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Any musicians here use ITE/ITC/CIC hearing aids

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I’m a musician who produces and mixes music as a hobby, my recent hearing test results indicate that I have mild to moderate hearing loss in one ear. I recently trialed the Oticcon Intent 1 and found that it was a bit clumsy as I wear glasses and the RIC/ types don’t work with headphones. In terms of sound quality, I didn’t quite like the standard speech setting as I sometimes can hear noise being amplified and having constantly having to adjust the volume for various listening environments. Didn’t mind the music program for music and also speech and I probably had this setting on most of the time.

Anyway, I’m thinking of trailing // models and if anyone here use them and would like to share some experience and suggestions for these. There is very little information on the internet on these as I believe these models aren’t so popular. The Widex brand seem to come up a lot, however, their current models don’t offer rechargable batteries.

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@djd_oz said:

rechargable

Would you mind sharing your ? It will help us provide recommendations.
The issue with // is that they will block your ear and all sound will go through the hearing aid, which can create music distortion. Again, hard to say unless we see the audiogram.

The is now in my profile.

Are there // variants that let the natural sound in instead of just hearing the amplified sound similar to earbuds?

As for glasses, I switched to wire framed glasses to provide additional room at the ear for the hearing aids.

I play music (some folks are foolish enough to pay us) and use Oticon Intent 1s, but I don’t use headphones except while practicing against videos with the sound streamed into the headphones while wearing my aids. I don’t particularly like the music program as it elevates voices over instruments, or seems that way, so I just leave them in the normal position which for me seems to give the instrumentation a slight edge.

In reply to @djd_oz

The Signia Silk specs (Page 3 of link attached) say that these aids can be a fit, based on your , with vented domes. Vented domes do allow some outside sound. The other advantage of Signia is that they do not require custom molds (the domes are disposable).
I’m not very familiar with other // models of other brands.I’ll let others share more information.

Signia Silk Charge&Go IX hearing aids | Signia7

Signia Silk Charge&Go IX hearing aids. Explore all models, features & benefits. Experience discreet power.

In reply to @djd_oz

@djd_oz said:

Are there ITE/ITC/CIC variants that let the natural sound in instead of just

This is great in low noise environments. When it is noisy, it works against the noise reduction capabilities of your . The noise can leak in the vents and overwhelm your HAs’ scrubbing.

WH

// aids: The microphones are very close to the ear canal. Any small amount of sound that leaks out of the canal can cause feedback (The / mics are much farther away from the canal, hence they are not as sensitive). This is why ITE/ITC/CICs need to be better sealed.

Edited

The answer is very easy: Try them!

You may want to start with the Signia silk/ Active Pro because they have throw-away domes (Free from your audiologist). Your hearing loss should fit the Signia’s requirements. If you go with other brands, you will need custom molds that will cost you $$$ (others, please correct me if there are other brands that don’t require molds). Costco offers the Rexton INOX (same as the Signia Silk) and they have a 6 month return policy.

Just make sure that the place you purchase them from has a no fee return policy. No matter what we recommend, we all have different hearing loss and sound preferences. Just like a car: My neighbor loves their KIA but I would never get one (I’m a german power car lover)
.

@OcramSagev said:

you will need custom molds

I don’t usually think of customs as “having molds” so much as the hearing aid being the mold. Doesn’t the whole thing go back for a re-make? An area where titanium might shine is smaller ear canal patients able to get them made at all because the walls can be thinner with titanium. They are also less likely to break from drops or rough handling.

How are Phonak custom hearing aids made?2

How titanium is 3D printed4

WH

Think I’ve narrowed it down to Starkey and Widex.

Starkey seems to have a lot more advanced features compared to Widex, the Widex ones are really outdated, not rechargable and haven’t been updated to the latest Allure models. The latency for Starkey is 4.2ms and Widex is 2.5ms. Will this make a huge difference?

I fully agree with what you said about the Widex and , if they were for me, I would not get them for the reasons you mentioned . That said , I’m not familiar with the Starkeys . But , as you said , the Widexs look like abandoned children .

I don’t think the 2ms difference is going to matter because you will not be using open domes (which means the comb effect is not likely to happen). This is my theory but wait until someone more knowledgeable here confirms.

Widex also claims to have the below,

  1. Large Linear Input Dynamic Range
    This allows the hearing aid to handle the peaks and wide dynamic range of music.
  • Widex: 108
  • Other manufacturers: ~95 dB
  1. High Sampling Rate
    A higher sampling rate improves the accuracy of the sound captured.
  • Widex: 33 kHz
  • Other manufacturers: 20–25 kHz

Looks like these just got released, thanks for letting me know, I’ll do some more research on them.

HI. Phonak Infinio Virtos model R wiht the rechargeable batteries, will give you control over the sound, set them to music mode and you’ll have a fairly good experience.
The Widex ones don’t really sound much better, I’ve used them and they are years old now as you say.

the Phonak Titanium virtos are smaller than the model R, but you have to replace the batteries. they last about 4 days on a charge. they also go deeper inside the canal which you may like, you may not.

I have no eyesight so I can’t see your audio gram, but another option to consider is the Phonak Lyric, which is a very very different type of hearing aid. it is a monthly subscription and it is analogue. You don’t remove them, they stay in all the time until it is time to replace the unit which happens every couple of months or so. It’s a very pure clean sound, but no control other than volume, including very little to no frequency control because it’s analogue. It will sound very different and can be extremely loud in noisy situations as has no noise control at all, but is the closest to natural sound you’ll get in a hearing aid.

My audi made adjustments to my dedicated musician program on my Signia AX7’s. He of course turned off compression and feedback control, and disabled other features. And he reconfigured slightly the balance of…I can’t recall what! But it was a last step that made a noticeable difference.
My point is that my Signias are now programmed for music very much like Widex, from what I understand. The programming is more important than the brand, I believe.
Guidelines for Musicians with Hearing Loss to Bring to Their Audiologist.pdf

In reply to @djd_oz

@djd_oz said:

Widex also claims to have the below,

  1. Large Linear Input Dynamic Range
    This allows the hearing aid to handle the peaks and wide dynamic range of music.
  • Widex: 108 dB
  • Other manufacturers: ~95 dB

I would not take one manufacturer’s claims (in this case Widex) about other aids as complete and/or correct. For example, the Oticon Own product guide specifies that the Clear Dynamics feature processes input sounds up to 113 . I have Oticon aids (but type) and the Clear Dynamics feature is only available in the higher technical levels. This higher input level is not just a recent innovation.

As for sampling rate, I haven’t found that specification easy to find. However, most hearing aid receivers (speakers) can’t produce much sound above 8 or 10 KHz so a lower sample rate might not be a significant issue.

In reply to @jeffrey

@jeffrey said:

The programming is more important than the brand, I believe.

I kinda agree with this in general but Widex has done a lot of marketing and PR to musicians. Because of this most audiologists who specializes in fitting Widex have at least some understanding of the issues that musicians have, as opposed to most audiologists.

I am a piano player and a big fan and user of Phonak Virto but usually perform without aids and use studio monitors for group work. I also self-adjust my own aids, best practice for any musicians

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