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DIY - Self Programming the Oticon Opn – How To

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In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

I think that makes sense. If you have feedback issue then by all means run the feedback analyzer and enable feedback control. But if it’s not an issue then why run it?

I agree with this sentiment @jferris33. If audio sounds great with little or no feedback, no need to run. However, when programming my aids, I had feedback only on my P2 Speech In Noise program. When running feedback analyzer, it ran on all four programs and lo, afterwards feedback was gone. Not sure what was done, but it seemed magical.

In reply to @gkumar

@gkumar said:

P2 Speech In Noise seemed especially useful in noisy restaurants and pubs where the target audience is most likely ahead of me, hence the full directional and high NR mode

The standard built-in Speech in Noise program does not have the Directionality Setting to Full Directional. It has it set to “Open Automatic”. If you set it to Full Directional, then you’re effectively putting it back into the paradigm of the old destination based system, where you block out the surround noise and will only hear the sound in the front.

Go to this link https://www.oticon.com/professionals/audiology-students/education-and-information/podcast-program28 and watch the 2 podcasts called “Why Is Noise So Difficult?” and “Hearing Aid Technology and Noise”, in that order. You’ll find that the speaker (who’s a VP at Oticon) surmises that because the physiological deficiency of having less hair cells already cause hearing impaired people to have a hard time separating sounds (and effectively speech from noise), it’s actually better, especially in multiple speakers environments like at a restaurant, to present full information from all speakers to allow the brain hearing to do the separation and isolation, than to deprive the brain by blocking out sound from the multiple speakers. But putting your Directionality Setting to “Full Directional”, you’re effectively not helping the brain hearing by blocking out sound from the multiple speakers.

That is why the default value for Directionality Setting for Speech in Noise in Genie 2 is “Open Automatic” and not “Full Directional”. I leave my Speech in Noise program as is with “Open Automatic”.

@Volusiano said:

it’s actually better, especially in multiple speakers environments like at a restaurant, to present full information from all speakers to allow the brain hearing to do the separation and isolation, than to deprive the brain by blocking out sound from the multiple speakers. But putting your Directionality Setting to “Full Directional”, you’re effectively not helping the brain hearing by blocking out sound from the multiple speakers.

I think this statement is very subjective. I recognize that natural hearing is 360 degrees and omni, and the brain will learn to filter speech vs. noise with proper exposure and training to 360 degrees of sound. However, it does increase mental stress especially when natural hearing is impaired to severe and profound levels. There are cases in which I know where the audio is coming from and I don’t care for any other sound outside of that general target vincinity (e.g., restaurant in which my back is facing a wall and I’m sitting opposite a friend at a table. I don’t care for left or right noises). This reduces mental stress and thereby improves my enjoyment in the restaurant.

In an ideal world, 360 degrees or omni directional would be great, but in some edge cases, full directional can be preferable. I hope one day for these edge cases, we can control what direction we want to hear from manually via a smartphone too (like what other brands have advertised). Perhaps I’ll replace my P3 Lecture program with Speech in Noise but with Open Automatic, and I’ll compare and contrast to see which is better over time.

@gkumar said:

Perhaps I’ll replace my P3 Lecture program with Speech in Noise but with Open Automatic, and I’ll compare and contrast to see which is better over time.

Excellent idea about having 2 Speech in Noise programs, one with Full Directional and the other with Open Automatic and see for yourself. That’s the beauty of being able to tweak your own programs, for this exact type of experimentation!

Also, Oticon apparently still recognizes the effectiveness of a Full Directionality system, because even though it preaches the “open” paradigm, it still includes the Full Directionality option should anyone still prefers to use it at times. So this is great that you have the best of both worlds, the old way and the new way and you can program it however you see fit!

One thing I dislike about the Directionality Settings of “Full Directional” value is that it ALWAYS produce a very noticeable background static noise on the OPN. Yes, it does seem to block out all sound except in front, but I then am confronted with this unpleasant and noticeable static noise from within the OPN that is very distracting to me. The minute I enable this directionality in my program, this noise (from within the hearing aid) comes on instantly.

Do you experience this? @gkumar

I’ll let you know once I test it out more. Need more sample time to share my findings.

In a related note regarding Speech in Noise program, between the default P1 and the Speech in Noise programs (in Omni and not Full Directional mode), do you ever feel the speech and ambient sounds are louder and clearer respectively in the Speech in Noise program?

Sometimes I feel that Speech in Noise is preferable and should be the default program

@gkumar said:

I’ll let you know once I test it out more. Need more sample time to share my findings.

