Like many of you, here at Max Tech we love covering all things tech and I in particular
love covering the latest headphones and earbuds. From Apple®, to Sony®, to Samsung®. We have so much
amazing technology at our fingertips but with that I found that I often take it for granted,
especially when Cochlear Americas reached out and wanted to partner on a video
about their amazing Kanso® 2 Sound processor.
At first I was a little bit sceptical but after looking into it I was shocked by how much of a
difference this tech can make in people's lives and I knew that I had to cover it.
466 million people worldwide and almost 50 million americans are affected by hearing loss
according to the World Health Organization. For those who have severe hearing loss or
their new Kanso 2 Sound Processor allows people to connect to a smartphone and other devices
and listen to music, take calls and more, which I thought was completely normal for everybody since
I do that daily, when in fact many people with hearing loss can’t do that at all.
The Kanso 2 also stands out because it's wireless and it
doesn’t need an additional module behind the ear.
I got a chance to virtually meet Justin to ask him some questions and see what kind of
an impact the Kanso 2 has made on his life. Thank you Justin for joining me and being
willing to share your story, my first question is how was your life before cochlear implant?
I actually grew up wearing hearing aids, so I wore hearing aids from the time i was about 4 or 5,
but I got my cochlear implant when I was 27. During that time my hearing loss just got progressively
worse, so the hearing aids had to become more and more powerful to help me, and then it got
to the point where even the hearing aid wasn’t helping me. Once I got the cochlear implant,
it was pretty amazing. I didn’t realize how much sound or access of sound I had lost.
I haven’t experienced what you’re talking about but for me it’s vision, like my vision slowly
progressively just keeps getting worse and I got contacts not too long ago and when I popped those
in I was like shocked. Like I’m driving on the roads that I usually drive home and I’ve never
noticed like mountains in the background, or anything ‘cause it’s so blurred out.
It’s a great analogy, I think contact lenses are a great example of where it’s just
blurry then all the sudden so clear again, that’s a good example with cochlear implants.
How bad did the hearing loss that you talked about, how bad did that affect your life?
I noticed myself kind of withdrawing a little bit. Going to social events, it was really hard to,
kind of, carry on a conversation. I would have to rely on my wife to kind of
let me know that somebody was asking something, or what they were saying, so I’d turn to her for
support. So it got pretty hard. At work, things were pretty tough, I’m an audiologist, I’m testing
people who have hearing loss, and I was struggling even at work as well, trying to do my job.
Did it help being in that field? Kind of knowing what your options are, what you’re choosing
to do, [did it] make that choice easier? It was always in the back of my mind that
I probably knew I’d have to get a cochlear implant eventually. It also helped to see so
many people get them and do well with them. So what was your first sound processor?
I know it’s a different one now, what was the first one and what features did it have?
It’s called the Cochlear Freedom. It was a much bigger device, it was an on-the-ear
processor so that was great, you don’t have to have the line or the string connected to a box
on your belt or anything like that. It was a good processor, you know? There were like push buttons
on the processor which was fairly new, there was a little screen on there so you could see, kind
of which program you were in. And it did a good job. It was quite heavy, um I do remember that.
Yeah when I was looking into, kind of what’s available now, and the Kanso 2,
I didn’t even know there was the older ones with the wire and a belt pack,
I guess it’s awesome living today to have all these new capabilities.
I’ve actually had almost every single sound processor since that one. What was really a
big deal, maybe two sound processors after Freedom was, there was some automaticity that was starting
to happen, so the sound processor would actually monitor the environment and then change the
program based on the environment I was in. The hardware, like the microphone,
I think you’ll kind of appreciate this, the microphone and the processor got better. We
cover a ton of- all the new headphones and stuff that comes out and it’s cool that every year,
we’re seeing this progression in quality and background noise filtering and stuff.
It’s really awesome to see that tech being pushed forward, and for me, it’s awesome to see not only
in the latest gadgets that are coming out, but it’s in things like this where it actually changes
people’s lives. So how has it been switching over to this one compared to the previous ones?
