In the past month I have received four requests from personal friends and colleagues for help in purchasing hearing aids: two of those are piano technicians, one a musician, and the other a house wife. I have struggled to find good answers for them. The reason for that is no one knows the best answer at this specific point in time.
I have good connections in the industry; they don't know either. (Everyone knows what they personally want to sell-and they want to sell them as soon as possible!) The field of hearing healthcare is changing faster and more fundamentally than it ever has in history.
A somewhat good analogy is Apple, a stable company in a stable product field, who offered three new iPhones and, with iOS 12 due to come out in June, two new operating systems, in about a year. Hearing aids are undergoing even more dramatic changes. It just isn't apparent to the general public yet.
I have noticed several misconceptions my friends and colleagues have, which are vitally important to dispel so that they can avoid expensive mistakes. The first misconception is that modern digital hearing aids are not capable of delivering high quality music-many of them are. The second is that it's impossible to tune with digital hearing aids-it's not only possible, it's easier-with the right hearing aids and the right provider. The third misconception is that, since we piano technicians are intelligent and resourceful, and we have the great internet at our fingertips, we can research it and find all we need to know-much of that information online, even that from the best audiologists who work with musicians, is outdated, and will lead us to the wrong conclusions.
If anyone wants more information, or wants to share their successes, you can email me at
dpno2nr@yahoo.comDiane
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Diane Hofstetter
Safe and Sound Hearing Healthcare
Vancouver WA
360-901-0563
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