Wayne Staab

Dr. Staab is an internationally recognized authority in hearing aids. As President of Dr. Wayne J. Staab and Associates, he is engaged in consulting, research, development, manufacturing, education, and marketing projects related to hearing. His professional career has included University teaching, hearing clinic work, hearing aid company management and sales, and extensive work with engineering in developing and bringing new technology and products to the discipline of hearing. This varied background allows him to couple manufacturing and business with the science of acoustics to bring innovative developments and insights to our discipline. Dr. Staab has authored numerous books, chapters, and articles related to hearing aids and their fitting, and is an internationally-requested presenter. He is a past President and past Executive Director of the American Auditory Society and a retired Fellow of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology. Interests engaged in outside of the above include: fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, golf, travel, tennis, softball, lecturing, sporting clays, 4-wheeling, archery, swimming, guitar, computers, and photography. These are great topics of discussion away from business.

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Open Earmold Hearing Aid Fittings – A Brief History

Open Earmold Hearing Aid Fittings Open earmold fittings (essentially, ear pieces having a single large vent, multiple vents, or tubing alone), are commonly used today to achieve a successful fit for the hearing-impaired population having high-frequency hearing loss (Figure 1). How and When Did Open Earmold Fittings Come About? It is unlikely that the person who coined the term,

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Hearing Aid Echo – Part 2

Even in Hearing Aids, Echo Sometimes Has the Last Word A recent post reflected on how an echo is created by an acoustic delay, and even touched on mythology as an interesting, but non-scientific, explanation for its existence. The article suggested that the delay that causes the echo could even have implications for hearing aids. How can this be?

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Bo Derek Inspired a Hearing Aid Battery?

Hearing Aid Battery Performance Inspired by Bo Derek? Recent posts on this site provided a paper trail to the origin of the CIC (completely-in-canal) hearing aid. I was reminded that one component not discussed, but facilitating this movement to small hearing devices, was the hearing aid battery (actually, a cell as it relates to the custom-molded instruments of the

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Road to the CIC Hearing Aid

Part II – XP Peritympanic Impact Leading to the CIC Hearing Aid This post is a continuation of a blog from a couple of weeks ago describing the road to the development of the CIC (completely-in-the-canal) hearing aid. What started as an effort to reduce the occlusion effect for ITC (in-the-canal) style hearing aids, led to the development of a

Best of Wayne’s World: Localization More Important Than Word Recognition

I am off on holidays this week, but hope you will enjoy this top post from 2015. Sound Localization – Time-of-Arrival Differences at the Ears Time-of-arrival of sound at the two ears is an important contributor to sound localization. In this continuation of a series on binaural hearing, special attention is given to the second major contributor to sound localization,

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CIC History

From “Going Deep” to the CIC (completely-in-canal) Hearing Aid Hearing aids are available in a wide variety of sizes, configurations, and styles. Styles include BTE (behind-the-ear), RIC/RITE (receiver-in-canal/receiver-in-the-ear), thin tube, ITE (in-the-ear), ITC (in-the-canal), CIC (completely-in-canal), IIE (invisible-in-ear), and other variations. While all seem to have their place in the fitting process, it is undeniable that a major driving

Echo Has The Last Word

An Echo is a Sound Reflection In acoustics, an echo is a sound reflection, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. And, it is said that echo has the last word. We often see a cartoon with a person overlooking a canyon, with a word or phrase yelled and the reflections being returned from the distant canyon

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The First Wearable Digital Hearing Aid – History, Part 2

Design Considerations Involved in Going From Analog to Digital Technology Last week’s post provided background on how the first wearable digital hearing aid was developed. This post will continue this historical highlight leading to one of the most disruptive developments related to hearing aid technology – the digital hearing aid. Specifically, this post will discuss the design features/considerations

Featured image for “An Historical Reflection on Digital Hearing Aids”

An Historical Reflection on Digital Hearing Aids

Looking Back on How Digital Hearing Aids Came to Be Today, finding an analog hearing aid is difficult – that is, unless one rummages through boxes of hearing aids manufactured prior to about 1966, or a few years following. Hearing aid engineers had been speculating about the possibility of a digital hearing aid in the early 1980s. At that time,

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U.S. Hearing Aid Market

Who in the U.S. Hearing Aid Market is Purchasing Hearing Aids? It is common knowledge that hearing aid manufacturers, especially the Big Six, have been purchasing and operating their own hearing aid sales stores, significantly reducing the numbers operated by independent dispensers. The market consists of both a private (approximately 79%) and public sector (approximately 21%), with the public sector dominated by