HN user
That's interesting. We switched to LED bulbs in our living room and after that our eldest dog would not settle, I thought maybe the bulbs had a low humming noise he didn't like but it could have been a flicker instead. We switched back and he was fine again.
Its similar, the difference being someone who can hear well in quiet environments but has trouble in noise probably has an early-stage minor hearing loss whereas mine has been degrading from a minor loss for many years and so now I can't hear anything below about 70dB unaided. I have a sensorinerual loss, which is the most common, and is also very likely the cause of most people's noise problems - solvable with the same hearing aids doing the same job but with different setups. Someone with a minor loss still uses a lot of their natural hearing ability and only receives help in certain frequencies (usually high go first) and will wear an "open fit" type of ear piece whereas I need amplification across the board.
My point really was a general one, that i felt the article was underplaying the capabilities of today's hearing aid technology.
A bluetooth-enabled hearing aid and a remote microphone would work well in this situation but only if there is one speaker to listen to as aids currently can only stream from one remote mic at a time.
And also only if you are happy to hand a clip-on mic for a friend to wear.
Its very interesting that people are prepared to wear "cool" AirPods but still shy away from hearing aids because they don't want to look old or disabled. Hearing aid manufacturers are starting to catch on and market aids more as lifestyle accessories rather than medical devices that fix a disability, which will help a lot. Also, aids are much smaller and sleeker now, they look pretty cool, the tide will turn eventually and more people will start to accept them - i'm not sure they will become as cool as glasses but they'll at least become acceptable.
BTW: the live listen on Apple devices is a nice feature but it nowhere near being a hearing aid.
I don't agree and I think the original article severely underestimated top-end hearing aid technology. Newer hearing aids from top manufacturers like GN, Oticon and Phonak do a very good job of isolating a particular voice in noise - sure its still far from perfect but it light-years ahead of "making all things louder".
I have no doubt the suggested brain-powered hearing aids will be much better but models like Oticon's OPN have smart directionality and localisation features for picking out specifics in noise. Most models also allow you to control the direction of sound enhancement to improve things further - by default most will use a 360 degree, or at least 270 degree field of listening but with an app you can change them to have a very narrow field and target specifically the person directly in front of you.
I have a severe hearing loss and wear GN ReSound LiNX Quattro in both ears, without them I cannot hear anything useful, i.e. I hear no voice even when someone is directly in front of me and no background noise. With them I can hold a conversation in a fairly noisy pub, its hard work to listen in noise but they do an amazing job for me. Technology has moved way past the old analogue amplification that really did just make everything louder.