When you read a hearing aid brochure or go to a hearing aid manufacturer's website, you will probably run across the term “memory”, referring to the pre-programmed settings that the hearing aid wearer can access in different sound environments.
The wearer can address specific listening situations with these memories, manipulating the hearing aid’s gain, frequency response, and microphone mode to provide the best sound quality. Here’s an example: a memory called “auditorium” will normally increase overall gain to ease the strain of listening from a distance, which can be convenient at the cinema or at a religious service.
‘Normal’ is the only memory most people use
It’s worth pointing out first that the majority of modern hearing aids have automatic functionality (frequently called “adaptive technology”) to gauge incoming sounds and make automatic adjustments to speech, background noise, and environmental sounds.
As you go about your daily life — from the loud winds on a golf course to a serious meeting to a bustling airport terminal — your hearing aids should automatically adapt to provide you with absolute premium sound quality.
Lots of hearing aid wearers prefer this “set it and forget it” method, placing their hearing aids in only one memory (for Starkey wearers, this is the “Normal” memory). Since the hearing aids automatically adjust to varying environments, many of these individuals can still hear well in most situations.
Additional memories can improve your listening experience
Music listening: Live music plays a big part in many people’s lives and is enjoyed all over the world. If you value going to concerts, performances, playing an instrument or just listening to the radio, you’ll want to have a music memory setting. The music memory setting enhances the distinction of songs and provides a more full and rich sound quality.
Restaurants: To help improve comfort and reduce listening effort in busy environments like restaurants, crowds, or big meetings, you have numerous memories to choose from. How the hearing aid mic performs in these memories may be modified by your hearing healthcare professional.
Outdoors: An outdoor memory that reduces wind noise to the fullest extent can be enjoyed by many of different individuals, from cyclists to gardeners and golfers.
If you’re using Starkey’s latest hearing aid technology, you can also create a custom memory in our Thrive Hearing app. This allows you to save your hearing aid settings for any of your favourite, unique locations.
Most hearing aids also boast car, auditorium and television memories too. You can access these memories using a push-button function on the actual hearing aid or a remote control. Using different memories can be an awesome way to personalise your hearing aid experience.
When a hearing aid memory isn't quite enough
No matter how well a hearing aid is programmed though, at some point you might encounter situations where the acoustic environment is unpredictable or challenging. In these difficult environments, patients wearing Livio Edge AI hearing aids can activate Edge Mode on their devices.
With a double tap on your ear or a short press on the device, Edge Mode instantly conducts an AI-based analysis of the current listening environment, then optimises sound - taking things like masks, distance and background noise into consideration. These smart, on-demand adjustments provide the best listening clarity and comfort in those challenging environments.
We recommend you have a conversation with your hearing health professional about your everyday life and personal listening needs. They can help guide you towards the technology and memories that will best suit your lifestyle. Find a hearing health professional near you now!