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Australia Hears – and so do I! Not too long ago we heard of an Australian company offering high performance digital hearing aids, based on new technology developed in Australia, at a fraction of the cost of other aids. I was intrigued – it’s been a subject close to my heart ears for decades! Were they any good? Were they value for money? Did they work? And what is this latest technology in hearing aids, anyway? SILICON CHIP likes to look at electronics that are slightly out of the ordinary! By Ross Tester R egular readers will be aware of the series of hearing loop projects which we published during the latter part of last year and early this year to help the hearing impaired. That prompted several requests for a build-it-yourself hearing aid. But as you would realise, miniaturisation of this magnitude is way beyond the skill level of most people! Just to prove the point, we obtained a “dead” hearing aid, broke it open and photographed its innards. Apart from the near-impossibility of anyone constructing the ultra-miniature PCB, where are you going to get the appropriately-shaped “case”, the tiny speaker, the ear tube? You get the point, I’m sure. So no, this is not a build-it-yourself hearing aid. However, it is a “do-ityourself” hearing aid – an apparent contradiction which we’ll get to shortly. But first, let’s background this story a little. It’s a sad, personal tale so keep the tissues handy. For nearly four decades (since January 1973 in fact – I can still remember the day) I have had significant hearing loss in one ear. 14  Silicon Chip It all started with a very loud – and painful – audio tone from a two-way radio earpiece in the laboratory at Electronics Australia. For a couple of months I heard nothing but ringing in my right ear. When that subsided and my hearing eventually “returned” in that ear I was very aware that my high-frequency hearing was virtually non-existent. At my age then (early twenties) I should have been able to hear to at least 15-16kHz. I was flat out hearing 2kHz. Over the ensuing months, some higher frequencies were restored but it was virtually a brick wall at 4kHz – where We broke open a modern hearing aid to show what’s inside it. The “works” is on that tiny PCB (centre) while in this model, the miniature in-ear speaker is at the top of the picture. it has largely remained to this day. It’s been something I (and, regrettably, everyone around me) have put up with ever since. And as I have aged, my “good” ear has also started to deteriorate, to the point where an audiologist described my hearing (especially in the right ear) as bordering on clinical deafness. If you have never suffered from high frequency hearing loss, you could never understand just how difficult it is to decipher speech, in particular, with such a loss. Radio and TV programs particularly are terribly muffled (and turned up much too loud, according to everyone else!). Trying to understand conversations, particularly in a crowd or noisy environment, is almost impossible at times. The closest thing I can think of to describe the problem is either an offfrequency AM radio station, without the sibilance or perhaps someone mumbling while speaking softly, But apart from a couple of audiology tests done over the years (the most recent just on two years ago) I’ve done nothing about it. Why? In the first of the hearing loop articles referred to above (October 2010), siliconchip.com.au Where’s the hearing aid? If you look closely, real closely at the photo at left, you can just see the tiny tube entering Sarah’s ear. It’s a bit clearer in the shot above, because her hair has been pulled out of the way so you can see it! Inset above is the hearing aid body behind the ear, again with Sarah’s hair pulled out of the way. It would normally cover the aid completely. we said “But there are many people in greatest wholly-in-ear models for only while bushwalking and then I would the community who have hearing loss $12,000. Each! buy myself some decent hearing aids. I figured (alas incorrectly so far) that Or I would wait until I retired and get and, for various reasons (cost, denial and vanity are the main ones!) don’t one day I would win Lotto, or perhaps the pensioner’s specials! stub my toe on a giant gold nugget own or want a hearing aid.” In the meantime, I’d persevere (or I guess I fitted into the everyone else would!) with first and last categories. what was an annoyance but I certainly didn’t deny I something I could live with, had a hearing problem albeit often with difficulty. but equally I didn’t want Then it all changed a hearing aid – “they’re only for old people . . .” etc Late last April, several TV etc. (Someone reminded news programs carried a story me the other day that if I on an Australian company wasn’t there already, I was who were introducing quality rapidly approaching being hearing aids at a fraction of a member of that august the price of existing models. group!). But chief amongst They were based on new techmy objections was that of nology called ADRO which, cost. as far as I could understand At the time of the last from the news reports, was audiology test, the specialdeveloped in conjunction ist told me that I needed at with the people responsible least one, and preferably for the cochlear ear transplant