There’s definitely a difference in off-the-ear. This is the first time where like, I have nothing
on my ear, it’s just free. The other really cool thing with the Kanso 2,
well there’s actually a few, but it’s completely wireless like you said. So,
it connects to my cell phone, so right now I’m actually talking to you through my cell phone.
There’s no wires, just like with wireless headphones, essentially, I just have that all
built in as part of my device that helps me hear. But I can also connect to my phone, I can stream
video from my phone, listen to, you know, watch Netflix®. I can listen to a podcast, which I do
while I’m riding my bike to and from work and that kind of stuff too. I can talk hands-free in
the car, it’s just a lot that you can actually, just not being tethered to the phone having to
put it up to your ear, you can do quite a bit. Since it can do all of this, which is amazing,
all of this stuff is packed into this device, I have to ask how much did it cost? How expensive
was it? And since it’s a health device, was that covered by insurance?
Insurance does cover it, so, it is, there’s a surgery involved, and insurance does cover it.
How was that? Was it more difficult than you expected to get it,
the surgery and the recovery? Or was it easier? It's an outpatient surgery, so you go into the
hospital in the morning and you’re typically done by the afternoon. It took a couple weeks for
the swelling over the side to go down. You wait for the swelling to go down because there’s a
magnet under the skin and then there’s a magnet in the sound processor and that’s how they connect.
So would you mind showing me how it connects and how it looks on the side?
Oh yeah sure! I’ll turn my head here, so if you can see the Kanso you let me know. So
essentially it’s just right here, and I can just pull it off.
And as soon as it pops on magnetically you can start hearing again?
Yeah the sound comes right on. The other thing between the Kanso and the Kanso 2, the original Kanso,
is this is rechargeable, so at night I literally take the whole thing off and
drop it in a little charging dock and it actually wirelessly charges the device as well.
Those people that are out there that are dealing with hearing loss,
and they’re on the fence of getting the implant ‘cause it involves surgery and everything else,
would you suggest for them to go with it? Yeah, without a doubt. To be totally honest I was
rolling into that operating room, wondering if I was still doing the right thing. I’ve seen a lot
of people get a cochlear implant in the clinic and saw the benefits of it, and I could kind
of make do. But then coming out the other side, getting activated, starting to hear again, hearing
these soft soft sounds that I hadn’t heard in a long time. Being able to
look at somebody and not have to see their lips to understand what they’re saying. Being
in a noisy room and actually being able to truly hear somebody and what they’re saying
when they’re not facing me or something like that, is, it’s amazing.
I don’t know where I’d be in life honestly if I hadn’t gotten the Cochlear implant.
It’s made a huge difference for me. The technology and the advancements,
and all those kind of things have just made something great and something good even better.
Here’s a little more info about this amazing tech and how it works!
As you can see this thing is small and it's truly wireless which makes it very convenient.
Not only that but It's also the only cochlear implant that you can control from your smartphone.
I personally love being able to control a ton of my smart devices right from my home so I’m glad
that Cochlear keeps innovating and allowing those with hearing loss to stream content from their
compatible Apple device directly to their implant. I never thought that there's so many people that
can’t just pull out their phone and listen to music or take calls and FaceTime® with their
family; and with the Kanso 2 sound processor you can stream directly from your phone
and all of this is now possible. You also get a very handy smartphone
app for Android™ users as well, and you can quickly customize and control your
Kanso 2 just like you can with airpods and other headphones. If you lose your device you can use
the Find My Processor feature to help locate it. And just like the latest headphones and earbuds,
the Kanso 2 can cancel out background noise with its dual microphones which really improves the
audio quality and can focus on sound in front of you and filter out what you don’t want.
For those looking to customize their processor there is also multiple color options available.
We cover a ton of tech here at Max Tech but this is the kind of stuff that can not only
make your life more enjoyable but it can absolutely change your life. If you want to
learn more about the Kanso 2 Sound processor check out the link in the video description.
Thank you guys for watching and let us know what you think about this kind of amazing tech
down in the comments section below. Click that circle above if you enjoyed this video
and you want to subscribe, this has been Max and I’ll see you in the next video!