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Can hearing aids "hear" the surround sound of a 5.1 headset?

  • 07-11-2015 2:18am
    #1
    the_syco
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,303 ✭✭✭✭


    Hey all,

    Before i drop good money on something that makes no difference to me, I was wondering can hearing aids (in both ears) "hear" the surround sound of a 5.1 headset?

    I'm looking at it from the angle that the hearing aid has a mic that feeds into my ear, so will I be able to tell what direction the sound is coming from, or what?


Comments

  • #2
    CiDeRmAn
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 34,625 CMod ✭✭✭✭CiDeRmAn


    As far as I know those headphones work on the basis of timing, using tricks of timing, frequency and filters to fake the effects of ears on incoming sound sources and generating the most realistic surround effect out there, aside from actually being there
    http://blog.codinghorror.com/3d-positional-audio-and-hrtfs/
    But, this will depend on the nature of the hearing organ.
    They are designed to work with eardrums only, and an eardrum enhanced with a set of mics, I don't know tbh.

    That said, your best bet might be to seek out a high end hifi store, or one that will let you give the headphones a blast, assuming they are set to normal and not to any induction setting that one commonly sees as standard when using with hearing aids.
    Here's some shops in Dublin, link, link 2, link 3.

    I'm not suggesting you buy in any of these shops, but you might give them a call and see if you can try headphones out, 5.1 surround, with an appropriate source, and that can inform you if the tech works with your hearing aids and further inform your buying decision.

    Also, I am coming at this with a lot of supposition, as I do not use a hearing aid and have no experience professionally beyond changing the battery for one of my clients, so apologies if I am talking nonsense!

    edit: I'm after seeking assistance from those in the know, over on the Hifi forum, I hope you don't mind.
    They may well have more insight than I.


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