"> And if those who have figured out how to program their Forte 8s share their preset discoveries with us, the rest of us, who aren’t terribly interested in programming our own aids, can go back to our fitters and request the change.
We can’t find anyone who has programmed their ReSound Forte’s because they are locked as for as we know. All ReSound hearing aids from Costco are locked. All of them (except the 2011 Alera)."
It could be that I am misunderstanding what folks are calling programing the Costco Forte 8s First off, I’m more than happy to instruct the Costco gal, as to what I want in this area, I’ve got my 1st follow up next week. For the triple-tap volume on the iPhone, I’d like a single volume control, not each ear independent. As well, I have quite a few presets already saved, if that is what people are calling “programing”… The GN RESOUND - SMART 3D app for iPhone, allows you to add a favorite setting, and name that favorite… I have one I called “Downtown” ( for heavy traffic and street noise ) … another called “High/Low”… another called “Hikes” , another called “Work”… I just mess with the controls and the noise and wind levels until it works in those environments and then save it. Is that what you folks are getting at ?
I don’t think you’ll notice much difference between the 60 receivers and the 85 dB receivers. I’m guessing you’ll be fitted with open domes as your low frequency hearing is near normal. It is really challenging to compensate for losses 70 dB and greater with open domes as the sound tends to “leak out.” Although your loss is somewhat less than 70 dB, it’s pretty close. You could try the 85s and see what you think, but I suspect to hear the higher frequencies you will need a touch of . (There’s a ton of info on this if you search, but briefly higher frequencies are shifted downward into a frequency range you can hear. There are several ways of accomplishing this)
I would say that the 60 receivers are BARELY adequate. Yes, it may be true that you may not notice much difference between the 60 and 85 dB receivers FOR NOW, because the 60 is borderline to your hearing loss. BUT, what happens if a year from now your hearing loss deteriorates further? If you already have the 85, you can readily have the programming readjusted, either by the audi, or even better, by yourself if you pick up the route and use in-situ audiometry in Genie 2 to regularly re-check your hearing loss. Sure, if you have the 65 dB receivers now, and you’re under warranty, you can request the 85 later on. But what if your hearing loss gets worse right after you’re out of warranty?
Furthermore, there’s no downside I can see in going with the 85 dB receiver. There’s only upside with it for your hearing loss situation.
One other factor: driving a 65 receiver hard right at the borderline all the times may wear out the receiver and cause it to fail sooner. I’ve experienced this with my 85dB receiver on my right ear failing before my 85 dB receiver on my left ear. And my right ear’s loss is a little more severe than my left ear’s loss in the highs. Sure this may just be a coincidence of failure. But the type of failure was very suspect. The right receiver still operated and delivered sound, but any perceived loud sound was o be distorted quite a bit. Almost as if the receiver was simply driven too hard that it wore out faster.
Another reason, you’re probably going to be fitted with open domes, with big vent. Usually for open domes, the software may over amplify the sounds that need amplification a little bit more than necessary to compensate for the leakage through the large vents. With a borderline receiver, the receiver can only amplify so much up to the borderline, so over amplification for the over compensation of the leakage is not possible because there’s no more room left to over compensate.
In terms of using technology (in this case Speech Rescue for the OPN), you definitely should use it based on your type of loss, as recommended by MDB. The Speech Rescue frequency composition technology gives you an option to preserve the high frequency sounds that are being lowered. If you want this option, having the 85 dB receivers will help make this preservation of the high sounds uncompromised. So don’t fall for the “you don’t need the high amplification if you’re using Speech Rescue anyway”, especially if you intend to preserve the highs in addition to generating the lowered sounds from these highs as well.
As for the fitter’s excuse that speech doesn’t exist beyond 3 KHz, I disagree because all the “s” and “sh” sounds as well as the fricatives from speech do reside within the range beyond 3 KHz. I use the Speech Rescue technology and my source range is between 4-7 KHz and my destination (lowered) range is between 1.6-2.4 KHz, and I hear plenty of speech components more clearly now which exist in the 4-7 KHz range.
t could be that I am misunderstanding what folks are calling programing the Costco Forte 8s … I just mess with the controls and the noise and wind levels until it works in those environments and then save it. Is that what you folks are getting at ?
The references to programming aren’t to user adjustments, such as the many made possible by ReSounds’ nifty app, but rather the software fitters use to configure hearing aids. This software provides numerous configuration options that go far beyond noise and wind levels for specific programs. For example, I believe the Forte configuration software enables the fitter to configure microphone directionality (omnidirectional or unidirectional) for each program.
