[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by PoolBrews

What you are describing is a sound amplifier, not a true hearing aid. When you have a hearing aid test, it will chart out where your hearing loss is and the amount based upon frequency. A hearing aid will be programmed to restore your hearing loss by the measured amounts and at each frequency range. When a hearing aid volume is increased or decreased this programmed curve will then be increased or decreased across the entire range.

A sound amplifier simply increases or decreases everything without taking into account your actual hearing loss.

When I went for my last appointment, one of my old hearing aids had died, and they had me test out a new Beltone hearing aid. I wore it for several days and, while it was awesome, I was not going to spend the $7K they were asking. I did a lot of research and ended up with Jabra Enhance Select 200 hearing aids. They look identical to the Beltone, and performance was identical (as far as I could tell). They sell for $2K, but they had a $300 rebate offer going on at the time, so they ended up costing $1,695 with a 3 year warranty and 3 year Audiologist support.

They have an online hearing test available, but that will never be as accurate as a test in a real sound booth. I got a copy of my latest hearing test and sent it them, and they used it to program my hearing aids. They have been fantastic so far!

Your first paragraph sounds like what I described as an amplifier that amplifies sound differently for different frequencies. This is what an equalizer does when it is attached (or built in to) an AV receiver. It doesn't increase or decrease everything the same. So, if you have hearing loss at low frequencies, the low frequency sound will be amplified more than high frequency sounds. What can a hearing aid do that would be any different from that?