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.

Hearing Aid Power Supply – Body Heat? Part II

Human Body as Future Hearing Aid Power Supply? Last week’s blog introduced the use of alternate energy to power hearing aids, and ended suggesting that perhaps the human body itself could serve as such a source, thereby possibly even eliminating the power cell (battery) altogether. Of course, such a direction was not suggested as something imminent, but at the same

Hearing Aid Power Supply – Body Heat? Part I

Introduction/Background Powering hearing aids has taken a number of turns over the years – from carbon microphones, through A and B batteries (heater and power battery), other different sized zinc batteries, and finally to cells consisting primarily of mercury, silver, zinc air, and now again, into rechargeable cells. But, what does the future hold? As long as 30 years ago

ISTS – A Practical Acoustic Feedback Test For Hearing Aids?

International Speech Test Signal and Feedback Background The International Speech Test Signal (ISTS) was developed to determine how speech is processed by modern hearing aids {{1}}[[1]] Holube, I., Fredelake, S., Vlaming, M. & Kollmeier, B. (2010). Development and analysis of an international speech test signal (ISTS). International Journal of Audiology, 49, 891-903[[1]]. The signal is based on natural recordings,

Readers’ Choice 2012: My Battle With the Ear, No-See-Ums, and Textbooks

This two-part series begins here: My Battle With the Ear, No-See-Ums, and Textbooks, Part II Essentially all texts and articles related to cerumen (ear wax) state that it, along with ear hair, seems to “discourage” insects from entering the ear canal or to protect the ear canal from insects. Cerumen is said to protect the ear canal from drying out

RIC Hearing Aid Coupler Measurement Correction?

How Should RIC Hearing Aids be Measured? Background When CIC (completely-in-the-canal) instruments became popular, manufacturers of hearing aid measurement equipment provided alternate couplers, and most often with software corrections, to account for the smaller residual volume of that instrument compared with other instruments that did not fit as deeply into the ear canal (traditional hearing aids at that time). The

Research Data: Check and Double Check

Do You Double Check Your Research Data? More on RIC In a previous blog, I reported on some real-ear data obtained when measuring various insertion depths of a RIC closed system into the ear canal (Figure 1). In response, I received a nice note from a friend and colleague, Dr. Mead Killion, who mentioned that while he believes the results

Animal Vocalization Analysis: the gPLP

Prologue: Every now and then one has to release the nerd inside them. This blog is one of those times. However, this venture turned out worse than I had imagined. So, it might be helpful if I provided some background as to why I delved into this topic. As some of you might have noticed, a couple of my previous

ISTS – Measuring Advanced Digital Hearing Aids

ISTS – A New Measurement Standard Proposal Hearing aids are currently measured using stationary signals, which include sine wave frequency sweeps and unmodulated noise signals. These test signals allow for reproducible measurement conditions and are described in ANSI 3.22 {{1}}[[1]] American National Standards Institute (ANSI ). ANSI S3.22-2003. Specification of hearing aid characteristics. New York: Acoustical Society of America. [[1]]

RIC Hearing Aid Coupler Measurements

Note: My blog for last week was a repeat of a previous blog and I hope that those of you who missed it initially were able to read it this time. I was in the Eastern Mediterranean visiting ancient ruins in Istanbul, Pergamum, and Ephesus in Turkey, and Rhodes, Aghios Nikolaos, and Athens, in Greece, and did not have reliable

Best of Wayne Staab: Hearing Aids for Profit, From Ethical to Non-Ethical Overnight

Hearing aids for profit – from Non-ethical to Ethical – Overnight Developmental History: Audiologists Can Sell Hearing Aids – But Not For Profit At the 1971 ASHA convention in Chicago, discussion had already taken place about a plan that would allow audiologists and hospital clinics to sell hearing aids on a non-profit basis. Proponents contended that this would reduce the