Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA)

Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA)
Hearing aids are very expensive, typically from $3000 to $6000 a pair.
But some people might postpone wearing them, for many year.
I describe this alternative at my university website:
http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/aps.htm
Feel free to share this short essay with others.
Comments will be appreciated.
Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)

The thing with personal amplifiers – and please correct me if I’m wrong – is that if your hearing loss is caused by excessive noise (for example by wearing earbuds jacked up too loud as a lot of young people do), won’t this just make your hearing worse?

Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA) Hearing aids are very expensive, typically from $3000 to $6000 a pair. But some people might postpone wearing them, for many year. I describe this alternative at my university website: http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/aps.htm Feel free to share this short essay with others. Comments will be appreciated. Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)
It would probably work for a fair number of people and would save them a lot of money. Of course anyone in the hearin-aid indistry, including audiologists, will trash the idea any way they can. Lois
Personal Sound Amplifiers (PSA) Hearing aids are very expensive, typically from $3000 to $6000 a pair. But some people might postpone wearing them, for many year. I describe this alternative at my university website: http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/aps.htm Feel free to share this short essay with others. Comments will be appreciated. Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)
I think you're on to something, here. As technologies and new business models develop, consumers should be benefitting from reduced cost and better products. (Consider the current Uber vs. Taxis marketplace competition. By many accounts, Uber has resulted in better service and better availability of service than taxis.) One problem with the PSA's that comes to mind, that you did not refer to, are 1) some might be concerned with the stigmatizing effects of wearing headphones for aid of hearing (though many, if not most, elderly people might not care about possible social stigma). Also, re: your idea about digitally slowing down speech, could be useful in some situations, but could be problematic in others. For instance, I think it would be problematic in the context of group conversations, as the hearing impaired person would likely, often, be out of sync with the flow of conversation. Also, watching videos could be similarly problematic, when the speech and action is naturally continuous (once again, leaving the hearing impaired person out of sync in comprehending and enjoying the video.) I hope that you and others continue thinking along these lines.

I suffer from auditory neuropathy myself (which, based upon my experiences with audiologists is Latin for “you have trouble hearing and we don’t have a clue why”). To me everyone sounds like they’re mumbling. I learned long ago that just turning up the volume makes no difference at all. They’re just mumbling louder. People are always showing me personal amplifiers in catalogs for $19.99 or something, and I just tell them not to bother. Likewise the expensive hearing aids the VA gives me don’t do anything but give me a headache. If it weren’t for closed-captioning, I wouldn’t even be able to watch movies or television. Believe me I wouldn’t care if it was a big headphone as long as I could participate in conversations again!

I suffer from auditory neuropathy myself (which, based upon my experiences with audiologists is Latin for "you have trouble hearing and we don't have a clue why"). To me everyone sounds like they're mumbling. I learned long ago that just turning up the volume makes no difference at all. They're just mumbling louder. People are always showing me personal amplifiers in catalogs for $19.99 or something, and I just tell them not to bother. Likewise the expensive hearing aids the VA gives me don't do anything but give me a headache. If it weren't for closed-captioning, I wouldn't even be able to watch movies or television. Believe me I wouldn't care if it was a big headphone as long as I could participate in conversations again!
I think I have a mild form of what you describe. I use closed captioning intermittently when I miss parts of what is being said on videos. Also in social situations where there is ambient noise, I often miss parts of what is said. With our aging population, and with many, if not most, young people continuing to enjoy music at volumes that cause hearing decline, there is a business opportunity, I think, for those who can come up with cost-effective technologies that truly address these sorts of hearing difficulties.