Phonak: A Hearty Endorsement

By Shlomo Maital

Phonak

At last count, I’ve written 1,345 blogs over the past decade or so. In none of my blogs, have I endorsed a product. This one is an exception. This is a heartfelt endorsement, first of its kind for me, and probably the last.

   A month ago, a highly-trained and experienced clinician fitted me with two Phonak hearing aids. Phonak is a Swiss company that makes state-of-the-art hearing aids. For years I had known, after hearing tests, that I had lost hearing in the upper frequencies—the graph showing my hearing acuity dropped steeply at mid-to-high sounds.  

   I finally faced the problem and saw an expert. She fitted me with two high-tech Phonak hearing aids. They are small, barely visible. They are really tiny computers, with complex algorithms that filter out background noise while amplifying meaningful sounds. The two hearing aids, left and right, communicate with one another! And they store data – my clinician was able to download data from my first month of use and told me precisely how long I had used the devices each day, with the data recorded and later used by the company to constantly improve the algorithms.  

   Digital hearing aids are over a decade old. But I believe that there have been major breakthroughs recently in the hardware and algorithms.   I can now hear birds singing. I can hear my students’ questions. I can hear music – a concert by Joshua Bell, violinist, was amazing. I can hear my small grandchildren when they speak to me. I can hear the TV and radio. My Phonak hearing aids are life-changing.

     So, I want to inform readers who may have hearing loss or impairments, especially older ones — waste no time. These new high-tech devices are incredible. They will change your life. They changed mine.   Go for it!