Hi --

As many of you may know, my husband Barry uses hearing aids -- he has had
progressive high-end hearing loss for years (as has his brother in the UK)
due to the severe ear infections both of them had as children, as well as
natural aging. Then in 2005 he had throat cancer treatment at Hopkins, which
was completely successful but caused further hearing damage, albeit
minimized as much as possible.

The Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology Dept. is considered the best in this
country. The audiologists evaluated his hearing and recommended what they
considered the best aid available at the time for his problem -- the Oticon
Delta series, a digital hearing aid. He got the Oticon Delta 4000s -- this
has four programmable bands which can be set for different frequency levels.
The highest band goes up to about 7,000 Hz which covers most but not all
bird songs and calls. The lower bands can be set to various levels and if
(as is true for Barry) one's lower frequency hearing is still intact, there
is no amplification in these ranges and thus none of that thunderous
crunching of leaves,  annoying amplification of wind and background sounds
etc. that ones gets with lower quality hearing aids. (I should add that
there may be other brands which have similar capabilities, these are just
the ones Hopkins uses.) This is an open-ear type aid, which is best for
natural sounds. Barry has not had any serious issues with the feed-back
which another poster mentioned, although certain head coverings which
directly brush against the aid can cause feed-back.

Before he got these aids Barry could not hear the Paula song anymore (just
the single note at the end), nor Worm-eating Warbler nor many others, nor
Golden-crowned Kinglet or Waxwings. He can now hear the warblers as well as
in the past, and can also hear the higher-pitched kinglet or waxwing if they
are close. However it is not a "silver bullet" and these very high-pitched
calls have to be closer to him than for me. He has had the aids adjusted
twice since he got them, to modify amplification in the bands -- this is
done quickly by computer.

I contacted Dr. Douglas Beck, the Director of Professional Relations for
Oticon, as I was interested in the features of their newer aids, such as the
Delta 8000 with its 8 bands. He writes:

"The Delta 8000 bandwidth goes out to 7600 Hz, the Epoq XW goes out to
10,000 Hz, and the brand new Dual Connect XW and the Dual Mini M9 go to
10,000 Hz.

Importantly, although the potential benefits of extended bandwidth are
many, the advantages realized by a particular person will be limited by
their specific type and degree of hearing loss....So the best person to
consult is your local professional regarding the potential benefit for a
given individual."

Finally, I have to add that these (and similar high-end digital products)
aids are NOT INEXPENSIVE! You have to think about how serious the hearing
loss is to you and what you are willing to invest to improve your birding
experience.

I should add that I have no commercial or other relation to Oticon
Corporation (!).

Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD