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I just ordered Costco's Sennheiser Sonite Rise. mixed feelings about the experience so far

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These are basically one step down from "top of the line" aids (= Phonak I-90R).

These are "top of the line" as in premium models, the 90 denotes this as such.

In reply to @Raudrive

Oh yeah, I get that..... but as I've explained to all the audi's and techs, there were reasons that I tried and then ended up sticking with the slimtips years ago. One of those reasons is still a bit of a mystery and I don't know if it's because of trying to get a seal in a hole that's not round with a piece of elastomer that has a round shape.... or maybe it's just sensitive skin... I don't know.

Even still, agreed that in some ways the domes are more comfortable when I can get the right size. I've had more itch with them than I remember with the molds, but certainly not as much itch as I used to get with the open domes I had years ago.

Regardless, these domes are OK I suppose, but I do have too much sound leaking out (feedback issues and also others can hear my aids!) and I feel like I want more power in a few situations

Yep, I started a written list that day..in fact a couple of the bullet points I told him about before I even left the initial fitting appointment.... and by day two I pretty much had it complete except for my experience in church a week later.

Anyway, yes they have several techs in the department and the manager is an audiologist. Most of my frustrations though aren't really about my tech as they are just about the shop rules taht he's following.... but after this one shot in a couple of week I probably will ask for a different tech becasue I want to give these things a full and fair test before I decide to return them or keep them

In reply to @tenkan

granted. Top of the line for Sennheiser for sure...but I'm looking at them as if they are Phonak.

I said one-step down though, because I-90 spehere would be the top of the line at the time I purchased them and they were fitted a couple of weeks ago. (also, would I-70 sphere position above these or below these?)

Now it's even lower with the release of the Eon line.... so how many steps below the top are these now? No matter, because I'm not trying to compare them with the Eon line

reviewing my punch list and looking at the various situational autosense modes

I've already mentioned the car one, and it was similar in autosense noise while in a loud restaurant yesterday

It basically sounds muddy to oversimplify it....to the point of being hard to understand speech. Needs more highs I reckon. It's better for speech understanding if I select "clarity" in the app, but that amps the highs too much universally, making the background clutter too much.

What should I ask for in the fitting adjustment for these?

The only way I can describe it is that it sounds muddy, I feel like I need more highs, and speech understanding is reduced.

thanks

In reply to @bradw

Yeah I get what your saying, but 90 is premium with sphere or not, and no even with EON release the I90 is premium for that platform, also Sennheiser is Phonak only difference is in the name.

also, would I-70 sphere position above these or below these?

No as the number denotes the extra features each model has, so 90 is premium no matter what platform.

Now it's even lower with the release of the Eon line

Again no, 90 is 90 regardless in each platform, Costco will get sphere in the short term now that EON has been released, but unlikely under the Sennheiser name,as Sonova has dumped them, so something else and I do wonder what tho.

In reply to @bradw

Yeah so this how it works in noisy environments, hard to find that sweet spot, have you considered , as this way you could make the adjustments on the fly😉Spheric Speech Clarity,Speech in Noise and Speech in Loud Noise programs.

why yes. I'm actually set up for it, thanks to you I think...or someone here anyway. Pretty sure that it was you. Thank you!!!!

Back when I got the software and noahlink though, I was still working and never made the time to figure it out. Now that I'm retired and I have a little more time I think that I'll probably get into it a little more. I've connected to these sennheisers and reviewed everything, comparing it to the configuration of my marvels. I've printed the reports for both so that I can review and learn. I'm just seeing anything 'obvious' and I'm a little reluctant to make changes; I need to re-read the info on it. Anyway, I figured that I'll wait till I go through the trial setup period and give the pros a chance to get it as good as they will.... and I can then use that as a baseline. AFor now I'm looking and trying to learn.

In church this evening, I played around with the app. In autosense or whatever Sennheiser calls it, it was switching between quiet, music, and noise. Music was close to ok, but in all cases I find that pressing Surroundings seem to get it closer to what I think that I need. Clarity is a little too hot, and Speech was not quite enough but it was close. Basically, it turns up the highs and the lows...and in a couple of cases I bumped the overall volume up a couple of steps and it was better.

I've had 2 or 3 evenings now that I've gotten the low battery warning that beeps at 10% for the right aid....before 9PM!!

I'm up at 5:30-6AM so it's a fairly long day but I wouldn't think it's unusual.

and tonight I got it at around 7PM!!!! It was after a dinner out in a loud restaurant

most of the day was calm and quiet

None of these days has been especially odd or what I would call demanding or heavy use. A little streaming, a few normal phone calls.

Today I think I had three phone calls, the longest one might have been 10 minutes roughly, the other was just a few minutes, and the last one was around 1 minute or less. I don't think I streamed anything today.

