Olive Union Olive Max Listening to Aids: For Delicate Listening to Loss

You don’t have to be practically deaf to make use of a listening to support. Many docs urge sufferers to get started with the devices early, earlier than listening to loss turns into essential. Olive Union’s Olive Max is the primary hearing aid I’ve encountered designed for this particular function, constructed for customers with “gentle to average” listening to loss, which the corporate defines as 26 to 55 decibels of loss. That’s proper in keeping with my prognosis, so I figured I’d be an ideal candidate for these new gadgets.

Out of the field, you’re more likely to say what I—and everybody I’ve been round—instantly stated after I first laid eyes on the Olive Max: They certain are large. Like, actually large. Every appears like a Bluetooth headset from the early 2000s, besides you must put on two. At the least the items, in a two-tone white and grey design, look sporty, together with a wrap-around ear hook that helps hold them in place. In addition they carry an IPX7 water-resistance rating. However at greater than 12 grams every, they’re a strong 4 or 5 instances the load of a typical over-the-counter hearing aid. A complete of eight completely different ear suggestions, in three completely different kinds, are included within the package to make sure you get an excellent match.

As listening to aids, the Olive Max items work roughly as marketed, and informal customers can pop them out of the field and into their ears to get began with minimal fuss, although getting them hooked over your ear correctly could be tough, particularly in case you put on glasses. Controls on the again of every support deal with quantity (independently for every ear) and let you choose one in all 4 environmental modes (TV, Assembly Room, Outside, or Restaurant). You may as well use the buttons to toggle “Hear-Via mode,” which helps you to flip off environmental audio processing altogether in case you merely need to use the Olive Max as Bluetooth earbuds.

You’ll be able to fine-tune your listening expertise within the My Olive app—although, bizarrely, the listening to support handbook doesn’t point out that an app exists, and even that you need to use the listening to aids as Bluetooth earbuds. (You need the My Olive app (Android, iOS), not the incompatible Olive Good Ear app.) The app permits you to make the identical changes because the bodily controls, nevertheless it additionally gives a noise-reduction and feedback-cancellation function (professional tip: max out each of those), and it features a extra detailed graphic equalizer that allows you to fine-tune frequency response additional.

You’ll be able to’t take a look at your listening to immediately inside the app, though a brief questionnaire will hook you up with varied “AI-recommended presets” based mostly in your age and some different primary inputs. If you would like something extra refined, you’ll have to delve into the equalizer by hand, however that is principally a trial-and-error state of affairs. It’s additionally price noting that the My Olive app contains an audio remedy system designed to assist people with tinnitus. I don’t endure from tinnitus so I wasn’t certified to check this function.