Hearing is believing as much as Seeing is

Hearing is believing as much as Seeing is ……..

A frank look at wearing the Nuance Audio from the Meta Stable

A light hearted review by a first time wearer

I was asked by EssilorLuxotttica to try out their Nuance Audio frames when visiting SILMO 2025.

They generously glazed the lenses with Varilux XR varifocal lenses , without which I would have been blind with a + 5.00 DS Rx in each eye!

Firstly let me say that in my opinion I don’t suffer from poor hearing. This however is not necessarily backed up by my wife when we are jointly trying to crack the latest Times Concise Crossword.

However in my opinion she mutters the clues!

So I think that sums up the overwhelming majority of both the male and female ageing population in todays hectic and noisy environment. But Male vanity is probably the worst of the two.   Funny how men especially will spend fortunes on necessary varifocals but with the fear of being marked as old will not even consider the purchase of a hearing appliance.

Ok, so I’ll come clean, in my younger days I sat for many hours on a drum stool beating out the sounds of the 70’s, Soul, Reggae, R&B and Jazz. To ensure I could hear the rest of the band I sat in front of 2 large 1000watt Marshall Speakers. My comeuppance was that hearing high frequency sound is almost completely missing.

No big deal I used to think because not hearing high pitched electronic whines from faulty household machines and being spared the incessant noise of cicadas on holiday seemed like a reasonable balance. However, age appears to have very slightly increased my hearing loss, only slightly but it has added to my high frequency black hole. It’s fair to say that the fairer sex generally has voice tones of a higher frequency and there is the rub.

So whilst still sceptical I was in part excited to try out my Nuance Audio over the last 3 months in various circumstances. Cruising across the Atlantic, conversational experiences in nightclubs as well as more mundane lifestyle activities such as shopping and entertaining plus the TV.

Here are my views

The Frames and Lenses

Firstly let me just comment on the frames from which I chose a black pair of Model Square 54 (54 x 18 for the nerds, pd 69 )

I fancied the latest EssilorLuxottica Varilux XR lenses with Transitions Gen S in the latest colour tint Saphire.

At the time this colour was supposedly not available in High Index material but being vain I accepted the substantially thicker lenses. This was a mistake as these frames are relatively hard or maybe impossible to get a reasonable fit for myself either around the ears or on my nose bridge. I have since found out that low index lenses of that tint are now available which would help for greater comfort. My tip would be wherever possible to select the Nuance Audio frame model that best fits especially around the ears with the correct length to bend at the start of the dispensing.  And the Varilux XR lenses are the very best for visual clarity I have encountered in 30 years of wearing varifocals and free form lenses.

My Hearing?

The device uses an app on your smart phone which has four settings:

A: for flat mild hearing loss

B: Sloping Moderate Hearing Loss

C: Sloping Mild Hearing Loss

D Flat Moderate Hearing Loss

You can also adjust for background noises and have either a Frontal Mode or all-round sound.

It has taken me some time to decide on the best choices to make from the above and the choice depends on what you are doing, it isn’t constant.

I also think that my greatest problem is the loss of high frequency hearing and I can report that I still can’t hear Cicadas……No great Loss to me.

I am not an expert on audiology but from others I have heard that specific frequency loss can only be properly remedied with hearing aids especially configured with your specific measured hearing loss to generate frequencies you are missing.

But here are the improvements I have found in wearing them on Setting A with moderate amplitude:

In Frontal Mode I can listen and converse with a table of friends with greater ease than before. Apparently in conversation I have also softened my voice according to my wife to a more reasonable level! I never knew I spoke loudly.  Frontal mode however I found most annoying when at the keyboard as it sounds like I am hammering the keys, here I change to all-around sound.

In frontal mode I don’t miss dialogue quiet as much watching TV although I still contend that actors mumble their words.

Oh, and by the way apparently, I hear my wife calling me across the supermarket much better and respond….. you see there can be downsides to improved hearing.

Overall impression after 3 months wear

I don’t wear them all the time partly because of discomfort from the frame but also because there is little apparent improvement in many applications. Sport, driving walking do not require improved hearing. But conversation and TV experiences are definitely improved. Not a lot because my hearing isn’t too bad, but when I need better definition, they are very much an improvement.

Maybe in the future we will be able to apply our Hearing Frequency Graphs to the spectacles allowing for increase amplitude in the lost regions of our hearing. Now that would be a gamechanger.

But for now, I have found a happy lifestyle wearing pattern, just as I wear my contacts for Golf and Pickleball I wear my nuance audio for TV and evenings out with friends. And no one has spotted I am wearing them, so my vanity remains intact.

Thank you EssilorLuxottica for improving my social life and TV watching!

Bob Hutchinson is an Optometrist and Past President of the GP and Primary Care Section of the Royal Soc. Of Medicine, he is also CEO and Editor of Opchat News