Oticon Opn Feedback

I’ve only had the feedback problem if my hand (or wall) gets within about 2-3 inches of the aids.
My previous aids, Alera 9’s had the problem until the aud made an adjustment that didn’t stop it totally but it was about the same as the OPN’s I have now. It’s seldom I have anything that close to my ears so I’m not concerned about it.
My only adjustment was to one of the domes as the right side is open domed and the left side is a closed dome. I was going crazy with the “plugged ear” feeling in the left side but when I used the open dome, the hearing wasn’t quite as good then.
The closed dome has a tiny hole in it but it wasn’t enough for relief, so I just cut a very small hole in the dome near the centre and then increased it slightly until I was comfortable wearing it and still had a decent hearing quality. The hole is about the size a small grain of rice could be pushed through. I found though that the rotation of the dome had an affect so I believe that in some position the hold is blocked by contact with the ear. A quick turn and it’s OK again.

After my last adjustment to my OPNs I no longer have any feedback even when I put my hand up to my ear. They will get them corrected I am sure. There is a feedback analyzer in the Genie 2 software.

M

I had an issue between 2 dome sizes. The big one solves the feedback issue, but feels plugged up. The small one doesn’t feel plugged up but has feedback. There’s no size in between. My audi switched me to a shorter receiver wire and my problem was solved. I can now use the bigger dome that prevents the feedback problem, and it doesn’t feel too plugged up with the shorter wire.

Not 100% sure how the shorter wire solved the problem. My guess is that maybe its shortness prevents the big dome from slipping in too far into the ear canal and causing the plugged up feeling.

I can now rest my head on a pillow or cover my HAs with my hands and there’s no feedback at all.

Thanks Volusiano for sharing your solution. I saw the audiologist earlier this week. Oticon had suggested the possibility of using the more powerful speaker but the audiologist thought it would be more than I needed. She suggested custom molds at no additional cost to me. So I will give that a try. They are not vented so have some concerns about occlusion.

I assume that at your hearing loss level, you probably have the size 85 receiver already. I’m not sure why Oticon wants to suggest the more powerful speaker (I assume the 100) just to solve the feedback issue you have. I don’t understand the logic there. Unless it’s because the size 100 receiver comes in custom mold already.

It’s nice that your audi will fit you with custom molds at no additional cost to you. Mine wants $80/mold ($160 for the pair). That should fix your feedback issue, I think. The idea is that a snugger fit from a custom mold will keep sound from escaping the ear canal, which is the cause of the feedback. It also helps keep more highs in.

The trade-off is more probably more occlusion if they’re not vented like you said. Another disadvantage of no vent is that you’ll rely more on the receiver to generate the lows for you, as the natural lows can’t get in if there is no vent. Not sure if the receiver can go really low, though.

@anitajane said:

Well I’m had the custom molds for almost 2 weeks now. The good news is that I have no feedback. The bad news is that I am not hearing as well with the molds. Everything is much louder. Previously one of the features I liked with these HA’s was that background noises were well balanced. Now, without turning down the HA’s the traffic outside my house (busy road) sounds like I’m in the middle of the freeway. I have been routinely reducing the volume which helps but voices are not as clear. Not sure where I go from here.

Try lower discomfort compression values

IMO and evidently Oticon’ s you are driving the 85 speaker to hard. Move to the 100 (as oticon suggested) get properly vented custom molds and then wipe out your current programming and start from scratch.

I think if moving to the size 100 speaker is a free option to try out, then why not if it doesn’t cost anything except time and effort. I think that’s why Oticon suggested it, because they just want to throw out all options. Not because they have a good reason to offer it. And remember that they suggested the size 100 as an option to remove the feedback in the first place, not because of this new problem with background noise being too loud. So far I haven’t been impressed with Oticon’s support anyway.

I personally don’t think it makes sense to move to the size 100 speaker, either for feedback issue or loudness issue. The only reason I would move to the 100 speaker would be if I get distortion on the 85 speaker due to driving it too hard, which is not the case here. The issue here is not distortion, it’s the volume level of background noise.

