The Modern Hearing Aid

Hearing aid design is guided by understanding the needs of the hearing handicapped. State licensing requirements dictate that an ever increasing amount of knowledge be acquired by the hearing aid dispenser. Many dealers now own equipment to trace their own frequency response curves. Their knowledge is facilitating a greater exchange of information between the dealer and designer. One result is the realization that miniaturization has reached a point of diminishing returns. Instead the hearing aid is characterized by the proliferation of features available and by advanced components and sophisticated production techniques. Modern hearing aids offer options of amplitude compression, variable saturation output, directional pickup characteristics, low‐frequency emphasis ceramic or electret microphones, ruggedized materials, and computer‐assisted design.