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 gadgets early, earlier than listening to loss turns into vital. Olive Union’s Olive Max is the primary listening to assist I’ve encountered designed for this particular function, constructed for customers with “delicate 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 prone to say what I—and everybody I’ve been round—instantly stated once I first laid eyes on the Olive Max: They positive are large. Like, actually large. Every seems like a Bluetooth headset from the early 2000s, besides it’s a must to 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 preserve them in place. Additionally they carry an IPX7 water-resistance ranking. However at greater than 12 grams every, they’re a strong 4 or 5 instances the burden of a typical over-the-counter listening to assist. A complete of eight totally different ear ideas, in three totally different kinds, are included within the equipment to make sure you get a superb 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 will be tough, 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 every of 4 environmental modes (TV, Assembly Room, Out of doors, 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 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 permits you to make the identical changes because the bodily controls, however it additionally provides a noise-reduction and feedback-cancellation function (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 check your listening to instantly throughout the app, though a brief questionnaire will hook you up with numerous “AI-recommended presets” based mostly in your age and some different fundamental inputs. In order for you something extra refined, you’ll must delve into the equalizer by hand, however that is largely 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 folks with tinnitus. I don’t undergo from tinnitus so I wasn’t certified to check this function.
{Photograph}: Olive Union
