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Left Right Volume Differential

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Edited

From the day that I bought these hearing aids, I have always had a volume differential between left and right hearing.

My left ear is my good hear, the right is the bad ear.
The left ear has a Bass 8mm Double Vent
The right ear has a Power 8mm but also has a much bigger rectangle thing that goes into the dome. I don’t know if that is the amplifier or what?

I find that I can have right at zero and left at 2 clicks above and the right still sounds louder, but more importantly there is a feeling of depth and reverberation which I just don’t get in the left ear. I feel like I have a loudspeaker in my right ear, whereas my left ear, it doesn’t feel like the loudspeaker is on for want of a better way to explain it.

I was particularly made aware of this when I heard a buzzing noise from the usb cable plugged into a whiteboard. It was noticeable in the right ear, but I don’t think that I could hear it all in the left ear as it wasn’t a loud buzzing noise. I was so rushed that morning, that I didn’t have time to investigate that as I was trying to fix several laptops and other issues before rushing off somewhere.

After several adjustments and a test, I am left with three possible explanations.

Left Hearing Aid is faulty,
The dome is leaking all the frequencies which would explain the lack of volume and lack of depth.
The volume of the left aid is just not loud enough.

I don’t think the hearing aid is faulty or that its a volume issue as I have noticed that when the right hearing aid dome is not fully pushed in, it sounds similar to the left ear i.e. reduced volume and the depth is also not there. When I push the dome in properly, all is well on the right ear. However, I cannot push the left dome in further.

Do I need to ask my audio to replace the Bass Double Vent Dome with something else like a power dome or do I need a bigger rectangular thing that plugs into the dome on the left ear.

Or is there some other explanation for the volume differential and the feeling that there sense of depth in the left ear. I never had this issue with the Resound Hearing aid which was an in the ear hearing aid - custom mould hearing aid.

I don’t know if I have explained myself well. I don’t know if its the dome or if there is some other explanation for why I am still struggling to hear on the phone - which I never had an issue with using the Resound and the volume differential as well as the lack of depth of sound in left ear.

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when you stream music is it the same difference?

What you can try is to taken the dome of and use it without, that way you are more free to position the speaker in your ear. Yes the rectangular thing in the dome is the loudspeaker.
It can be that the wire is a bit short, so the speaker isn’t in the right position or the place where the sound comes out is against the side of the hearing chanel.

But I think you should go back to your audi.
In the adjustment program the difference between the two speakers should be calculated in.

You talk about good and bad ear, both are bad, as I see in your diagram, only left does more in the 2k range where speech is

Edited

I think the issue is that you have worse low frequency loss on your left ear. The lower frequency is where you will feel more sound energy, so it makes sense that your left ear feels under powered. You don’t say what your hearing aid brand and model is. Your left one should have been prescribed to compensate for the bass dome double vent fitting, but maybe if you use the same power dome for both ears, things will sound more balanced for you.

It also sounds like your provider fitted you with a larger receiver for your right ear compared to your left ear. It’s possible that the left receiver is borderline or maybe a little under power, I don’t know. It may also help to fit you with same size receivers on both ears.

If anything, doing these two things won’t hurt but can help. You may feel more occluded on your left ear as a trade off, but then your right ear should already feel like that, so it shouldn’t be worse than that.

Your left ear may seem like the better ear because it had less hearing loss in the higher frequencies than your right ear. BUT, it’s really not the better ear in terms of lower frequency loss… It’s actually the better ear for low frequencies. So I think it’d be better if both your ears are fitted with the same dome type and even the same receiver size. Trying to give your left ear a double vented some and a smaller receiver because your provider thinks that it’s the better ear may only exacerbate the imbalance that you feel.

That may also explain why you didn’t have this issue with your old with the custom molds : because the fitting was the same so you felt balanced. This time your provider went and changed your fittings to be different for both ears, possibly causing the imbalance you feel.

In reply to @pauldaytona

I use a tv streamer to watch movies and even listen to music. Definitely noticeable volume difference in all the frequencies.

Repositioning the speaker might be the explanation. Hadn’t thought of that. Good to know what that rectangular thing is now.

I meant in relative terms. My left ear is better for hearing dialogue whereas the right ear has always had a problem with distinguishment which is why when I was young, I was only given a hearing aid for the left ear as at the time, there would have only been a 5% improvement in the right ear. Obviously things have changed.

Yes bass dome are not adequate for low frequency loss above 40 you will feel tiny speech or no speech unless you come very close to person and music unless you stream directly not good at all I liked custom mould like volusiano for rich sound and best noise sepration.for your right ear do not keep vent provide only practical gain in low frequency I mean which will not increase noise.

In reply to @Volusiano

I have same aid you do. Oticon Opn 1 in both ears.

Yes I have a larger receiver/amplifier in the right ear. I can ask about that. I have gotten used to the right one, although initially it was not comfortable.

What is the difference between a bass dome and power dome. I would have thought that bass dome would well increase bass!