Anyway, back to the OP, I think it’s natural that with a custom mold with no vent to fix your feedback issue, you’ll hear more of everything now than before. The vent before bled out some of the volume so you felt more balanced, at the trade off of feedback. Now you gotta deal with the higher volume as a trade off instead.

But I think this is an easier thing to fix, assuming that your audi has already readjusted your OPN program appropriately for the custom mold (like KenP suggested). I think you’ve already done this fix manually, by lowering the volume. Just set this new lower level as a default so you don’t have to fiddle with it every time you turn your HAs on.

I know that you said if you do this then speech won’t be as loud and clear as before. But that’s one of the trade off with this new “open” paradigm. I’m experiencing the same thing. I’m learning to put up with more background noise and trying to train my brain to understand speech better in noise. The OPN is supposed to help reduce noise in speech but I’m still seeing very little evidence of this. I’m still working with my audi to make sure noise reduction is maximized in my setting. You should make sure to have your audi max out your noise reduction as well. But I’ve lowered expectation for myself quite a bit already and have resigned to the fact that the OPN can’t do a good job reducing noise in speech (despite their marketing implying that they can). So I’ll just have to learn to retrain my brain to tune out noise and focus on speech the way normal hearing people do eventually.

In the end, I’m still seeing value in this new “open” paradigm, and while I’m easing into it and trying to retrain my brain to adapt to it, the volume buttons will be my good friend.

P.S. One of the things you can try to get a better balance between feedback and high volume is to try to add some very small vent holes in your custom molds. Maybe start with 1 and add more as needed. If feedback comes back, I assume that you can always fill up the vent to revert and rectify because it’s easier to refill a vent on a custom mold than a vent in a plastic dome, I would assume.

I think you’d probably have more trouble drilling a soft mold than a hard one.

Normally, the audiologist orders a fairly open vent. The molds come with various plugs to reduce the passage. You can then insert them to get the need vent.

Thanks all who contributed. I presented my audiologist with your suggestions when I went today and, to her credit, she was willing to consider them. Adjustments have been made so we’ll see how it goes.

If this doesn’t work for me, I’ll probably ditch the molds and go back to domes. While this wasn’t perfect, I liked the naturalness and balance of sound with the domes and given some of the suggestions I received earlier can probably deal with the feedback in other ways.

Thanks again.

OK - if I understand correctly here, you remove a plastic tube-like guard that comes inside these memory foam Comply tips? Then you gently insert your Oticon receiver into the donut hole so that the tip of the receiver would be flush with the tip of the foam around it? I would be hesitant to cut my wax guard OFF my receivers cuz: 1.) it may disqualify any warranty? and 2.) I may regret the sound I’m left with afterwards? I guess I’d go more cautiously here.

But I just ordered a mixed-size pack of these foam tips from Amazon.com10 to see if one of them will be a good replacement for my current Widex power domes that I have on my Oticon Opn receivers. I just don’t find the Widex domes SOFT or comfy enough to wear for HOURS. In fact, I’ve now got a small sore in my ear on the left side where the Widex dome has pressed right up against my ear. Ow.

It would be awesome to find a super comfy dome that eliminates any feedback and works with my Opns. I can even live with a bit of occlusion - but not leaky-squeaky aids that make all sound thin and tinny due to improper seal. I’ll report back - on a thread I just started on this very topic! Timely thread right here, tho.

@jamin said:

As I mentioned in a different thread, soon after getting my OPN’s (online) I ditched the cheap-ish silicon domes for memory foam tips: Comply comfort 100’s specifically (Comply™ 100 Series | Foam Ear Tips for Etymotic, Westone, Isotunes & More – Comply Foam). While these are not vented, you can poke a few holes through them with a pin if you want (IMO it made a small difference as far as the plugged feeling you get with any tip that fills your ear canal. However after a few days of use, the plugged feeling diminished and now I don’t notice at all. Also at first I thought my voice sounded strange. Now I think I’m just hearing what it really sounds like, and it sounds fine.). As far as the sound - vast improvement. There’s a reason many in ear monitor’s used by musicians utilize these tips. Before I used these, feedback was a major, almost deal breaking issue. Also every aid I’ve tried over 20+ years had feedback problems. But with these tips, I can rest my head on a pillow or put my hand or anything right over my ear - no feedback, not even a hint, even at max volume (which I never use except to test feedback). And over the ear sound isolating head phones sound awesome - which because of feedback were unusable before. The memory foam conforms to the hearing canal (I’m using the large size) so it is in effect a custom fit, and never comes out unless I give it a good tug. It feels more secure than the silicon tips with the wire holder ever did.

