Noise is a fact of contemporary life. From crowded restaurants to sport stadiums to the train station, noise is all around and may become overpowering at times. People who use hearing aids are particularly sensitive to this problem as it becomes difficult to differentiate between meaningless noise and important sound. Digital noise reduction technology embedded inside hearing aids is one approach to combating this problem. It allows the wearer to block unwanted noise and focus on specific sounds.

Conversational speech and meaningless noise follow different sound patterns, which digital noise reduction technology is able to pick up on. This is easy to do when speaking to someone in a quiet room as the speech signals are the only sound around. However, when conversing in a noisy environment, your digital noise reduction equipped hearing aid can tell that there is unwanted sound present. Once your device picks up on sounds that may interfere with your ability to follow a conversation, it automatically lowers the volume in the noisy channels.

Don’t expect that all background noise will be eliminated. No hearing aid can do that. However, the digital noise reduction feature does help improve communications quite a lot in noisy areas. Compared to hearing aids that don’t have noise reduction technology embedded, user report better speech sounds and improved comprehension.

Users are most pleased with their results when the device is used to counteract a constant background noise. While digital noise reduction may not be completely effective in reducing the impact of loud music or nearby conversation, it can greatly reduce steady sounds such as an air conditioner or a motor.

Users may wish to consider utilizing other noise reduction strategies in conjunction with their digital noise reduction capable hearing aid. In restaurants it is usually possible to request a table in a quieter area or away from music speakers.

While no hearing aid technology can give you perfect hearing, digital noise reduction can take much of the annoyance out of dealing with noisy situations.