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Opus 96: The latest in digital hearing aids from by Ross Tester Readers, especially those with any hearing loss, would be aware of the considerable advances in hearing aid technology over recent years; most particularly over the past decade. W e’ve seen the transition from analog to digital devices, at the same time witnessing a dramatic reduction in size and weight. More importantly, we’ve seen performance getting better and better. It may be incremental but each new model offers the user more control and more “tailoring” to suit their particular needs. We first looked at modern hearing aids in our July 2011 issue. We commented at the time that it might be thought unusual for an electronics magazine to be “reviewing” hearing aids – but justified it with two main reasons. (1) a significant proportion of SILICON CHIP readers were in or getting into the age groups where hearing loss was becoming a problem and (2) we were cognisant of the fact that the advances in hearing aid technology also reflected advances in electronics as a whole. And that was a field that we at SILICON CHIP are vitally interested in, as are our readers. Since then, it has become apparent that there is a third, perhaps even most important, justification: various studies have produced ample evidence that even today’s younger audience already have significantly degraded hearing, brought about mainly by prolonged exposure to too-loud music and sadly, the use of those infernal in-ear “buds” which, once again, have been proven to do irreparable 90  Silicon Chip damage to hearing. (It’s not normally simply wearing the earbuds themselves which cause the problem, it’s just that 99% of users have them way, way too loud). That group of people will find that even if their hearing hasn’t deteriorated noticeably already, as the classic song says, “Just you wait, ’Enry ’Iggins, just you wait!” Juvenile and young adult hearing loss been described as one of the greatest epidemics Australia (and the world) has ever experienced (and will continue to do so for decades to come). The pity of it all is that it is self-induced. OK, we know there are extensive hearing problems now and these will not be getting any better in the future. So until someone comes up with a new “miracle”, hearing aids will be the only real answer. Aussie ingenuity Our first look at hearing aids came about through extensive consumer publicity at the time from an Australian company, based in Melbourne. BlameySaundersHears had opened up the hearing aid market with the introduction of state-of-the-art models at significantly lower prices than had been available earlier. More importantly, they also developed both software and hardware which enabled the user to “program” or tailor their hearing aids to suit the individual. No longer siliconchip.com.au Here’s what you get when you purchase a pair of Opus 96 hearing aids from BlameySaundersHears: the hearing aids themselves (in the green box), the Incus programmer (at right), a selection of ear tips and cleaners, the Sound-n-Dry storage container (centre) and instructions for the IHearYou software and the hearing aids. Not shown here are the tiny USB Bluetooth dongle nor the packs of “312” zinc-air hearing aid batteries. did that entail a visit to an audiologist with its attendant costs, followed by the hearing aids being adjusted in a factory before delivery and fitting by the audiologist – again, with more costs. You could easily spend $10,000 or more for a pair of advanced hearing aids! I have to admit that my interest was slightly less than altruistic. In a word, I was deaf! Even without having had a “proper” hearing check done, I knew one ear was way down in sensitivity, also finding some difficulty deciphering speech (particularly) from that direction. In my own case, being able to program the hearing aids for different profiles meant that the hearing aid for one ear could be adjusted to virtually match that for the other ear, which was nowhere near as damaged (incidentally, the damage to my ear came about some forty years earlier via an accidental over-exposure in the “Electronics Australia” laboratory – but took probably twenty years to really manifest itself. That’s just one insidious part of hearing loss – it sneaks up on you!). So we got in touch with BlameySaundersHears (they had a different name at the time) and arranged for a pair of their hearing aids, plus programmer, for review. They were understandably a bit hesitant (after all, we were talking a couple of thousand dollars!) so we agreed to buy them, at full price, which would be refunded when returned. Wow! To say that I was impressed with those first hearing aids is quite an understatement – they really did make that much difference. So much so that I never sent them back and have worn hearing aids ever since! New digital hearing aids A couple of years later (late 2012, actually) Blamey and Saunders approached me, this time, to review a pair of their new SIE-64 digital hearing aids. After my experience with the originals, I was happy to do so. siliconchip.com.au After swapping back and forth between the originals and the SIE-64s, I determined that the new models were better. As I said in that article, they had a crispness and clarity which was even more pronounced than the originals. Had I not known about the new ones, I’d have been quite happy to continue using the originals – but the SIE-64s quickly became the hearing aid of choice. As a bonus, they were about half the weight and slightly smaller than the originals, not that I particularly noticed that difference in use. We published a report of these hearing aids in March 2013. Even more advanced digitals After the very positive reaction BlameySaundersHears received from readers