Can digital hearing aids help cut out background noise?
People who use traditional analogue hearing aids often complain that they find it difficult or impossible to follow conversations in noisy places. Many digital aids are designed to reduce steady kinds of background noise, such as the rumble of traffic or the whirr of a fan. This can make listening more comfortable. But it does not necessarily help you to pick out a single voice from everything else going on, especially when several people are talking at once. Two things have been shown to improve hearing in noisy situations more than anything else – wearing hearing aids in both ears, and using hearing aids that have directional microphones. Directional microphone systems amplify sounds that come from in front of you more than sounds to the side or behind you. This makes it easier for you to focus on what you want to listen to in a noisy place. Most digital hearing aids have microphones that can be set to operate like this. This means you can switch between directional and all-round sou
