Real Ear Measurement (REM) in common

When using the software from the hearing aid manufacturers to adjust hearing aids, we find a number of different graphical views within these software applications. The hearing aid manufacturer provides an idea of the large sound spectrum that the human ear can support. The hearing aid specialist should understand that this is a simulation of how the soundwaves would behave in an “average ear”. Moreover, the acoustic characteristics of each human ear are different. Therefore, there can be a large deviation between what the hearing aid specialist sees in the hearing aid adjustment software and the actual output of the hearing aid.

To obtain a more precise view of the output and gain of a hearing aid, hearing aid specialists can make use of the Real Ear Measurement (REM-measurement) method.
This method uses a measurement microphone equipped with a thin silicon tube. Also known as “the probe tube”. The probe tube is thin enough to fit easily inside the ear canal. Via this probe tube a sound pressure measurement can be taken close to the eardrum.