- Hi guys, Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology,
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video, I'm gonna tell you the secret
to get better sound quality when streaming music
into your hearing aids, coming up.
(funky music)
The number one goal of hearing aids,
since the day that they were invented,
is to help individuals with hearing loss
understand speech better.
Hearing aids have been increasingly successful
at accomplishing this task of better speech intelligibility,
due to technological innovations over the recent years.
This largely remained the singular focus
of hearing aid manufacturers over the recent decades.
That is, until wireless audio streaming
made its way into hearing aids,
that allowed hearing aid users to stream audio
directly from their smart device into their hearing aids.
Today's hearing aids can now use Bluetooth
to connect to a variety of different smart devices,
so you can listen to podcasts, audio books,
YouTube videos, phone calls, and yes,
even music directly in your hearing aids.
However, because hearing aids have always been optimized
for better speech understanding,
hearing aid manufacturers have not been able
to optimize sound quality when streaming music
at the same time.
To understand why, you first have to understand
a little bit about psychoacoustics.
Now I know that psychoacoustics
can seem like an intimidating word,
but basically it is just the science of sound perception.
But before I get into the specifics of psychoacoustics,
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That being said, let's go ahead and get into the science.
A lot of what audiologists do
is manipulate sound with digital programming
and physical changes to a hearing aid,
to optimize the way that you hear something.
In most cases, we're making these changes
to achieve better speech intelligibility.
But this psychoacoustics
behind better speech intelligibility
are different than the psychoacoustics
behind better music perception.
For instance, the vast majority of individuals
with hearing loss, have a loss in the high frequency ranges,
with the low frequency ranges of their hearing
remaining relatively normal.
Think of high frequencies as treble tones,
and low frequencies as bass tones.
When looking at an audiogram,
the low frequencies are on the left side of the graph,
and the high frequencies are on the right side of the graph,
very similar to how a piano keyboard is laid out.
With this particular type of hearing loss,
you would ideally want either an open dome,
or a large vented custom ear mold on your hearing aids.
This open vent setup is ideal
for the vast majority of hearing aid users
who want better speech intelligibility.
The problem is, it is not a very good setup
for individuals who want better quality streamed music.
When you're streaming music from your smart device
into your hearing aids,
and you have an open dome, or open venting on an ear mold,
the low frequency sounds that you're streaming
leak out of those open vents,
not allowing you to perceive them.
This causes music to sound flat,
where you don't hear any of those low-frequency bass tones,
because they're literally leaking out of your ears.
But you can not just use a dome or ear mold with no venting,
because this would block your natural
low-frequency hearing ability,
which would reduce the perception of quality
of your own voice,
and potentially reduce the sound quality
of someone talking to you.
That's why Phonak, today's video sponsor,
developed the new ActiveVent Receiver,
which is the world's first smart receiver
that opens when you want better speech intelligibility,
but it closes automatically
when you want better quality music streaming.
You see, up until now, if you really wanted to get
good quality streamed music through your hearing aids,
you would have to take off your open dome,
or take off your ear mold that has an open vent,
and put on either a dome or an ear mold that had no venting,
so you could trap in the low frequency sounds,
and get that perception of low frequency bass.
When using the ActiveVent Receiver,
you actually get the best of both worlds.
It remains open when you want better speech intelligibility,
but it closes as soon as you start streaming music
into your hearing aids.
The best part is the ActiveVent Receiver
switches between open and closed automatically,
see you don't even have to worry about it.
This increased perception of low-frequency bass tones
makes music sound much more rich and full
than when you stream music into hearing aids
that use open venting.
This graph illustrates just how much more
low frequency bass tones are trapped inside your ears
when streaming music.
The green hash mark line is with an open vent,
and the solid green line is a closed event.
You can see that the closed vent
provides substantially more low-frequency sound perception
than the open vent.
Here's what the ActiveVent Receiver looks like,
compared to a traditional receiver.
Inside of its elongated receiver housing,
there is a vent that open and closes,
depending on what information
it is receiving from your hearing aids.
If you're having a conversation with someone,
it will remain open.
However, it will close if you end up streaming music.
The other important component
that controls the performance of the ActiveVent Receiver
is the custom titanium slim tip ear mold.
This ear mold is custom made to fit your ear canal,
to create a perfect seal,
that traps in the bass tones of music
when the ActiveVent closes.
Here is what my custom titanium slim tip looks like.
This one's been molded to my ear, and when I put it in,
it is extremely comfortable.
It fits my ear like a glove,
and it really holds that receiver wire
nice and close to my head, so it's really inconspicuous.
The other nice thing about titanium
is that it is hypoallergenic.
So if you have skin sensitivities,
titanium is one of the best materials
that you can use for an ear mold.
Now, your hearing care professional
can use a silicone slim tip on these ActiveVent Receivers,
but trust me, the real magic happens
when you have a perfectly fit custom titanium tip.
Now you might be wondering
what the actual sound quality improvement is
when you have a closed vent when you're streaming music.
Now, one way that you can actually simulate closed venting,
if you have hearing aids already,
is to go ahead and stream music into your hearing aids,
then take your fingers, and plug up your ears,
so it traps in those low frequency bass tones.
You should immediately notice a significant improvement
in music sound quality.
But enough talk, let me go ahead
and actually play you a sound sample
of what the ActiveVent Receiver sounds like,
with open venting, versus closed venting
when streaming music.
(happy music)
(thumping happy music)
Now that is the power of the ActiveVent Receiver
when streaming music.
Since I've been an audiologist,
the quality of music streaming has always taken a back seat
to better speech intelligibility.
But with the ActiveVent Receiver,
you can literally get the best of both worlds.
Now you know why venting is so important
when it comes to the perception of sound
through hearing aids.
And at this point,
you probably know more about psychoacoustics
than 99.999% of individuals with hearing loss.
So if you're someone who wants hearing aids
to be optimized for better speech intelligibility,
but you also want your hearing aids
to be optimized for better music quality,
then the decision is easy.
Go with a hearing aid that uses a receiver
that allows you to do both at the same time.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you liked the video, please share it.
And if you wanna see other videos, just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website, drcliffaud.com.
♪ Are you ready ♪
(funky music)
♪ Are you ready ♪