“By noise here, I mean constant droning noise like the fan in the car, tire/road noise, engine noise, etc.” My notion of noise is different. What you are describing is reality—what a person with normal hearing would hear. Noise to me might be sounds added extraneously by the hearing aids themselves. I do think that as hearing challenged people we/I turn off mental filters in an almost obsessive impulse to hear (understandable) and the sounds we previously filtered out are now front and center.
I had my OPNs setup with 4 programs. Normal, Speech in Noise, Comfort in Wind and Quiet. I use in Normal normally (pun intended), then sometimes switch depending on conditions. I can tell you that Comfort in Wind takes out a lot of car wind and fan noise. Speech in Noise is used in restaurants and helps & Quiet is used when I go to my parents home (Care giver) and they talk extremely loud, have CNN full blast on TV and have a yappy dog that barks a bunch.
I think the programs could be optimized even better if I could program them on the fly (Wishlist).
I think the problem here is that a balance has to be struck between noise and comprehension of speech. My Phonak V70s can do a great job of reducing all of the steady state noises in Autosense mode, which on the one hand is great, but on the other hand, it can do it to such a severe extent that if I am listening to the radio, or somebody else, while I am in the Kitchen - and the kettle is boiling or the washing machine is on, then I find it difficult to comprehend them. Sometimes it is able to boost speech, depending on where I am positioned - sometimes not. In the quiet situation mode, where all noises are heard, sometimes I have a better chance of understanding by just concentrating. It’s a trade off I guess. If you want to understand speech, you have to have sufficient gain, but then you will hear noise as well. In automatic mode, the Phonaks seem to be reducing the gain too much for my liking - but then I’m not sure. We are at the mercy of the designers !
Oticon claim with the OPN that background noise is filtered between speech. But then, Volusiano was not sure about that in his recent post.
I think the problem here is that a balance has to be struck between noise and comprehension of speech. My Phonak V70s can do a great job of reducing all of the steady state noises in Autosense mode, which on the one hand is great, but on the other hand, it does it to such a severe extent that if I am listening to the radio, or somebody else, while I am in the Kitchen - and the kettle is boiling or the washing machine is on, then I find it difficult to comprehend them. Sometimes it is able to boost speech, depending on where I am positioned - sometimes not. In the quiet situation mode, where all noises are heard, sometimes I have a better chance of understanding by just concentrating. It’s a trade off I guess. If you want to understand speech, you have to have sufficient gain, but then you will hear noise as well. In automatic mode, the Phonaks seem to be reducing the gain too much for my liking - but then I’m not sure. We are at the mercy of the designers !
Oticon claim with the OPN that background noise is filtered between speech. But then, Volusiano was not sure about that in his recent post.
As good as this system is, it can’t pick speech out of a negative signal to noise ratio in a specific channel - the aid will regard the signal as noise or in the case of the Oticon aid, leave the channel on a lower amplification level until speech is prevalent.
As good as this system is, it can’t pick speech out of a negative signal to noise ratio in a specific channel - the aid will regard the signal as noise or in the case of the Oticon aid, leave the channel on a lower amplification level until speech is prevalent.
Thanks Um Bongo. Yes, I see what you mean. One has to concede that’s reasonable - you can’t have it both ways. If I am in front of the dishwasher and it’s making a lot of noise, and the radio, as is the case, is at the other end of the kitchen, and I have my back to it, or am not even facing it, then I cannot expect speech to be delivered clearly. That’s why I said used the word “sometimes” - I think as you say it depends on the signal to noise, i.e. where the speech is coming from - if I’m in front of it - then it does a much better job - then say in a pure stereo mode.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the OPN, Gery. I had my audi add a new program with max noise reduction to my OPN today but I still can’t tell any difference between the new program (with max noise reduction) and the original program (with less noise reduction). So I wonder if you have any noise reduction programmed into your OPN and if yes, how that is working out for you? By noise here, I mean constant droning noise like the fan in the car, tire/road noise, engine noise, etc.
