Description: As experienced by so many others, my hearing acuity has significantly declined. As a result, I strain to hear, and sometimes don’t fully hear, comments and arguments put forth at our many group discussions. And, my dear wife is also too often forced to repeat her statements, several times, before I succeed in separating her words from road noise while we are driving. The usual next step, of course, is to proceed to hearing tests, and the inevitable purchase of hearing aids. But, this is not the path that I have chosen to trod.
I have evaluated, for several weeks, two hearing-enhancing devices, one costing about $400, and the other about $250, in a variety of situations and circumstances that we all encounter at Husbay, and elsewhere. I used them at our Wednesday meetings at New Dynasty, at other group meetings, at presentations of Husbay’s movie group, at parties and other social gatherings, at home while watching TV and listening to radio, while speaking quietly with wife at home and with friends, and when conversing while driving in the presence of extremely loud road noise. I also used them for making and receiving phone calls, and listening to videos and podcasts from my iPhone. These devices work equally well with iPhones and Android smart phones.
In my presentation I will include detailed descriptions of these two devices, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each device for permitting me to clearly hear and understand speech in all of the situations and circumstances described above. I will also show the devices and demonstrate their use.
Mike Gruenfeld’s Bio: Mike spent most of his childhood in the British protectorate of Palestine, and then in Israel after it declared its independence. He arrived in the US at age 13, and resided in New York City. After completing High School and College, and marrying Holly, the family (now four) moved to a lovely town in New Jersey. Mike worked as an analytical chemist, managed an environmental research laboratory, supervised chemists and engineers, chaired committees of the American Society For Testing and Materials (ASTM), published scientific papers, and provided technical seminars at scientific conferences.