As far as how to put these on, I first remove the plastic wire holder (no longer needed) from the speaker tip, then reverse the foam tip so the indent is facing out. IMO this is more comfortable and allows the speaker to seat deeper in the ear but YMMV. With the 100’s it’s a tight fit at first, but the OPN speaker will slide inside the Comply 100 tube, it takes a bit of a push the first time. And once on there is no reason to take it off. My first set of foam tips are still going strong after 3 weeks of constant use. I’m not sure how long each tip will last but a month or two seems reasonable. And at $17 for four pair on Amazon totally worth it.

Also I’m not done experimenting. Right now I have #2 size speaker wire but asked BH to send some #3 size. Because of the deeper fit these tips allow, I think a longer wire might be a tad more comfortable. Then I might remove (cut off) the wax guard with sits at the very end of the speaker tip. I’ve had a few problems with this particular wax guard. First it gets plugged (as you would expect) and replacing the guard is a hassle and these little things - like every other hearing aid accessory - is way over priced (yes I got a free supply with the aids from BH, but only about ten, so these won’t last long). Second, without the silicon tips which normally sit over and around the wax guard, the wax guard is somewhat exposed and it has a sharp-ish edge to it. This hasn’t caused problems for me with the memory foam tips, but at the same time it seems necessary. By removing this guard, which is in effect a nipple at the end of the speaker tip, the speaker element itself can now be that much closer to the opening of the foam tip and also my ear drum. And closer seems to provide better sound, in particular base response. As for a substitute wax guard, I’m going to cover the now exposed speaker opening with 3M micropore tape, which allows air to pass through and so should be sonically transparent, but is remarkably water/liquid resistant (I tape cuts on feet with this before surfing for a few hours, and it stays on under those circumstances so should be good here). It’s a lot like gore-tex in that respect. Anyway this is a still a future experiment, but going with these memory foam tips has certainly solved the feedback issue with better overall sound for me.

@1Bluejay said:

OK - if I understand correctly here, you remove a plastic tube-like guard that comes inside these memory foam Comply tips? Then you gently insert your Oticon receiver into the donut hole so that the tip of the receiver would be flush with the tip of the foam around it? I would be hesitant to cut my wax guard OFF my receivers cuz: 1.) it may disqualify any warranty? and 2.) I may regret the sound I’m left with afterwards? I guess I’d go more cautiously here.

I understood what poster Jamin said differently.

1. I don’t think he removed anything from the Comply foam tip. I think he’s just talking about removing the plastic wrapping around the OPN receiver that has that long plastic tail that sits at the bottom of the inside of your outer ear to help hold the receiver in place and keep it from slipping out. The reason he did this is because the foam tip is probably tight enough to keep the receiver stay put in place and won’t slip out of the ear canal, so this holding plastic tail is not necessary anymore. Plus maybe with the plastic tail taken off, you can push the receiver and the foam tip in a little bit further into your canal to help promote a tighter seal and even better sound.

2. Although the poster Jamin was thinking about cutting off the wax guard that comes with the OPN, I agree with you that I wouldn’t want to try to do this. I’d leave it alone and I don’t believe it should cause any problem if used with the Comply foam tip. It’s designed to be used with the OPN receiver so it shouldn’t be modified if it doesn’t present any problem for you.

3. I think if you’re OK with wearing the Widex power dome, the Comply foam tip shouldn’t feel anymore occluded than the power dome. But if it does, you can poke small pin holes through the Comply foam tip easily enough to reduce any occlusion you may feel.