What is the difference between ‘directional and ‘omnidirectional microphones?
Omnidirectional microphones are standard on all hearing aids. They pick-up sounds all around you equally, and provide ‘surround sound’. Directional (dual) microphones are an option in most mid-range and advanced hearing aids. They consist of two microphones: A front and a rear microphone. The microphones work together to reduce sounds coming from behind you. This results in a reduction of background noise. Directional microphones can significantly improve speech understanding in noise. While they reduce the effect of background noise to a greater extent, there is still no technology that can eliminate background noise completely.Almost all digital hearing aids of today contain a directional microphone. Directional microphones can also be activated automatically and adaptively, so that it seeks out and reduces significant noise sources in your acoustic environment.
