Bringing back analog hearing aids

This is a fascinating discussion, although a bit theoretical. I am a long-term hearing aid wearer. My digital aids work fine for speech comprehension, although (no surprise here) hardly a natural sound.
I would love to try a pair of analog aids. How can I do that? Thanks.

Hi, no I’m fortunate not to have either – just congenital profound hearing loss. I’m a pretty avid music listener so I’m particularly sensitive to the limitations of the digital processors in my hearing aids. Its frustrating that songs I can remember well only sound half as good as they used to.

The listening fatigue comes and goes, though when it comes I find I’m especially prone to headaches.

@polanskyd said:

If you ask most sound engineers and masterers today, they will tell you that analog is the gold standard.

Not for hearing aids. It’s not for listening enjoyment. It is to understand speech better. Analogs can never match digital for that. The latest hearing aids are pretty amazing devices.

As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Analog hearing aids undeniably have their drawbacks. But for a sizable and stable minority of users, no digital hearing aid has yet been able to compare. Hence my interest in seeing analog aids revived.

I wonder what the costs of making analog aids is compared to digital aids? I believe digital are much smaller than analog aids which is attractive to most people. I suspect that was the driving force to go digital but not sure.

I’m going to speculate a little here with what I know about consumer products, so please correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t know a lot about the analog HA landscape. But on general principles:

Without using an ASIC (custom chip), the analog circuitry will be relatively large and power hungry. Maybe there are analog hearing aid chips available, but if not, I don’t think there’d be enough of a market to justify the cost in making a new one.

In other words, to make a comparable analog HA, with 10-20 channels of EQ, it would be difficult and expensive without custom chips.

And you would just have fixed EQ, maybe some sound level compression (nothing fancy like frequency compression). MAYBE some adaptive EQ based on ambient noise/sounds.

Can anyone list feature sets of late-model analog HA’s?

In which HA do you understand better the group conversation? I mean digital or analog. What model of HA do you wear now?

I have reached out to multiple manufacturers on this question but have never gotten a straight answer. I would be pleased if someone with direct knowledge could reply on the question of pricing analog chips at this time. Of course, the lack of availability is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: it was due to the decisions of the manufacturers to stop producing analog hearing aids that the relevant components are now more difficult to source.

Maybe you can’t find a good fitter, so you are troubled with digitals. I remember when I first got for digitals Widex.
For almost 2 years no one could fit them properly for me. Finally I found very good fitter who made my HA good and pleasant for me. I asked him what he changed in them. He said the filters, whatever.
Widex had clear and expressive sound. When I changed them for Phonak, well, the sound in them was less clear and a little subdued in comparison with Widex, but understanding of the speech increased a lot.

Another point that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned in this thread is that with digital you can change the response curve just by changing the program, but with analogue you’d have to change the values of resistors and capacitors to change the response. (I’m in the process of designing a headphone amplifier to try and mimic the response of my aids using analogue circuits.) I don’t know how they did it before digital came along - whether they were made to specification - seems unlikely - or whether the audiologist fitted you with the best match out of a selection with different responses. I might ask my audiologist friend when I see her in a week or so’s time.

https://slate-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/slate.com/technology/2019/09/hearing-aids-digital-analog-sound-music.amp17

Gonna put my uneducated 2 cents in here, I have an electronics background. There are limits to what manipulations you can do to input based on physical size. Sound is adjusted by capacitors and inductors. Yes you can have potentiometers after the frequencies are separated using caps inductors but those take space. Capacitors wear out and fail. Also the adjustment tools would be very small. Basically I think you would get a manufacturer that made 10 of the most common hearing profiles locked into the circuit and all you could adjust is volume. If they allowed user/audi adjustment you lose water resistance. The battery life would be much worse and HA size much larger. With digital you sample in input and convert to digital. Send it through a microprocessor to apply a plethora of filters then send it back out the an amplifier/speaker. Not perfect by any means but allows manufacturers to make a single device that works for almost anyone. Not perfect for anyone but works. I’m not arguing for or against but for ME I would prefer the small device that just amplifies the frequencies i need and lasts a week on a battery.

I could see a manufacturer making a kiosk like shoe inserts where it shows the autograph on the package and you pick the one that best matches yours. Say $99 for hearing amplifier but there are 10 models to chose from. No adjustment except volume.

Good try, but inductors haven’t been used in AF (audio frequency) tuned circuits for about 40 years. They’re too big and bulky. And ceramic SMT capacitors now never dry out or wear out. Op-amp type filters are tuned by adjusting resistors with fixed capacitors.

Here’s an example of a 4-channel “box”-type hearing aid with modern SMT circuitry and variable-resistor settings.

http://www.thetaeng.com/projects/hearing-aid.html19

Here is a 1950’s BTE hearing aid (analog).

Zenith Diplomat (1956) BTE Hearing Aid3

Zenith Diplomat (1956) BTE Hearing Aid

http://microphonium.blogspot.com/2007/11/zenith-diplomat-transistor-hearing-aid.html4

Can’t really see most of the electronics in the picture. But judging by this next article, 1950’s and 60’s era devices contained only a handful of transistors so programming must have been primitive and set by fixed resistors and capacitors.

The First BTE Hearing Aids? Historical Look at 1950s Behind The Ear Devices |...1

This week’s post continues an historical hearing aid development trend, with today's topic focusing on the origins of the first BTE hearing aids.

Explore the waynesworld articles. They’re really interesting. Somewhere they said early analog hearing aids had no adjustments. I have seen analog HA’s with a half-dozen micro tuning controls behind a door, but can’t find any pictures of them now.

On a more psycho-acoustic level, here’s a good discussion on analog-vs-digital from the haringtracker site. Note what some say about compression. Maybe that’s a factor in people who can’t solerate digital HA’s.

The Complete Guide to Hearing Aid Types, Cost, Brands, and More3

We help you understand hearing aids. Learn about hearing aid types, styles, features, brands, cost, insurance options, and feel confident when buying one.

I can understand why people just want what they want. I am new to HAs so I can’t compare what the sound was like with analog. I was approaching it from a strictly manufacturing direction. I completely feel that they could make a very nice analog for the INSANE prices they charge for HAs. Yes I know research and development costs etc. Simply put, they charge $4000+ because they can. If their were enough market to make it profitable someone would be doing it. If they can make a large profit margin with digital and smaller profit margin with analog and sales of analog would be small comparatively then you can’t blame them for not bothering. Even with todays technology I still feel like the HA would be much larger if it were audi adjustable and good quality sound.

Let’s be honest. It’s the bells and whistles that allow marketers to promote them. if you eliminate all the gadgets, it will be harder to sell. That doesn’t make it right or wrong just a fact. Only 1 out of a hundred could explain the difference between digital and analog in any meaningful manner so they fall prey to the marketing hype.

My hearing isn’t too bad. I have trouble understanding spoken words but I can usually catch enough to make sense of the conversation. With my loss and currently set HAs the only quirk I ever hear is that more pure tones resonate. If I were to whistle a single note it flutters. Hope that makes sense. To be completely honest, I am amazed that they can input, process and output the modified sound in real-time without a perceived lag.