Do you Love Love LOVE Music? We appreciate music for the way it makes us feel; how it touches our souls. It has the ability to take us back 30 years or more in a split second. People who have hearing loss often complain about the quality of music, with or without their hearing instruments. They no longer can enjoy the rich enduring sounds that they used to. Understanding speech requires high frequency amplification and often this causes the reproduction of music to sound tinny and squeaky.
Until recently, the only solution for music sound quality was to provide a second setting that the user could activate that would provide a little bit different sound for music. It helps some but still isn’t what the music lover really wish they could enjoy. As with everything, technology has advanced and provided some wonderful solutions.
Our country’s premium hearing instrument manufacturer, Starkey Hearing Technologies has released their latest generation of technology… the Genesis Edge AI line of hearing instruments. They have been over 4 years in development. Not only do they improve a persons ability to recognize and interpret speech, they process and duplicate music in two different ways.
First, they have an automatic music feature that can recognize and classify a melody. This automatic feature recognizes and categorizes sound based on the features of that sound. The hearing aid actually searches for a melody to be present for at least four seconds while looking for speech characteristics in the high-frequency range that are usually specific for speech and to music. The wearer does not have to do anything… after the incoming sound is deemed to be “music” the hearing aids adjust the response to give the wearer a fuller, richer-sounding music experience.
This automatic feature is fast and clear. Say you are wearing the instruments and walking through the mall with your spouse with music playing in the background. The hearing instrument (which is constantly analyzing sounds for the best hearing) will identify the music and change the setting automatically to give the best music quality. Now, if all of a sudden your spouse starts to talk to you, the hearing aid will quickly identify speech and readjust the hearing aid for the best speech-to-noise signal. Automatically, they shift out of “music” mode and into “speech” mode. Very simple, very fast. VERY COOL!
The second way that the new Genesis Edge AI line of hearing instruments provides music processing differently for the patient is with a dedicated music memory. This new, dedicated music memory is exclusive to Starkey Hearing Technologies. This dedicated memory has its own processor just for music. To activate this setting the patient presses a button on the hearing aid or on an app on your phone. These hearing aids use a separate processor to reproduce music. Until now, there was no processor that could separate music so precisely, it all just blurred in with other speech and background noise.
This new music processor allows your hearing health care professional to “shape” the sound of music to what you like. There is an actual graphic equalizer that allows for specific adjustments across the entire bandwidth. If you love music, and you have been missing how wonderful it sounds; there is now a solution available to you. During your fitting we will program your instruments while listening to some of your favorite songs and artists. This is just another way that we can truly personalize your hearing instruments for you!
Remember…everyone should have a baseline hearing evaluation for their medical records. If you need us just call for an appointment. 385-3497. To Hear Better Is To Live Better!
By: Roseann B. Kiefer, B.A., BC-HIS