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by shariqm 2435 days ago
The most common type of hearing loss is age related hearing loss. This type of hearing loss makes it difficult to hear high frequencies. The main thing a hearing aid does is compensate for this by adjusting the volume of high frequencies. But here's what you're missing - The key is to amplify at low volumes and reduce at high volumes, AKA dynamic range compression [2]. This allows people to hear better at low volumes but not blast their ears at high volumes.

FYI - The ear piercing shriek you heard was from poor feedback cancellation on the hearing aid. Hearing aids have a microphone and speaker so feedback is common and a nightmare.

Also, I'm the founder of AudioFocus (YC S19)

[1] http://www.hearingresearch.org/ross/hearing_loss/the_audiogr... [2] http://openaudio.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-need-for-dynamic-r...

1 comments

Great, thanks for the explanation.