Resound Linx2

It is great to have the advice of experts and thank you JustinHIS and Mark Chambers to supply information about Oticon. As a Resound wearer for the past year I appreciate the input but also wondered why the user experience for people like adgraham, who has another post, is so very different from mine, and why Oticon is perceived by JustinHIS as luxury while resound is economy. I also remembered my experience regarding the variation in knowledge among audiologists and HIS who fit the devices, so I did a bit of research.

I stumbled upon this report http://www.audiology.org/sites/default/files/journal/JAAA_20_01_03.pdf that addresses the reasons audiologists make brand recommendations. It turns out that 93.5% of audiologists recommend a single brand. The article goes into a detailed explanation of the reasons, but there are 7 factors. The first is referred to as “aptitude.” This refers to the Quality of the brand’s product, Fit/comfort of products in patient’s ears, Brand’s customer service and the Brand’s programming software. Since all are potentially dependent on familiarity with the product (other than perception of quality), the new product from resound and the programming of the device may cause it to be less appealing. I have also found the Resound support in terms of explanation and interaction with audiologists regarding programing of the devices to be somewhat lacking. This could lead to improper programming that would give rise to quality concerns and the battery and popping issues described in other posts.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying, your mileage may vary and these devices are very subjective. I pursued the Resound device because I wanted to the features and when I received and it and had to programmed correctly, it exceeded all expectations.

If your audiologist or HIS, or any audiologist or HIS recommends a brand, make sure you ask why and their familiarity with others.

Do you have the Linx 2? If so which level did you get. I think I would do alright with the lower model because I am
pretty much a homebody. Don’t do much in noisy places so don’t really need all the added features. I would just
like the IPhone connection for taking calls and music streaming.

I have Linx2. I am not aware of different levels. I think different models from Resound address different levels of loss.

The levels add features. Linx uses 5-7-9. The bill given you should show the level. It will say something like LinX2 model 961. You can look on resound.com and view all the differences but the biggest feature addresses noise reduction.

Great to hear that you are enjoying your new Linx2 562’s. I picked identical ones up 2 weeks ago. These are my third set of HAs ( 0ficons and Siemens Centra) have to say the Link 2 are super. Linking to my iPhone just adds to the experience, especially so when talking on he phone, so clear. I do a lot of mountain biking and steaming stereo is fantastic when out on the trails.

Colour me happy’ X 2!!

Amen to that!

Psocopteran, I just got the Linx 2 9 a week ago. I’ve posted a thread on one of the issues I have, which is a noise or distorting of the sound. It’s NOT like the treble or high frequencies are turned up too much, or sibilants are too loud, it’s an actual static or breakup noise. For instance when OutLook at work gets mail it makes a bell sound. My left aid hears it as a bell, my right aid just creates a static or break up kind of sound. I do think it may have something to do with not being in the right mode or trying to switch modes or something.

Is that kind of what you are describing?

Thanks!

griffinjay, I think no sound should hurt. The fitter may need to reduce the maximum volume on the aids so that doesn’t happen. If the fitter has set up programs for speech in noise, restaurants, etc., it’s probably better to switch to a different program than to adjust the volume, because increasing the volume increases the volume of the noise as well as what you want to hear.

daisymae, that makes sense! So I just asked my audi to order both the remote control accessory and the phone clip so I can test those features. I don’t have an iPhone so I can’t test the unique features that it brings but my wife’s Samsung Galaxy S5 will work with the Smart App.

Is this a common struggle to overcome?

It can be. When an Oticon is profiled during the first fitting you can have it set to a softer/rounder sound or one that is sharper/more distinct. I tried mine both ways and there is a definite difference. I started with the sharper sound, went to the softer set up and then went back to the sharper setting. I preferred it that way but it does take a bit of time to acclimate. My audiologists told me that she fits more with the softer profile–especially with new users–but it’s a matter of preference.

You can also have them set to include more or less of the normal everyday environmental sounds that one encounters. I had mine set to more but again my audiologist fits more new users the other way. As mine are set all sounds are amplified but I have no problems hearing people talk. Why did I have them set that way? Because I want things to be as normal as possible. People with normal hearing don’t have instruments that filter all the sounds that one encounters in normal day to day life. The brain does the filtering–it focuses on things important and ignores the others. So I choose to have the ear and the mind work with the least amount of assistance as possible. With them set as I have them I have only had one situation when I had trouble. It was a split bar restaurant, it was extremely busy and loud and had a band playing on the bar side. BUT the three people I was with, all with normal hearing, were having trouble as well. But just for occasions like that I had a speech in noise program activated with maximum noise suppression and the field of the directional mics narrowed. I haven’t had an opportunity to use it yet. I’ve been in mine one month. You can read about the my experience at the following link. Skip to page 6 to avoid all the stuff leading up to getting them:

Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community (unavailable)

An open forum to discuss hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other hearing solutions. Welcome to the world's most active hearing loss community.

And here you can read an over view of the initial fitting process for the Oticon Alta2:

http://www.pro.oticonusa.com/~asset/cache.ashx?id=42345&type=14&format=web

There is no best hearing aid for everyone. There is only the best one for you. Good luck in your search.

@Avign0n33 said:

Psocopteran, I just got the Linx 2 9 a week ago. I’ve posted a thread on one of the issues I have, which is a noise or distorting of the sound. It’s NOT like the treble or high frequencies are turned up too much, or sibilants are too loud, it’s an actual static or breakup noise. For instance when OutLook at work gets mail it makes a bell sound. My left aid hears it as a bell, my right aid just creates a static or break up kind of sound. I do think it may have something to do with not being in the right mode or trying to switch modes or something.

Is that kind of what you are describing?

Thanks!

Hi Avign0n,

Sorry I have not replied before now as I have been a bit busy with the lead up to Christmas and did not see your post until today. What I was hearing was internal noise from the hearing aid( Linx2 961 ). I only heard it in the right ear and the aid was replaced because my audiologist thought it must be faulty because it was spending three quarters of the time or more in directional mode. With both microphones active in this mode the microphone noise was audible. Both microphones should not normally be active unless one is in a noisy environment and then one should not be able to hear or pick out the microphone noise.

The new aid did the same thing. It sounded like static or a hissing sort of noise. It was most audible in relatively quiet environments with some noise present and it was in time with those noises eg. Road noise, air con noise, newsreaders on radio in car or newsreaders on tv, fridge noise etc. Activating expansion on the aid helped but can compromise speech reception so we did not want to set that to max. Your audiologist will be able to check the data log on the aid to see if you have the same issue with directional microphones being active for excessive periods of time. You could also try to get the rep out if your audiologist is not able to fix it and get them to bring a new aid in case they decide it is faulty so you won’t need to keep going back. Unfortunately there was no ReSound rep in my state at the time and they were in the process of training a new one so my audiologist really got little useful help from the company in Australia.

Hope this helps you troubleshoot the problem.