@Volusiano said:

BUT, it’s really not the better ear in terms of lower frequency loss… It’s actually the better ear for low frequencies.

I assume you mean better ear for high frequencies?

To clarify, its not just an imbalance between the two ears. I cannot hear properly on a telephone and I hever had this issue before. The volume itself on the left ear is a lot lower than my Resound hearing aids. I almost feel that I hear better on the phone without the hearing aid - especially my mobile. I dunno.

I will him about matching the domes and receivers. But I seem to recall reading on this forum about some standard domes leaking sound so sometimes people need a custom dome rather than a standard dome size.

For example, the beeping noise that my hearing aids make when I am putting them in - even that (which is a high frequency sound) is twice the volume if not more in the right ear. It’s not just low frequencies that are a lower volume, but also the high frequencies. So I was just wondering whether this is caused by leakage of the frequencies as mentioned in other forums when people were recommended to get a custom dome?

Thanks

In reply to @parth_p

Interesting, I would have thought a bass dome would improve bass!

The right ear does not have vent, it is a power dome. The left is bass double vent.

I am getting the impression from what everyone has said, that I need to replace the left ear dome with another type of dome.

But I will ask about getting a bigger receiver, but also seeing if the speaker is located properly.

While I seem to have the most issues with the lower frequencies, even high frequency sounds like my hearing aid chimes are noticeably different in volume.

If I have understood this article correctly, I have a in the left ear and a power dome in the right ear which is even more occlusive than the closed dome.

Learning and Understanding Hearing Aid Domes4

Taylor Hearing explains the different types of hearing aid domes: open, closed, and power. Understand the difference for optimal hearing aid performance.

I think it would appear that a power dome would work better for the left ear as the lower frequencies are the ones that I am having the most trouble with.

Edited

The bass dome with double vents, while more enclosed than the open dome, is not as enclosed as the power dome, which has no vent at all, and even a double dome sandwiched together. So you’re actually still leaking some low frequency sounds through the double vent bass dome compared to the power dome. I think the right choice for the left ear should be a power dome for your left ear as well.

The start up chime is actually not in the high frequency range. I would consider in the low and mid range.

The bass dome would improve bass, yes, but only compared to the open dome.

The fitting may improve your hearing depth perception, but if there’s still a volume imbalance, then you should ask your provider to simply increase the overall volume on your left ear compared to the right ear.

Ok, I will try using a Power dome, then move onto a bigger receiver.

Perhaps not high frequency, but the chimes are not low frequencies as in bass is what I mean. So even that is not the volume it should be and if I have understood my ears correctly, I should be hearing this louder in the left ear as my left ear is supposed to be better at this frequency.

I will book in an another appointment with my audio and see what he comes back with.

Don’t know if you noticed my reply to your topic. The REM did improve things for me, but obviously the main issue is the dome/receiver etc.

I have started with the 85 transceivers, with powerdomes, and ended with molds, that during the day are more comfortable, because the domes start irritating after hours. And had them remade to have a shorther housing, so they would fit better in the channel.

What reminds me within a year, one transceiver had a volume problem, it went more quiet so that I thought, is my hearing gone so much worse in a few month. In the end one speaker was replaced, and now is the volume back.
I could hardly hear the sound when closing the battery door.

In reply to @Volusiano

See Roberto’s has more high frequency loss.if Audi amplify right ear more he will hear loud and left which is better has less amplification then he will think that right aid is good and left is bad to solve this audi. In some cases not possible to equal loudness so they less amplify bad ear this is increasing understanding this is research finding. Even I have observed this for detail see my audiogram my left ear is bad if I more amplify intelligibility will suffer in right ear

In reply to @Volusiano

Your story is similar to mine except my right ear is better than the left and when I was younger they fitted my better ear. Now I wear behind the ear Phonak with custom fitted mold rather than a flexible dome. My audi told me with my hearing loss that the soft molds would not be suitable for me with my type of hearing loss.

We are going to be investigating the domes when I go for my next appointment. Next step is to have same dome in left ear as right ear.

Update.

Today I had him fit me with a power dome matching the dome in the right ear. All I can say is wow - what a difference. I am actually hearing sounds I was not hearing before - example I am more aware of the noise of the car than I was before. Even the startup chimes - there is a noticeable difference in the musical sounding effect. It’s like night and day.

Even talking to people, the difference in bass is very noticeable and the volume is a lot better on the phone as well.

He has not adjusted the aid for the power dome as this would lose the settings. So I will probably need to go back to get him to adjust the left hearing aid as I think it doesn’t sound quite right in the left ear now. Slightly too muddy and while the volume differential has been reduced considerably, I still notice that if I really pump up the volume for music, it sounds louder and clearer in the right ear almost as if there is something between my left ear and the sound. It may be that I need the same receiver as well. But clearly changing the dome has worked wonders and was clearly the biggest problem.

This weekend, I will test out movies and see what the movies are like :grin: Very pleased with the improvement.

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