Oticon Speech Rescue

I think the B90s will serve you well. My Mom loves her B50s. I think they will take some getting used to, but I think they are great choice for dealing with your loss. From reading and my experience, setting up frequency compression is not a use default settings and forget about it type of thing. They should verify that you can distinguish “s” sounds from others.

@AlanM said:

I am interested in this discussion and have done a little research in the area because my VA audiologist has just ordered a pair of Phonak Audeo B (presumably the 90s–they always get the high end) mainly for the frequency lowering. My voice recognition went down noticeably to 49% within two years but the frequency response did not change noticeably. And I have been hearing much more distortion around speech in many situations. I am replacing a pair of Oticon Alta 2 pros. If the Phonaks make me unhappy I will try something else. I hope eventually some type of frequency lowering will be effective. I have been wearing hearing aids for 30 years and this is a new adventure.

R [50 50 55 55 60 80 90](tel:50 50 55 55 60 80 90) 90
L [40 40 45 50 55 60 85](tel:40 40 45 50 55 60 85) 85

@Volusiano said:

While I don’t really want to get down this rat hole further, I think you’re putting words in my mouth. I never said that white papers are unbiased. I challenge you to quote me on where I said that. I only said white paper provides a lot more details to back up a company’s claim. Whether one still believes in it or not after one reads it is up to themselves. If you choose to dismiss reading a 16-page white paper right off the bat because it’s still marketing junk to you then it’s your prerogative. If I choose to read up a 16-page and form my own opinion on it then it’s my own prerogative as well. At least I don’t attack you for forming your own opinion. Why are you attacking me?

And remember, too, that I’m not the one who instigated this thread. I was invited by MDB, the OP, who called me out by name, to read this white paper (which I didn’t even know exists) and to offer my opinion on it. And that’s what I simply did. I didn’t start this thread and never said “HEY EVERYONE, check out this phenomenal white paper by Oticon on Speech Rescue!!!”

While you’re accusing me of not knowing my own biases, maybe the same for you and Alesha who seem to have a pre-disposed bias against me prior to this thread already because my previous posts/threads spoke favorably of the OPN. But since when is it a crime to speak favorably of a brand especially if I’m wearing that brand and speak from my personal experience as well as understanding about that brand?

Finally, I again invite you, if you’re truly interested about discussing Speech Rescue and frequency lowering, which is really the topic of this thread, then let’s engage in that conversation and limit ourselves to that discussion only. This personal bashing is really not relevant to the topic raised by the OP. You’re welcome to express your own opinions about frequency lowering and Speech Rescue. Expressing your opinions about me is not really worth discussing here.

Dude, have you listened to yourself recently? You just regurgitated portions of Oticon’s white paper to “disprove” someone else’s research study. That is seriously bordering on the delusional. You really need to get some help for your Oticon obsession, along with a refund for that engineering degree you’re so proud of.

Man I hate to miss out on a good pissing contest!! Anything from 2015 is ancient history. A!an good luck with the freq lowing but it ain’t for you…

Why not? In any event, the audiologist at the VA suggested the Phonaks. I had never heard of frequency lowering unti then. I will get them this week. If they don’t work out, I will ask for something better. And meanwhile I will have my Alta2 Pros as backup.

I wonder about folks who spend a holiday weekend reading 2+yo whitepapers? Follow the $$ who paid the authors to write them?

@Doc_Jake said:

With your audiogram you have nowhere to lower into. I hope they are putting you into custom molds and not screwing around with domes. Mandatory I suspect if they ordered the hot receivers.

yes, I am getting custom molds.

I remember asking the Costco HIS I usually went to a couple of years ago what’s new in the HA market. She said “Well, the only thing really new is frequency lowering, but it didn’t really seem to help much from what I’ve gathered.” I don’t know if this is based on her first hand experience with actual patients or just based on what she’s heard. I also asked the new audi who fitted me with the Oticon late last year and she said pretty much the same thing. It looks like that HHS paper came to the same conclusion…

You’d think that there’d be more empirical data by now if this technology has been around for a few years already. But like Neville said, maybe the manufacturers work much faster than the independent researchers so more empirical evidence couldn’t get caught up with the evolving technologies yet.

@Neville said: (unavailable)

That’s not true.

Oh my… Hope he reports back with the outcome of the lowering experience!!

We have so many internet experts on this forum… REM is overrated unless there’s a problem. As to the concerns about AuDs not wanting to take the time. VA AuDs have all the time they want/need. Also more sophisticated equipment in booth then most ENTs private AuDs.

So, I set the aids to perfectly match the audiogram do REM and verify they indeed are perfectly on the mark and the patient insist they sound like shit.

I haven’t look at the current software but if it detects the hot receivers with custom molds it may not even let sound recover be activated.

Hope OP keeps this thread updated during his journey.

Ran a simulation in Target 5 with the most powerful receivers and c shell and it activate Sound Recover 2 by default. The Power Receivers match the audiogram better and they also default to Sound Recover 2.

@Doc_Jake said:

Oh my… Hope he reports back with the outcome of the lowering experience!!

We have so many internet experts on this forum… REM is overrated unless there’s a problem. As to the concerns about AuDs not wanting to take the time. VA AuDs have all the time they want/need. Also more sophisticated equipment in booth then most ENTs private AuDs.

So, I set the aids to perfectly match the audiogram do REM and verify they indeed are perfectly on the mark and the patient insist they sound like shit.

I haven’t look at the current software but if it detects the hot receivers with custom molds it may not even let sound recover be activated.

Hope OP keeps this thread updated during his journey.

Everyone can guess let’s await the facts from the OP

Glad you like Speech Rescue. Did you try the frequency compression on the Signias? There’s a couple of good articles on Audiology Online on frequency lowering that I think are worth a read. Also curious what your audiogram’s like and what setting you used.

Yes, I did try the frequency compression on the Signia Pure px7’s. It did help, but the Signia’s seem to amplify a lot of the HF sounds that are not speech which tend to mask the s and th sounds (for example), and that also makes them harsh sounding and perhaps a little tiring to wear.

I have worn the Signias for 8 months and the Oticons now for nearly one month. I treid the Signias again yesterday to ensure that they were as I remembered.

When I take a pee in the toilet bowl when wearing the Signias, the it sounds like a cascading waterfall at Niagra. With the Oticons, the splashing in the loo sounds more natural and much less harsh.

I like the speech amplification in the Oticons which is gentler (more natural?) and clearer making word recognition easier, especially in the presence of background environment noise. Speech recognition is the main priority for me. Well that’s how the Oticons seem to me anyway.

Oticon OPN 1 miniRITE 85, Bass 12mm domes single
Speech Rescue ON
Configuration both R/L 4.0 - 5.5 (as prescribed by Genie)
Strength 2 clicks above prescribed by Genie
High Frequency Bands ON

(I have large ear canals)

(Freq/R/L) 250/35/35, 500/30/30, 1K/25/25, 1.5K/40/40, 2K/45/60, 3K/60/75, 4K/65/70, 6K/70/75, 8K/75/80.

Thank you very much. I have bargain KS7s. I’ve certainly experienced the harsh sound you mentioned with the Signias but have gotten used to them. Everytime I’ve bumped up the frequency compression, I initially am struck by a lot of sibilance, but it fades over time. I can definitely hear the s sound clearly. Glad the Oticons are working out for you. If I tried them, I’d probably want them!