Influence of Advanced Hearing Aid Technology on Choice of Signal for Probe Microphone Measures
Jennifer Groth · Trends in Amplification · 2001
Modern probe microphone systems offer a wide range of measurement options including a multiplicity of test signals. The signal of choice for any particular measurement is largely determined by the purpose in performing the measurement. For example, while a pure tone sweep would be fine for measuring a real-ear-to-coupler difference, the patient's own vocalizations would probably serve better for troubleshooting occlusion-related complaints. In this commentary, it assumed that the goal of the probe microphone measurement is to ensure speech audibility in fitting one of the current digital hearing aids, and the influence of advanced signal processing in choosing signal type for this purpose is discussed. Important considerations include compression characteristics in the hearing aid, the fitting rationale employed, and any special signal processing in the hearing aid (e.g. noise reduction).