I never had a problem with fans or the car, as the phonak pick up those noises alot more, I might ask my Audi what preset he used. Do you guys get 100% speech recognition with your aids in a test? Should you aim for 100% with severe loss(or it that rather hard to get, sometimes I drop to 85%)? I get close but I think it’s the domes that hold me back from scoring 100% all the time and some fine tuning…
Btw never had rebooting issues, is that a problem only people with iPhone paring might experience?
I never had a problem with fans or the car, as the phonak pick up those noises alot more, I might ask my Audi what preset he used. Do you guys get 100% speech recognition with your aids in a test? Should you aim for 100% with severe loss(or it that rather hard to get, sometimes I drop to 85%)? I get close but I think it’s the domes that hold me back from scoring 100% all the time and some fine tuning…
Btw never had rebooting issues, is that a problem only people with iPhone paring might experience?
The rebooting isn’t a universal thing, it just seems to affect aids that are exposed to lots of wireless traffic and can’t deal with it well enough.
I never had a problem with fans or the car, as the phonak pick up those noises alot more, I might ask my Audi what preset he used.
I guess I’m spoiled with my Rexton Insite+ from Costco because it can differentiate between static noises and dynamic sounds (like speech or music or other discrete sounds) and suppress the static noises and let the dynamic sounds through. I mean it doesn’t make the static noise go away altogether, but at least it suppresses it down to a more comfortable level, which helps reduce hearing fatigue, and also helps bring out the dynamic sounds more clearly. On the default mode in my Rexton, the static noise is suppressed somewhat and in the max noise reduction mode, the static noise is suppressed even more.
Even the I had before the Rexton, Kirkland Signature , and another Costco pair before that, they all do noise reduction. So that’s why I’m flabbergasted as to why I don’t get it from the OPN. I told my audi that I still don’t get any noise reduction after the second adjustment and she said that there are a couple more things she can try on the software adjustments…
In the OPN marketing brochure, on page 14, under “OpenSound Navigator”, it says “Noise, including remaining noise between words, is attenuated rapidly and effectively”. There’s a box figure on that page titled “Noise Removal” as well. So I assume that the feature is there, you just need to know how to activate it. But the question is why isn’t it built-in as an integral part of the default setting already???
I had my OPNs setup with 4 programs. Normal, Speech in Noise, Comfort in Wind and Quiet. I use in Normal normally (pun intended), then sometimes switch depending on conditions. I can tell you that Comfort in Wind takes out a lot of car wind and fan noise. Speech in Noise is used in restaurants and helps & Quiet is used when I go to my parents home (Care giver) and they talk extremely loud, have CNN full blast on TV and have a yappy dog that barks a bunch.
I think the programs could be optimized even better if I could program them on the fly (Wishlist).
M
Are these 4 programs standard and come already set up pre-built for the OPN? Or they were created and customized by your audi based on your request?
If they were standard programs already pre-built for use, then I can just inquire to see if my audi and just pick them out and set them up for me.
I’ve been reading on this forum about OPNs and the impression I seem to get is that while the OPN allows up to 4 programs, it seems like audis like to just set up a single all-purpose program for their patients based on what people are saying here. But maybe I’m wrong.
My right ear has worse hearing loss than my left. I notice saturation/distortion when I listen to the TV or music on the loudspeakers on my right , not on my left HA. I don’t notice it when listening through headphones. It’s probably because loudspeakers can produce more volume that drives the HA’s mics to the point of saturation, especially on the right HA which needs more amplification than the left.
But I thought that the Clear Dynamics feature (page 19 of OPN brochure) says that “users enjoy a better listening experience without distortion even in loud environments.” Not in my experience here…
I was struggling between 2 sizes of domes, where the bigger size makes me feel plugged up but helps with the feedback, and the smaller one has more feedback but less plugged up feeling. Feedback control is already programmed in. I’m just talking about feedback when putting on/off headphones or putting your hand in the vicinity of the . Or while wearing headphones over the HAs. There’s no size in between these 2.
My audi switched me to the shorter receiver wire and this seems to solve the problem. I can use the bigger dome and I guess the shorter wire keeps the big dome from going too far into the ear canal and possibly closing up the vent, creating the plugged up feeling. And the bigger dome size solves the feedback problem.
