Hello dear all,
I’ve seen that a friend of mine who owns and uses a Oticon, bought from Amplifon, also often uses a small remote (bluetooth?) control that he uses to adjust volume levels.
The question is, what is the remote used for? don’t hearing aids automatically adjust the volume level according to the environment?
I would like to know what uses such a remote could have, and if any of you own a remote for your HA if you use it often and find it useful!
I have a remote for my Phonak aid. I use it to turn the volume up or down and to switch between programs which have been set up on the hearing aids. Sometimes it is more convenient and less distracting than using the program on my phone. If you have fat fingers like me it is also easier than using the buttons on the hearing aids.
I have the remote for my Oticon aids. I use it when I don’t want to look like I am messing with my ears. It can change programs, if I had more than the default program it can adjust volume and mute my aids. The automatic part is adjusting which program to use and I guess at maybe does adjust volume but there is times I want to adjust the volume to better hear conversations. For me my aids don’t have the way to mute them by way of the buttons on the aids due to them being rechargeable. I don’t use my remote very often. But say I am in a church service or a meeting I may need to adjust the volume.
Few (or no) hearing aids adjust volume levels automatically, although they do dampen very loud sounds like sirens that could damage the ears. So, the user needs to be able to manually change volume (rarely or often, depending). (Most hearing aids today have 4 or more ‘channels’ that are settings suitable for specific sound situations: all-around, restaurants/crowds, outdoors, front-focus, music, f.ex.) Most hearing aids have a button on the aid itself that can adjust these programs–at the ear. A hand-held remote device can do the same thing. If one doesn’t want to carry a device, once can also make the change by touching the ear/aid. ALSO, many modern aids link to a mobile phone and, using an app, one can make the same changes to the hearing aids using the phone–in that case one doesn’t need to carry a remote device.
That is right. In the old days I spent all my time wheeling the sound of my HAs up or down. If your modern, digital HAs are properly programmed you never need to touch their volume buttons again, as they keeps volumes between what is useful and tolerable, by frequency. I only use an add-on volume controller for my TV-streamer.
You are mostly correct but there are times that certain sounds can’t be automatically controlled by the aids. For me it is even more true because I have to have my aids at 100% of my audiogram just to understand speech. Whole most aids are fitted for comfort or between 80 and 90% of their audiogram. So yes i lower my aids volume at times to help me relax