two, hearing aids – and program. then proceeded to show Unfortunately we missed me models ranging from the press launch but I saw around $2,000 – “but you the story on TV, with some wouldn’t want one of them, The computer-plotted audiology tests shows quite significant interest. And so did the Editor hearing loss below 2kHz in my right ear (red plot), the result they’re not real good” – of a very loud tone in that ear, in the Electronics Australia of this esteemed publication right up to the latest and laboratory nearly 40 years ago. – and next day he asked me siliconchip.com.au July 2011  15 MODEL: SIE-312 ($1250.00) MODEL: LOF ($990.00) right. Just Google free hearing test or somesuch words. Australia Hears Dimensions: Weight (inc battery): Battery: Battery life: Speaker technology: Frequency channels: Processing: Volume control: Program selection: Telecoil option: Microphone: Noise suppression: Feedback canceller: Summary: 25 x 14 x 8mm 34 x 14 x 8mm 2g 4g Size 312 Size 13 100+ hours 160+ hours Speaker-in-the-ear Thin acoustic tube 32 32 ADRO ultra-low delay ADRO ultra-low delay Automatic plus manual dial Automatic plus manual dial Magnetic wand Magnetic wand plus program button No Yes Dynamic directional Dynamic directional Multi-channel Multi-channel Dynamic Dynamic Smaller, with speaker Slightly larger, longest battery life in-the-ear Comparison of the two models of ADRO hearing aids from Australia Hears. There’s not much between them – the SIE with in-ear speaker is slightly smaller and lighter but the LOF model offers longer battery life and an extended hearing range. The LOF also has a Telecoil – we believe a very useful feature. Otherwise they’re very similar in performance and usage. to investigate further to see if there was the makings of a feature article for SILICON CHIP readers. Now we’re not saying we think all SILICON CHIP readers are in the “need a hearing aid” category. But of course many are, or are heading that way (or know people who are). Just as important, though, are the younger readers who might have parents who would benefit. And let’s not forget that a huge proportion of younger readers in particular are almost certain to have significant hearing loss from (a) live music [why do bands have to play their music so damned loud?] and (b) excessive volume levels from the ear buds associated with their iPods/MP3 players/CD players etc [why do they have to play music so damned loud!]. One recent report said that at least 21% of people between 48 and 59 showed serious hearing loss. The researchers measured hearing loss as the 16  Silicon Chip ability to hear certain tones, and also as the ability to recognise words at different sound levels and words spoken by male and female voices. They found that 14.1% of the 3,285 study participants of all ages had some level of hearing loss. Another study surveyed a sample of children aged 12 to 19 in 2005 and 2006 and found that 19.5% had some hearing loss. One expert said that listening to loud sounds through earbuds – the tiny electronic speakers that fit into ears, for use with personal music players – is probably the main reason that more adolescents are losing some of their hearing Incidentally, if you even think you might have a hearing problem, there are any number of web sites where you can do a free rudimentary hearing check. It won’t replace the audiologist test , but it could give you the impetus to go and have that fair-dinkum test if it tells you that something is not quite But back to the subject at hand. The company concerned was Australia Hears Pty Ltd, (now called Blaymey & Saunders Hearing) based in Melbourne and the snippets we saw on the news was courtesy of a PR company which must be said, did a pretty good job. So much so that my first few phone calls were met by a recorded message saying that they had been overwhelmed by the reaction to the publicity and they’d get back to me as soon as possible. The contact-via-the-website method also had a similar message. However (with more prompting from he who must be obeyed!) I eventually managed to get in touch with the company and more importantly, spoke with Dr Daniel Taft, their Chief Technology Officer. I explained who I was and the fact that I would like to “review” their hearing aids for SILICON CHIP. Daniel was most accommodating with information and agreed that they would like to co-operate. First of all, Daniel asked if I had an audiogram which I could send him. I explained that the most recent one was two years ago and he said that would do, so I sent him a PDF which I had obtained from the audiologist. From this, he would “program” hearing aids to suit my particular hearing pattern. While this would tend to obviate any requirement for programming myself, we also got their “IHearYou” programmer package, which includes a USB programmer box, cables to connect the hearing aids and instructions – just so we could play. They also wanted to know the size of my lug-holes because there are four different sizes to choose from. They have a cut-out template which you place over your ear and read off small, medium, large or extra large sizes. Now just in case you think this was just a “freebie for Rosco” type of deal, I would point out that I paid full retail price for the products purchased from Australia Hears. Program it yourself