Real Ear Measurement
What a Probe Microphone Actually Measures
A real ear measurement in Akron, OH puts a soft probe microphone in your ear canal, a few millimeters from the eardrum, while your hearing aid is in place. Speech plays, and the screen shows what the device is genuinely delivering inside your ear rather than what the manufacturer's software predicted. Your fitter compares that against the prescription target for your audiogram and adjusts until the two line up.
Why Ear Canals Make First Fit Settings Wrong
No two ear canals are the same length or shape, so two people with identical audiograms can need very different settings to hear the same thing. First fit software cannot see that. Real ear measurement is a capability we offer at Advanced EARGEAR, and it is worth asking about whenever a fitting is not sounding the way you expected. Ask your fitter to verify, and bring the aids in even if they came from elsewhere.
Real Ear Measurement FAQs
Questions Ohio patients ask about real ear verification: what the probe microphone measures, how it changes a fitting, whether it is part of every appointment, and when to request it.
Real ear measurement, also called probe microphone measurement, is the only way to see how much sound a hearing aid is putting into your ear rather than estimating it. A thin silicone tube sits in the canal alongside the hearing aid and feeds a microphone. Recorded or live speech plays through a speaker, and software graphs the sound pressure arriving at your eardrum against the target curve calculated from your hearing test.
If soft speech is landing below target, gain goes up. If consonants are sharp enough to make you flinch, the high frequencies come down. The whole point is that the adjustment is based on a measurement of your ear, not an average of many ears.
Not automatically, and we would rather be straight with you about that than overstate it. Real ear measurement is a tool we have and use, and there are fittings where it is clearly the right call: a first set of hearing aids, an unusual audiogram, a patient who has never been happy with the sound, or aids that were programmed somewhere else.
If you want your fitting verified, ask for it. Nobody here will treat that as a strange request. It is your hearing and your money, and a measurement takes a short block of time to run. Call the office nearest you and mention real ear when you book. Akron is (330) 785-0800, and our other three numbers are on the locations page.
No. The probe tube is thinner than a strand of spaghetti and soft enough to bend around the shape of your canal. Placing it takes a few seconds, and most patients say they stop noticing it once the speech starts playing. There are no needles, no air pressure, and nothing that goes near the eardrum itself.
What you will do is sit still and face the speaker while the measurement runs, then hold a normal conversation with your fitter about what sounds right and what does not. Your own reaction matters as much as the graph. A number on a screen that leaves you wincing at the sound of dishes is not a finished fitting.
Yes. Advanced EARGEAR services and reprograms every major brand at all four Ohio clinics, whether or not the device came from us. Patients who moved into Summit, Licking, Tuscarawas, or Muskingum county, or whose old provider closed, make up a steady share of our appointment book.
Bring the hearing aids, the charger or a fresh set of batteries, and a copy of your audiogram if you have one. If you do not, we can test your hearing here and work from current numbers, which is usually the better starting point anyway. Newcomerstown and Zanesville share (740) 920-4609, and Newark is (740) 920-4608.
We Don't Let Hearing Aids End Up in a Drawer
Plenty of hearing aids get sold. Fewer get worn. Advanced EARGEAR has spent 20 years closing that gap, starting every patient with a full audiometric assessment and a conversation about what they actually need to hear at home and at work. We verify the fit, adjust as your hearing changes, and service your devices at every one of our Ohio offices, whatever brand you wear and wherever you bought it.
Patient Recommendations
What Ohio patients say on Facebook about their care at our Akron, Newark, Newcomerstown, and Zanesville offices.
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Full audiometric assessments, all major brands, and complete service in Akron, Newark, Newcomerstown, and Zanesville.
Serving Central & Northeast Ohio
Our Locations
Hearing care close to home across central and northeast Ohio. Every office offers complete hearing testing, hearing aid fittings, and repairs.
- (330) 785-0800
- advancedeargear@gmail.com
- Fax: (330) 785-0802
- 100+ years of combined team experience
- Serving Ohio families since 2006
- Medicare, major insurance, and most managed care accepted
“Honesty and integrity from a family owned business that genuinely cares. They took the time to explain every option instead of pushing the most expensive one, and I hear my grandkids clearly again.”— Facebook recommendation · 100% recommend
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