When it comes to choosing a reliable hearing device to amplify audio and sound, two things that often come to mind are hearing aids and hearing amplifiers. You can always get any of these products in the best hearing aid store close to you. To buy a hearing amplifier, you certainly don’t need to get a prescription from an audiologist. However, for you to buy hearing aids, you may need to speak to the best New York hearing doctor at Audiology Island to better understand exactly the right product for your hearing loss.
In this article, you’ll understand all you need to know about hearing amplifiers and hearing aids, including their differences.
What exactly are hearing amplifiers?
Hearing amplifiers are wearable devices that work with the help of a microphone. With a microphone, these personal amplifying products can help to pick up and process nearby sounds. After processing, these sounds are then delivered to the user’s ear at a higher volume.
As earlier mentioned, you certainly don’t need any prescription from a New York hearing doctor to buy your preferred hearing amplifier. That’s so because these devices are not regulated by the FDA as medical products. Furthermore, the intended end users of these products aren’t hearing loss sufferers. Instead, anybody can take advantage of them to get clearer sounds to their ears at a higher volume.
Here’s all you should know about hearing aids
Unlike hearing amplifiers, hearing aids are medical devices sold at the best hearing aid stores. These products are specifically designed to make sounds louder for mild-to-severe hearing loss sufferers.
Like hearing amplifiers, hearing aids also feature a microphone. In addition, these medical devices also come with an amplifier and a speaker. These three components work hand in hand.
- It’s pretty simple; the microphone is designed to help pick sounds.
- As soon as the microphone picks up sound, it sends it to the amplifier in the form of an electric signal.
- The amplifier helps to amplify the signal to a sound wave and then deliver it to your ears through the speaker.
Hearing aids vs hearing amplifiers: differences
● Who can use these devices?
Although hearing amplifiers aren’t regulated as medical devices, they are still effective for people with little to no hearing loss.
On the other hand, the best New York hearing doctors recommend hearing aids for people with mild to severe hearing loss. However, for any hearing loss patient to buy a hearing aid, they need to first speak with an audiologist for a prescription. Of course, there are also over-the-counter (OTC) products if you don’t want to visit an audiologist.
● Design and customization
The best hearing aids are available in different styles and designs. A one-size-fits-all design doesn’t work for these products, unlike hearing amplifiers.
● Regulations
As you already know, hearing amplifiers are not classified as medical devices by the US FDA. On the other hand, hearing aids are medical devices that are specifically designed to assist people with mild to severe hearing loss. Because hearing amplifiers are not recognized as medical products, they aren’t regulated by the FDA.
● Sound clarity
In terms of sound clarity, only hearing aids are reliable. These devices have feedback cancellation, which helps to distinguish between background noise and human speech.
Top 3 hearing aids you can buy at Audiology Island
Today, Audiology Island is one of the most reliable hearing aid stores to buy your prescription and OTC products.
- This Signia Silk X hearing aid is one of the best prescription-only products you can consider buying at Audiology Island. You’ll certainly enjoy this product because of its amazing features, which include Ultra HD e2e technology and Binaural OneMic Directionality 2.0. These offerings help to improve human speech quality regardless of the level of the background noises.
- Another prescription-only hearing aid device worth buying is ReSound One. Created by GN ReSound, this product is available in three different performance levels; ReSound One (5), ReSound One (7), and ReSound One (9). You can read more about each of these products and their prices on Audiology Island.
- As an OTC product, you don’t need any audiologist’s prescription to buy this Sony CRE-E10 Self-Fitting hearing aid at Audiology Island. This product is ideal for people with mild to severe hearing loss.