from the first two SILICON CHIP articles, they recently told us that they had a new model, the “Opus 96”, coming out shortly that was even better than previous models – and would we like to road-test a pair of these? Of course, we said yes! Apart from anything else, we wanted to see just what advances had been made in the past four years. Pointing out that my last true audiology test was done more than seven years ago, they also asked me to re-take their (free) online “Speech Perception” test. While it doesn’t replace a controlled audiology test, it gives a good indication of your hearing – or lack of it. This test consists of fifty words being read out, which you have to listen to via speakers or headphones, then enter the word via the keyboard as you hear each one. (They aren’t concerned about spelling, just the word identification). These words have been scientifically chosen to test your hearing on certain vowels and consonants and will give an audiologist a very good idea of your hearing limitations. I was not overly surprised to find that I correctly identified less than half of the spoken words (24/50) so my deteriorating hearing suspicions were confirmed. In later correspondence, Peter Blamey told me that the May 2017  91 They’re tough . . . but not indestructible! One night my partner and I were sitting watching TV and I had removed my hearing aids which I normally do just before bedtime. I put them on a table beside the lounge when, a short time later, she looked up and exclaimed “what is Tessie chewing on?” Tessie, by the way, is our 7-year-old Miniature Schnauzer. The accompanying photo shows the end result of what she was chewing on – one $2270 BlameySaunders SIE-64 hearing aid that had fallen on the floor! It could have only been a few minutes but she made a real job of it! Want to know what’s inside a hearing aid? Fortunately she hadn’t managed to dislodge the tiny battery from its holder. While zinc-air batteries are theoretically nowhere near as dangerous as lithium batteries when ingested (see panel at right), there are plenty of warnings on the ’net about the dangers of children (and pets?) swallowing them. Personally, I’d rather not take the chance! new hearing aids had been programmed with the results of the Speech Perception Test and these were quite different from the settings used on my earlier hearing aids. The new Opus hearing aids They’re called the Opus 96 – the 96 referring to the number of output channels being fed to the sound processor. Appearance-wise, there’s nothing to differentiate them from the SIE-64 aids. You can get them in different colours but mine are the same light grey (the other colour is flesh). The first thing you are supposed to do when you unpack your new hearing aids ‑is fine-tune the hearing aids to the acoustics of your ears; ie, set the volume levels to their optimum, using the loudness balancing procedure in BlameySaunders “IhearYou” software. The Speech Perception Test does not attempt to identify differences between your left and right ears, only the overall word identification. While BlameySaundersHears will pre-program your hearing aids before despatch according to either the online test or to a true audiologist report, that doesn’t usually give you optimum settings for each ear. So it’s pretty important to balance them before use. Did I do it? Of course not! Being of the genus “impatient”, I took them out of their case, whacked in the batteries and 92  Silicon Chip thought “hmm – these are different!” Different good or different bad I wasn’t sure of, so then I thought I should do the right thing (as requested!) and balance the hearing aids to my ears. This entails connecting the aids to the Incus programmer via a pair of flying leads. These are colour-coded red (for right) and blue (for left). These are not overly difficult to fit – you simply open the battery compartment slightly, insert the flexible connector and close the battery compartment. There is, however, a right way and a wrong way to insert the connectors (it’s explained in the instructions) – but if you get it wrong, the red and blue LEDs on the Incus programmer won’t light up. How do I know this? Guess! Connection to your PC (Windows Vista up, Android V4 up or iOS is via a Bluetooth dongle (supplied). Like other Bluetooth devices, it’s simply a matter of finding the Incus and pairing it. Mine didn’t even ask for a password (which incidentally is 0000). When connected, you use a series of sliders (at various frequencies) to adjust your left and right ear to be as balanced as possible, If I have any criticism to make, it’s of this procedure. You cannot do an “instant” A-B (or in this case L-R) comparison, so you’re really trying hard to remember what the other ear sounded like maybe 20 or 30 seconds ago. After years of evaluating speakers and amplifiers with an A-B switch going from one to the other instantly, I found this one area rather frustrating. It shouldn’t take much in the way of programming to be able to switch back and forth at each of the frequencies to really balance the hearing aids. But eventually I did manage to get them as balanced as I could and set about doing a comparison between these and the older SIE-64 hearing aids. And my reaction? Yes, there is a definite “edge” to the Opus hearing aids. Not dramatic (you wouldn’t really want it to be!) but at least noticeably better. Once again, if I had only the SIE-64 hearing aids and didn’t know anything about the Opus, I’d be happy with them. But having used the Opus models for a few days, I certainly have made them my hearing aids of choice. The SIE-64s will go back into their de-humifying (dessicant) storage containers just in case . . . The other thing that I noticed was that feedback, the bane of all hearing aid users, had been