SMART IDEAS
WHAT IS the best hearing aid for business users? It’s wise to take specialist advice before you make up your mind, says Nathan Gluck, a north London audiologist. “The very smallest hearing aid is not always the best; it depends on your hearing loss,” he explains. Yes, you can have a tiny device that goes inside your ear — which will help you hear other people clearly. But what about your own voice? If the hearing device is inserted in your ear, it can make your own voice sound as if you were speaking underwater. You might be better off with a small hearing aid that goes over the ear. This can still be discreet — especially if you have hair that covers your ears.
Of course, there is no real need to hide a hearing device. But if you are, say, a lawyer and you don’t want clients worrying that you might fail to hear a crucial part of their brief, you might prefer a hidden hearing aid. After all, says Gluck, “the world is made up of different sorts of people” and not all of them may realise how effective hearing aids can be.
If you spend some of your working day in meetings, there is plenty of technology to help you cope, including devices you can put on the table to intensify the speech signals from others.
“Everything comes back to how much ‘noise’ you want to make about the fact that you’re not hearing,” says Gluck. “Using such a device means opening up — ‘undressing’, shall we say — in front of clients. But in terms of technology, it’s there and it’s very good.”
A big advance has been the pairing of hearing aids with apps on your phone. Iphones already pair seamlessly with hearing aids, via ordinary wireless earphones, and androids will be able to do the same by the end of the year (currently one uses a small interface for androids, worn as a clip or necklace). Using apps on your phone, you can discreetly control your hearing aids. Some also work with real-time translation software, to help business travellers abroad.
Leading a presentation, including taking questions from the audience, should be no problem with welladjusted hearing aids, says Gluck. For those whose hearing aids are paired with their phone, you could use an app to increase the volume when it was time for questions, he suggests. Bluetooth pairing means hands-free calls while driving are no problem, either. The caller’s voice is relayed and amplified through the hearing aids. Gluck is excited about a new product, the Virto Marvel Black, from Phonak. The superpower connotations of the name are intentional. It is inspired by the trendy earbuds (also known as “hearables”) many people now use to listen to music, making hearing devices look cool.
“It’s black and it’s in the style of a hearable,” Gluck says of the new Phonak device. “It’s wirelessly connectable to your hearing aid. With this range, Phonak is trying to break down the stigma of hearing aids.”
The Virto Black Marvel connects to smartphones, TV and microphones, for hands-free calls, streaming and more. Gluck smiles when he sees people out and about listening to music through earbuds. So much for stigma — this is one style trend where hearing aids have led the way for years.
Leading a presentation is no problem with modern hearing aids’