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.
Apr. 14, 2015

Improving Directional Microphone Robustness

Wayne Staab
Current to Alternative Directional Microphone Technologies II By Aart van Halteren, M.Sc., Chief Technical Officer, Sonion, The Netherlands. and Ann-Marie Sänger, Senior Product DevelopmentEngineer, Sonion, The Netherlands   In a previous post, the authors illustrated how speech intelligibility in noisy situations can be improved for the hearing aid user by providing directional hearing.  The current industry standard is to provide
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Apr. 07, 2015

Beamforming Hearing Aid

Wayne Staab
Is Your Hearing Aid a Beamformer?  Broadfire versus Endfire Microphone Arrays   This post is the first in a series intended to provide cursory information about how multiple microphones (arrays, or beamforming hearing) are used to improve the SNR in hearing aids by focusing on the direction of the targeted sound. This process is called “beamforming.” Serious readers of beamforming
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Apr. 01, 2015

Energy Harvesting Approaches to Powering Hearing Aids

Wayne Staab
Note:  For those expecting to find the continuation of Directional Microphone Mismatch, as mentioned in last week’s post, please note that some recent information has been presented that will relate to improving the robustness of matching two omnidirectional microphones to create a directional listening experience.  As a result, the second part is being delayed. The Battery as a Power Supply Hearing
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Mar. 24, 2015

Directional Microphone Mismatch Part 1

Wayne Staab
Current, to Alternative, Directional Microphone Technologies Aart van Halteren, M.Sc., Chief Technical Officer, Sonion, The Netherlands. Ann-Marie Sänger, Senior Product DevelopmentEngineer, Sonion, The Netherlands   This post is based on a Technology Update presentation given at the American Auditory Society Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ, March, 2015.  It has been modified by the editor, taking it from a PowerPoint presentation to
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Mar. 18, 2015

Binaural Loudness Summation

Wayne Staab
The phenomenon of binaural summation is considered one of the practical advantages of hearing with two ears. Binaural loudness summation (binaural additivity) has a long history of experimentation. This includes binaural loudness, comparisons between monaural and binaural thresholds, and comparisons of suprathreshold monaural and binaural loudness functions. As early as 1929, von Békésy1 and Causse and Chavasse2, found maximum diotic
Featured image for “Are You Ready for the Next Major Disruption?  Rechargeable Hearing Aids”
Feb. 17, 2015

Are You Ready for the Next Major Disruption? Rechargeable Hearing Aids

Wayne Staab
Good for the Planet, But Hearing Aid Professionals Will Have to ReBoot (Again) Christopher Schweitzer, Ph.D. H. Christopher Schweitzer, owner of the Family Hearing Centers of Colorado, is also Director of HEAR 4-U International, and Chief Technical Audiologist for IMH Corp. ‘We sailed through it, adjusted the riggings, adapted, and survived, sort of, that first wave of the ‘Digital Disruption.’
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Feb. 03, 2015

Hearing Aid and Audiology Future – Data vs Opinion

Wayne Staab
Michael J. Metz, Ph.D. Dr. Metz has been a practicing audiologist for over 45 years, having taught in several university settings and, in partnership with Dr. Bob Sandlin, providing continuing education for audiology and dispensing in California for over two decades. Mike owned and operated a private practice in Southern California for over 30 years. He has been professionally active
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Jan. 27, 2015

User-Adjustable Hearing Aid Volume Control

Wayne Staab
The last two posts have provided information about the reasons for the disappearing volume control on hearing aids, and on research studies that have investigated consumer desires for such a control. It appears that close to 35% of those who wear hearing aids wish they had some kind of user-adjustable hearing aid volume control. Comments from hearing aid wearers in
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Jan. 19, 2015

The Case for Manual Hearing Aid Volume Controls

Wayne Staab
Although hearing aids during the past several years have mostly been devoid of a user-adjustable volume control (VC), this feature has been requested by some individuals fitting WDRC (Wide Dynamic Range Compression) hearing aids and by many consumers. As suggested in a previous post, no single volume control setting is ideal for a hearing aid wearer under all conditions, even if
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Jan. 12, 2015

The Disappearing Hearing Aid Volume Control

Wayne Staab
First Rule of Thumb A patient will prefer the hearing aid that provides amplification at the level they desire. This is axiomatic regardless of any acoustic frequency response modifications that might be available.   This hearing aid user listening level acceptance may or may not be the level that the fitter or programming formula designates. Even if they agree, it