significantly better “tamed” with the new aids. I’m not sure if this is a function of better balancing using the Incus, or if it is a function of much greater control of the Opus 96 with double the number of channels. Telecoil feature Already programmed into my Opus hearing aids was a Telecoil function, accessed by pressing a tiny button. This (as its name suggests) was originally intended for use with a telephone but its use has been dramatically expanded so that it now works with hearing siliconchip.com.au loops found in many (most?) theatres, halls, churches, etc. It can be recognised by the international “hearing loop” logo being displayed wherever it is in use. You may not have noticed it but now we’ve mentioned it, you’ll see it everywhere (!). The Telecoil is an inductive pickup which receives a signal direct from either the telephone or a “hearing loop” built into the hall (or a section of it). The idea is that the hearing aid no longer relies on its inbuilt microphone to receive sound (especially speech, which could be muffled over distance) but receives a much higher quality direct signal. I haven’t had the chance (yet) to try out the Telecoil function so can’t report on its effectiveness. But rest assured I will be putting it to good use. One caveat! In some ways, I found the Opus hearing aids TOO good. I’ll explain why. Immediately below my office at SILICON CHIP is a kitchen bench fabricator, specialising in stone and similar benchtops. They have a polishing machine which, without hearing aids, I barely notice. With hearing aids, its constant whine is quite objectionable. But that’s not all! Every few days the guys throw out all their offcuts into a skip bin, ready for removal. And when I say throw, that’s an understatement! The sound of the stone smashing into the skip is also quite off-putting with hearing aids – so much so that I’ve made a setting which cuts back the level at the polishing and smashing frequencies. It’s not perfect but it’s a lot more bearable! In retrospect, I guess that is one of the biggest features of being able to program your own situation and preferences into the BlameySaundersHears hearing aids. You don’t need to pay an audiologist to do it for you; you do it yourself. And you can do it as many times as you like until you’re happy. Moreover, you can set up a number of “programs” which you can call on to suit various situations. The program to cut out the whine and smashing sounds is not really suitable for social listening – so I’ve set up a program for both. I’ve also set up another to tailor some TV programs to suit me – for example, I’ve found that many British “lifestyle” programs (eg, UKTV on Foxtel) sound quite muffled (apparently due to the way their audio is compressed). But with my BlameySaunders Opus 96 hearing aids, I can overcome that little problem quite easily. Conclusion So am I happy with the Opus 96 hearing aids? Very much so! And my partner is even happier – she no longer has to sit through a far-too-loud TV or radio program. Only this morning we were talking and I had to ask her not to shout. “Oh, you’ve got your hearing aids in!” For more information: To see the range of hearing aids available, including pricing, visit blameysaunders.com.au If you prefer to talk with a consulant, call BlameySaundersHears on (1300) 443 279. They also offer consulting rooms in Melbourne and Sydney. siliconchip.com.au About Zinc-Air Batteries Like most hearing aids, these BlameySaundersHears models use tiny zinc-air batteries. Specifcially, the Opus 96 use “312” batteries, as do the SIE-64 models. The LOF use an even thinner “13” size. But what is a zinc-air battery? Like all batteries, a zinc-air battery generates power via a chemical reaction. In a nutshell, it works by oxidising zinc with oxygen from the air. Oxygen molecules enter the cell through tiny holes in the top and then come into contact with a positively charged electrode (cathode) made of porous carbon. The main difference you will note with a zinc-air battery is that each cell has a small adhesive tab attached – once you remove this tab, air can penetrate the battery and it will (after a brief time, between 30 seconds and few minutes, depending where you read it!) start to generate power. Once started, the process cannot be halted (even if you stick the tab back on) and the battery will continue to generate power, at about 1.45V, for perhaps 5 or so days, often depending on brand. (Some references say much longer but this is not our experience). So don’t do as one user did (we read about online) and dutifully removed all the tabs so the batteries would be quickly ready for later use . . . only to find that later they were all flat! One big advantage of zinc-air batteries in hearing aids is that the voltage produced is quite stable until almost end of life, so the hearing aid parameters will not be affected. Even though the process cannot be stopped once started, it is still recommended that the hearing aid be turned off when not in use (ie, the battery compartment is opened) as this is claimed to prolong the life of the battery. Cost Zinc-air batteries are said to produce double the energy of a lithium-ion battery, at a third of the cost. Speaking of cost, expect to pay about $50 for a pack of 60 batteries – so that’s an ongoing cost to take into account. Zinc-air batteries are definitely NOT rechargeable. Safety If swallowed, zinc-air batteries are reputed to be VERY much safer than typical button cells, most of which contain lithium, mercury and other “nasties”. We’ve all seen the horror stories of major injury and worse when the stomach acid attacks these batteries; while swallowing a zinc-air battery is not recommended, most of the documentation we’ve read says that they won’t cause major damage. SC May 2017  93