Wayne's World

How loud can sound get?  Could loud sound kill you?  Are there limits, and if so, what are they?  How are such things determined?  All of these are interesting questions and an attempt will be made to answer these as best possible. Two important lessons are supported by this article: one, the loudest thing in the world does not have

The Fourth of July and fireworks are traditional in the US, and go together like hamburgers and hot dogs. And, as thrilling as it is to watch fireworks, care should be exercised because the sound pressures generated by fireworks can lead to hearing damage if proper precautions are not employed.   Short History Ancient China introduced fireworks, but they have

Acoustic Application for Successful Hearing Aid Acceptance and Satisfaction A successful RIC hearing aid fitting, like many hearing aid fittings, is not necessarily related to any specific fitting formula, but is based on user satisfaction – the ability to hear, understand, and wear the hearing aid comfortably, without acoustic feedback, and in the presence of noise.  And, with RIC-type hearing

In August, 2018, a Consensus Paper from hearing care associations was published relative to “Regulatory Recommendations for OTC Hearing Aids: Safety & Effectiveness.”1  The organizations involved in writing this Consensus Paper consisted of the AAA (American Academy of Audiology), ASHA (American Speech, Language, Hearing Association), HIS (International Hearing Society), and ADA (Academy of Doctors of Audiology), groups that could be

Measuring a hearing aid to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Standards should be a first step before any programming of the hearing aid is attempted.  While it is assumed that the hearing aids meet ANSI Standards, as measured and sent by the manufacturer, confirmation of the hearing aid’s basic foundation is necessary to ensure that the eventual programming of the

Hearing aid sales, along with advertising and promotion seems to have locked onto the Big Three (cognition, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease) great fear motivators.  (Not all hearing aid advertising, but a significant amount focuses on the Big Three).  All three are currently promoted to result in cognition being reduced, slowed, or improved with the use of hearing aids for those

Last month, Dr. Wayne Staab was invited to present on OTC developments in the US at the British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturer’s Association (BIHIMA) conference, held in Birmingham, England. With the presentation, he provided attendees at the conference a great synopsis of US government regulations relating to hearing aids from the 1970’s to today. The presentation is now available at

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

A number of years ago, an article was published describing the importance of the impedance formula in interpretation of audiograms1.  The article by Campbell offered a fairly simple and visible way to help understand the audiogram, based on stiffness and mass, and the impact of these two elements on conductive hearing loss.  It is recognized that today more sophisticated methods

What is Earwax?   It has been called earwax, cerumen, gunk, cat earwax (Japan), and other names, not all complimentary.  It is technically called cerumen, and while often thought of as a hygienic nuisance, is far from this, actually representing one our body’s ingenious functional mechanisms, even though scientists are still not certain why we have earwax. It is the