Australia Hears’ main claim to fame (or at least the message that we got from the news reports) was that they had developed digital hearing aids which were the latest technology but siliconchip.com.au These are the “templates” which you use to check the size of your ears. Both ears must be measured because they are often different sizes. The pointer which lines up with your ear canal gives you the ear size. (www.archive.australiahears.com.au/Ear-size-A4.pdf) were about half the price (or even less) of comparable models on the market. Coupled with that was the fact that you, as a user, can “tune” them to suit your particular circumstances. Hence the “do-it-yourself” comment earlier. Of course, with the hearing aids pre-loaded with your audiogram, most people won’t want or need to do that but it’s comforting to know that, with the programmer box, you can. We’ll look at the programmer in a bit more detail shortly. Models They offer two different models, the $1250.00 SIE-312 and the $990.00 LOF. The first thing you will notice, if you have been in the market for a hearing aid, is those prices. SIE-312, the slightly smaller model, stands for speaker-in-the-ear and 312 is the battery size it takes. It has a very tiny “speaker”, a tube about 2mm in diameter x 5mm long, at the end of ultra-thin wires. LOF (which, incidentally, stands for liberty open fit), has its speaker within the body of the hearing aid connected to a thin (almost invisible) tube which feeds audio into the ear canal. Operationally, they are quite similar but the LOF battery life is longer (160 hours vs 100 hours) and its sound output is slightly greater. Both have similar electronics, offering 32 digital frequency channels, adaptive automatic directional microphone, dynamic feedback cancellation and ultra-low delay. According to Australia Hears, there is very little to choose from when selecting the model, apart from the price difference. If appearance is important, they suggest the SIE-312. It’s the lighter of the two at just 2g and measures 25 x 14 x 8mm. If longer battery life is your aim, siliconchip.com.au then the slightly larger and heavier LOF is better. It’s 34 x 14 x 8mm and weighs 4g. Having said that (and after wearing both) you don’t notice the difference at all. Characteristics of the hearing ranges are very slightly different at the low end (the LOF has a 10dB greater range at 250Hz) but this would not be of importance to the vast majority of users with high frequency hearing loss. Both can have up to four programs stored in them (for different ranges, amplification, etc, to suit different environments, for example) and both have program switching via a small magnetic wand, packed with the hearing aid. The LOF also has a push-button switch on the body to achieve this. Volume setting on both can be done via a tiny dial on the body but once set, you’ll probably find you’ll never touch it again as they have an automatic level control built in. The miniscule dynamic microphone is directional. The only other major difference that I noticed, having an obvious interest in the subject, is that a Telecoil is an option on the LOF but is not available on the SIE-312. So which one? I didn’t know which one to go for either, so at Australia Hears’ suggestion, I purchased a pair of each to compare them for this feature. I used them for a week at a time and, to be honest, I still cannot recommend one over the other! I will be returning one of the pairs shortly (within the 14 days satisfaction guarantee) for a full refund. But I can assure you I won’t be returning both! Wearing them For someone who has never worn hearing aids before, I wondered whether they would be physically annoying. The first fifteen minutes convinced me there was nothing to worry about there. First of all, though, you have to load the batteries. That’s not difficult to do – the batteries only fit in one way and there’s a card packed with the units to show how. Closing the battery doors immediately turn them on – there’s no on/off switch as such. Needless to say, there is a right and a left aid. This is not only for the physical reason of having the speaker/sound pipe emerging on the correct side to go into the ear but most importantly, the two hearing aids will very likely be programmed differently to take into account differences in the hearing loss. It takes a bit of fiddling around the first time to find where they go and get the ear-canal part seated properly but once you’ve done it a couple of times, it becomes second nature. After the first few minutes, it’s very easy to forget that you a wearing a hearing aid (or two). They really are that comfortable to wear. Moreover, most people don’t even notice you have them unless they get very up close and personal! I have quite short hair so if they were going to stand out they would do so on my head. But they don’t. And anyone with longer hair (especially females) would have them pretty-well completely hidden, as you can see from the two photos at the start of this article. As I mentioned before the wires (SIE-312) or tube (LOF) which go into the ear canal are themselves so small they are almost invisible. There’s a range of small “ear tips” which slip over the end of the speaker or tube to hold it in the right place in the ear. Usage of the tips (and the type of tip) is optional – I