Resound Alera vs. Future

Plugging your ears with your fingers has several effects: it reduces the canal volume, changes the canal resonance and impedance. If you want a visual example of this, imagine the difference in the air pressure variation in a sea cave full of water with an opening to the outside and one where there is no opening with the same wave action. That analogy a step further, the relative difference in dome is going to be like a further constriction to the flow, albeit one that stops the wave going out rather than in.

Noise-tracker has multiple trade off’s for noise vs speech, the more aggressively it is set, the more the aid tries to eliminate noise: if it is set too high, speech can start to sound clipped.

The Directional mix is the balance between the ‘focus ear’ and the omni ear, it’s basically deciding how much forward bias is directed to either side. This technology is a bit wooly IMHO.

DFS Ultra is the feedback manager - for somebody in your boat (an experienced wearer), if you’re having difficulty with entrainment (overhang) from certain sounds, you might be better to use a more closed dome/custom tip and turn it off.

Expansion is a technique that literally ‘expands’ the speech element of the signal, relative to the rest of the sound using a bit of weird compression maths that kicks in over certain levels. Setting this too high will make the speech sound very artificial.

Input? Try a new Widex Clear for comparison. It’s a bit of a chalk and cheese difference.

I’ve fitted several Alera 5-7-9 to a few customers, the extras are excellent, they have great user acceptance for some people, not so great for others.

@Paula said:

First I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I was getting frustrated with my new Futures and wondered if I should have ordered something else. After reading all the posts I am convinced these are the HAs for me. I want to continue with adjustment appts until I have them right.

Audiogram
Hz250……0500….1000….2000….3000.…4000….6000….8000
R…35………35………40………45………50………50………50.……55
L…50………40………45………40………45………45………60.……55
Speech Discrimination
R: 100% at 80db
L: 100% at 85db

History: 1987 Starkey analogue, 1995 Widex Sensos, 2003 Widex Divas, 3/2012 Resound Futures

The programs I currently have are
-Natural Directional
Directional mix R: very low, L: n/a
-Restaurant
Directional mix R: very low, L: very low
-Music
Directional mix R: very low, L: very low n/a
-Basic + soft switching
-Phone now
-Streamers
-Phone clip

Questions:
I had trouble getting the adjustments right. At first I would put my fingers into my ears and I hear much better. So my audi changed the domes from the ones with holes to solid ones. That didn’t improve things so I wonder if I should go back to the original domes. What is the difference acoustically?
I kept thinking the microphones are pointing backward, probably when I was in program 1, as I had trouble hearing the judge in a courtroom, the person sitting next to me whispering to me on the left, my partner calling cards softly at the bridge table 3 feet in front of me, people with soft voices in group settings. When I get into my car and start the engine I think I forgot to put on my hearing aids as the engine sound is so low.
Last appt I had my audi increase the volumne 3 or so steps in the 1000 – 3000h range and it has helped. I also asked my audi a lot of questions based on things I have learned on this discussion thread. Many of these questions my audi didn’t know and it was too late (here on the west coast) for her to call the technical assistance. So we made notes of all the questions to ask at my next appointment.
Would any of you be able to shed light on the following:
Noise Tracker II is set: per environment. Should I try another setting? What would I expect from: mild, moderate, considerable, strong?
What is the directional mix? Mine are all very low. What do the other settings do? My audi didn’t know and was reluctant to change this.
What is the DFS Ultra? What do the different settings do?
What is Expansion? What do the different settings do?
Are there any settings you would suggest I try out?
I would appreciate any input you may have.
Thanks,
Paula

We changed my Noise Tracker II to Considerable (from per environment). Can’t tell you why we did that but it was during a session with the Resound rep on the speakerphone.

I think my Natural Directionality II mix is low or whatever the next setting is, and works great!

The DFS Ultra default is “mild”. DFS Ultra is the feedback removal processing, a way to eliminate feedback without lowing gain (fantastic!). I have a copy of the main program, on program 4 and the only difference is we set DFS Ultra to the next setting (moderate?) and also gave me a very little bit of low end gain (just to try), because I got the remote and if I want to monkey with the volume I do it with program 4. But, I don’t have feedback on either program no matter what I do. Keep it “mild” unless you have feedback.

I would suggest getting all your questions together, specific questions or complaints, and have a session where your pro calls their Resound rep and let the resound rep talk you guys through some things to try. We did that and made great progress quickly. But, think through what’s going on now so you can be as specific as possible. For example, instead of “it’s not clear sometimes” tell them exactly when it’s not clear, like “when playing cards and there are other tables around with noise, I can’t understand my partner across the table”.

I have had mine for a year now and very happy with them.

@Um_bongo said:

Expansion is a technique that literally ‘expands’ the speech element of the signal, relative to the rest of the sound using a bit of weird compression maths that kicks in over certain levels. Setting this too high will make the speech sound very artificial.

I thought the expansion setting had to do with sounds below the 50db level, and was basically the opposite of compression. My understanding was that turning on expansion kept lower level background types of sounds from being “pulled up” as much - causing background sounds to be less noticable? I have expansion set to moderate for that purpose and am now wondering if that is off base.

thanks,
dat

@dat said:

I thought the expansion setting had to do with sounds below the 50db level, and was basically the opposite of compression. My understanding was that turning on expansion kept lower level background types of sounds from being “pulled up” as much - causing background sounds to be less noticable? I have expansion set to moderate for that purpose and am now wondering if that is off base.

thanks,
dat

If you consider that quiet speech inputs are going to be be around 55dB, both explanations hold - expansion causes a greater range of loudness growth for moderate inputs. It’s the inverse of compression, but operated over a narrowish input band - essentially the slots either side of the desired band are compressed significantly more, which is what I was driving at above.

The unnaturalness comes from the ‘all or nothing’ delivery that it seems to give: a bit like speech break-through on a two way radio.

If you are ok with it though, leave it as it is.

@nine said:

Me too!! The Sydney store is suppose to open in July, but can’t see July on the website anymore. Hope it’s still planned to open then, because every time I read on here about peoples’ experiences with costco I am really encouraged by going that route myself. The savings make it the logical choice for me. I’m finally accepting and excited about getting hearing aids, I just need the store to open! :rolleyes:

It IS needed… gawd it makes me so mad, we get royally ripped off (and I’m not talking just aids) :mad:. I think Costco will shake things up here with regard to hearing aid options, and I can’t wait.

Sydney and Canberra this year… who knows… maybe Qld will be next! Anyway, when the Syd store opens I’m going to find out what I can and post on this board, for other Aussies. Will be interesting to compare prices and brands with overseas stores. I’m assuming the hearing aids will be the same sold elsewhere?? I hope so, because so many on here seem really happy with theirs.

Hi Smiley and nine, since your posts are 2 years ago, can you advise me as Costco already opened their 2nd place in Sydney last year, have you try the Resound Future from Costco? How it was? I asked Costco for Resound Verso, but they said they only have Resound Future and Forza

I love my Resound future,but they are 7 years old and I want something that is close to my resound Future since resound does not make that brand anymore,what is close to it?