Amateur Pianist - hearing aid distorts music

Thanks so much for the tip. My Philips mini rite 9300 has no music program that I can find. Perhaps it is hidden. I will check with the Costco technician, who was impressively knowledgeable. Still better than all the other hearing aids I have tried, but cannot reproduce music the way my Etymotics do. I was thinking of trying the AirPods Pro 2 just for concerts and practicing, not for general use.

It’s not really hidden per se. It’s available, but your Costco HCP would have to select and assign it into one of the 4 available programs for you per your request. I’m a little surprised that the knowledgeable Costco tech didn’t tell you about the available programs you can add on to the default programs, up to 4 of them. If you don’t, at least 3 of the 4 programs would just be idling wastefully not being useful for you at all.

As for the AirPods Pro 2, you can always buy it from Costco to try out and if it’s not helpful, it’s easy to return to Costco. They regularly have it on sale at $200.

I just learned that Philips has a new App so I got it-it has 2 programs: Classroom and Normal. They have a PDF download that states that the fitting technician can install a total for four programs, so there we go! Thanks so much! Maybe I won’t need AirPods, but I was thinking about the easy return policy of Amazon also. But what do they do with returned AirPods? Might I be getting something that has already been in someone’s ear? Yuck.

@sam.smith said:

She turned it off in the music program and the warbling immediately disappeared. I had brought my Zo

Yes. this is exactly what I did for my so-called Musician’s Program for my Signia AX7’s. And yes, it fixed the issue. But this is an entirely common problem across all brands, as far as I can tell. Compression also needs to be turned off, as well as wind block and other features–in that program only. All this runs `180 degrees counter to what audis and manufacturers think is best. So it may take some arm twisting. Again, there’s several pdfs published by reputable audis detailing how to set up an effective musician program for hearing aids. These have been shown here a dozen times to good response. I’ve pleaded with the forum to PIN these pdfs for simplicity’s sake, since this whole issue comes up several times a month here and we have to start all over again explainin what’s going on and how to proceed. The forum refuses to do this. go looking; I don’t have the time.

There is an awful warble or vibrato on any pure tone if the feedback is enabled. Sit at the piano, play a single note, and it sounds out of tune with a rapid fluctuation in pitch. I can only guess that they are trying to eliminate feedback by varying the pitch. Turn off that feedback and the tones are pure again.

This is on 4 year old oticons. I understand the newer ones have a fancy music program, but I have not tried them.

@sam.smith → can you clarify if you have the More or the OPN or the OPN S?

The reason I ask is because this warbling on pure tone sounds is only due to the 10 Hz frequency shift as 1 of the 3 strategies in the original Oticon reactive Feedback Shield. The OPN only has this traditional Feedback Shield feature (employed by most other aids’ brands as well(), but the OPN S, More and Real and subsequent models after the OPN S all have both the traditional Feedback Shield, as well as the new Sound Optimizer which is a new preventive feedback management technology.

If you have the OPN S and later, although the older Feedback Shield is still available, it’s preferred to be left inactive, and users should use the newer Sound Optimizer feedback manager. If this is the case, then this warbling effect on pure tone should no longer be heard. But the new Sound Optimizer feedback manager can introduce a new kind of fluttering, especially if you have heavy hearing losses that can be more prone to feedback potential. Oticon updated its firmware to make this new Sound Optimizer work less aggressively to minimize the fluttering effect for people who can hear it, and it seems to have helped a lot.

So I’m explaining the details here to clarify that the warbling on the pure tone due to the 10 Hz shift should be old news by now. If you have the OPN S and later and the new Sound Optimizer feedback manager is working OK for you, you don’t really need to turn it off, especially if you don’t hear the new fluttering effect. And you should not hear this fluttering very often at all, unless you have heavy hearing losses that can trigger frequent feedbacks such that the fluttering has to be activated to stave off the feedback potentials.

Spot on here. Since the S, we barely even run the Feedback Manager at all.

@sam.smith said:

So I need to go to the audiologist and get a firmware upgrade?

As @Volusiano mentioned, the setting for the Low value was not added to the OPN S
I had the same issue, and Oticon support acknowledged the issue , but did not offer a firmware update, but rather suggested the More which has the Low setting added.
I’m fortunate that I get my aids through the VA, and my Chief of Audiology agreed to upgrade me.
So, sorry to say, the OPN S is no longer supported, and your only path forward is probably the Real.