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Time to call it a day?

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Mine have very small size vents. I don’t get any feedback or wind noise.

I had Phonak Infinio last fall when they were new and wasn’t impressed. I am a long-time hearing aid user, so it wasn’t an issue of adjusting to . Despite the , they didn’t allow me to hear the speech of people with whom I was talking in noisy environments. They picked up random speech behind and around me. I switched to Signia Charge and Go which did a great job in noisy environments, but which were faulty. The left one made a loud static sound in the presence of steady background noise like traffic. It took me weeks to convince the audiologist and Signia people that it wasn’t tinnitus, but they finally checked and admitted the HA was faulty. I finally ended up with Resound Vivia which I like. One thing I learned from this fiasco is that different brands of hearing aids sound different even with the same program, even if they are all equivalent top-of-the-line models.

Edited

How long have you been wearing hearing aids? It takes about a year to get fully adapted to them.

That “metallic” sound is nothing else than the comb filter effect caused by the delay between the sound arriving directly to your ear and the sound emitted by the hearing aid. Since all are digital that delay is unavoidable, but once your brain has adapted you don’t notice it anymore.

@wtolkien did an amazing analysis of this delay not long ago: Phonak Spheric mode has long processing delay

In reply to @Judi_L

Eh. I’ve had NHS aids from 2 trusts with very short wait times. Often it is a while between prescription and fitting though. You won’t get aids with software as advanced as the spheres on the nhs though. Like the others I’d look into moulds. Depending on your specific loss these could be vented or not and type of material varies and sound with it. There are plenty of options to try before giving up. If it is taking you a while and you wanted to explore different types of moulds, you could always send your impressions off to a lab yourself and order a few options (eg. Soft silicone, soft acrylic, hard acrylic, metal) but if you don’t feel confident in that then you may just have to be patient and work through your options w your audiologist.

In reply to @Judi_L

Also, it is possible that you haven’t had time to adapt to new programs. As my loss has progressed and I’ve used different brands, aids, programs and fittings I’ve often found that it’s taken me a few months to process and comprehend sound again but it ends up sounding ‘normal’ to me in the end.

Took a look at your . You do know your stuff about molds and NHS aids. I do respect those with your type hearing loss.

Have you considered cochlear implants?

In reply to @TheImpossibleInsect

@TheImpossibleInsect said:

Eh. I’ve had NHS aids from 2 trusts with very short wait times.

‘The plural of anecdote is not data.’ - James O’Brien

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but even a cursory look at your tells me immediately why you get bumped to the top of any ‘treatment list’ in terms of your hearing needs.

What’s the chances of you hearing a fire engine coming down the street without your aids on?

In reply to @Judi_L

@Judi_L said:

I thought you might like to know that I am currently going to Harley Street

Are you seeing Matthew Alsop whom I have watched on Youtube? I had presumed that he was very good, but you seem to be having a lot of problems with your audiologist? Or is the Harley Street the new one and not the one you have been having problems with?

I am going to be trying out a new audiologist in Hampshire. My appointment is next week. If you want feedback on them, I will be creating a new topic giving feedback on them.

Sorry to read your experiences. Many of us have had different frustrations over the years. Personally, I would request a new to ensure precise measurements of your hearing loss. With this, you may need to get the aid reprogrammed. Ask them to reduce the amount of clever processing, or turn off compression and introduce it gradually.

I tend to make a loud shush noise like I am telling someone to be quiet to test this metallic noise. I will also take in a cup/saucer and a metal spoon and bash away while the audiologist is at their computer.

It can be difficult to explain what you are hearing to them, and they may not immediately know your needs or what you are sensitive to. Try to bear with them on this; your ear will also get used to some stuff over time, but it’s obviously important to get as close as possible to this point in the audiology office.

Sorry to hear about your frustration. I wear the Signia Pure ’s . My right ear is a cros. Been wearing HA’s for 40 years +. There is a lot to be said about HA’s and Audiologists. As good as I hear with the Signia’s I’ve had my share of frustration with them. As some of the others have said the domes may be the issue. I wear custom made ear molds

In reply to @maac

I’ve been wearing aids for a good couple of years. Before the Phonak Spheres, I had Phonak I90 which had the same problem, so changed over to the Spheres. It is interesting to read about the ‘metallic sound being caused by the ‘delay between the sound arriving directly to your ear and the sound emitted by the hearing aid’. I get that all digital have this, but I think my brain has given up!

In reply to @TheImpossibleInsect

Hi Theimpossibleinsect, That’s good to know re:NHS. My trust would be Barnet. I appreciate that I won’t get such advanced software as the spheres on nhs which is one reason, why I decided to go down the private route. I don’t have the confidence to send my impressions to a lab myself and wouldn’t know where to start with this. So I will need to continue and work through my options.

In reply to @TheImpossibleInsect

I thought about that, but I would have thought that close to a year would have been long enough to adapt. I was interested that it has taken you several months to ‘process and comprehend sound again’ and it’s great that things eventually start to sound ‘normal’ again.

In reply to @Roberto

Hi Roberto. Good to hear that you are also going to Harley Street.

I started off seeing Nadia Abbott but she left suddenly last November. Since then I’ve seen Andreza Oliviera (not sure if I’ve spelled that correctly) and am seeing Fiona Butterworth on Thursday. I know that Matthew Alsop is one of the Harley Hearing Partners and that he does a lot of videos re: Phonak. As the videos all seem to be about Phonak, I am wondering if Harley Hearing has a contract with them? I also was having Auditory Processing therapy with Nadia. You’re right though, I am having problems with the audiologists which is making me wonder whether or not to continue with them. It doesn’t seem right that with the countless tweakings etc, there isn’t any kind of improvement.

I hope that all goes reasonably well with the new audiologist in Hampshire. It would be good to have some feedback on them and will look out for the new topic.

In reply to @penn

Hi Penn, Like you I’m not at all impressed with Phonak Infinio. I think I’ve had a similar experience, t-in that despite the , the aids weren’t able to let me hear ‘the speech of people with whom I was talking in noisy environments’. As I suggeted in an earlier post, chatting to a friend over lunch last Saturday was a complete nightmare. So on one hand Signia Charge and Go did a good job in noisy environments, but were faulty. Unbelievable that it took you so long to convince the audiologist and Signia people that it wasn’t tinnitus; in some ways I’m not surprised as no-one wants to admit to mistakes. Fiasco is the right word for all of this and it is interesting that different brands of hearing aids sound different with the same programme, ‘even if they are all equivalent top-of-the-line models’.

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