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Experiencing feedback with my Oticon Opn hearing aids

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I have been a Oticon Hearing Aid user since 2013. I had two sets of Alta Pro’s before my new set of OPNs1. I am experiencing a type of feedback in my hearing aids that is hard to describe. It is a repeating sound [echo] that occurs on certain high sounds and pitches. Such as, If some one would say the word car to me at this certain volume or pitch it would repeat like this. Carrrrrrr instead of car. I have been to my audiologist several times for adjustment. We sent them back to Oticon for repair as well as the new ear molds. They replaced both the hearing aids as well as the ear-molds. Personally I don’t think they repaired or replaced a thing because nothing has changed except with the adjustments my audiologist has been making. We went from a set of P105 ear-molds to P100 soft rubber molds and it is better maybe a 40% improvement. My wife is sitting here talking to me and I’m experiencing the echo effect. I did not experience these effects when I first got them. What happened was that I hooked my Iphone to the power cord in my truck and it went to Itunes. I was trying to get to the maps app when I accidentally hit play. The volume was so loud that it made the ear-molds crackle and pop. So i thought I popped the speakers which they replaced as well as the unit so they say. The problem still exists. I am at a loss. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem and what did you do about it? Thank you for any input!
Joe

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Welcome to the forum.
The sound you describe might be warbling.
Try searching that term for more detailed information.
I believe the noise block and feedback controls have been noted to cause this with some aids.
More help on this should come soon.

Certainly sounds like the feedback shield trouble that I and others have had. If you can have your Audi disable the feedback shield on your main program and then try it for a week, I think you’ll notice that the echo effect is gone.

I have the OPN1 aids and I get a little feedback with really loud sounds. Most of that can be tuned out. I would explain to your Audi the issues you have and allow him to work on the feedback manager.

Thank you all for your comments. I had today off and have done some good research on the Oticon OPN line and I guess they are problem prone and this is well known by Oticon. This is like most things except most things don’t cost $5.500.00. This is one quarter of my yearly income and I can’t and won’t be able to let this go. So I find myself in a tough spot by all this. The hearing aids are spectacular and I can hear things I haven’t heard in years but that ends as soon as I have a conversation with another human being. I feel like I’ve been had. Be assured that I have been to the audi six times for an adjustment that never works. So what to do? I’ll have to sleep on it! Thanks again for the excellent help…
Joe

In what way or the problem prone, I have been wearing them for over a year, and I have not had but one issue with them and they were fixed right away. Now I have aids, and not the Minirite aids. But I haven’t had any other issues in almost a year. So I am very curious at what you see as problem prone.

OPN S1 minirite Warbling
Am 2 weeks away of ending trial for OPNS1 and still have the warbling issue with my left ear. Me and my Audi managed to switch off feedback in the right ear but because my left have a sever loss, with feedback it’s almost continuous having feedback. Oticon representatives advised we may use another receiver 100db(now am having 85db) but my Audi thought it may not help. I like the Audi , she is helpful and always try to do her best. I think am going to purchase the S but on a hope this will be …

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/confused-with-opn-sound-help/34843 (member archive)
https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/oticon-opn-1-warble-flutter-help-noise-management/33961 (member archive)

Adjustment for Echoey Sound on Oticon Opn S 1
I have been wearing Oticon OPN S1 since the beginning of May. I have been to the audiologist about a dozen of times, but still my hearing is so echoey that I cannot understand people in conversation or on phone. I realized that my hearing itself was echoey. I mentioned this to my ear doctor - he said that it sounded echoey because I don’t hear well. I updated my hearing test result but couldn’t change speech scores. The new results were: Left - speech level 80dB, 68% Right - speech level 90d…

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/hearing/oticon-hearing-aids.html?page=2#sort=top_reviews&filter=none2

Did not mean to press any buttons. I’ve been to the audi six times in four months. With my previous two sets of Oticons they never had to be adjusted until the next hearing test every six months. I purchased the OPN with the understanding that they were the best and it did not turn out this way for me. I’m glad that you found them great but I didn’t. My wife wore them for an hour watching TV at my request and reported the same issues as I have stated above. The last time I went to the audi [Monday] she put the stethoscope looking tool on the ear-molds and heard the same issues reported above. My 60 day warranty expired 60 days ago and I’m stuck with them so I have to make the best of it which is why I sought help from other users. Did not mean to post personal opinion, now I know better.
Again, Apologies for crossing any lines with my comments.

With anything that has electronics in it and or software/firmware you are going to have a certain amount of issues. As a retired electronics tech/software engineer, I understand this. If you let this stop you will find this true with each ever hearing aid company. You need to look at the following .Also an old saying in software for every buy found there is always 100 bugs that have never been found, they all take the very special circumstance to be found.

The Best Hearing Aids of 2024, Audiologist Approved

Whether you have tinnitus, mild, moderate, or severe hearing loss, or need a rechargeable, , or Bluetooth model, we help you pick the best hearing aids for your lifestyle.

