About Kirk
Kirk Farmer, BC-HIS is the Practice Manager for Hearing Again America’s Cary, NC office. Farmer’s unique background in both hearing healthcare and audio engineering shapes his methodical approach to solving complex fitting problems, especially for patients who have struggled with hearing aids in the past. He is passionate about using the tools and mindset of his engineering background to help people reconnect with the voices and sounds that matter most in their lives.
Session Details
Audio Engineering Approaches to First Fit and Follow-Up Hearing Aid Visits
Modern fitting software can match prescriptive targets, but it cannot ensure that hearing aids sound natural, comfortable, or sustainable for each individual wearer. This session reframes hearing aids as a personal PA system for an audience of one, drawing on principles from live and recorded audio mixing, studio design, acoustics, and psychoacoustics. The focus is on the most critical—and often most challenging—appointments: the first fit and early follow-up visits. Rather than relying solely on acclimatization or generic reassurance when patients report issues such as their own voice sounding echoey or boomy, that “everything is amplified,” or that other voices sound unnatural, clinicians will learn to approach these scenarios like audio engineers fine-tuning a mix. Using a simplified signal-chain model, the session demonstrates how to translate common patient descriptions into specific acoustic issues—such as venting and ear acoustics, frequency-specific gain, microphone directionality, and noise management or DNN features. Participants will learn how critical listening skills—such as identifying harshness, muddiness, or an imbalanced midrange—can inform precise, intentional adjustments rather than trial-and-error knob-turning. Real-world examples will illustrate how to structure effective targeted questions and balance clarity with listening comfort and cognitive load, especially for older adults or those with long-standing, previously unmanaged hearing loss. Attendees will gain a practical, repeatable workflow that transforms post-fitting troubleshooting from guesswork into the art of mixing a personal PA system a patient can wear all day.
Attend this session and you’ll learn how to:
- Formulate effective, targeted questions that help patients describe their listening experiences in meaningful and technical terms, so first fit and follow-up complaints can be clearly understood and prioritized.
- Use critical listening and draw on audio engineering concepts such as harshness, muddiness, midrange balance, and resonant frequencies, to translate patients’ descriptions into specific acoustic issues.
- Apply practical audio engineering strategies, including simple EQ moves, thoughtful use of acoustic compression schemes, and other small signal-chain adjustments, to improve sound quality, comfort, and day-to-day usability for individual patients.