After years as an explosives technician, Ed was left with hearing loss that he thought only hearing aids could help with. Until he found Nuheara.
My name’s Ed McKinley from Phillip Island in Victoria. I think I’ve had pretty bad hearing loss for a long time. I was an electronic-explosive technician for a number of years. I had a lot of concussion sounds that, even while wearing ear protection, still affected my hearing. If there was any type of background sound, I actually couldn’t hear anything. Good friends of mine were like I was yelling at them, and I noticed when I met new people I’d sort of say hi like that, and they’d sort of step back.
In relationships with your partner, there’s so much loss of communication is what I’ve found, and it ends up being arguments. I’ve got two young children, and a lot of the time I would see the kids playing, but I didn’t know what they were talking about. I didn’t hear any of the things they were doing. I just took it for granted that I just didn’t hear things. It was just the way it was.
Finding out the cost of hearing aids scared me a little bit. I was told that they’d be starting between $5,000 to $7,000. And I’d heard that there was a product on the market that was sort of for people who weren’t ready for a hearing aid. And I came across Nuheara and the IQbuds, and people were sort of raving about them.
I downloaded the IQbuds EarID app. Once I completed it, it plays a little tune, and it’s literally like you’ve got earmuffs on. And then as soon as they switch on, the earmuffs come off, and you can hear the world. This is what I felt.
I could hear someone singing, and I was like, wow. it was just such a beautiful, soft tone that I hadn’t heard for a long time, probably since I was a child when my mom used to sing to me when I was in bed. And I just got up straight away, and I just flew out that door. And I looked, and I saw my little girl there. And I said, was that you? And she goes, yeah. She goes, what’s wrong? And I was like, just sing again. And she goes, I sing all the time. And I was like, yeah, but I don’t hear you.
She wanted to know why I was crying and if she needed to get mom or not. And I said, no, no. And she said, are they happy tears or sad tears, dad? I said they’re happy tears because I can hear you.
With the IQbuds Boost, just going for a walk, the sounds you can hear– there’s a lot of bird life. Like that bird just then, I heard that you know what I mean, and that really impacted me. That was a little snappy. And I can’t explain the feeling of being able to go from where I was to be able to hear like that again.
Just so many different sounds– the kids playing. I was like, wow. I don’t remember hearing all of this.
That looks good. And you’re drawing a plane…
Both my children are on the spectrum. They suffer from ASD. They are really distracted at school by background sounds. I let my daughter try them on, and–
I can hear my pen a lot better. It’s a bit like eh, eh.
She goes, I really like them. And I said, yeah, they’re good, aren’t they?
I’ve now just recently got my first radio-control boat, so I’ve been running that around, and it definitely increases the experience of when the boat runs past. You know, bzz. That’s the whole thing with motorsport is you love the sound of it.
One thing I like about the way they look is it does sort of, for a young person’s point of view, it looks like you’ve just got normal headphones in. I don’t even notice they’re there. Ever since I’ve got the IQbuds Boost, I’ve just noticed that generally, I’ve just been more calm. Just to be able to hear like this, it’s been literally life-changing.
(SINGING) If all we have is breath my love, we’re only here so many years.
