Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Streaming quality with open tips

29 replies873 viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
Reply
Edited

In reply to @miyanc

@miyanc said:

The link you provided comes back to 12mm. I can find 5, 6, 10 and 12, no 8. When I try looking up 8, it switches to other or no labeled ones. Also like the 1 u listed, they don’t have good pictures of the actual tip.

I’ve been ordering my hearing-aid accessories mostly from AliExpress, since these days Amazon is charging a lot for shipping to my happy little corner of the world. Here’s a link that I found after considerable effort - as with Amazon, searching for “OpenBass” mostly turned up their regular vented-bass domes rather than the actual OpenBass “in-between” design: https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005008164992049.html9

Note that I have not ordered these yet, and I can’t vouch for them! But I’ll be trying them myself, as well as a couple different versions of open domes I found there.

P.S. Here are the other accessories I’ve ordered from AliExpress, in case anyone’s interested. The only ones that have arrived so far are the - which look legitimate, but I haven’t actually tried them yet. Would anyone bother counterfeiting hearing-aid wax filters? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005010051443098.html4 - Supposedly ReSound SureFit open domes.

https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005006724652075.html3 - Supposedly Oticon open domes; I’ll compare these to the unlabeled ones I already have.

https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005010183264212.html3 - Sports locks, which were an absolute bear (which isn’t the word I want to use, but this is a polite forum) to find on AliExpress. Dunno if they’ll fit on my Phonak M receivers, but they were cheap enough that it’s worth a flutter.

https://he.aliexpress.com/item/4001058504667.html - The aforementioned wax filters.

Edited

In reply to @OcramSagev

I did some measuring yesterday, and it turns out that the domes I was initially provided are 12-mm OpenBass. I also have a little bag of replacement domes my provider provided - and those are all 10-mm, which I think is actually the correct size for me. The bag included mostly OpenBass, but mixed in were some conventional open domes (mmmaybe also Oticon, but I’m not sure).

So I decided to give the 10-mm “normal” open domes a try. So far, I’m definitely more comfortable with 10-mm rather than 12 - I think 12-mm was just a mistake. The 10’s are easier to insert, seem to stay in place just fine, and I think give me a little deeper insertion.

Sound-wise, I think I prefer the open domes to the OpenBass - possibly because (I suspect) my aids were programmed for open domes, and the OpenBass is not exactly the same acoustically as fully open domes. (I haven’t started -ing yet, but I’ll bet anything that Target does not have a setting for Oticon OpenBass domes!) (For streaming music, however, the open domes are even more anemic bass-wise than the OpenBasses - to the point where I really may wind up switching to my XM4’s if the occasion arises. And the Sony earphones are optimized for that purpose after all - it’s not quite fair to expect hearing aids to measure up to a really good pair of audiophile earphones.) The open domes feel more “spacious” to me, more “present” - dare I say “open”? But once I get set up for DIY tinkering, I’ll revisit the issue - I’m pretty sure that with Target I could get the same performance out of the OpenBass, plus their somewhat better streaming bass.

Rehearsal tonight, so I’ll see how my low-G sounds with the open domes. My money is on “still pretty insignificant”…

EDIT: Low-E, not low-G. My low-G is perfectly audible, if not exactly impressive. The low-E is kind of there, but you have to be listening closely to notice at all. Hmph.

Edited

I have a similar & have been using for nearly 6 years. I’ve had 2 different sets of NHS provided aids - both Oticons, with the most recent being the Engage.

However, I recently decided to trial HAs with better performance in noisy environments and have calls and streaming without the need for a separate unit, like the Oticon connect clip (which I usually left at home!).

I selected Oticon Intents 1 and am very impressed in the performance & BT connectivity over my old NHS aids.

I am using open bass domes on 85db receivers and the sound quality is very good, especially the natural sounding voices.

I have a Samsung S25 android phone that supports LE audio….and BT streaming is amazing. The music is full range & sounds nearly as good as my Sony noise cancelling headphones.

BT streaming is solid, even at extended range.

I have another android phone that uses the protocol. BT streaming with this phone is limited to close range, & suffers from drop outs (which I don’t have using LE audio). Also the sound, to me, isn’t as good.

I’m 30 days into a 60 day trial and I am planning on keeping them.

In reply to @DonRadlauer

I guess a link to a Norwegian store won´t help you much, so I enclose a photo of the ones I use:

image

They are made of PUR (Polyurethane) foam. I cut off and use a approx 10 mm piece from one end an wears it outside of the dome.

In reply to @DonRadlauer

Phonak doesn’t provide a setting for OpenBass or anything similar (only Oticon makes them). I’ve programmed my Infinios with both open and vented dome settings (currently using the open setting), but honestly, I don’t notice any difference.

My choice of OpenBass was mainly due to (1) open domes causing some feedback and (2) the quality of streaming.

Related discussions