Our clinics prefer to use digital instruments with multiple microphone technology to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. Amplifying the speech coming from in front of the patient, while reducing the noise originating from behind the patient results in improved word understanding when in the presence of competing noise in places such as restaurants, crowds, and social situations.
Hearing aids with multi-microphone programming functions can be set to pick up sounds from different directions (i.e. right, left, rear, front) using a beam-forming concept. This technology would allow a parent or grandparent to hear children in the back seat louder than other car noises when driving.