OK, this is super easy to find out anyway, and there’s no need to test drive anything. Just when you have the OPNs connected to Genie 2 with the OPN worn on your ears, for ANY program (music, speech in noise, default P1, I don’t care), just switch the Directionality Settings from either Open Automatic or Pinna Omni to Full Directional, (hopefully like me, for the sake of reproducing the issue), you’ll instantly hear more background noise from within the hearing aids showing up in your ears. It’s not from external ambient noise. And as soon as you changed it back from Full Directional to whatever else, the static noise stops.

gkumar your loss is to sever to hear microphone noise so you are not discovering apart from that noise its deduced by softlevel noise reduction ie 3db you selected.

Edited

Very good point, parth_p, that you must have normal hearing in the low frequency to hear this sound.

I already turned down the Soft Sound control in Fine Tuning to minimum (Comfort) just to eliminate it being the extra amplification for soft sounds. Even with Soft Sound control turned to minimum (which I notice a decrease in volume for the soft sound), the static noise from the mic/hearing aid (very low frequency that people with low frequency hearing loss can’t hear) is instantly and very noticeably heard when Full Directional is selected in Directionality Settings.

If any forum member who has no low frequency hearing loss can do this quick test for me, it’d be very much appreciated. Thanks.

@Volusiano said:

If any forum member who has no low frequency hearing loss can do this quick test for me, it’d be very much appreciated. Thanks.

I just gave it a try - in the Open Sound Navigator I tried switching the directionality settings from Open Automatic to Full Directional. I don’t hear any kind of noise, static or otherwise, when I make the switch.

Here is a snapshot of the OpenSound Navigator in my Genie 2:

image

In reply to @parth_p

Good point Parth. Wish I could help more. Glad others can share their thoughts.

If you hear static, I remember vaguely that another posted about a microphone needing replacement and that static noise went away. Could this be a similar issue?

In reply to @Volusiano

I found something that you might want to try for that noise. In Genie 2 if you click on “Preferences” (in the top menu) and then on “Edit Preferences” you should see this screen:

image

Select the “Customize software” tab and then under the General tab check the box to display the Silencer control in Automatics.

With the Silencer control turned on if you then go to the “Fitting” screen and click on “Automatics” you should see this display:

image

Notice that you now have a silencer control that you can turn on and off. According to the text under this control this is supposed to “reduce microphone noise in the hearing instrument”.

I don’t know if this will help with your problem of hearing static when you switch to Full Directional but it might be worth a try. I think that this is on by default so it may already be on in your case (mine was).

In reply to @gkumar

yes static noise not problem just reset from scratch i had done with audi. company reseted its programing issue. if not just receiver should be removed and reinserted nothing more generally. this is same for all brand HA. yes but moisture is probably need to be fixed by company if not solved by dehumidifier. since oticon use directional strategy microphone noise less but other HA use narrow irrationality cause more mic noise.

In reply to @GeekMan

@GeekMan said:

I don’t know if this will help with your problem of hearing static when you switch to Full Directional but it might be worth a try. I think that this is on by default so it may already be on in your case (mine was).

Thanks for the suggestion, GeekMan. I enabled the Silencer Control display and it shows that it’s already ON. But regardless of whether it’s ON or OFF, the static noise in Full Directional is still loud and clear to me.

Since you don’t have low frequency loss and you don’t hear it yourself, it must be tied to my hearing loss profile somehow. I remain baffled…

If anyone else with no low frequency loss curious enough to try it out and share with me, I’d appreciate it.

@GeekMan said:

I don’t know if this will help with your problem of hearing static when you switch to Full Directional but it might be worth a try. I think that this is on by default so it may already be on in your case (mine was).

@Volusiano said:

Thanks for the suggestion, GeekMan. I enabled the Silencer Control display and it shows that it’s already ON. But regardless of whether it’s ON or OFF, the static noise in Full Directional is still loud and clear to me.

Since you don’t have low frequency loss and you don’t hear it yourself, it must be tied to my hearing loss profile somehow. I remain baffled…

If anyone else with no low frequency loss curious enough to try it out and share with me, I’d appreciate it.

I figured that it was a long shot but couldn’t think of anything else in the settings that might cause the problem you are experiencing.

Just for grins, have you tried turning off your microphones when you hear the static? If that doesn’t make it go away then it must be something to do with the settings or some other issue.

In reply to @gkumar

@gkumar said:

Good point Parth. Wish I could help more. Glad others can share their thoughts.

If you hear static, I remember vaguely that another posted about a microphone needing replacement and that static noise went away. Could this be a similar issue?

I know that this is not a faulty mic issue because I have had the mics replaced due to another issue and the issue still persists after my OPN 1 came back from repair with the mic replacement. I was also able to try it on an OPN 3 (using my hearing loss profile) and I have the same issue on the OPN 3 as well.

In reply to @GeekMan

@GeekMan said:

Just for grins, have you tried turning off your microphones when you hear the static? If that doesn’t make it go away then it must be something to do with the settings or some other issue.

Good idea. I tried to mute the mics in a program with Full Directional engaged and the static noise goes away as soon as the mics are muted. So it definitely relates to the mics.

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