RE: Comments on multiband compression hearing aids
This list is not exhaustive (it changes nearly daily), but the list of
manufacturers with multiband compression hearing aids includes: Danavox,
Oticon, Resound, Siemens, 3M, Unitron, and others. The programmable nature
of these compression circuits varies, and may include control over crossover
frequency (between compression channels), compression threshold, compression
ratio, and compression release times. The maximum number of channels
available currently is 3, but is likely to change with digital hearing aids
and as hearing aids continue to become more programmable. It doesn't appear
currently that more channels is necessarily better, but that may reflect more
about our current understanding of compression characteristics than the
optimal characteristics for speech recognition by impaired ears.
Dave Fabry