found them to be very comfortable with and without. The biggest problem I had was when one ear canal was itchy and had to July 2011  17 ADRO©: a new approach to amplification in hearing aids . . . Professor Peter Blamey, the founder and managing director of Australia Hears, has spent the past 30 years researching ways to improve the sound quality of cochlear implants and hearing aids. Blamey is also deputy director of The Bionic Ear Institute. He has long been aware of the limitations of conventional digital hearing aids designed to compress a wide range of input sounds into a narrower output range. In 1998, he hit upon the idea of using a processing chip within the aids to select the most informative parts of a sound range and present them at comfortable levels at each frequency for the listener. The Adaptive Dynamic Range Optimisation (ADRO) technology he invented splits sound into 32 different frequency channels, then uses statistical rules as part of the digital amplification strategy to optimise the audibility, comfort and intelligibility of sounds without compromising sound quality. The rules are set for each individual user and keep the audibility and comfort levels the same as those of a person with normal hearing. If the sound falls below the audibility target, it is made louder, while if it rises above the comfort target, it is made softer. Each individual can set his or her own comfort levels for different environments with an easy-to-use software program. This eliminates the need to fit hearing aids on the basis of the averages of a sample population as done with conventional hearing aids — a boon for individuals whose hearing preferences are not typical. Even the software used to customise the hearing aids is evidencebased, using data collected from 176 ears to predict and suggest amplification levels to the individual. “Conventional compression technology can match ADRO technology in terms of audibility or comfort but not both simultaneously unless very high compression ratios are used. However, application of these high compression ratios can reduce speech intelligibility in background noise and adversely affect sound quality in quiet surroundings,” Blamey notes. Fuzzy logic makes sense ADRO hearing aids work on four ‘fuzzy logic’ statistical rules, which can be true for part of the time rather than always being true or false. Each rule has a critical role and is applied independently to each of the 32 frequency channels in an individual’s hearing aids. The comfort rule ensures that sustained sounds are not too loud more than 10% of the time. The audibility rule ensures that sustained sounds are not too soft for more than 30% of the time. The hearing protection rule stops sudden loud sounds from being amplified beyond a maximum level for the listener. The background noise rule prevents low-level background noise from being over-amplified and annoying to the user. The result is that soft sounds are more audible, loud sounds are more comfortable, intelligibility for speech in background noise is improved while preferred sound quality is provided. Applying four standards Hearing aids from Australia Hears include four standards that enable easier and more flexible customisation. 1. The ADRO processor optimises sound for a listener across 32 different frequency channels. 2. An automatic adaptive directional microphone reduces the loudness of background noise from some directions. 18  Silicon Chip Research shows that these microphones provide better speech perception than either omnidirectional or fixed directional microphones. 3. Incorporation of adaptive feedback cancellation that prevents the highpitched whistles of feedback loops that occur when the microphone of an amplifier is too close to its speaker. 4. Ultra-low delay processing technology to eliminate perceptible distortions or echoes caused by sound Professor Peter Blamey, inventor delays as sound is processed of ADRO and founder of “Australia from analog to digital sig- Hears”. nals. The Australia Hears technology has the shortest delay of any device in the industry. Clinical trials The ADRO amplifier has been evaluated against an alternative amplifier in several clinical trials, which were conducted by the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation in Melbourne. 42 experienced hearing aid users preferred hearing aids with ADRO sound processors over conventional compression processors in most situations. Noted were improved sound quality, improved speech perception in quiet and in noise, and improved loudness control. Additional uses ADRO also has the flexibility required to improve hearing for any level of hearing loss, whether it’s a person with normal hearing using headsets and telephones, a person with mild hearing loss who needs hearing aids, or a person with severe-to-profound hearing loss who requires a cochlear implant. “ADRO is being applied in headsets and other devices for listeners with normal hearing to provide improved audibility and intelligibility to compensate for poor telephone transmission lines, and to protect hearing from loud sounds and acoustic trauma,” Blamey explains. In 2007, Blamey was honoured by the American Academy of Audiology with the International Award for his work in hearing and language research. Product heritage The products of Australia Hears