gain control (hearing aid) (GC)

Gain control(GC) is a manual, automatic or programmable amplifier function. This function changes the gain of the amplifier, as opposed to volume control where the level is attenuated. While in RF and audio technology, automatic gain control( AGC) is generally used for level adjustment, in hearing aids it is simple gain control (GC).

Gain Control is used in hearing aids to adjust the gain of the hearing impaired person and can be increased as the hearing loss increases. The gain control is adjusted externally via an adjustable potentiometer. It is used to change the gain constantly over the entire frequency response without changing the saturation sound pressure.

The other circuits like the Peak Clipping or the High Level Compressor( HLC) are unaffected, as well as the characteristic values for the noise, the frequency response, the high and low frequency channel, the signal-to-noise ratio or the intermodulation distortions.

For a better adaptation of the hearing sensation of the hearing impaired person, there are also multi-channel hearing aids in which the entire frequency range is divided into a high-frequency channel, the High Channel, and a low-frequency channel, the Low Channel( LC).