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Are vents suitable for my hearing loss?

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Hi guys,

I’ve been trying to get new hearing aids. My old hearing aids from the HSE were Phonak Sky Q SP with unvented silicone canal earmolds. These were really great when I got them first but they badly need to be replaced.

I recently went to Specsavers to try the Phonak Sphere I90 with a custom cShell power receiver. The cShell has a very small vent in it which I’ve never had before. I’ve been wearing hearing aids with unvented earmolds since I was a child. This is my first time with a hearing aid.

I was wondering if the vent is suitable for my hearing loss. I find male voices hard to understand and I thought maybe the vent might not be sealing my ear enough. I have had done and they show I am within target.

What do you think - vent or no vent?

Thanks!

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Edited

When the audiologist fitted you , he ran what is called a feedback test. He did this test with your molds and determined the vent is appropriate for you .

if you are not having feedback issues and the aids work for you mostly then yes , the vents can be appropriate. Mold selection depends on several variables (not just the ) hence I can’t say more.

what you describe may require further tuning. If the cause is the tuning or the molds, the audiologist should be able to fix that .

I’m not an audiologist but what you suggest sounds plausible. You may need more low frequencies than what you’re getting. I’d tell the audiologist you’re having problems understanding male voices and ask if more lows would help. If they can get you more low frequencies with the vent then the vent is fine. If not, then trying without vent sounds reasonable.

Welcome to the forum.

Curious how you will do with aids after using aids for so long. RIC’s will be affected by sweat and moisture more than BTE aids. RIC’s are less durable IMO. You may really like the fact they are smaller.

Those Spheres are way more advanced than your old Quest aids. The Bluetooth alone is really nice.
Good luck with those new aids.

@RuneSky said:

I find male voices hard to understand and I thought maybe the vent might not be sealing my ear enough.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think that even for male voices intelligibility is mostly a matter of middle to high frequencies - so I rather doubt that vents are the problem. OTOH there’s a huge amount of variability in how can be programmed - and even if you’ve got confirming that your Infinios are meeting your prescription, that doesn’t mean that their settings are exactly right for you. Your prescription is based on your , but you are not your audiogram!

I got custom molds with my New Sphere Ultra’s, after the 2.0 release Pkonak was allegedly shippingn them with vented slimtips and our provider’s of course take the molds and Phonak builds them. I had done a bunch of research and sent what I thought was the ideal mold for my hearing and the new Ultra’s. My new molds fit well, the vent is at the bottom just below the little beaded wire that helps remove the molds. I hear everything, but need additional adjustments for the DEEPSONIC Sphereic/restaurant program because the provider does not know how to program for it. Based on my experience and what most folks on this forum say the devices are only as good as the person programming them. I personally don’t think Phonak traines providers well enough, and then take into account provider ego. That said. I am calling Phonak today to confirm the programing instructions to hand my provider next Tuesday. I am pretty close to having the programming correct, but I have read what some power users have said about the manual Deepsonic in noise restaurant program and it’s what I want, not what I have at this point. Go back and get adjusted the right way.

In reply to @OcramSagev

@OcramSagev said:

When the audiologist fitted you , he ran what is called a feedback test. He did this test with your molds and determined the vent is appropriate for you .

No (UK) Audiologist ever did this test with me, in my history. One did Direct though.

On the Feedback test page, you can allow “overtuning above feedback thresholds”, which I’ve found has really helped with speech clarity.

A small (0.5/0.8mm) pressure vent eases insertion, allows a bit of rounding of the highest intensity sounds and can reduce how ‘artificial’ the aid sounds.

Not a terrible idea, as long as you can fish out any wax in it.

As to the other point about feedback management; there’s a good chance it was done without you realising it, or given your much milder loss, possibly didn’t need to be done at all.

