“Huh?” “What’s that?” “Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.”
If you’ve noticed yourself using such expressions more often in recent years or you have to continually ask your spouse or co-workers to repeat questions during conversations, there’s a good chance that your hearing has become impaired. The condition is typically signaled by a cupped hand placed behind the “good ear” in what some in the firearm community have humorously termed the “shooter’s salute.” In point of fact, though, hearing loss is no laughing matter as it can result in serious issues such as diminished socialization and has even been linked, in some studies, to cognitive decline.
For shooters, particularly, hearing loss has long been thought of in terms of “the price of admission” to our favorite pastime, and while the growing trend toward suppressor use with firearms is a significant move in the right direction toward mitigating the deleterious effects of gunshot noise, risks still exist. According to my colleague, Kelly Young, our senior executive editor and resident suppressor expert, the decibels tell the story. “As even the most cursory shooter is well-aware, firearms are exceptionally loud tools, with magnum hunting rifles and shotguns being capable of generating shot volumes in excess of 160 dBs and even relatively quiet subsonic .22 Long Rifle loads still often reaching 140 dBs—more than high enough to cause lasting damage to the unprotected human ear. Suppressors can help mitigate the potential harm caused by a firearm’s report, while benefitting the shooter in myriad other ways as well, but, in most cases, they cannot render a gun truly ‘hearing-safe,’ and other methods should also be employed to help safeguard a shooter’s hearing.”
The Problem … And Solutions
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of hearing loss is that it can, and usually does, creep up on shooters throughout the course of years—and for a variety of reasons. If you’re like me, in some cases, you weren’t warned as a kid taking up the shooting sports that such protection was required, particularly if you were “only shooting twenty-twos.”
Signs that you may have hearing loss include: trouble understanding live conversations in noisy environments or those that take place by phone (especially when the other party is on speaker, which introduces competing sounds); difficulty making out the speech of others in general (particularly that of children or women); or feeling as though they are mumbling. There are also the ordinary tone prompts that now direct so much of our lives: a phone ringing, your car’s turn signal remaining on after a lane change, a clock chiming or the “beep, beep” of a microwave timer letting you know that food is ready. And perhaps the most important are the simple, but potentially profound, examples of sounds we’ve nearly forgotten such as a bird’s chirping or the cooing and squealing of grandchildren—those that actually diminish joy and alter our quality of life for the worse. If left unattended, such loss of hearing can lead to feelings of isolation, which can be embarrassing and even result in bouts of anxiety or depression.
According to industry experts, hearing loss falls within three general categories. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), the most common, results when the inner ear’s nerves and hair cells are damaged, which impedes the pathways from the inner ear to the brain. SNHL is permanent and generally can’t be corrected medically or surgically, although it can be treated with hearing aids. Conductive hearing loss results when there is an obstruction in, or damage to, the outer or middle ear and may or may not be permanent depending on the causes, which include: earwax buildup; eardrum damage; and either foreign objects, fluid, abnormal tumors or growths in the ear canal. Mixed hearing loss, a combination of the two, usually occurs due to damage over time paired with trauma to the ear.
Such losses are caused by a variety of exposures and conditions, including: loud noises, aging, certain drugs, viral infections, acoustic tumors, head trauma, stroke and eardrum damage. The impacts to physical health can include complications such as increased risk of falling and accidental injuries, along with the risks associated with not being able to clearly hear or understand instructions from medical personnel and other authorities in emergency situations. Such a wide range of causes mean that hearing loss is common among the aging population in general—and even more so among shooters given the additional stresses their ears endure. And, because of incremental advance, it often goes untreated for far too long. Why? According to one maker of hearing-aid and hearing-protection products, the Starkey company, which serves non-shooters and shooters alike through its Start Hearing division—the reasons range from not recognizing the signs of hearing loss to not taking the problem seriously to not wanting to admit that it’s something you might now be facing.
I know those are more than just theoretical rationalizations because all of them have affected me personally. In fact, while recently proofreading an issue of this magazine, I learned through its Official Journal pages that Start Hearing had partnered with NRA to promote hearing health among the organization’s members by offering exclusive discounts on its products. So, I decided to at least investigate whether the company could help my condition, which had deteriorated rapidly in recent years. According to the company’s chief business officer, Michael Scholl, “Our goal is to support individuals at greater risk of hearing loss—whether they’re hunters, sport shooters or workers in high-noise environments. By prioritizing prevention, education and access to innovative technology, we can make a lasting impact on hearing health.”
As with many industries, the hearing-aid business has a relatively few, but significant, number of players, and Starkey is certainly one of those. The company got its start in 1967 when William Austin opened a hearing-instrument-repair company called Professional Hearing Aid Service in St. Louis Park, Minn. He later purchased Starkey Laboratories, a small earmold company, from Harold Starkey, merging the two and retaining the Starkey name. Today, the company’s products use cutting-edge electronic technology to offer Bluetooth streaming, language translation, fall detection, GPS locating and rechargeable batteries that can last more than 50 hours. All of that is packed into a housing measuring not much more than a single square inch that tucks behind each ear and is available in custom colors to blend in with the wearer’s skin tones and hair color. The result is powerful, discreet, yet convenient, hearing performance enhancement.
In addition, Starkey’s SoundGear products provide both active and passive hearing protection that simultaneously provides clarity of speech and attenuation of loud noises for those exposed to challenging, and potentially harmful, environments. The Phantom, for example, is a custom-molded, Bluetooth-enabled earpiece that blocks the report of firearms while allowing a shooter to hear range-officer commands and retain situational awareness—making it ideal for shooters, hunters and others. “Many veterans, law-enforcement officers and shooting enthusiasts hesitate to use traditional hearing protection because they need to stay aware of their surroundings,” Scholl said. “SoundGear’s active technology offers the best of both worlds—protecting hearing without compromising awareness.”
