Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Peer-reviewed study (electroacoustic bench measurements)

Electroacoustic evaluation of frequency-modulated receivers interfaced with personal hearing aids

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/schafer-2007/ · record checked 10 October 2026

  • Schafer EC, Thibodeau LM, Whalen HS, Overson GJ
  • Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 38(4):315-326 (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)

Independent (first author at the Speech and Hearing Sciences Department, University of North Texas; the PubMed record names no funder, and the full text, which may state one, was not read)

Summary

A bench comparison of personal FM receivers coupled to hearing aids through a neckloop, an ear-level receiver and a programmable ear-level receiver, measured by the ASHA FM-advantage method.

Key findings

  • Measured the electroacoustic output of hearing aids coupled to three kinds of FM receiver: a body-worn receiver with a neckloop, an ear-level receiver that could not be programmed, and a programmable ear-level receiver, following the FM-advantage approach in ASHA's 2002 guidelines.
  • Compared the hearing aid alone with the FM system at typical input levels with a complex signal, and at high input levels with a pure tone to check maximum output.
  • Reports that the receivers with neckloops showed significant low-frequency reduction and the most variable performance of the three types; the ear-level receivers varied less, and the programmable ones gave the most flexibility.
  • The authors link the variability to the type of system and the compression characteristics of the devices, and conclude that the great variability in all systems supports electroacoustic evaluation of each fitting.

Limits

Read from the PubMed abstract only; the publisher's page refused access, so the number of devices, the neckloop models and the size of the low-frequency reduction could not be checked. Personal FM systems for school use, not venue receivers, measured with hearing aids of 2007.

Read the original

pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/0161-1461(2007/034)

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Schafer EC, Thibodeau LM, Whalen HS, Overson GJ. Electroacoustic evaluation of frequency-modulated receivers interfaced with personal hearing aids. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 38(4):315-326 (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). October 2007. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/0161-1461(2007/034) (accessed 10 October 2026).

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