I must be doing something wrong with settings

Volusiano, I’ll have to check next time I’m there to see about Speech Rescue. I don’t recall ever seeing any settings when I was there, and in the TWO extended conversations we’ve had with Oticon audiologists where THEY took over all the controls of (GENIE2?), I don’t recall them ever mentioning it.

As for the VAC, again, I’m having to trust the HID I go to, and CERTAINLY the Oticon people that get on the phone, so I don’t know what comprises the VAC or what they’re doing as far as following it or exceeding it. Is this VAC written documentation with guidelines for it’s use? I DO know that TWO sessions ago, the Oticon person insisted that I be set to Gain 3 before any adjustments to soft or loud sounds be made.

I THINK I went through the adaptation because when I started with the aids I was at “1” which says “70” on the screen. In November we went to “2” (85) and made the adjustments and things appeared to work pretty well. At THAT time I had TWO programs - program 1 WITHOUT the tinnitus control and program 2 with it.

In February we updated firmware and got Oticon on the phone - that was when they pushed me to Gain “3” and the Oticon person made some LARGE adjustments to increase soft sounds and decrease loud ones. At the end of the session my HID said the Oticon person had gone considerably further than likely would have. AND at that session we moved the tinnitus control the Program 1.

They worked but were EXTREMELY LOUD at the default. When I put them on in the morning I’d wait 'til both aids came on, then reduce volume at least 3 clicks before I put the earpiece in my ear.

SO at the last session (prior to yesterday) when I I was having to reduce volume from the default the HID reduced some settings (I don’t recall which) and reduced overall volume - gain was still at “3”. Tinnitus control was still on program 1.

Yesterday, the session moved me back to Gain 2 and turned OFF the tinnitus control since with it on (as we were told by Oticon yesterday) the VOLUME control does NOT change volume, it changes the loudness of the tinnitus white noise. At this point, they’re working BETTER. I’d still like to have soft sounds be more perceptible and loud ones less jarring, but for MOST situations they’re working better. I’ll know more next Thursday since we have theatre tickets and I’ll see how well I can hear and understand dialogue.

Coroplast, I can honestly say: the issue of “OpenSound Navigator” never ever came up in all the many follow-up sessions I had with my aud-guy. If ALL my speech comprehension issues could’ve been solved by fine-tuning that … well, I simply am beyond stunned. And bummed!

I would sit next to my aud-guy and he’d bring up my Oticon Opn miniRITE profile, but I don’t recall seeing anything except the frequencies grid and things like “noise management” - where I believe he’d turned them very low. We tried boosting some frequencies and turning others down, but I sure don’t recall any mention of “OpenSound Navigator”.

By contrast, with my Phonak Audeo B-Direct aids, when my aud-guy brings up my profile on his computer, there’s a column of things that can be adjusted - wish I could be more precise as to what they are. But it’s interesting if Oticon’s default for the “OpenSound Navigator” could’ve been set too low and neither my aud-guy nor myself even knew such a feature existed. He was pretty new with the OPN himself at the time.

Perhaps it’s all water under the bridge, but I appreciate your insight here.

@Coroplast said:

This sounds like the “OpenSound Navigator” was set way too low. Oticon seems to default to setting it low. When you were consulting with your audi did this subject come up? Can you remember?

@GracieAllen said:

As for the VAC, again, I’m having to trust the HID I go to, and CERTAINLY the Oticon people that get on the phone, so I don’t know what comprises the VAC or what they’re doing as far as following it or exceeding it. Is this VAC written documentation with guidelines for it’s use?

The user doesn’t need to know about VAC+ so there’s no documentation for users about it. It’s something your hearing professional should know about, however.

But the Oticon VAC+ should be the fitting rationale used for the OPN, so I would not recommend changing it. Only in extreme cases if the user has been used to the standard fitting rationale and want to stick with it would they want to change.

More than likely it’s the tinnitus control and lack of knowledge on how to set it up and use it properly that messed you up in the first place.

Thought I’d put an update in here. After several more months of trying to ignore the inability to hear conversations, loud noises being painful, and pretty much everybody sounding like a CB radio conversation or something from a cheap 1970 land line phone, I got motivated enough to try a different provider.

Checked around and found a place about 30 miles away that was supposed to have some killer OPN people, spoke to them and confirmed they were “experts” and went in today.

Thorough audio test with noises, words, sentences, bone conductivity, white noise, background noise and other annoying things (loud). With that information they took the aids off to another room to test everything. Came back and told me PART of the problem is that the right rear microphone is dead, which affects how the aids SHOULD be processing background (ambient?) sound… So, the right aid is off to Oticon for repair and I’ve got a loaner.

Then they reprogrammed based on the audiogram… Made adjustments that are supposed to help with transients and loud noises. And soft. And so on. And plugged me into a machine with the aids in my ears and something draped over my ears. On screen you see the audiogram for each ear with an area of green surrounding it, and a sentence plays repeatedly while the green area changes… I’m not sure what the machine is called, but I suspect y’all are familiar with it - I’d never seen one before.

They’re drastically different, and the provider told me to give it time to get used to the changes, and that the hearing aids are now programed in “adaptation” mode, and they’ll be gradually changing over the next couple weeks… I go back in a week to get the repaired aid, and HOPEFULLY a print-out of the audiogram (why is it so hard to get all these people to part with these charts?)

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the provider I bought them from, so the “lifetime service” doesn’t transfer, and I got a bill at the end, but I knew I was going to be charged and figured if these people can get the OPN to work decently it’s worth it.

We’ll see.