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Comment by gws | Hacker News Reader

In which country do you live?

Keep in mind that the smaller the hearing loss the more sophisticated the hearing aid you need to get a benefit. If you have a slight hearing loss you will experience issues in the "hardest" situations for hearing aids to cope with such as conversations in noisy places or bad telephone reception.

Finally, the over the counter hearing aids come with a limited number of pre-fitted configuration (e.g., 4) and "tweak yourself" means choosing one of them. To get a hearing aid fine-tuned to your specific hearing loss you need a professional in a shop equipped and trained to use with the professional fitting software of the hearing aid

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> Keep in mind that the smaller the hearing loss the more sophisticated the hearing aid you need to get a benefit. If you have a slight hearing loss you will experience issues in the "hardest" situations for hearing aids to cope with such as conversations in noisy places or bad telephone reception.

I wonder if improving performance would make hearing aids become a "want" rather than a "need"? Bionic ears outperforming natural ones, allowing the user to select different bands/ranges to listen to, sounds like a pretty neat futuristic thing to have.

It's not like people are shy about enhancing their natural abilities with the help of technology, it's pretty much in the current zeitgeist.

I agree with you, I have normal hearing and would totally buy devices that could help me understand better in noisy situations like restaurants, bars, etc.

Alas, even top range hearing aids cannot do that today.

And if people with normal hearing would wear those it would take away the stigma for people with hearing loss.

I live in France. My father recently spent north of 5k€.

Thanks for your answer. I guess it's not really feasible to get ahead then. I'll probably start with over the counter hearing aids when the hearing loss will start to be noticeable.

You can get OTC hearing aids (technically called hearing assisted devices) in France in Pharmacies but they frankly are not that good.

I know it will not sound much to you but for those 5k I believe your father got not only top of the line hearing aids but also a trusted audiologist he will be able to see as much as he wants free of charge for the coming years until he decides to get new devices.

>To get a hearing aid fine-tuned to your specific hearing loss you need a professional in a shop equipped and trained to use with the professional fitting software of the hearing aid

Or you need better fitting software that doesn't require a trained professional to use.

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