People of all ages and backgrounds enjoy music in some form or another. Whether it be a rock concert, the symphony, a record album, the radio, or streaming—music is a big part of many people’s everyday lives.
But music does much more than entertain and distract. Studies have shown that music offers many health-related benefits, including lowering stress, reducing anxiety, and making people happier. For instance, research has revealed that listening to music can have a beneficial effect on heart rate and blood pressure1 as well as helping to reduce depression and pain2. That’s why so many people listen to music—to improve their mood, energy, or outlook.
Music and hearing loss
Consider the 1.5 billion people around the world with hearing loss. Their enjoyment and potential health benefits from music listening can be diminished. Music is more nuance than speech, so aspects like loudness, pitch, melody, tonal quality, and lyrics may be hard for someone with hearing loss to distinguish. The more severe the hearing loss, the bigger the problem.
To make matters worse, hearing aids have traditionally not done a good job amplifying music. That’s because hearing aid amplification strategies are designed specifically for speech and not music. The fact is music has vastly different spectral and loudness characteristics than speech, but hearing aids are almost exclusively designed to amplify speech.
A better listening experience
Radiant, the latest hearing aid family built on the Extend technology platform, offers the solution. SmartMusic Pro is a dedicated program with amplification strategies specifically designed for listening to music. It’s perfect for both new and experienced hearing aid users listening to live, recorded or streamed music.
SmartMusic Pro:
- Enhances the audibility of soft musical inputs.
- Prevents distortion and discomfort for loud inputs.
- Keeps moderate input levels transparent (clear, detailed) and comfortable.
The program achieves these results by applying compression thresholds and ratios in a different way, to better address the characteristics of music. Learn more about the updated technology behind SmartMusic Pro in this Sonic Spotlight paper or register for our AudiologyOnline course.
References:
- Bradt, J. and Dileo, C. (2009). Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD006577.
- Siedliecki, S.L. and Good, M. (2006). Effect of music on power, pain, depression and disability. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 54: 553–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03860.x.