You don’t have to be practically deaf to make use of a listening to assist. Many docs urge sufferers to get began with the units early, earlier than listening to loss turns into important. Olive Union’s Olive Max is the primary listening to assist 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 consistent with my analysis, so I figured I’d be an ideal candidate for these new units.
Out of the field, you’re prone to say what I—and everybody I’ve been round—instantly mentioned once I first laid eyes on the Olive Max: They certain are large. Like, actually large. Every appears to be like like a Bluetooth headset from the early 2000s, besides it’s a must to put on two. Not less than the items, in a two-tone white and grey design, look sporty, together with a wrap-around ear hook that helps preserve them in place. Additionally they carry an IPX7 water-resistance score. However at greater than 12 grams every, they’re a strong 4 or 5 occasions the load of a typical over-the-counter listening to assist. A complete of eight totally different ear ideas, in three totally different types, are included within the equipment to make sure you get a very good match.
{Photograph}: Olive Union
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 may be difficult, particularly in the event you put on glasses. Controls on the again of every assist deal with quantity (independently for every ear) and let you choose one in all 4 environmental modes (TV, Assembly Room, Out of doors, or Restaurant). You may also use the buttons to toggle “Hear-Through mode,” which helps you to flip off environmental audio processing altogether in the event you merely wish to use the Olive Max as Bluetooth earbuds.
You possibly can fine-tune your listening expertise within the My Olive app—although, bizarrely, the listening to assist handbook doesn’t point out that an app exists, and even that you should utilize the listening to aids as Bluetooth earbuds. (You need the My Olive app (Android, iOS), not the incompatible Olive Good Ear app.) The app lets you make the identical changes because the bodily controls, but it surely additionally gives a noise-reduction and feedback-cancellation characteristic (professional tip: max out each of those), and it features a extra detailed graphic equalizer that permits you to fine-tune frequency response additional.
You possibly can’t take a look at your listening to instantly 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 must delve into the equalizer by hand, however that is principally a trial-and-error scenario. It’s additionally price noting that the My Olive app contains an audio remedy system designed to assist folks with tinnitus. I don’t endure from tinnitus so I wasn’t certified to check this characteristic.
{Photograph}: Olive Union
