- If you search for hearing aids on Amazon
you're likely gonna come across the Otofonix Elite
Hearing Amplifiers.
They are not hearing aids, but on the company website
they indicate that they're capable of treating a
mild to moderate hearing loss.
So in this video I'm gonna put these devices to the test
and see how well they perform, comin up.
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Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem, Arizona
and on this channel I cover a bunch of hearing related
information to help make you a better informed consumer.
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so you never miss a new video.
Otofonix is a company that distributes
high-end hearing amplifiers.
According to the FDA hearing amplifiers
are not intended to treat hearing loss
and they can't be marked as hearing aids,
but like I mentioned before these devices are
capable of amplifying sound
and they look a lot like hearing aids.
So I went ahead and put them through
the same testing that I would an actual hearing aid
to see how well it performs.
If you want to check these devices out for yourself
I went ahead and put a link in the description below.
All right, so let's check out some of the features
of the Otofonix Elite, and the first thing is
is the way that they look.
So this is an Otofonix Elite Hearing Amplifier.
They come with different lengths of
tubes that you can use on those devices
and then if you look really closely you can see
two different types of domes on there,
but we have a solid dome and an open dome
and depending on how much leakage of sound that you get
using these devices you may actually need to use
the solid dome to prevent that feedback.
The devices use size 312 batteries
that you can put in the bottom of the devices right there,
you click it shut, and it also has a rocker switch
on the top there too, so
if you click it up will increase volume,
you click it down it will decrease volume.
If you press and hold that rocker switch
it will actually change between one of four
different programmed presets.
The Otofonix Elite only has one microphone
that's omnidirectional, so it picks up sound
from all directions.
If we're talking physical fit of these devices
they're pretty discreet, they don't show very much,
they're very small anyway and then they just have that
little thin tube that goes down inside of the ear canal.
I'm not cray about the colors.
They have a beige color, and they have a silver color.
I think most individuals would end up getting the beige
unless you actually have white or silver colored hair
then going with the silver might make a lot of sense.
Either way they're pretty small,
color is not gonna matter that much anyway.
Now let's talk about performance.
Performance of a hearing device is something that we can
objectively test just like I would be able to test
a hearing aid to see how well it's programmed
I'm able to test these types of devices
using the same methods.
The method that I'm gonna be using is called
real ear measurement.
This allows me to see if these devices are capable
of meeting a mild to moderate hearing loss prescription.
They also will let me test to see
if the noise reduction feature is working
and how well it works.
Now if you want to learn more about real ear measurement
I highly recommend that you watch my video
that I will link in the card up here
and in the description below.
Since the Otofonix Elite is supposed to be appropriate
for a mild to moderate hearing loss
as indicated on the Otofonix website
we're going to check it's capability of meeting
an NAL-NL2 prescription for a mild to moderate hearing loss.
All right, so let me explain what we're looking at here.
When performing real ear measures
we are trying to match the amplification
of the hearing device to a prescriptive target
created from the hearing loss of a patient.
The prescription for this mild to moderate hearing loss
is indicated by the red hash mark line.
In order to measure the amplification of this device
a calibrated signal is played from a loud speaker
in front of the patient.
A prob tube inside the patients hear
measures the amplification from the device
and is illustrated by the solid red line.
The goal is to have this solid red line
overlap with the red hash mark line.
This would indicate that the amplification from the device
is appropriate for this type of hearing loss.
The red curve is with the Otofonix Elite in program one
also known as the normal setting.
As you can see the prescription is being met in the low
frequencies, but is not being met in the high frequencies.
In general if you're looking
for improved speak clarity it is critical to hit
your high frequency prescriptive targets.
Now let's check out program two
also known as the noisy setting program
designed to reduce background noise,
which is illustrated by a solid turquoise line.
The prescriptive hash mark line is now turquoise as well,
but it is still the same as the red hash mark line.
In this setting it is reducing some
of the mid frequency amplification.
Next is program three illustrated by the green line.
This program is designed to reduce feedback,
otherwise known as that whistling sound that you get
from poorly fitted hearing aids.
In this setting the high frequency amplification
is reduced to limit the risk of that sound leaking
from the dome and cycling back through the microphone
of the device causing that whistling sound.
And finally program number four
which is illustrate by the pink line.
This program is also known as the power setting.
This program is designed to increase the volume
of the device and intended for things like
watching the television in a controlled environment.
When we overlap all of these curves
from the four different programs at the default volume
we can see that they are all similar
except for the third program illustrated
by the green line which reduces
the high frequency amplification of the device.
None of these programs meet a prescription
for a mild to moderate hearing loss.
Now let's take a look at a hearing aid
that has been custom programmed to meet
this mild to moderate hearing loss prescription
as illustrated by a purple hash mark line.
In this case I used the Phonak Audéo B90 hearing aid.
As you can see I was able to almost perfectly match
the prescription indicated by the solid purple line
matching the prescriptive hash mark line
all the way out to about five and a half thousand hertz.
When comparing the real ear measurement curves
of the Otofonix Elite with the Phonak Audéo B90
you can see the differences in the
programming capabilities of these two devices.
I did, however, want to see if the Otofonix Elite
was capable of meeting the prescription
by increasing the volume on the device itself.
You can see by the new turquoise curve
that we're able to get closer to the prescription
in the high frequencies,
but by increasing the volume overall
we are now over amplifying the low and mid frequencies,
which can cause issues with speech intelligibility
and comfort of sound.
When we compare this new volume setting
with that of a custom programed hearing aid
you can see that there is still a big difference.
Now let's take a look at the noise reduction capabilities
of the Otofonix Elite.
When we play noise from that same loud speaker
we want to see how much the solid red line drops
from the solid purple line.
The further it drops the more noise reduction
the devices have.
When the test is over it shows an average of about
six decibels of noise reduction.
All right, as you just saw the Otofonix Elite
was not capable of meeting a prescription for a
mild to moderate hearing loss.
That being said they did pretty good for a device
that only costs 325 bucks.
The Otofonix Elite Hearing Amplifiers
are not gonna perform as good as a customizable hearing aid
and they shouldn't perform as well,
they're not hearing aids themselves,
they're hearing amplifiers.
What I think of when I think of hearing amplifiers is
a device that is kind of like a stepping stone
for someone who's having some hearing difficulty,
but they're not really ready to commit
to hearing treatment with actual hearing aids
and they're really not that expensive,
so you can actually get them,
you can try them, you can see if you're getting
any kind of benefit out of them.
Chances are you could see some benefit,
but if you want to get the maximum amount of benefit
you're probably gonna have to take that step
and actually get hearing devices that are able to be
programmed exactly to your hearing loss prescription.
Overall the Otofonix Elite Hearing Amplifiers
are clearly better than other hearing
amplifiers on the market.
That being said I think that they're actually better
than some of these online hearing aids
that are not programmable that I have tested
inside of my clinic.
So if you're someone who's looking to get
just a little bit of a boost
going with the Otofonix Elite Hearing Amplifiers
might be the best choice.
That's it for this video, if you have any questions
leave them in the comments section below.
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I'll see you next time.
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