The Technology
My own journey addressing hearing loss involved testing by a certified audiologist in my locale that I found through its listing as a partner by Starkey. The scheduled exam took less than an hour but was thorough. Once I was sealed behind glass inside a soundproof booth, the examiner used an electronic sound board, and her own voice, to send a series of increasingly loud electronic tones and words uttered using one hand to cover her mouth. That way, I couldn’t “cheat” by reading her lips as she tested my ability to understand her speech as it was gradually amplified and/or interfered with by other noises. She later made a mold of my ear canals with warm polymer to be used as a positive impression from which to make the hearing aids and sound-protection devices. She then generated a report in the form of a graph that precisely indicated the severity of my hearing loss in each ear. Before I left the office, I completed some minor administrative paperwork, including insurance information, and she later sent the data to Starkey. Within about a week, the company had custom-assembled and programmed a set of its Edge AI Receiver-In Canal, Rechargeable Telecoil (RIC RT) model hearing aids and a set of its SoundGear Phantom inside-the-ear protection units, designed to re-establish my long-lost hearing capability and protect my ears when shooting, respectively.
The Starkey company’s Start Hearing division produces hearing aids, such as the Edge AI (r.), that pack tremendous technology into a discreet size. A recharger/case (l.) is included.
Once the units arrived back at the audiologist, I returned to have them fitted and was given some instruction on their use. Even though I wear wire-rim glasses with cable-style temples that wrap around my ear, the Edge AI’s primary housing rested high and just behind the top of the ear without interfering. Their flesh-tone exterior, one of several available finishes, helps keep them all but invisible to anyone with whom I’m having a face-to-face conversation. To “install” them, I simply press them into the ear canal and then flick the lower stabilizing wires into the bottom of the ear opening above the lobe. A small colored dot on each aid indicates which ear it goes in—red is right. Both the Edge and Phantom sets use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and come with clamshell chargers that feature docking ports onto which the left and right device are set to begin recharging and that also act as protective cases when the units are not in use. Also included are maintenance tools for cleaning each device, and my audiologist provided extras of the replaceable cone-shaped tips that go in the ear canal.
The Edge AI features the company’s artificial intelligence-driven Neuro Sound Technology 2.0 for real-time adaptation of the sound waves that enter the ear, which dynamically optimizes speech clarity while reducing background noise. It is available in multiple technology levels of 24, 20 and 16. Level 24 is the premium option, offering the best noise-reduction and performance, particularly in challenging listening environments. Level 20 provides a good balance of features and affordability, while Level 16 is suitable for basic needs and quieter environments. The Edge AIs also offer wireless connectivity by way of Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) audio for seamless streaming, Auracast support and compatibility with the Starkey app. Additional features include: fall detection, cognitive-activity tracking, exercise monitoring and self-guided balance assessment.
SoundGear Phantom hearing protection is ideal for shooters. The inside-the-ear devices feature: a volume-control wheel, magnetic charging contacts and attachment loops for an included lanyard.
I’ve used most of the hearing-protection devices on the market for shooting at the range, and I must say that the Starkey Phantom in-the-canal set is among the best. Pre-programmed to the most common hearing-loss range (Normal to Moderate), they offer up to 30 dBs of gain/amplification for hearing range commands, conversations and other typical sounds while also providing a 22-dB Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) that clips loud sounds such as gunshots. Other features include: 2.4-GHz technology for audio streaming; 23 hours of battery life; Apple and Android connectivity; four preprogrammed digital memories for different listening environments; omni-directional microphones; wind noise management; auto On/Off power-save; adaptive feedback cancellation; a volume-control wheel; and both a zippered case with a carabiner to clip to your shooting bag and a removable lanyard.
The Payoff
So, what was it like to hear, for the first time in many years, as though I no longer had any impairment? I can only characterize it as … astonishing. Sounds that I had long ago forgotten—the crunching of gravel under my feet as I walked from the audiologist’s office to my vehicle, wind moving through the leaves in the trees, insects buzzing—were suddenly apparent, and a bit overwhelming, but I knew that my newly reinvigorated sense of sound would normalize for my ears with time just as getting prescription trifocal eyeglass lenses a few years earlier had for my eyesight.
More benefits became apparent during a business trip shortly thereafter to a manufacturer of firearms, optics and accessories where I was able to “field test” both of the Starkey sets. Not only did the Edge AIs help me keep up with the conversation around a large table during dinner in a crowded restaurant, the SoundGear Phantoms allowed me to communicate naturally with company representatives at an indoor range while another shooter was firing in the adjacent lane—both environments that pose their own kinds of challenges when faced without the assistance of electronic speech enhancement or sound mitigation, respectively. And though both systems carry price tags in the low four figures, the benefit could justifiably be deemed priceless. Add in a roughly 50 percent discount for NRA members off the retail prices charged for the same devices within the company’s owned locations, and the decision is even easier.
All in all, I have come to appreciate being able to hear a wide variety of sounds in the same way as I can see objects at a full range of distances. And since both hearing and sight are essential senses to the responsible pursuits of shooting and hunting, having the former restored has been a godsend. And trust me when I say that your family and your co-workers will appreciate the initiative you’ve taken to address the problem. You might even find that rather than habitually cupping your hand behind your ear, you occasionally use it to pat yourself on the back.
For more information about the NRA partnership to address hearing loss for members, call (833) 491-1824, or visit nrahearingbenefits.com.
Read the full article here