are based on research conducted at the Bionic Ear Institute, funded by the CRC for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation. ADRO is copyright© Dynamic Hearing Pty Ltd and is the technology used in cochlear implant sound processors made by Cochlear Limited of Sydney. The digital signal processing algorithms were developed at Dynamic Hearing in Melbourne and the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles and are licensed from Dynamic Hearing Pty Ltd. The hearing aids are manufactured in Thailand using high-quality components including digital signal processing (DSP) chips from Sound Design Technologies in Burlington, Canada, and microphones and speakers from Knowles of Itasca, Illinois. siliconchip.com.au remove the aid to scratch it. But as any ear specialist will tell you, the smallest thing you should put in your ear is your elbow! I am very much a beach/water person and I live in dread of the day I will forget to take them out before swimming, or even showering. They really are that comfortable! If this happens, perish the thought, I take some comfort in the fact that Australia Hears offers a repair service – if they are damaged at all (I read a comment from one user who forgot to take them off before showering but simply dried them off and they continued to work perfectly). How do they sound? Obviously, I have no yardstick to judge them by (except years of poor hearing). I’ve only ever worn earphones or earbuds before. As an aside, I have to say earbuds annoy the life out of me! Give me a comfy set of conventional earphones anytime – and I am delighted to report that you can use headphones [not earbuds] with these hearing aids. While you can adjust the individual levels of most headphones, with hearing aids adjusted properly, you’ll never have to do so. My first reaction was, I have to say, shock. Not bad shock, just . . . shock! Everyday tasks such as typing on a keyboard, running a tap, stirring a cup of tea, picking up a set of keys, even walking, had so much more “sound” to them than I had been experiencing. In some cases, a jangly, jarring sound. In fact, for an hour or two, I found it quite unnerving. But as I got used to it, I started to realise it was simply what I had been missing all these years. What I had been missing was obviously not only the high frequencies but the harmonics present in virtually every sound. These harmonics go right up through the “normal” human audio passband of 15-20,000Hz. Wearing glasses That was one area I was worried about – I wear glasses virtually all the time and I thought that the glasses might interfere with the hearing aids, might rub on them creating a lot of unwanted noises or might prevent them being located properly. siliconchip.com.au None of these worries has proved to be warranted. Sure, if I move the glasses over the hearing aids (they normally sit on top of them) I can sometimes hear a sound but it’s certainly nothing to be concerned about. Some observations My greatest hearing problem has been listening to people in a crowded room or with lots of background noise. That, I am happy to say, is very much alleviated. Even one-on-one speech is much easier to understand now – and I don’t have to ask people to speak up (in fact, I’ve asked a few people to speak more softly!). I also used to have trouble listening to soft radio (particularly voices) and TV sound – it was always muffled and half the time, I couldn’t make out what was being said – female voices, especially, were a real problem. That too is now much better and as I get more used to the hearing aids, is getting better all the time. I can hear sounds/noises I simply couldn’t hear before. In fact, just about everything seems to be louder – while it is great most of the time, if I find it distracting, I simply remove the ear tube. At long last, I can actually hear the buzzer in my multimeter! It’s been a bane of my electronics life for years . . . My partner has become used to talk- What’s a Telecoil? We mentioned that the LOF model can be programmed to work with a Telecoil. But you may be wondering what the Telecoil is and why it is important. Hearing aids with a Telecoil option can take advantage of (a) special telephones (intended for hearing impaired) that have a coil fitted which inductively couples the hearing aid to the phone, allowing clearer phone calls; and (b) halls, churches, offices and the like which are now increasingly being fitted with “hearing loops”. Here audio signal (the same as normal-hearing people are hearing) is fed into a large wire loop which can also couple into a Telecoil-enabled hearing aid. The series of “hearing impaired” projects run in SILICON CHIP between October 2010 and April 2011 were all Hearing Loop/Telecoil devices, including installing such a loop in your own home. ing very loud to me and also having the TV etc volume way up. Now I find that obtrusive! In fact, the first night I had the hearing aids in she asked me to turn the TV up because I had it too low! I’ve also discovered my car has squeaks and rattles I didn’t know about. They’re quite disconcerting! I’ve found a loose floor tile in my bathroom – it has a squeak I had never heard before. Traffic and wind noise while driving is more accentuated. I have a soft-top car so this is probably something I should have been hearing