Review: ReSound Forte FT861-DRW (Costco) vs. Oticon OPN1

Everything is adjustable and they may not have them turned up if you are new wearer. The aids themselves may have an acclimation schedule, or your pro may do it manually based on how you are doing. You should need a few adjustments the first couple of months. It takes time for your brain to adjust to the new sounds.

As you ask, I am sharing my experience, now in my second day with Forte 8.
I got carried away with my excitement with the ReSounds over here.

New member, getting first HA, seeking opinions Oticon, ReSound

I’m now a hearing aid owner and very happy wearer! Costco ReSound Forte 8, 62 RIC (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 BT transmitter to Phone Clip+ direct to my ears, All this streaming is why I choose HAs with size 13 batteries. What a wonderful experience to hear well again! My…

@teejayess said:

What a wonderful experience to hear well again!

Still feeling this way after a month with my Forte 8s. Stuff I just couldn’t hear with my Oticon Agil Pros: Comments made by checkout clerks in supermarkets/big box stores, wife talking from another room, TV at normal volume, my little cat mewing softly, cats purring, birds chirping outside, slow-moving cars coming at me when I’m crossing the street, pill hitting floor after I dropped it… able to have phone conversations again and don’t fear the phone ringing…

Update - I am totally grooving on listening to music through my Forte 861s connected to my iPhone. I have to push my power domes all the way into the canal in order to get the deepest base. I select the Music program with Bass Boost, and use the Music app to play my favorite tracks… .and OMG, I am hearing music again for the first time in 25 years. It’s just an overwhelming experience. Honestly, the sound is as good as anything I’ve experienced with audiophile quality headphones or speakers… doubtless because the frequency response has been adjusted to suit my audiogram. What a joy!

I just described this post to my wife, who commented:

“For the first time in many, many years, I am now able to talk to you in a nice, soft voice, without yelling. It’s very pleasant. It was such a struggle to have conversations with you before. And I’m not raising my voice too much when I speak to other people with normal hearing – something they noticed.”

Turn the volume down on your aids to quiet the road noise and turn the volume up on your radio to compensate.

@x475aws said:

have you tried the Noise Reduction slider in the Music program’s Sound Enhancer section?

@Mark_Chambers said:

Turn the volume down on your aids to quiet the road noise and turn the volume up on your radio to compensate

Thanks for very helpful suggestions! Yesterday was the first time on a long open road trip for me with HA’s. While driving at 70 to 75 mph, I didn’t want to play around with the phone in a dashboard phone mount (ProClipUSA) too much for fear of distracting driving (I think of the same while switching radio stations by pressing the Search button without looking). The laws are pretty strict, surprisingly for Texas, and in 2017 the state had a horrific accident with a young guy, driving a truck while under the influence of drugs, marijuana, and alcohol and texting, who crossed the center lane and crashed into a van load of elderly churchgoers returning from a retreat outing, probably at a closing speed in excess of 120 mph (it was a 70 mph road). Incredibly, he survived with modest injuries but all 13 people in the van died. The guy had been followed for miles and even recorded on cell phone video by another car going the same way and terribly alarmed by his erratic behavior (he had already swerved across the center line and also onto his own side shoulder numerous times and recovered). The pursuing civilian trackers called 911 but during the high-speed drive, the guy crossed from one Texas county into another, the sort of back country situation where a sheriff’s deputy from a specific county would be responding, and by the time the Mounties arrived, all they could help do was collect bodies. Supposedly the fact that the van had only lap belts, not cross-chest harnesses, contributed significantly to the fatalities.

Texas man indicted in church bus crash that killed 13

Jack Young turned himself in Wednesday and was being held on a $380,000 bond, prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.

So thinking about stuff like that, I’ll be all for HA’s of the future where you can control programs and settings either directly with the HA’s or indirectly through your phone app by using your voice! (and I never drive under the influence of anything-except caffeine that I keep in sliding dispenser mouth mug in my car cupholder).

I wear Alta2 Pros. I use the streamer to turn down the aids a few notches and turn up the radio. I can then use the radio equalizer to adjust the sound. It works well.

Try Pandora- Free with few commercials- Although you would have to stream it from your phone.

@jim_lewis said:

UPDATE : In reading how the BT adapters work, it’s streaming FROM a phone device TO the car radio. Perhaps what I’m looking for has not been invented yet: BT streaming FROM the car audio system TO BT-enabled listening devices, e.g, BT-headphones, earbuds, or HA’s. That would let some folks in the car listen and others wouldn’t have to hear what’s playing.

Ugh, sorry about that.

@Geno said:

Try Pandora- Free with few commercials- Although you would have to stream it from your phone.

Thanks for the tip. I’ve thought about something like that. My first preference would actually be the live FM station app Next Radio as I have an FM chip in my Galaxy Note 8. If I plug in a wired headset, the cable on the headset acts as an FM antenna and it would act just like a car radio. The advantage of live, over-the-air FM is that it consumes VERY little battery and LESS DATA compared to real streaming over the Internet - and I think with Next Radio I can switch to Internet radio streaming if I want.

The disadvantages are that the phone sends its audio out through the wired headset, so I’d have to wear it in the car, which might block other useful road audio, e.g., a car honking at me, and I’d be more likely to get into distracted driving trying to mess with my phone screen rather than just punching a large car radio button that I know by reflex where to find.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nextradioapp.nextradio