Conversor Experiences:

David's Review

As a longtime user of hearing aids, I've come to learn two things: first, there's no single, automatic "best" solution to my individual hearing situation-it's a matter of somehow learning to communicate with my audiologist who can, in turn, recommend solutions based on my unique needs.

Secondly, I've come to understand that the same revolution that has driven computers to become ever faster, more powerful, smaller and more adaptive has led to enormous benefits in hearing technology. I admit I'm befuddled by most of the technical aspects of what the capabilities of that technology are, but I don't need to understand it to appreciate how it's helped me.

I recall years ago that my audiologist gave me my first chance in years to actually participate in a conversation with my passenger as I drove my car. A microphone, pinned to my passenger's lapel, connected directly to my hearing aid by a long wire. It changed my whole perspective on driving trips, making them enjoyable instead of frustrating. I was even happy to live with the inconvenience of being "hard-wired" to someone, and the inevitable surprise when either my passenger or I would jump out of the car, forgetting the wire, popping the whole works out of my ear.

Once out of the car, of course, I was on my own with the old analog hearing aid. One could hardly walk down the street wired to a companion. Restaurants were a blur of noises, far beyond the capability of my hearing aid to sort out.

Gradually, over the years, external assistive listening devices lost the wire, hearing aids themselves moved from analog to digital, and a whole new world of hearing possibilities opened up to me. Over the years, I've used many of the wireless microphones on the market, each with varying degrees of success, but all of them providing greatly improved ability to hear in places I hadn't been able to in the past: restaurants, cars, movie theaters, shopping malls, business meetings, even dinner at home with my family.

I discovered, over time, that while one type of microphone might be best in a restaurant, a different type might be best in other situations. I longed for a single solution.

And then my audiologist set me up with the Conversor, by far the most versatile listening device I've used. It helps me in every challenging hearing situation I've been in, including a noisy restaurant with several companions. In that instance, I simply set the Conversor's microphone on the table (it doesn't even look like a microphone!) and aim it in the general area (or person) I want to listen to. It's discreet and it's effective.

At home, if I want to amplify the voice of someone sitting across the room, I simply set the microphone on something near the talker, aim it and forget it. With the Conversor equipped not only with a zoom function and volume control, I have loads of options to customize it to my needs. It's very easy to use.