People's voice sound slurred with my new HA's What to do?

@tru33 said:

I’ve been wearing aids for 8 years and currently have a moderate to severe loss. I recently upgraded from micro tech radius ite to Stakey X 90 series BTE. I’m overall happy with these HA but I have one issue. More than half the people I talk to or hear on tv sound like they have slurred speech. It seems to be more women than men and mostly happens with “s” Some one may say cars and it sounds they yea are saying Carshes. At first I thought maybe the people I talked to just slur and I could never hear it before but my wife said this isnt the case. Another thing is s seems very exatrrated. I hear people talking sometimes and the swishing "s’’ it what sticks out most. An example would we hello yesh I shee you. (hello yes I see you) Then again some people dont have it at all. Please help!

I can think of two possibilities that are likely on this type of aid.

1. Sometimes the fitting algorithm is a little too trebley if that is indeed a word. So a reduction in higher frequencies might be the ticket.

2. The other possibility is that they are using the ‘Spectral IQ’ frequency transposition setting (which their software auto-selects if you are a candidate). This technology can help a LOT of people get better hearing of higher frequency speech sounds such as ‘S’. However, it can take some getting used to, and some people, especially long term users, may simply reject the way it sounds.

You’ll know if this option is active because when you look at the adjustment screen with the four lines on (blue, green, purple, black dotted), you’ll see a yellow and green shaded area.

So simply switching off Spectral IQ (the yellow and green shaded area will vanish), should clear the sound up nicely and solve your problem.

Many practitioners will fail to offer the patient a choice because they simply assume that if the computer picks it, it must be the right setting. Experience has shown me with this specific technology it’s always best to ask.

What Tru33 describes is exactly what I hear with Spectral IQ turned on.

I was not able to adjust to the spectral IQ as too many sounds were just strange. I have a huge amount of high freq boost and my brain adjusted over a period of around three months. Everything sounded normal after that.

@tru33 said:

Thanks for everyones input. Which would be the less of a preformance loss? Reduction of the higher frequencies or turning off spectral IQ? If I wear these long enough will my brain actually adjust to this and voices will not have the slur? Thanks.

You may or may not get used to Spectral IQ. If you think that you’d like to persevere with the system, since it could in theory lead to better long term speech understanding, keep in mind that there are two adjustments for it. The bandwidth of the effect, and the strength of the effect can be adjusted by the hearing professional. There’s even help in the ‘expert assistant’ adjuster to modify the way it sounds.

So the easy answer is to turn the feature off. But if you think you’d like to work at it, then have them adjust that feature until it sounds more natural for you. It may be as simple as just lowering the intensity of the effect will still provide benefit without sounding so strange.

@ZCT said:

You may or may not get used to Spectral IQ. If you think that you’d like to persevere with the system, since it could in theory lead to better long term speech understanding, keep in mind that there are two adjustments for it. The bandwidth of the effect, and the strength of the effect can be adjusted by the hearing professional. There’s even help in the ‘expert assistant’ adjuster to modify the way it sounds.

So the easy answer is to turn the feature off. But if you think you’d like to work at it, then have them adjust that feature until it sounds more natural for you. It may be as simple as just lowering the intensity of the effect will still provide benefit without sounding so strange.

Thank ZCT. I had my audi adjust the Spec IQ and it sounds much better. If I still have issues I will get it adjusted again. Another thing I notice is chirps from ceratin sounds such as typing on keyboard or clicking the mouse. It sounds similar to a feedback chirp. Wht needs done here?

@tru33 said:

Thank ZCT. I had my audi adjust the Spec IQ and it sounds much better. If I still have issues I will get it adjusted again. Another thing I notice is chirps from ceratin sounds such as typing on keyboard or clicking the mouse. It sounds similar to a feedback chirp. Wht needs done here?

I’d need to investigate further to know if it is a feedback issue or just the Spectral IQ sounding weird. May want to temporarily disable it, just to see if you like the sound better.