Just about any digital aid can be programmed to mimic an analog aid. You just have to ask for it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
The kitchen sounds are too loud because during the intelligibility phase of testing these gain levels were set at what was required for you to comprehend speech. Unfortunately kitchen sounds fall in that same range.
You have had your aids tuned 3X more than most, Could your levels be set to high. Remember its uncomfortable level not painful level. If the UCL is set by real ear measurement, it will set the limits of the aids in 500hz increments.
Your is fairly flat; using audio compression will have a minimal impact and will affect your hearing experience.
If you’re looking for a new audi for your Starkey aids I would start at starkey.com10.
Hello… This is my first time since this forum was updated… It seems the only avenue left is buying the reconditioned analog hearing aids (I am profoundly deaf, but a musician). I will not have another digital hearing set bought for me again. All that I have tried sound TERRIBLE, because they don’t sound like they’re supposed to with natural hearing across the air.
How do I know? I’ve stood in front of amp stacks without hearing aids and could hear up close what it is supposed to sound like. I had further confirmation when I was in India last year in a parade procession to a river. We were walking RIGHT BEHIND a speaker truck, a box truck cut up and modified to carry AIR HORN speakers on all sides except in front of the driver. It was SO LOUD that I had to back away at least 15 feet. It was amazing! I could here everything that my residual hearing is capable of picking up, and it SOUNDED RIGHT! Like it’s supposed to. A hearing aid is supposed to deliver to the ears what comes in. I have always been able to function the best with bare-bones battle-ship quality hearing aids because what those of us with profound loss usually need is simple broad-spectrum amplification with no noise reduction nor speech enhancement. These two features have destroyed the sound stage that my residual hearing relies on. Instead of being 95%, I’m more like 97-98% deaf now.
I assume that the hearing aid industry has set itself on the path that when there are no more analogs left to scavenge, I will simply stop wearing hearing aids forever and move to India. I’ve had it with hearing aid companies thinking they know better than we do what we need. I may elaborate more elsewhere.
Oh gosh…I’m in a similar position. I’m still wearing analogues and am unable to get any replacements in the future. Have tried digital AIDS but useless in music and restaurants. I need superpower AIDS and this is where the problem lies. The more powerful the aid is the clarity and quality of sound goes down sadly. There’s no hope for people like me. I have another 15yrs or so left of my nursing career and without good hearing aids it’ll be the end of my career…well my life really…silence! I hear perfectly with my Phonaks super front pp-c-2ds…they won’t last long now…it’ll be the end of the road for me one day. When will the manufacturers listen to those who’ve worn hearing aids for 48yrs!!!
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe there is someone else out there with such a similar hearing loss to mine! I’m so excited!
I too, have profound hearing loss in one ear, and moderate-to-profound loss in the other ear. The former ear is the only one that can tolerate a hearing aid, as there is too much distortion in the other ear. I just learned today that it’s possible to post an to give people more information about one’s loss, so I’ll try to do that for other people to maybe try to see that there is a type of loss that is best aided exactly as you said: take the sounds around you and amp them up. A lot.
Just like you, I discovered one day that if the volume was high enough, I could hear it, and the sound sounded “real”, “right”, “true”… pick your adjective, right? It sounds like it should. Simple as that. Loud sounds are loud. Quiet sounds are quiet. Music is MUSIC. I cannot even BEGIN to express the agony of trying to listen to music with digital . It is devastating. I’m so glad there’s at least one person here who can understand that from personal experience.
I was working in EMS a few years ago and experienced very little difficulty with auscultation, whether blood pressure or breath sounds. I had more or less the same results as everyone else did - surprisingly, hearing people don’t always have great hearing! Also, a lifetime spent “listening” with my brain and other senses means that I often pick up quite a bit more than some people with average hearing ability.
About two years ago, my youngest was 10 months old and I had just successfully completed training in the next higher level of EMS. I was excited to work, but due to hiring practices in my area, such as being posted to a location rather than being able to work where I already lived, it was not feasible. My husband at the time could not leave his job easily. I decided to raise my children full time, but I have kept up my training and skills in anticipation of being able to work in the field at some point soon.
And then my audiologist told me that analogs weren’t being made anymore. I had already tried digitals several times - they just did not work for me. The delay makes lip reading impossible and the way loud sounds cut out and quiet sounds disappear leaves the whole experience almost the same as having nothing in at all. Except I can hear all the “clutter” noise. It was infuriating to be able to hear the air conditioner but not voices or sirens! Really?
So to be told that the solution to my hearing loss - and really, my whole life - was not available anymore? Devastating. I came here back then to see if maybe other deaf people had the same loss and the same struggle, but ran into several people with mild to moderate loss that seem to basically love making fun of people who need more than the cookie-cutter old folk solutions offered by Sears and Costco. So I didn’t hang around. (But I did keep reading and there were a few REALLY cool people who messaged me so I talked to them for a while).
I only came here today because of the email to claim my account - I had planned to delete the account once it was transferred, but then I saw your post and was so excited I had to reply.
I have zero leads on finding analog hearing aids, but I will share immediately anything that I do find! I hope you stay around. It would be great to talk to someone else with a similar situation to mine and who feels the same way about the HA industry definitely NOT having our best interests in mind.
Edited to add: AND even better, someone who is a musician and therefore totally gets that 1. Yes, I can experience music and I LOVE music - it’s incredibly important to me. and 2. Yes, it’s possible for me to truly enjoy it - I can sing and I played the violin for years.