So far I've been able to get through the day with these things but barely. The other night I had concert tickets so I purposely took them out to charge while I was driving for about an hour to top them up for a noisy and late night. It was funny...I was watching the autosense and it seemed to spend about equal time in three different modes durring the rock concert.....quiet mode, noise mode, and comfort mode. Did I say it was a rock concert...seriously, something is wrong with these things! (Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms, and Blues Traveler)

Pretty sure that I'm going to exercise the Costco return policy for these things. Rechargeable aids are not ready for prime time.

I've had no problems with my Rexton Reach rechargeable . I've had them for years and they still last from early morning till late at night without ever needing a recharge. I would definitely return them and try a different brand!

I tried Jabra pro 30 for some months but hated them. Now have Sennheiser. While they're not perfect, I am keeping them.

Had an interesting follow-up visit today. The tech had set up this appointment during my first adjustment appointment. At that time he turned up the high freqs a bit for me

The manager, and Audiologist, took my appointment instead of the tech that I'd been working with.... ok fine, I welcome that!!! I'm not really sure why she took the appointment, but I suspect based on some of the things she said, that it was to see why I needed another follow-up...that Costco isn't set up for this kind of attention.

To be clear, I had

1) the initial fitting when I received the aids
1a) the next day I did a non appointment counter visit to get different domes because the ones he put me in were painfull
2) an appointment for a follow-up call...that I never received
2a) another counter visit to get some other domes to try
3) a follow-up visit where he returned them a bit.
4) and then this visit.

Doesn't really seem excessive to me.... anyway...

Since then it's been a lot better, but I still feel like I need a little more on the high end...

I went in with three bullet points (really two since one is phone related)

1) need a bit more highs for speech clarity

I'm really starting to think that it's a Phonak philosophical thing.... their idea about turning off the background noise is in actuality turning off everything a bit too much I think. The Audi said that she thinks she can adjust that a little bit, but in the end she never did. Not sure if it's because we ate up too much time on the sidetrack issue and just forgot, or if it was a decision on her part....

2) getting more feedback than I would expect. It's not horrible, and is certainly not persistent, just more than I've had with my previous aids and more than I would expect I should get.

3) the last thing is regarding Bluetooth connection in phone calls. I'm fairly sure this is an issue with my brand new pixel 11 phone and not the aids. Anyway, I told her that Google is suggesting that I have them reflash the firmware to make sure it's current, and to set my primary aid as the left instead of the right, in case there's a hardware issue in the right... none of that was done.

So she went down a long path of dicussing the domes and my wire length

I was wearing easy guard power domes, S/M on the right and M on the left

She contends that I'm struggling to understand because I'm too occluded. Tried different sizes and types of domes, even trying open domes. The feedback thing really forced them to reduce too much, as I would have expected. I was really shocked that she ever went there....don't I need to trap more sound in the ear rather than less????

Anyway, she landed on Easy guard vented Medium on the right and Easy Guard Power Small/Medium on the left side.

and the net result is less power set in the program for the highs...not more like I feel like I needed???? Not what I expected for sure!

and the direction is to try this, and if it's not where it needs to be to call back for molds.

I am dismayed that anyone tried to fit your loss configuration with power domes. For a music program perhaps, but everything else needs to be vented. There shouldn't ever be any feedback with your loss configuration if the aids are placed correctly.

ha ha, well my previous Marvel M-90's were with slimtip molds for the last several years!

anyway, with power domes and after the last visit, he had me up against the limit with no headroom around 4k...and I still want more high frequency power...so how do you figure that?

Here's a screenshot from the program as it was set a couple weeks ago for the power domes. I'll try to log in in a few minutes to grab a comparison shot of them now

In reply to @bradw

@bradw said:

anyway, with power domes and after the last visit, he had me up against the limit with no headroom around 4k...and I still want more high frequency power...so how do you figure that?

You need custom molds if that is the best he can do with power domes.

is this the screen you mean? Sept one was a few weeks ago with power domes, the one named Oct 1 is today, for vented on the right, power on the left

Is yours acrylic or silicone?

I don't think that I could ever really say that I didn't feel my acrylic slimtips at all...well maybe for a moment now and then when I'd be motionless in just the right positions. It was mostly though, just minor awareness. Sort of the like the discomfort I have right now from these domes sitting tight in my ear canals....and not so unlike the hum of tinnitus that's there 24/7/365. I Don't give it a thought until I think about it...if that paradox makes sense....

Anyway, I'll give this a few days but right now I'm really on the fence. Not sure if I'm going to schedule a mold session at Costco and try silicone slimtips or if I'm just going to return these and go to my high dollar audiologist to trial Oticon or Phonak or both.

I'm having major issues with my new Pixel phone connecting to these things, so I'm guessing that both the Oticon and the newest Phonak line will work better with the phone since it seems to be set up well for Bluetooth LE.... I could return the phone. I'm well into it but my understanding is that tehre's a 15 day return window...but if I were to return it I'm really not sure what I'd get to replace it!

so

maybe I'd be better off to get aids that work with the phone.

ugh, a lot of drama with the technology stuff lately for me....

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