Just want to share in case anyone runs into the same situation.
The alternative is to make a custom mold which my audi says is $80 a pop for each side ($160 total). I think this price is outrageous and I’m glad my problem is solved without needing custom molds.
I read that some folks resort to third party foam plugs and poke holes to vent them and it works out for them?
My right ear has worse hearing loss than my left. I notice saturation/distortion when I listen to the TV or music on the loudspeakers on my right HA, not on my left HA. I don’t notice it when listening through headphones. It’s probably because loudspeakers can produce more volume that drives the HA’s mics to the point of saturation, especially on the right HA which needs more amplification than the left.
But I thought that the Clear Dynamics feature (page 19 of OPN brochure) says that “users enjoy a better listening experience without distortion even in loud environments.” Not in my experience here…
well a 85 isn’t gonna match those close to 100 db points, that software is supposed to damp sounds unnoticeably, but that’s not your situation with the 85 , the 100 should be available as of now.
well a 85 isn’t gonna match those close to 100 db points, that software is supposed to damp sounds unnoticeably, but that’s not your situation with the 85 dB, the 100 should be available as of now.
Good point. I’ll have to ask my audi about either getting the 100 receiver for my right or do some more compression on the highs.
I just see now you do very good in low frequencies. Do you have an ? 100 are closed and only come with a micro mold, and the minimum gain on the 100dB is alot higher than you need at low, you would have to hear everything through the
Yeah, I just got back from my audi and she told me the 100db receiver is built into a mold like you said. I have a single vent dome, not quite an . I think an 85 receiver is fine for me, and I don’t mind sacrificing cutting down a little bit on some of the highs like in the 6 to 8Khz to eliminate the distortion. She reduced it down to a couple of dbs in the 6 and 8KHz range but when I got home and tried it out, it didn’t help one bit.
The most frustrating thing about these fittings is that you can’t test right there and there to see whatever adjustments they make helps or not. You gotta go home and test at home in your environment and if it doesn’t help, then the trip to your audi is wasted.
She was on the phone with Oticon support and tried to adjust my program for max noise reduction, but again (sigh), I got home and tried it out and it didn’t help one bit. Now I gotta wait for a couple more days until my next appointment. Luckily her office is not too far from my home. But I’m not even sure what they’re going to do any differently next time…
The most frustrating thing about these fittings is that you can’t test right there and there to see whatever adjustments they make helps or not. You gotta go home and test at home in your environment and if it doesn’t help, then the trip to your audi is wasted.
Thanks. Oticon support just confirmed the same thing with my audi on this. They told her any program is done by the audi for the patient privately. No preset programs.
I forgot to mention that my audi programmed a 3rd mode for me. First mode is regular, second mode has max noise reduction (not that it seems to reduce anything), and 3rd mode has max noise reduction AND directional. I think her concern was with max noise reduction, I may also lose out on speech recognition. So she programmed this third mode to add directional pick up in front of me while in (supposedly) max noise reduction.
What’s interesting is that this third mode generates low frequency noise from inside the . Quite significant HA-generated noise. At the fitting today my audio asked Oticon support for advice, then she did something that seems to reduce this low freq noise. I asked her what she did, and she said she reduced the “Soft Speech Booster” effect. I think this is a feature mentioned in page 18 of the OPN brochure. She said she had this soft speech booster on max before in mode 3, which caused the noise level to be raised. And what I hear is this amplified floor noise.
Well, if you asked me, I’m totally unimpressed that with all the digital signal processing wizardry available, Oticon can’t manage to raise soft speech without raising the noise floor significantly as well. After all, we’re not in the analog HA days anymore…
Anyway, back home, in my quiet office, in mode 3, even with a reduced (but not completely eliminated) soft speech effect after the fitting, the floor noise still comes through loud an clear to me. I don’t hear this noise in mode 1 and 2, however. Does that mean soft speech is not enabled in 1 and 2? But I thought default mode has ALL effects?
Also, I thought the main change in mode 3 was directional sound mode, not soft speech centric. Very confused…
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