Try PM’ing if you can, then we can exchange FB or WA information. Maybe we need to set up an initial group that focuses on the fight for either the return of analog hearing aids or the perfect emulation of analogs. Then maybe we can set up a lobby or action group whose goal is to force manufacturers to do one of the two or risk losing a significant market share of the profound loss category. Right now, I don’t know of ANY digital aid that will emulate the analog aid correctly because of digital artifacts that are permanently part of the sound output that you can’t turn off even in Classic mode. The Widex Super 440 aid is an example of that.
Nice, my old forum thread is still alive. I am still unhappy with my very expensive (way more than analogs!) bone conduction Oticon Sumo DM hearing aid.
FYI I used these analog models in the past from Oticon from my records: 380P, E38P, etc.
You must be very well-to-do. These are $2600-3000 EACH, and they are fully digital. Plus, I’m in the profoundly deaf category.
I didn’t buy them, LOL. I didn’t say you should buy them either. I’m just saying that musicians sometimes go to great lengths programming hearing aids for when the notes begin to ring. It’s hard for my head to get into the melody, yeah
I contacted my audiologist about these hearing aids through email, sending them the data sheet for the Phonak NovoForte E4 aids and the PDF from PL’s web site to point out the 6 options available. It looks like what I need are the push-pull output amp option, as it has the most volume and happens to match the amp type of the NovoForte, AND then you can select which one or two trim pots you want. I hope they are not too expensive.
It’s almost a year later; are you all following this thread still? I have severe to profound loss in both ears. I rely on analog. While I still have several pairs to last me through the years, it’s not a good enough solution for me. Over the years, I have tried a handful of digitals available for my loss (not too many). My issue was the spoken word. Because the processing of sound is digitized, I have to re-learn what each word sounds like. My mother was standing directly in front of me, talking. I was not able to understand her. When the city bus stopped outside of my condo, I didn’t recognize the sound. When the air conditioner kicked on, I didn’t know what it was. While digital works for many, many people, it does not work for a lot of us. I need to get an idea as to how many of us there are - would you like to see analog be manufactured again? Let’s make it work, and soon. I don’t know about the other manufacturers, but Oticon will stop even repairing analog devices in June 2018.
Omg! I knew it! I knew I was not the only person who wears analog that hates digital. Music, Concerts, Movies etc are completely ruined. I loathe the fact that Audi’s and maker’s act like “Digital is what we offer now, take it or leave it”. Absolutely not! Stop forcing a useless device on us. I got sick of the non-stop Audi visits that ended up making me frustrated and more depressed than the last. To be honest it should NEVER take more than few of attempts to get HA to our liking. What good are bells and whistles if it’s another useless device sitting in our drawers? I have a pair of Phonak PP-C-L 4+ analog and was told the Nadia Q would be amazing could even use the blue tooth feature instead of headphones. Nope its junk! Digital does not work and will never work because of the programming, no matter the amount of adjustments. It’s becoming pretty clear to me after hours and hours of reading stories of digital not producing crisp clear quality. I wish I knew a deaf Audi who understands our frustrations because they themselves are in the same boat as us. Maybe a Class action lawsuit is our best bet. Forcing us into using a device that is ruining our lives. I need music to live. It’s my life and I feel like once my analogs go that I am going to be one miserable person. I’m to a point where I’d sell my soul for brand new analogs that last for as long as I live. Now I’ve found this place and other music lovers having the same frustrations it’s like how is it that we seem to know more about what sounds best? I noticed KenP mentioned that there are still places that make analog but how do I know I can trust them? How do I know they will successfully replace my phonak super fronts?
It all depends on what you are use to. I have never had analog hearing aids only digital, and they work for me to at least allow me to understand speech most of the time. I may also believe as you do if I had ever used analog aids. But I don’t believe that they will ever go back to analog again without there being enough people screaming for them.
That’s the thing we are screaming for them while at the same time we are being forced on to digital. Personally digital makes speech sound robotic which is why I refuse to get the . I lost my hearing due to the DPT vaccination that caused a high fever. I do not want to lose whatever hearing I do have left. I dont wear an in my left ear because its weaker and sounds confuse me.When I wear headphones I put my T switch on and it amplifies the sound. Digital is completely useless in that department. Even with compilot it’s still useless. Music sounds like its underwater and muffled, there is absolutely no clarity. What good is speech, if I cant enjoy the things I am passionate about? Isn’t music also speech related? I don’t want a loaded device telling me what I should be hearing and turning it into a robotic processed sound.
Wow, this forum thread is still active. Good. OK, I am trying out two soft/head band : Cochlear’s Baha 5 and Oticon Ponto 3 Super Power.
Cochlear’s Baha 5 had the same problem with my bone conduction Oticon Sumo DM digital hearing aid until the audiologist changed to music profile. Everything was SO much better. No annoying autofilters like volumes, feedback whistles with high pitch audios, etc. It was good enough like the analog bone conduction hearing aids. However, its hardware usability was annoying like no power off/stand by/mute without using a smartphone and taking its 675 battery out like I used to do.
So, I am trying an Oticon Ponto 3 trial/demo now. I like its hardware usability. However, I still need to gets its audio to be tweaked since I am still missing some sounds like my previous hearing aids. Hopefully, I will get this one tweaked enough to buy.
Other audiologists told me that I wanted linear audio like my analog. So those who hate digital like me, see if your audiologist can set up your digital hearing aids to use linear and music profile if they exist.
Music sounds like its underwater and muffled, there is absolutely no clarity. What good is speech, if I cant enjoy the things I am passionate about? Isn’t music also speech related? I don’t want a loaded device telling me what I should be hearing and turning it into a robotic processed sound.