Best Hearing Aid Features of 2025!
I bet you didn't even know that hearing aids had features like these hey guys Cliff Olson doctor of Audiology and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix Arizona and in this video I'm talking about all the best hearing aid features available in 2025 back when hearing aids were first developed they pretty much all did one thing amplify sound and the only feature that these hearing aids had other than being gigantic was that they had a volume wheel to increase and decrease volume fortunately today's modern hearing a do a heck of a lot more than just make things louder softer and while some of these features are flashy and catch all of the headlines that the Consumer Electronics Show other hearing aid features fly under the radar but are arguably even more important to the performance of your hearing aids that's why I wanted to share my top seven picks for best hearing aid features of 2025 starting with the first feature which is a 24 band equalizer this is a critical feature that often goes overlooked when it comes to hearing aids but I find to be extremely important when you develop a hearing loss you lose the aut ability of sounds at different frequency ranges that we can measure during a hearing test and plot on an audiogram in most cases some frequencies that we test will have more hearing loss and other frequencies will have less hearing loss this means that a hearing aid needs to be able to apply different levels of amplification to each of these different frequency ranges and properly blend the amplification between the frequencies if you only have a three-band equalizer inside of hearing aid programming software then you will not be able to custom program a hearing aid to the point where you're applying the exact right amount of amplification required at each frequency to maximize hearing aid performance however when you increase the amount of these equalizer bands inside of the hearing aid programming software it increases the Precision of which your hearing care professional can match your prescriptive targets across the entire frequency range over the years the amount of these equalizer bands has increased to 24 inside of some hearing aid manufacturer software if you have their highest level of Technology some hearing aids that have 24 adjustment bands inside of their programming software include the Odon intent 1 and the starky edge AI 24s this is largely one of the reasons why I recommend that my patients go with the highest level of hearing a technology they can reasonably afford because if they start dropping down in technology level it starts removing these frequency adjustment bands from the programming software which means that we're no longer able to precisely match their hearing loss prescriptive targets as a lot of you know who've been watching my YouTube channel for the past 8 years or so I was a US Marine Corp scout sniper so it's no surprise that I prefer a precision rifle approach rather than a broad shotgun approach to programming and that is exactly why having a 24 band equalizer inside of hearing aid programming software is one of the best features you can get in 2025 that being said having a lot of different equalizer bands only matters if you go to a hearing care professional who follows comprehensive audiologic best practices best practices are a long list of procedures that include speech and noise testing test box measures validation outcome measures and real ear measurement real ear measurement allows a hearing care professional to properly customize your equalizer bands to precisely match your hearing loss prescription if realer measurement is not performed by your hearing care professional at your initial hearing aid fitting appointment then you have no idea if your hearing iser programmed correctly and purchasing hearing is that have 24 equalizer bands is a waste of money now if you would like an easy way to find a hearing care professional who follows these best practices including real ear measurement I highly recommend that you go to my website hearing up.com and finding a hearing up Network member in your area hearing up members have been vetted and are committed to following comprehensive audiologic best practices to ensure that you can hear your absolute best no matter what hearing aids you use so join thousands of other extremely satisfied hearing aid users and find your closest hearing up provider today that being said the second feature on this year's list of best hearing aid features of 2025 is Bluetooth LE audio and orac cast Bluetooth LE audio was actually inspired by the hearing aid industry back in the early 2010s because they had a desire to have more Universal connectivity with other wireless devices Bluetooth LE audio uses the new lc3 codec that provides better sound quality than other codecs even at lower bit rates which also lowers battery drain not only does Bluetooth LE audio sound significantly better than Bluetooth low energy the Asha Bluetooth protocol and Bluetooth classic but it also allows you to share your audio with anyone else who has Bluetooth LE audio enabled devices and these devices could include other hearing aids Bluetooth headphones as well as Bluetooth earbuds eventually we will no longer have to adjust a recommendation for hearing treatment based on the type of Bluetooth that your smart devices have but possibly even more exciting is a capability that Bluetooth LE audio enables which is called orac cast broadcast audio this new feature will allow public venues to easily broadcast the audio of their venue to their Pat using an or cast transmitter