Abstract
Some hearing impaired listeners complain about the circuit noise in hearing aids. This is specially true for individuals with high-frequency hearing impairments who have normal hearing in the lower frequencies. In this investigation, the equivalent input noise levels were measured in several different hearing aids: linear, wide dynamic range compression, high-level compression, programmable, and digital aids. For the linear, programmable, and digital aids the measurements were made with two types of frequency responses. One was suitable for a flat moderate hearing impairment and another for a high-frequency hearing impairment. For the linear and compression aids, the noise levels were measured by using two different volume control settings. All the measurements were made by using 11 different special purpose average frequencies ranging from 200 to 5000 Hz. The results suggest generally higher circuit noise in the lower frequencies in all the hearing aids. Changes in volume control settings showed no differences in noise levels. For the programmable aids, the flat versus high-frequency configurations yielded similar noise levels. For the linear and digital aids, the high-frequency configuration yielded higher noise levels in the lower frequencies when compared to the flat configurations.
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