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Bicros hearing aid recommendations

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Hi all, first time poster.
I have ssd with hoh on other side.
I have tried ha from several audiologists (in canada/toronto)
In both times i was recommended either resound or oticon as the recommended bicros device to use.
I just want to get a feedback from others here that these recommendations were not biased and actually the best in the market. My online reach mentions phonak a lot but it was not even an option.
Some suggestions would be great :slightly_smiling_face:
Thanks

10 people in this conversation11 min readJump to latest

Welcome to the forum :slightly_smiling_face: We need more information like your hearing loss profile and what specific devices were recommended to you and what your specific needs are.

Oticon, Resound, Signia, Phonak, Starkey and Widex offer wireless solutions but not all are compatible with their newest hearing aids.

Battery life can vary a lot between the manufacturers with Signia having the lowest battery drain as their ear to ear wireless usually streams audio between devices for a pair of hearing aids as part of their usual signal processing.

If you want a device with rechargeable batteries then there are more options than with disposable ones.

The hearing exam says, below 30/40 hl db at 2k-6k hz range.
Atm I am not overly concerned with the battery life, but reliable hearing.
Also i found close ear system (noice cancelling?) enables better hearing compared to open (to allow ambient noise, which i care less about). But I’m not given such option to try, for my “general awareness”, i mean i cant hear people here, do not care about “ambience”!
My current ha is good, but i think it could be better. Hence wondering if phonek systems are really dated compared to others.
Cheers

In reply to @WhiteHat

Ok I hate to get into this.
Just got back from Alaska trip.
Woke up at 6am Saturday.
Got home 7am Sunday.
Lot of flying.
Aids were in mode for six hours.
I use it when I fly.
It helps.
If you factor in the time difference the aids were in my ears for 23-24 hrs.
I did not stream.
I know that does not apply to everyone because each ones loss and use is different.
Starkey Edge AI.
I realize a cross is different.

In reply to @Aeolian

Phonak invented the wireless system. Because they use a single wireless chip for audio streaming it isn’t yet possible to both stream audio from the CROS and an additional streaming devices with Phonak. Oticon allows this as they utilise a separate system for CROS transmission and bluetooth for audio streaming. Signia devices seem to allow this also. I don’t think Widex CROS allows for simultaneous audio streaming.

Starkey CROS/ hearing aids do allow for simultaneous audio streaming, but with some limitations. While they can stream audio from accessories like the Remote Mic +, incoming media from accessories will interrupt the CROS/BiCROS streaming.

You may find a monaural Phonak audeo infinio sphere device better than a biCROS system simply because of the massive signal to noise ratio improvement possible with the deepsonic chip irrespective of where a talker is located. The downside of this is limited battery life if you want to utilise the deepsonic chip full time and a lack of CROS compatibility at this time.

Cant find any user experience review on the cros device on the web, i understand use case and need may vary, but a general idea/impression is a good starting point.

All the reviews are from audiologists pov, and i cannot be sure if those are unbiased. All of them revolve around phonak, oticon and signia; none of which was recommended by my audiologist :joy: (currently using resound).

Edited

In reply to @WhiteHat

I have Starkey Genesis BiCros. I can’t compare them to others, but I can say the batteries easily last a day. Starkey is well known for exceptional battery life. I can end a 16 hour day with on and still have 30% battery life. I actually have the CROS off for much of the day; I don’t need it and it doesn’t do any good if I’m alone in my apartment, out and about by myself, etc. Hearing ambient environmental noise with one ear is just fine. In that case, I often end the day with over 50% battery left.

As an aside, there are times when I hear better with the CROS off rather than on. If I’m sitting across the table from someone in a noisy restaurant, I hear them better without the CROS. In that case, it’s just feeding more noise into my “good” (or more like not so great vs useless) ear.

In reply to @Hearing_Potential

@Hearing_Potential said:

You may find a monaural Phonak audeo infinio sphere device better than a biCROS system simply because of the massive signal to noise ratio improvement possible with the deepsonic chip irrespective of where a talker is located.

This is interesting.
The thought was crossed my mind of loading up advance tech on the “good” ear and forgo cross, since cross devices are not the state of art devices!
I have to talk to my audiologist.
Thanks

as an idea has been around for a long time and wireless CROS has been on the market for more than a decade.

It depends on what your audiologist meant by “state of the art.”

Spheric speech clarity in Phonak Infinio Sphere is definitely state of the art by comparison.

So my audiologist gave me Phonak Audéo Infinio, just seeking feedback from the community what is the difference with Phonak Infinio Sphere.
I am not sure why i would not have been given sphere if its the latest and the greatest!

If you’re going to do cros, sphere doesn’t support it. No idea why not if you’re not doing cros. Some dump cros and go with one sphere.

WH

Edited

I been trying non-sphere version for about a week, it had its moments. Noisy situation is tricky, such as office meeting. I can deal with people present in the meeting but people calling in i can never understand them :sweat_smile:
Not sure what to do, tried few modes but no avail.

I am afraid to ask my audiologist to try anything else since this is the second unit, the first unit i tried was a bust (do not recommend resound :face_with_peeking_eye:).

But i can tell, the cros feature has very limited use (often not clear). It’s only recently when my other hearing got bad then i decided to try cros. I did not use any with my ssd for a long while.

Just confused and lost :disappointed:

Why you don’t stimulate the poorer ear? Completely 0% in ? Completely downed ? Distortion during trying to stimulate?

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