all along . . . Feedback, once the bane of hearing aids, is almost – but not quite – eliminated. If you, or something, covers the area over the hearing aid (obviously creating a feedback path), you might get a quick “chirp”. It’s not all that loud, certainly not loud enough to cause discomfort, but it can occur. I notice it when I put on or take off the hearing aids sometimes; other times when my ear is too close to the car window. Perhaps the worst thing, believe it or not, is the noise our dog makes! Tessie loves playing with empty PET drink bottles, attacking them, For comparison, here is the audiogram for my pushing them around a tiled floor, hearing with the LOF hearing aids fitted. The big biting into them, banging them dip at 6kHz is almost certainly the result of my onto furniture and so on. But now, reprogramming the aids to reduce the “jarring” I find the noise a real problem. The sounds I mentioned. Otherwise the measured differences are quite subtle – most noticeable is the barking also seems to be much more intense. 5dB increase at 8kHz in the right ear (red trace). July 2011  19 IHearYou programmer with its software and connecting leads. In all cases, the right hearing aid is coloured red and the left is coloured blue. The small adaptor leads almost underneath the programmer are the connectors to your hearing aids – we originally had them upside down and they didn’t work! I have since fiddled slightly with the hearing aid programming (see below) to try to reduce this harshness – it’s something that I will continue to experiment with as I get more and more used to hearing aids. IHearYou programmer I mentioned earlier that if you supply your audiogram, Australia Hears will pre-program your hearing aids for you and the odds are that you will be completely happy with them. However, we like to tinker, don’t we. We like to see if we can improve on perfection. Or we might want to set up a particular profile for a specific application (perhaps something to do with work, for example). That’s where the IHearYou programmer is used. It’s another $275 so it might be considered a bit extravagant for many users but . . . what the heck. We wanted to see what we could do with the hearing aid program. It’s a USB device and comes with software to make programming quite simple. All you do is load the software, plug the unit in and then connect it to your hearing aids. Ahh – problem. It didn’t work! So the usual solution applies – if all else fails, read the instructions. The problem was that I had the tiny hearing aid connectors upside down. I had taken the instructions saying “shiny side up” to mean the shiny (plastic) side up. Somewhere else I found they actually meant the copper 20  Silicon Chip side up. Woops. Those connectors are quite fiddly to get inserted properly but once I succeeded, the software told me that the AHPRO3 programmer was communicating with the hearing aids and then presented me with a range of options – all of which are quite intuitive. I found the original program for the hearing aids was fairly close to ideal but I did take the opportunity to knock the treble back just a tad, to overcome that jangly noise thing I mentioned earlier. If I didn’t have the programmer, I certainly wouldn’t have worried about it and I may even reverse it later. Incidentally, the other use for the programmer is to set up the parameters for Telecoil operation, which you simply load as one of the programs. I also mentioned eariler that the program selection is achieved via a small magnet which is packaged with your hearing aids and/or, in the case of the LOF model, a tiny pushbutton switch. • rapid speakers • competing speakers It is said to be especially valuable for anyone new to hearing aids but I also understand LACE to be valuable for anyone who might have problems understanding speech. I downloaded a free demo version from the Australia Hears website and it looks to me, American voices notwithstanding, something that could really help comprehension. You can read several reviews and testimonials about LACE at the same source. Priced at $99, it’s available for Windows 7, XP and Vista, Apple OSX10.4 or newer computer systems and as well, is available on DVD for use on a home TV system. OK, the verdict . . . After wearing the hearing aids for little over a week, I’m sold. I have found my hearing rather significantly improved (as I would hope!) and apart from the itchy ear I mentioned before (which lasted only a day), have found them extremely comfortable to wear (indeed, I forget they are on most of the time). It is obviously impossible for me to to an A:B:C comparison with any other hearing aids as far as clarity or overall audio is concerned but they’d have to go a long way to beat these from Australia Hears. And at the price paid, they’re streets ahead. SC Contact: Blaymey & Saunders Hearing Pty Ltd 384-388 Albert St, East Melbourne, Vic. 3002 Tel: (03) 9667 7563 Fax: (03) 9667 7571 Website: www.blaymeysaunders.com.au LACE software One thing I didn’t order with my hearing aids – but may get in due course – is a specialised software program called “LACE”. That stands for Listening and Communication Enhancement and is designed to retrain the brain to comprehend speech up to 40% better in difficult listening situations such as: • noisy restaurants siliconchip.com.au