I have recently bought hearing aids from a well-know high-street store. The service seems good and there was what seemed to be competent testing before and after.

They are digital aids from Siemens.

I have also just bought a new watch with an alarm and I was disappointed to find that everyone else could hear it but me unless I held it next to my ear.

I reported this to my audiologist and he said that he did not want to make adjustments just for my watch as this may have an adverse impact on other factors. He did make a slight adjustment that made no apparent difference.

I would just like another opinion on the basis of this. I thought that the aid would amplify sounds that I normally could not hear and that my watch alarm would fall into this category.

I think that there is some improvement in speech reception which was my main aim. This seems quite a small difference but then the original problem was not that great.

I do suffer from high-pitched tinnitus which is fairly constant but ignored most of the time and not really a problem; but I wondered if this could be the reason.

I've just read interesting stuff on the forum about amplification and that it can be too high even for sound that you or I can't hear. Could this be the reason?

Hearing aids are designed to amplify primarily speech frequencies as missing speech is the main reason for wearing aids.I'm supposing that the tone used by your watch alarm is a fairly high frequency sound, since a low tone would be masked out by background noise. If so, It's quite conceivable the tone is at a frequency or intensity that is above either the frequency range of speech, or if higher still, above the capability of the loudspeaker inside the instrument to reproduce with any significant power.
Without an audiogram, response curve for the aid and knowledge of the frequency and intensity of the tone in question it's difficult to say whether expecting to hear the alarm is reasonable.
Hope this helps

Thanks oxo. It was helpful.

I'm new to hearing aids and I only have borderline difficulty in hearing speech in crowds and noisy places. Annoying and isolating but not really serious.

I had a rather over-simplistic expectation, I think.

Supporting what you say, I am fairly sure that speech separation is now improved. It's a bit subtle but so was the problem. I need to test them more - more discos and night-clubs then!

You can get watches which vibrate when the alarm sounds. Check out the RNID or Connevans catalogues.

Also, check out your local Social Services, they may be able to supply you with some equipment, such as special smoke alarm, to help you in your home.

Bazza,

As oxo says, without the audiogram et al, we can't say for sure; but I'd have a pound on the feedback manager being responsible. Most modern systems use phase cancellation to squish the undesirable whistle. It could be that your watch sound is detected as the same and cancelled.

There has been some recent controversy about high frequency noise producing devices to disperse young people from congregating in particular areas. They only affect the young. Over 20s are not affcted as they lose these frequencies at around this age. So its probably a similar effect with the alarm on watches. I cant hear mine niether.
Peter O

I use a VibraLite 3 watch [from RNID of course] works brilliant, actually it also means I can set alarms without disturbing others.