is coupled to the hearing aid 12 as described above the output could drive headphones or some other form of telemetry to send the signal from the chest mounted array to the hearing aid in or behind the ear other forms of telemetry could be radio frequency electromagnetic radiation infra red radiation ultrasonic radiation electric currents in the body or a wire connection to the hearing aid in a preferred embodiment the package contains the microphone array batteries and signal processing and amplifying electronics there are no exterior wires except the neck loop which is comfortable and convenient to wear as a necklace it couples the signal magnetically to the conventional hearing aid to provide a signal to the user obviating the need for a wire connection placing the microphone array on the chest has other advantages over placement on the spectacle frames or the usual placement of the microphone in a conventional hearing aid on the chest the microphone array is situated far from the loudspeaker of the hearing aid acoustic coupling and feedback are greatly reduced so that the signal level into the ear can be substantially raised if desired without causing oscillation using this system people with profound hearing loss are able to distinguish spoken words in noisy environments and in rooms with bad multipath and reverberation the directional nature of the array and processor reduce surrounding interference and reduce signals reflected from walls of a room that arrive at the ear from different angles of arrival and at different times and cause confusion to have a conversation the wearer simply turns his.