No, it’s not nearly that dramatic. Some people barely notice it–others find the distortion awful. There’s lots of stuff out there on it. Here’s one of the better articles: 20Q: Frequency Lowering Ten Years Later - New Technology Innovations10 but as you can see, there’s a lot to it.
It sounds normal except I did notice with some music it sounded like the piano was out of tune. The power on jingle does sound different and now I can hear the whole thing, even the last high note
Wow you guys are going deep dive on this… it’s interesting. My wife has a grand piano in the house, and plays and sings… I’ve actually had to start taking out the hearing aids when she plays. I get some of that out-of-tune issue.
My take is that there’s really no doing this half way. One can either consult with a professional and put one’s trust in that professional or one can dive in and be more involved. I think learning just enough to question what the audiologist is doing is not a good place to be. Of course it depends a lot on how one asks questions.
Thank you for your great posts, @Volusiano. This states what I was thinking much more clearly.
Thanks to many informed users replying here, I am learning the technical side of hearing, which I want to do to be able to work with whatever fitter I use to get the best results I seek. I know that just saying “The _____ sound is bad” will not be enough to fine tune the to give me the best I can get.
I’ll make sure the 85 receivers get on the order, and see how the initial fitting goes with the OPN 1. She has tough competition with the exceptional Costco fitter who tested me there.
The Speech Rescue technology used in the OPN is not frequency compression but rather frequency transposition and composition (although with just a tiny bit of compression maybe), so I’m not finding the music I listen to out of tune at all. But then I don’t play individual notes with a piano looking for irregularities either. Just overall, it sounds very natural and in tune for me.
I’m now a hearing aid owner and very happy wearer! Costco ReSound Forte 8, 62 (13 batt), Medium Power receiver with a Phone Clip+, since I have a Pixel 2 XL phone with Android v.9.0 / Pie, and stream music many hours each day from phone or watch Vizio TV where I cast MLB at Bat or Hulu from the phone to TV, then via Avantree Oasis transmitter to Phone Clip+ direct to my ears, All this streaming is why I choose with size 13 batteries. What a wonderful experience to hear well again!
My Costco fitting was excellent, with the (Collin) going through all the steps and explaining everything on each step. The first thing was many steps of with three different tones, or garbled speech (Collin stated it is seven different languages spoken by men, women and children all at once to cover a wider range of voices).
1- in front of the speaker with tones, then garbled speech with the REM pickup device around my neck, ends with mics on my shoulders to calibrate the device.
2 - REM mics in my ears with no aids to see who my ears responded to the tones or garbled speech. Seeing live on the screen how my pinna directs sound to my inner ear was fascinating!
I’m such a total geek.
3 - REM mics in ears with HAs in place, tuned to my only.
4 - REM mics in ears wtih HAs, and he tuned settings to what REM results showed with tones and garbled speech, then played some sounds (bells, wind in trees, cars going by, water running, siren in the distance) and speech, man, woman, or child and asked if I understood clearly.
We talked about target settings, I stated I was highly adaptable and knew I had to learn to work with new sounds. He crumpled some paper, dropped a pen on the chair mat, I said they were loud, but not overwhelming. I told him about using the IQBuds Boost that adjust sounds with the NAL-HL2 formula with a phone app. He had me at 90% target,then moved me to 100% and suggested we try this in store to see how well I tolerated that level. I went home at 100% target.
We paired the HAs to PC+ (Phone Clip+) and PC+ to my phone, I walked around the store, came back, streamed some music from my phone. This with open domes, I did not like the music, lacking bass notes especially. Then he installed tulip domes, and I repeated the actions, music better, but still not much bass notes of jazz with a stand up bass. Then he installed some bass domes, and the music was much better, though obviously my voice got that in-a-tunnel sound.
I went over my whole checklist of items, many of those I gather from reading here on Hearing Tracker forums. We talked about the new Quattro, he had not heard of it but would investigate more. He thinks Costco will continue the ReSound line, as it is a strong seller in this store and others he knows from internal sources. Collin put four each of open, tulip, and bass domes in a baggie for me to take and experiment in the next two weeks before the first adjustment appointment.
