It’s the bit of software all Americans crave for. It’s still awaiting FDA approval in the United States. Advanced Bionics users in the UK and Europe are raving about it.
As one of the newer users of this software I will attempt to explore this in more detail. I encourage open discussion on my thoughts and observations. I have already written one article on the subject entitled Does the Harmony have the Clearvoice (CV) factor which looks at clear voice from a different perspective. I invite readers to view it on
The ultimate question I'd like to evetually answer is does "Clear Voice" make voices clearer or Fidelity 120 - ie having more channels make voices clearer. It may take some time to answer this question!
I went on a walk around the Chelsea area and decided to leave Clear Voice switched on for the duration of the walk.
Walking alongside the busy main road at the start of the walk the sound of the passing traffic was reduced to a quiet “whooshing” sound. Voices around me came across as if they were “in competition” for my attention. The voices that were closest to me i.e those of my friends came through at its most”clearest”.
Part of the walk took place through a cemetery. The person leading the walk was giving some so called useful information about the graves we stopped at. I was able to hear about 85% of what he was saying and at times was situated near the back of the group. The guy spoke with a rather husky sounding voice. His voice still came across clear sounding and at times it sounded as if the sound was floating down a tunnel and had a slight “far-off” sound to it.
I spent the rest of the walk to the lunch stop grinning like a Cheshire cat! My friend Ian kept on asking me what was so funny!? You see , I was hearing everything with such wide scope it was as if I has 360 degree hearing.
I will try and explain.
I was hearing a combination of sounds some that seemed so far off I was constantly looking around to see where the sound was coming from and what made it. I could hear people talking be it from behind or in front. Children’s voices, dogs barking etc. I was also able to hear a strange high pitched whoosing sound which I think will require further investigation another time.
All this is with Clear Voice switched on. On reaching the cafeteria within Battersea Park C.V faced its toughest test yet. The cafe was EXTREMELY noisy, yes surprisingly I was able to hear every word what the server and cashier was saying to me.
Once seated with three others C.V said to itself “hello what is going on here?” There were two young kids shouting at full volume and lots of chatter from the rest of the room. Clear Voice put everything at the same level – not too loud and not too quiet. I just scraped by trying to work out what people were saying.
Once the rowdy family had left and a few more people went C.V managed to get the background noise down to a level in which I was able to follow conversation much easier. This was a narrow failure on CV judgement, I give it a pass in that kind of scenario.
Once out walking Clear voice returned to “normal” functionality. On looking back at this episode I am thinking to myself does Clear voice and my brain need more time to adjust to that kind of scenario?
On walking down various roads away from the main traffic, I found myself being able to hear the traffic from halfway down the road! Well the road was only a short one!
Once the walk was over we went into a department store. I found everything to sound surprisingly balanced. On the train home I decided to switch C.V off for the day as I found sounds were chopping and changing too much plus was taking away sounds I did not mind listening to for a change!.
I will round this off by saying that there will be more to come. I hope that this monologue has been useful.
