OT- Anyone here know how mini BTE hearing aids work ?

Specifically I'm curious if in below drawing does sound somehow travel down the long S shaped tube (that connects the behind the ear section to the in the ear section) or is it really just one wire in there that does the actual transmitting from the BTE part to the in ear part ?

How do hearing aids work? | Oticon

Or if wire, maybe more than one wire ? If so, seems like they would have to be some seriously tiny wires !

And is the BTE part really a sort of microphone and the in ear part is a tiny "speaker" ?

Milacron said:

Specifically I'm curious if in below drawing does sound somehow travel down the long S shaped tube (that connects the behind the ear section to the in the ear section) or is it really just one wire in there that does the actual transmitting from the BTE part to the in ear part ?

How do hearing aids work? | Oticon

Or if wire, maybe more than one wire ? If so, seems like they would have to be some seriously tiny wires !

And is the BTE part really a sort of microphone and the in ear part is a tiny "speaker" ?

Click to expand...

With a behind-the-ear (or an eyeglass-mount) the part in the ear is an "earmold".

Passive. A resilient "plug" to seal the ear channel so the boosted sound does not escape and feed back to the microphone, a mere inch or so away. The actual reproducer is closer-yet.
Inside the BTE case, opposite end from the microphone.

Resilient mounts that work, and last a year or more, are ..." challenging" at the dB of gain involved.

So are the wires to each that are meant to not carry sound. Even fifty years back, we were already "weaving" them in de-coupled ladder-loops from 64 wire gauge.

The tube carries sound over...the air inside it.

"Fast forward" nearly fifty years and a better solution as to de-coupling feedback IS to use the now-tinier (for their power output) reproducer at greater distance, flexible human flesh the isolator. Some reproducers ARE now down INSIDE the ear-canal. for these, the flexible tube protects very tiny wires.

These run off a "baby" aspirin-sized battery, so the power is relative. Very low in absolute terms. DEAFEN a person with normal hearing. Radioear was hitting 134 dB over fifty years ago, Model 990 BTE.

BTW ..Oticon (Danmark) is one of "substantially less than 100%" of hearing aid suppliers with genuine credibility. Or at least they WERE.



Bill

(formerly.. National Service Manager, Radioear Division, Esterline Medical, dawn of the 1970's).

My Starkey brand have wires in the tube to the in-the-ear speakers. The microphones are on the top of the behind-the-ear unit. I would think that if the speaker and microphone were in the unit, feedback would be a serious problem.
The part in the ear does not block the ear canal.

Bob
WB8NQW

blcksmth said:

I would think that if the speaker and microphone were in the unit, feedback would be a serious problem.

Click to expand...

When we first pushed BTE gain to previous "body" instrument-only levels, it surely was a serious problem.

While elastomer technology for isolation mounting was still "catching up" the Model 990 failed its mounts at six month or less intervals on a one-year full warranty [1]. And.. we elected to give a free six-month extension. Sometimes a year.

My Service Department had to mass-produce two to three times as many "service chassis" for swap-in replacement as the Manufacturing section, other side of the wall, shipped NEW ones!

Model 1010 fixed that. Finally.


[1] The WEARER could not always detect the feedback screech others heard clear across the room. Depended on the shape of the curve of their hearing loss. Now and then they had PETS whom it drove up a wall. More than a few came back to us with deep teeth marks. Some had been swallowed. Most still worked after a passage through a Dog's bowels. Users WERE kind enough to wash them before sending them in.

WTH one of our Model 850 "body" instruments had once stopped a .38 slug, 'point blank range" right over the target's heart. ISTR the force busted a rib, but the slug didn't make it though the clamshell SS case atall.

Another - donated by his widow for needy children - had survived the death of a wearer whose Long Island Railroad commuter train had derailed into New York's East River. Dried it out. New battery. Still worked.

We put it into our "museum" and donated a NEW one on her behalf in its stead, of course.

I have Phonak Audeos for about a year, these have in the ear speakers and the tiny wires inside the clear tube going to a silocone rubber cup. these are by far the best hearing aids I have ever had, huge improvement over the supposibly state of the art units I had previously. I can recommend this specific model if that is what you are looking for. I got mine from buyhear.com, about half of list price.