In reply to @OcramSagev

My Tuesday meeting with my provider was a 10 out of 10. We called Phonak provider support and opted for #3 on the phone and worked with a Phonak programming audiologist for 30 minutes. We made changes to my automatic base Sounsense program, and did what most folks are not aware of we programed a manual Deepsonic Program specifically for severe voice in noise situations as many of you have done. Thus far the Sphere’s have been amazing, but I have yet to walk into a super noisy situation. I will do so in the next few days, but think now I will experience a major difference based on the base program gains. Whether you are power user, or just want great hearing make certain your provider knows how and what to program on the i90’ Sphere Ultra’s and be certain to get custom slim tips molds. My venting is a 1.8 as ordered by my provider. The custom molds allow oxigyn to void occlusion and maximize all 2.0 firmware benefits. I have zero feedback. I will report again after I go into a super loud environment. I see my provider in three weeks. We may make some final subtle changes, only more testing and evaluation will tell. Have good day. The Sphere Ultra 90’s are a very powerful platform. In my opinion If you are willing to put a bit of work in there is nothing you will not hear!

I’m now currently trialling the Resound Enzo IA hearing aids which I had fitted today and I am using my own unvented silicone full carved moulds and I much prefer the sound. It sounds fuller if that makes sense.

But the Resound Bluetooth connectivity is a bit of a letdown. Calls sound a bit muddy especially when I’m talking to my dad on the phone whereas Phonak sounded much clearer. And also I can’t connect to my laptop audio without buying an extra bit of equipment. My current laptop does not support Bluetooth LE audio and I’m not sure how to know if a new laptop would support Bluetooth LE. Maybe someone here might know what to look for.

I haven’t put speech in noise to the test yet with the new Enzos but I have noticed that walking on a noisy road is a lot more tolerable and sounds more “natural” than when I was trialling the Phonaks which sounded harsher and just awful but female speech was good whereas male speech wasn’t and I didn’t do that great in some situations with noise. I don’t know if any of this is due to the venting I had in the Phonak moulds affecting the sound quality. My theory is I need all the sound plugged into my ear which I don’t mind as I’ve worn occluding earmoulds all my life so it’s my normal.

So yeah I’m not sure whether I prefer the BTE hearing aid or is it just that an occluding mould is more suited to me. The only way to find out would be to ask my audiologist to order the Phonaks again but with unvented earmoulds instead. I did mention it to my audi about the venting but she said the REMs would have taken the venting into account so I don’t know. Would the venting affect how I experience the sound even though I’m technically meeting the target with REMS? Has anyone tried Phonaks with unvented moulds and noticed a fuller, richer sound similar to BTEs?

In reply to @RuneSky

@RuneSky said:

The only way to find out would be to ask my audiologist to order the Phonaks again but with unvented earmoulds instead. I did mention it to my audi about the venting but she said the REMs would have taken the venting into account so I don’t know. Would the venting affect how I experience the sound even though I’m technically meeting the target with REMS? Has anyone tried Phonaks with unvented moulds and noticed a fuller, richer sound similar to BTEs?

This is a question which I also ask myself.

Especially when I am after ordering 0.6mm vent for my titanium cShell, but I’ve got 0.9mm and I wonder if they can make it smaller in titanium cShells. Limitation of titanium technology or so?

I found interesting article about closed acoustic coupling:

Comme neige au soleil4

34, 35, 37°C au mois de juin… tout va bien ! Les derniers glaciers fondent dans les Pyrénées, et se décrochent dans les Alpes. J’arrête là ce climato-alarmisme pour me consacrer à un su…

There are some another from the same blog:

Occlusion : quel gain ? quelles pertes ?4

Nous avons l’habitude en Audiologie prothétique de nous intéresser beaucoup plus à ce qui pourrait « fuir » de l’oreille lors d’un appareillage (il s’agit du phénomène de Fe…

@RuneSky said:

It was a power receiver

Perhaps UP would be better than P? It has better frequency response in the highs also.

In reply to @OcramSagev

I am requesting that Phonak provide a senior programer for our next call that has actually worked with Spheric speech in loud noise, the first Phonak programmer that helped us did not really know how to direct our changes. It cost me another 3 weeks of hearing fatigue and that sucks.

Did you have a -based fitting and achieved its 100% targets in Calm Situation program? I have though that making Speech in Noise program is simply applying fitting from Calm Situation program - then Target software make some changes automatically in gains.

Another situation is applying 5.0 algorithms with their Speech in Noise targets, but I don’t know how it is made after REM fitting of Calm Situation program. @Neville, do you perform another rounds of verification after verifying the Calm Situation program?

Yes, I complete for the calm setting and then the speech in noise setting.

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