that will eventually replace the need for a hearing Loop and telecoil this means that places like churches museums Broadway shows sports bars and other venues will be able to send their audio directly into your hearing aids enhancing your listening experience not only will this help individuals with hearing loss but it will also help a lot of other people with other disabilities such as individuals with vision loss because they'll have multiple audio streams that they can tap into and one of those audio streams can be descriptive audio not to mention individuals with normal hearing will also be able to tap into these audio signals using regular Bluetooth earbuds I mean just think if everybody could go into a public venue and tap into the exact audio that they wanted to hear like a sports bar where they're playing a variety of different sports games but you can tap into the exact TV that you want to hear this means that the adoption of orac cast is going to be much broader and faster than what we saw with hearing loops and tele coils because it's going to be available for everybody expect to start seeing orac cast availability on Google listings here in 2025 as well as websites designed to give you an idea of which venues have these orac cast transmitters hearing aids that either have or are future compatible with Bluetooth LE audio and orac cast include the Odon intent the signia The starky Edge AI the ran Vivia and the phonak infino all right guys if you're enjoying this video so far do me a huge favor and click the like button it really helps out the channel because it gets these videos in front of a broader audience and while you're at it if you have not yet hit that subscribe button with notification Bell go ahead and do that as well it is greatly appreciated and while you're at it let me know down in the comment section which hearing aid features you think are best here in 2025 that being said the third feature to make this year's list of best hearing aid features in 2025 is the Deep neural network trained hearing aid that uses artificial intelligence to separate speech from background noise of course any hearing a feature that is designed to help you hear better in a background noise situation was clearly going to make this year's list deep neural networks are relatively new in the world of hearing aids but they've been used for decades in other Industries essentially a deep neural network is an artificial human brain that is trained with millions of sound samples so it can use artificial intelligence to separate speech from background noise the first deep neural network that we saw used in hearing aids goes back to 20201 but it has been significantly improved since that time let me go ahead and play a few different sound samples from SE several different hearing aids so you can identify the difference that a deep neural network makes I can it maybe later bying the track this was like inro song and I was like so behind beat because when I would press it down all of a sudden the pit shift stuff was behind by like 10 milliseconds I mean it's enough to make the feel off you know our goal at Star was to remove the fear from hearing aid users that they'll miss out on one of life's most important moments due to running out of battery life in their hearing aids asking for directions in a busy street can be frustrating especially if you're talking to somebody with a funny accent like my friend here we'll just select the new intelligent Focus program in your app and you can hear my voice loud and clear without distractions while your performance may vary from the samples I just played for you depending on the type of Domes or custom eolds that you use and the quality of the programming of your hear and care professional you have to still admit that that's pretty impressive basically artificial intelligence is allowing hearing aid manufacturers to significantly improve the signal to noise ratio benefits of their hearing aids beyond what human Engineers can do instead of capping out at around 5 to 6 DB of signal to noise ratio Improvement we are now able to achieve between 10 and 13 DB of signal to noise ratio Improvement which is huge by the way considering that every 1 debel Improvement in signal to noise ratio is roughly equivalent to a 10% Improv Improvement in speech understanding and background noise which is exactly why deep neural network Sound Processing made this year's list of best hearing aid features in 20125 you know what else can significantly improve your ability to hear in background noise though that's right auditory training using lace AI Pro lace AI Pro is an auditory training app that's like doing physical therapy for your ears the training modules inside of lace AI Pro are not only fun but they can significantly improve how well you hear in a background noise situation depending on your level of hearing loss you can achieve up to a 6 deel Improvement in signal to noise ratio which is approximately a 60% Improvement in hearing in noisy situations it is backed by over 20 years of use and over 80 peer-reviewed Publications to validate its performance to use lace AI Pro you need to obtain a lifetime license that you can get in the description of this video and I will also have a discount code for Dr Cliff Channel subscribers linked there as well okay on to the fourth hearing aid feature to make this year's list of best hearing aid features in 2025 is automatic classifier systems let's face it you do not spend all of your time in only one listening situation so why would you want your hearing aids to be programmed for only one environment I mean you