At home I listened to some music on home speakers, TV, and played with settings in phone seeking music nirvana. I use Google Play Music service and it has an equalizer, so I set that with some bass and midrange boost, the PC+ has a bass boost while streaming, and I can get as good a sound as I can with ear buds on my hearing loss. That bass boost on the PC+ works well too, better than listening with the speakers attached to the TV. I like the streaming to HAs direct better, since I can mute the aids, eliminate other noises like fans, fridge, outside sounds of traffic two blocks away, neighbors outside, the sounds I don’t hear without HAs.
I was out at dawn this morning, to a small park two blocks from my apartment. Birds, insects buzzing, the early morning runners shoes on sidewalk, a worker washing down the concrete areas at the local swimming pool, planes at the airport (2 mi away), the mission bells downtown. What a treat, I think I’m still high on those sounds. I came back and put some old jazz on and had my OMG moment with Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, and Lionel Hampton. The violin and vibraphone high notes sent chills down my spine.
I’m not going to follow through with Oticon OPN 1 via Hearing Revolution after the fitter they sent me to was unresponsive to questions when I was there and a later phone call about receivers. She could care less about a person referred via Hearing Revolution, and her antagonistic attitude showed it.
Collin is perfect for my personality with all things geek and tech, why go anywhere else? I have the ReSound Smart Fit program installed, so I can investigate settings, knowing Collin will be fine with that. As I left, he said this was the most fun on a fit he had had in a long time, as we thanked each other for the great exchange.
Now I’m learning the Smart 3D app, it is highly configurable, much more than I expected after testing it in demo mode and going through its features. This is good for a hopeless geek!
Make a lengthy phone call while driving. I want to know if they maintain connection as your head swivels around checking traffic. That’s the biggest problem I’m having (member archive) with my Siemens. Every stop sign, every lane change, constantly losing connection.
Great review! I shall be following your further experiences just as I have done with Bryan9. Go to some really noisy places, especially restaurants. That is my biggest problem even without ’s as just yet!
@BlueCrab I no longer drive. Cataracts stopped that, then cancer, hit by a car and broken leg set me back more, so I sold the truck I had. The town where I live has an excellent public transit system, $16 / mo give me unlimited rides for 31 days, all routes, that is less than a half tank of gas! This is a very pedestrian / bike friendly town, and I love to walk through the beautiful neighborhoods. When I ride with a friend out of town next week though I will test and do the looking around as if I was driving.
@jim_lewis I went to a busy grocery store yesterday, and later a busy pharmacy and the performed very well! I’ve had problems in the past talking to the person at the counter with other customers in other lanes, ot the pharmacists on the phone in the background. Both of these were very clear yesterday with no problems hearing.
There is a very popular and busy sports bar / BBQ restaurant here in town that I have avoided for years because of the chaos in there, Order pick up broadcast over PA, cooks in the middle of the area shouting, bus boys (& girls) clearing tables into a large plastic bin, a dozen TV sets with various sports going, Many people in a large room with about 25+ high tables with stools between the bar and the three walls of TV sets. It is a fun, rowdy place, but a nightmare with poor hearing. That will be my penultimate test of hearing in a chaotic environment; tomorrow is the day. I miss the BBQ chicken!
The Phone Clip+ is tricky, as others have mentioned with other add on devices to work with Android, getting notifications I want without the constant phone connects with the diddle diddle dit from the HAs, then the notification tone from phone, then the beeps from the HAs as phone BT disconnects can be irksome. Still working through that issue to get the notifications I want with less intrusive interruptions So far it works great for streaming, no interruptions or disconnects that others have reported. It was on from 8 am until 10 pm yesterday with around 6 total hours of streaming music or baseball.
I couldn’t stand the notifications either. I turned that feature off, and bought a smartwatch. I have the volume on the watch turned off, since I can’t hear it anyway. I get my notifications by the watch vibrating. I find this to be a much better solution anyways, because I can just glance at the watch and determine if this is something that needs my attention or can be ignored for now.
Phone calls activate the aids, notifications don’t.
I’m not going to follow through with Oticon OPN 1 via Hearing Revolution after the fitter they sent me to was unresponsive to questions when I was there and a later phone call about receivers. She could care less about a person referred via Hearing Revolution, and her antagonistic attitude showed it.
Yeah, with this referral model, the local provider doesn’t make any profit on the hearing aids, the online outfit does. The local provider probably only gets paid for the service they render (the , the fittings, etc). So they’re not motivated enough to be responsive to you as they should.
