consider that sound waves hitting the microphone diaphragm cause it to move back and forth. This tiny movement is translated into a number. For example fully in one direction might be represented by the number 1000, and fully in the other direction might be represented by 0. So the position of the microphone diaphragm is measured in real time by a computer. By taking thousands of measurements per second sounds can be 'sampled' and then analyzed and manipulated by a computer.

The amplifier in a decent digital hearing aid has a computer inside. The quality of the hearing aid will determine just how 'smart' that computer is. The computer will do all kinds of math on the sound input in order to manipulate the sound to match the hearing loss and perhaps even to help filter out unwanted noise and maybe even feedback signals.

This is the inherent advantage of digital aids. Once you convert analogue sound waves into a series of numbers, computers can do clever math to produce a very close match to the hearing loss. Far closer than an analogue aid is capable of, and with far more fine tuning and sophistication to the sound.

Finally once the math is done the output is sent through a digital to analogue converter and the resulting sound created by the loudspeaker in the hearing aid. The sound travels down your ear canal and strikes the ear drum.

These days analogue hearing aids are obsolete. I run two busy practices and have not dispensed a single non-digital aid in the past 12 months. The closest I have come is a analogue digital hybrid known as a class D circuit.

If you are considering purchasing hearing aids the question should not be about analogue versus digital, it should be about digital versus digital. There are literally hundreds of different digital aid on the market today. Some, quite honestly, are junk. Others are state of the art and sound fantastic. Of course this is where money comes in. It's possible to pay $10,000 for a set of state of the art digital hearing aids. The reason for the high cost is that major hearing aid companies routinely invest tens of millions to develop a hearing aid. They need to get that money back somehow. Unlike other electronic devices hearing aids are often custom made, and don't sell in the same volume as cell phones or other consumer electronics.

So do the research before you buy. If the hearing professional you go and see cannot program a real digital aid and let you listen to it on the day of the test, before you commit to buy, then walk on. He doesn't know what he is doing. A competent hearing professional will have a computer, various behind the ear digital aids, and disposable earpieces so you can listen to them. He will be able to program a demonstration set while you wait, so that you can listen to them. I would not buy from anyone unable or unwilling to do this for you.

Good luck.

Answer 2

analog hearing aids are the older technology (obviously) and cost is cheaper.... digital are newer, more expensive and can be fine tuned (some have remotes) My husband has profound hearing loss in both ears, he now has digital. They'll both work fine, depending on your budget. The digital aids are computer tuned so they'll actually put the aid on while hooked to a computer and pick out hi & lo pitches to try to give optimal sound quality. But it all has to do with the comfort of the user ... if hearing loss is recent some folks just can't get used to the hearing aid (kind of funny when you think how many people walk around with some device stuck in their ear these days) Hope this helps ... add more detail if you want more info ...

Answer 3

An analogue hearing aid is limited technology. The sound waves are manipulated mostly along the lines of adjusting the treble and base sounds.
Essentially...sound waves are picked up by the microphone and put thru the hearing aid....while in the hearing aid the sound waves are kept as physical sound waves and manipulated directly. The sound then comes out of the hearing aid altered and presumably tailored to your hearing loss.
Digital technology is much better. Sound waves are picked up by the microphone and fed into a computer "convertor" that converts the sound waves into computer "language". The manipulations that occur to the "sound" after this are more precise, and somewhat 'cleaned up' so that background sound is limited but voices and music are amplified. The computer "language" is convered back to a sound wave when it comes out of the hearing aid and its a much "cleaner" sound. Digital technology is much more versatile, more precise, more able to tailor fit your hearing aid to your particular needs.

Answer 4

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