The hearing aid industry is second only to NASA and the USGovernment in the use of DSP (digital signal processing) techniques and chipsets. It's really amazing the amount of audio processing power that can go into that tiny, hide-it-in-your-ear hearing aid. Take a look at Texas Instrument's webpages -they used to feature how their DSP integrated circuits were being used in medical (including hearing aid) devices.WildBill wrote:The high price of hearing aids really makes me angry. I can't imagine that they have any technology that justifies that kind of price. IMO the iPhone is thousands of times more complex than the electronics in a hearing aid. I think that companies jack the price up knowing that insurance companies will pick up some of the bill.
Whether or not it has a value to you, though, is of course something you can decide, but it's not your Granny's church hearing receiver (did they used to have those things built into some of the pews, where older folk could hold the little speaker up to their ear to hear the sermon?).