probably find yourself sitting in a quiet living room watching TV hopping in the car driving to a restaurant trying to have conversation in a restaurant or just going to hang out with family and friends each one of these different listening situations requires different program settings for you to hear your best which means that you basically have two different different options you can either take your phone and try to customize the audio yourself or you can have a hearing aid that does that for you this is where automatic classifiers come into play essentially some hearing aids have been designed to be able to identify different acoustic listening situations and then adjusting the hearing aids settings to be optimal for whatever situation you find yourself in and it does all of this automatically for you after you're hearing care professional has set it up for instance the autosense OS 6.0 feature inside of the phonak AO infino hearing aids has six different classifications that the hearing aids will put you in this includes calm situations speech and noise environments speech in loud noise environments speech in car comfort in noise and music classifications or the yex moment smart recuring AIDS which have up to 11 different classifications so it can adjust for you automatically while you may be confident that you can self- adjust your own hearing aids better than what a hearing aid can do there's research out there that shows that these class classifier systems are better than you are at making these adjustments for you and if you're not confident at making self adjustments on your hearing aids then it makes even more sense so no matter what an automatic classifier system inside of your hearing aid makes a heck of a lot of sense and it's exactly the reason why it was included in this year's list of best hearing aid features of 2025 the fifth feature to make this year's list of best hearing aid features of 2025 is lithium ion rechargeable batteries since the new Reese's law that went into effect in 2024 made disposable hearing aid battery packaging virtually impossible to get into this particular feature had to make this year's list rechargeable battery technology has made a lot of improvements as the years have gone by going from nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries that couldn't even get you a full day of battery life to Silver zinc rechargeable batteries that were so unreliable that it made you wonder if they actually designed them to fail to now lithium ion rechargeable battery technology that gives you a very quick charge really long battery life and it's more reliable a lot of these new lithium ion rechargeable hearing aids only take between 2 and 3 and 1/2 hours inside of the charger to give you 100% battery life and if you need a quick charge 15 minutes inside of one of these Chargers typically gives you additional 3 hours of battery life and some rechargeable hearing aids like the starky edge Ai and the signia line of devices give you multiple days worth of battery life on a single charge not to mention a lot of these rechargeable battery hearing aids are now coming either standard or for an available upgrade with a charger that stores additional charges so you do not have to constantly have your charger plugged into the wall over the years it has also become easier and easier for individuals with finger dexterity issues and vision issues to be able to use these Chargers this is because all of these Chargers now use magnets to pull the hearing aids into the proper placement so individuals with these issues do not have to worry about getting the hearing aids inside their charger successfully overall if your current hearing aids do not current currently use lithium ion rechargeable batteries chances are your next set of hearing aids definitely will and even if you do not find rechargeability to be anything new when it comes to hearing aids this feature is still really important for a lot of people which is why it made this year's list of best hearing aid features in 20125 the sixth feature to make this year's list of best hearing aid features in 2025 is feedback suppression I really don't think a lot of people truly understand the significant impact that the ability to reduce feedback in hearing aids does for hearing aid capabilities feedback is essentially a whistling sound that occurs when Amplified sound leaks out of your ear canal and recycles back through the microphones of your hearing aids the reason why feedback is such a major issue for a lot of hearing aid users is because a lot of people with hearing losss have normal low frequency hearing which means that we do not want to plug up their ear canals and leave their ear canals as open as possible but when you do this and your amplifying sound into the ear canal a lot more of that sound leaks out causing feedback now if we were able to plug up your ear canals with either a power Dome or custom ear mold with no venting we could absolutely amplify a hearing aid as much as we want to without having to worry about feedback but that would also create a few different phenomenon called insertion loss and the occlusion effect which are both very negative so in order to be able to amplify sound for you and keep your ear canal more open at the exact same time we need to have hearing aids that can do a lot of feedback suppression the way that we would typically reduce feedback is to either reduce the amount of amp ification in certain frequency ranges that are causing feedback or by applying a feedback suppression strategy such as phase inversion to cancel out the feedback several