Analogs vs Digitals

Thanks. I’ll have to dig out the digitals I trialled, I was suppose to wear them now and again to adjust, hate them so never gave them a second thought, but I’ll have a look and see what brand they are and maybe that’ll help why I’ve not been adapting to digitals.

Hi. There are some options here, don’t give up just yet.
The 1st and most obvious but expensive option is this analogue hearing aid:

Invisible Hearing Aids - Lyric | Phonak6

Lyric hearing aids are designed to remain out of sight and out of mind. Lyric is invisible in the ear canal and can be worn 24 hours per day, seven days a week for months at a time.

I have worn these. I have no eyesight I am totally blind, I also hate the sound of digital hearing aids. These aren’t suitable for me because of my hearing loss, but I can confirm they do sound amazing and they are invisible in the ear.

Your second option is the traditional behind the ear analogue hearing aids that are still being made here:
https://www.analoghearingaids.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopuLzYM5Rp2iydBS1RYdc24ilj7wwCc_j1m-EWfHvln5-g98iv824

I’ve never used these, but they are quite cheap, you could give them a go.

Your next option are Widex. Widex hearing aids contain what they call Pure sound, or 0delay. This will take away that robotic sound called the comb effect that you don’t like. It honestly sounds quite like analogue. Not completely like analogue it’s true, but you will get a fairly good simulation.
The only thing about Widex, you will probably need custom ear molds as their feedback management is not that great. Even their non-Puresound programs are quite good, they only sound a little bit robotic.

I completely feel your pain on this issue it’s one that I hope will get better as processors get better, because the delay in processing sound goes away.

IN general, the more you can seal the ear, if you can stand to do this, the less robotic things wil sound because outside noise isn’t leaking in.

What I will say, whatever you do, avoid Oticons and Starkey hearing aids, as to my ears anyway, these sound the least analogue and the least natural. Widex or the newer Phonak Infinios sound quite nice. I’ve not tried Resound but you could try the vidia and see what you think.

Tell your audi to switch to a “music” program for best and most linniar results. Just understand that when people say linniar, it will probably still sound rubbish

@Neville said:

I adjusted her new hearing aids to be weird and peaky, and she left happy.

This lends itself to another “Peaky Blinders” series! I am a bit surprised, I though that there weren’t much channels in that kind of hearing aids.

Thank you for this advice. I will take all this on board and hopefully talk with my audiologist next week, I do wear fitted ear moulds too, they get replaced every 6 months, but that’s makes sense to make sure they are completely sealed.

@Xonic83 said:

Hi. There are some options here, don’t give up just yet.
The 1st and most obvious but expensive option is this analogue hearing aid

Lyric is good option, but more for mild to moderate hearing loss. @Sash88uk didn’t show audiogram so I don’t know what about eligibility to that option.

I’m moderate/severe hearing loss. Very frustrating when one ear loss was due to a grommet imbedded in my ear, now have permanent perforated eardrum in the left too

@Sash88uk said:

Very frustrating when one ear loss was due to a grommet imbedded in my ear, now have permanent perforated eardrum in the left too

So you have something like chronic otitis media?

Conductive hearing loss explains a lot - now I am less surprised that a simple analogue solution works for you if you have (probably) normal cochlear function. You simply have to overcome conductive loss.

Have you ever had your auditory tube (Eustachian tube) patency tested?

This sounds way too invasive for me, like I say without my hearing aid in, I can hear the smoke alarms, shouting, dogs barking etc. this hearing aid works perfect for me, I just want to find a digital that works similar to my Phonak (pico-forte) PP-C-L-P-2

You know this makes me question what the actual issue with my ears are, this is something I will ask, I’ve never heard of this Patency test either. I’ve only ever had a hearing test, like I say I can hear certain things up close or very loud without them, when I used to go clubbing, I didn’t need them in with the music so loud. It’s like I’ve always had a volume issue with my ears if that makes sense

True but if they’re currently using analogues and happy with those, it’s likely Lyric will be no worse and may actually be better. The problem is cost though as you can’t get this in the UK on the NHS. it would be £250 a month, forever.

You may very well be right. All I can say is that Oticons and Starkey seem to add a lot more digital artefacts and audible processing compared to something like Widex (even in it’s universal not pure mode) and Phonak. It’s not sharp as such, more like I can hear the sound being broken up into individual samples and messed about with. With Oticons this is combined with a really nasty comb effect which seems different between the 2 HA’s, meaning stereo tracking is a lot harder. No one else seems to notice this or cares about it though LOL.

I will ask them about this, sometimes I do find myself taking the antihistamine at times just to ease some pressure as I suffer with allergies in hayfever season and forever have nasal issues since young too, so maybe all connected with pressure in the tubes etc, I’ve always been prone to middle ear infections. Amazing what others have to say, as I don’t feel my doctors ever explained in depth what it is, just a case of putting up with it

I will bear all this in mind and hope they have a few options for me to try, at the moment my analogues do work for the time being, it’s just a case of finding ones similar to these before they break, I’ve had these since around 2006 believe it or not, I’ve looked after them very well