Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Distortion while playing the piano removed after switching acoustics setting. Why?

This topic is closed.

9 replies1.4k viewsLast reply

Link to this topic

I have been struggling with my ’s the last weeks: Suddenly the piano sounded very bad. Distortion on a lot of keys. Especially, when you hit them harder.

After switching from SlimTip to Earmold, however, the distortion is gone, the piano sounds grand and it seems like my ears have opened up again! Why does this work? Because I have been hearing very nicely with the setting on SlimTip for over half a year now, it isn’t because Earmold is right and SlimTip is wrong (, although I must say that this sounds better :slight_smile: )

Could it be that changing the acoustics reset the HA’s, fixing other problems, too?

I use the term “reset”, because I found in Phonak Target>Trails&tools>Reset to factory settings>Reset Hearing aids. However, I was afraid to use it in case there was some calibration of the mic&amps that I would lose. Does anyone know exactly what the “reset” function does?

4 people in this conversation4 min readJump to latest

Phonak Audeo Marvel M90-R
Google Pixel 3 XL

I’m just two months in with my first ’s. I play a 7’5" concert grand. The only way I can play is to set my program on MUSIC and turn my volume way down. Even then playing anything Forte is extremely irritating.

Edited

@TraderGary I hear you! Been at it for more than 6 years now. Tested around 12 hearing aids. Finally got the Phonak Bolero B90-SP working last fall. I think that the important difference between your aids and mine could be that mine are SP as in SuperPower. They are engineered to handle a lot of power. They outperformed Oticon OPN1 and Phonak Audeo Direct B90’s at the piano.

You could search the internet and read Marshall Chasin’s Can your hearing aid handle loud music? It will give a few pointers to try out whether your aid can be tuned to handle your piano. If all else fails and it is important to you, you could opt to get bigger receivers/speakers. (Phonak seems to have XS and XP. On your receiver it says e.g. 2xS or 4xP. The number is the length of the wire, the letter is the strength of the speaker.) It was the first solution my audiologist offered when my …Starkey Q’s,IIRC,… couldn’t handle the piano.

I do think it is normal for a piano program to be up to 6-8dB lower than the standard Music program: Normally, people aren’t that close to live music. Chasin’s literature even states values for musical instruments at 3m distance!

Edited

@Zebras So you don’t think there is any calibration done at all? Did you reset it and found it to work like you expect? My only worry with it is that I might loose some info, that I am not able to input with Phonak Target, such as hardware calibration.
If a change in acoustics already does a soft reset, seemingly only leaving the REUG and unchanged, why is there a factory reset and what does it do that allows for a whole button in the setup screen?

You’ll loose everything but if it’s saved on your computer, you can just re load your settings back on.

In reply to @Markismus

@Markismus said:

Marshall Chasin’s Can your hearing aid handle loud music?

Thank you for pointing to this abstract. But don’t mix total harmonic distortion () generated by the mics vs receiver. Chasin is complaining of input clipping, i.e. the input is already distorted, if the mics can’t handle inputs up to 115dB . The latter is neccessary for playing the piano yourself. This is independent from the receivers. The receivers in contrast have influence on the (maximum output pressure).
But also keep in mind: the abstract is from 2006. Meanwhile most (premium) systems should be able to handle high input pressure.
Btw the abstract does allow multi channel adjustments as long as the compression ratios are all the same (not neccessarily “1.0”).

I can’t give you an answer to your question in the headline. When I start a new session from scratch I always apply acoustics parameters that I really have and never change that again. I don’t know the difference between SlimTip and Earmold.

@Dani I don’t expect it to be the input mic, although it nice to test it with such a simpel tool as sticky tape!! I expect it to be the power needed: One way to nudge in that direction without changing aids is the receivers.

However, as this thread implies, the reasons for the distortion can be rather obscure. The same settings that gave me a good piano in December, gave me distortion last week. Now after the soft reset by changing acoustics, it doesn’t really matter what I use as settings: no distortion!

That doesn’t mean there is nothing to tweak. The normal music program is so intense that I am utterly exhausted after 30s! No distortion, though.

IIRC, the Phonak SlimTip is an “ear mold” that has known acoustic parameters. Whether that means that a custom mold’s parameters are estimated with more weight to the and REUG values? Can only guess about those things.

Edited

In reply to @Dani

@Dani Chasin has a whole list of publications. In the category music and hearing aids you can find them here27.
Especially, Programming hearing instruments to make live music more enjoyable (2010) seems relevant. Hearing Aids for Musicians has the table of loudness values for different music instruments.

Related discussions