hearing aids that are really good at doing this feedback suppression are the Odon intent hearing aids and the starky edge AI hearing aids by effectively suppressing feedback we are not only able to significantly increase the amount of amplification you can get in the ranges of your hearing loss but we can also prevent the occlusion effect and insertion loss because we no longer have to plug your ears all the way which is exactly why feedback suppression is so critical to hearing aid performance and exactly the reason why it made this year's list of best hearing aid features in 2025 and the seventh and final feature to make this year's list of best hearing aid features in 2025 is custom ear molds with acoustically optimized venting if I'm being honest a custom ear mold is probably the hearing aid feature that would have the most significant benefit for most people with hearing loss the reason why these are so critical is because you could have the world's best hearing aids the most expensive hearing aids and those hearing aids would not perform very well at all unless you're able to control the sound inside of the ear canal and the reason why I specifically mentioned custom ear molds with acoustically optimized venting is because this venting allows us to have the best of both worlds meaning we're able to amplify sound to the proper levels of your hearing L prescription but we also do not have to plug up your ears to do it custom ear molds are also extremely comfortable because they're designed exactly for your ear connction and they have better retention inside of your ears meaning they won't migrate out and fall out of your ears now here's the deal the amount of hearing aid benefit that people are leaving on the table because they're not using a custom ear mold would blow your mind Approximately 80% of the patients who come into my clinic to have their hearing loss treated require the use of custom e molds for them to hear their absolute best and if I had to guess based on what my hearing aid manufacturer reps tell me only approximately 20% of individuals who get fit with hearing aids use custom ear molds unfortunately this means that a lot of people who are using hearing aids are underperforming because the generic rubber domes they're using are not adequate for them to get a custom earm mold that you can actually attach to the end of your receiver and Canal receiver wire or having just a custom in the ear hearing aid is very simple you need to either have your hearing care professional perform silicone ear mold Impressions on you and mail those into the hearing aid manufacturer or for more advanced clinics they'll have 3D digital ear scans where they scan your ear canal and upload it to the manufacturer that way often times just using a custom ear mold with acoustically optimized venting can take someone from absolutely hating their hearing aids to someone who absolutely loves their hearing aids in fact here's a little secret that no one wants me to tell you about you can actually get custom ear molds for a lower tier cheaper hearing aid and outperform a more expensive premium hearing aid that's not using a custom ear mold of course The Best of Both Worlds would be to use a premium level hearing a with a custom ear mold essentially for many types of hearing loss using a custom ear mold makes a lot of sense if you're trying to optimize your hearing performance rather than having to just rely on generic domes that are not really made for anyone in particular which is exactly why this hearing aid feature could be the most important hearing aid feature to make this year's list and there you go those are the seven best hearing aid features that you can get here in 2025 let's go ahead and do a quick recap first we have the 24 band equalizer that allows your hearing care profession professional to precisely program your hearing aids to your hearing loss prescriptive targets using real ear measurement second we had Bluetooth LE audio with orac cast broadcast audio that significantly improves streaming sound quality with lower battery drain and gives you access to public venue audio systems third we had deep neural network trained hearing aids that allow your hearing aids to significantly improve your signal to noise ratio allowing you to hear better even in extremely noisy environments fourth we had the automatic sound classifiers that allow your hearing aids to identify what type of listening situation you are in and switch your hearing aids into an optimal program setting for that environment automatically fifth we had lithium ion rechargeable hearing aid batteries that are now getting you better battery life with faster charging times and better reliability than ever before just in the nick of time due to the new Reese's law that makes using disposable battery hearing aids virtually impossible six we had feedback suppression technology that allows us to increase your amplification levels while keeping your ear canals more open while preventing your hearing aids from whistling and seventh we had custom ear molds with acoustically optimized venting which allows us to maximize your audibility of sound to improve hearing aid performance as well as provide better physical comfort and better hearing aid retention the best news is there are a lot of hearing aids from manufacturers like phac Odon starky signia yex and ReSound that have most or all of these hearing aid features inside of their hearing aids so if you're looking to get a new pair of hearing aids that have all of the best hearing aid features in the world then 20125 is definitely the year to do it
2025-03-01 21:37