And take the looks at what ends up being the most reliable and you will see that Oticon is top of the list.

In reply to @capecuddy

I still have my old set of alta pros and will wear them tomorrow at church. They are great and I have had no problems with them. Switching to the OPNs, The sound is simply indescribable. I hear everything!!! I can hear the ducks on the small lake a couple hundred feet from my house. I never heard them before the OPN’s. I hear wind, leaves, birds, planes over head, etc… Speech on the other hand is questionable. It is a vast improvement over the alta’s but my set of can only handle so much volume then they beak up. I’m hopeful my audi has a fix for this. She is great and has been working with me. The problem has gotten better but not really good enough to talk in a group. Anyway for clarity and sound I highly recommend the OPN’s but for speech I can’t recommend them at this time.

Joe if your Audi is worth his keep he will be able to adjust your aids so you can understand speech. I will tell you this it is hit and miss, it took me having monthly appointments for about 10 months to get my aids where I wanted them. I thought I was just being overly picking but as it turns out it is just my hearing issues that caused so many adjustments to get it right. I will say each time we did an adjustment things got better, and with each additional adjustment got to be closer to what I was wanting. Stick with it you can get there.

In reply to @joe.gosselin

You are doing a great job of researching what you can pass on to your audiologist. Another day or two of reading you will have it figured out. Send a message to a member or two if you need to to ask what was done to correct the warbling. Maybe @Volusiano can help you.
From what you are saying the aids are really doing great job of getting your hearing back.
It’s just the fine tuning that’s not right.
You have really good aids. They just need the correct tuning changes made for you.
Hang in there.

In reply to @cvkemp

The very first OPN review states as follows…

Perspective on Q 3 and 8: 3 - 5* for cellular with connect clip, great improvement for call quality and understanding. 1* for landline with a regular handset, but that is still me learning to use a handset with aids. 8 - Known trouble with ‘warble’ occurring due to new ‘Feedback Shield’. Disable ‘Feedback Shield’ and this problem stops, however feedback is more prevalent.

It is interesting that what I thought was my problem is not just me. I know my audi adjusted a lot of settings and turned off something but I can’t remember what it was. Stupid of me not to remember. The Phonaks look good but have the same positive and negative reviews. I think these companies have adapted what Microsoft does with it’s new programs. Just throw it out there and learn from the users. Thanks for the link.
Joe

Joe I have found that the ones that love them and the ones that hate them hate them to the point of making them sound worse than they are. I have worn Oticon for over 10 years out of my 15 years of wearing hearing aids and have seen nothing more that normal issues that can happen to any high tech device. I am due new aids this summer and my feeling is I am sticking with Oticon. But that will also depend on my Audi which I trust to lead me to the correct aids. Now it is important to know I get my aids from the and have never had anything but the top of the line aids

In reply to @joe.gosselin

You have not crossed any lines with your comments, so no apologies necessary. We all are here to help and share experiences.
I am also a longtime Oticon user, including the Alta2Pro’s and now OPN1. Personally, it scrambles my brain switching between them.

In your research of the echo,warble issues, you are including the OPN and the OPNS - they are different hearing aids, similar, but definitively different. Focus on OPN 3 issues.
You stated you wear the OPN3 with a P100 receiver (started out as a P105). I also wear a P100 with the OPN1 which has more processing options than the OPN3. Perhaps the P100 is to much power or you need to move up to the OPN2 or OPN1. I am not a -er, but my Audi has explained to me that there is a “governor” - the threshold that allows or prevents sounds that are too loud from ever reaching the receivers. Perhaps your Audi needs to address this individually per ear. Try to determine which side you hear the delay or echo. Only wear one hearing aid. About 15 years ago, I had this issue with other aids on beeps, like stove, washing machine, etc. I would hear 2 when there was only 1.

Your 60 trial period may be over, but your warranty is not over.
Ask your Audi to bring in the Oticon Rep to help solve this problem. The Oticon Rep can evaluate and make recommendations and probably solve your problem. You are a dedicated, loyal Oticon buyer and that Rep doesn’t want to lose you as a client.

Thank you for the reply. It turns out that I do indeed have the OPNs1. Sorry for the confusion. I was looking at the brochures and not the receipt.

In reply to @cvkemp

As you describe is with anything. But your point is well taken. They are wearing better today and I’m finding if I lower the volume just one notch it happens very infrequently. So i’m going to copy this thread and bring it to my audi. Perhaps it’s time to meet the rep as well.

In reply to @joe.gosselin

Please understand that I respect your opion very much, we all have different experiences and so very different hearing issues. And I know for a fact that you take two people with very similar hearing loss and their needs as far as aids go can be totally different. So hang in there and get what works for you.

I had the same issue with warbling when on trial of both OPN S1 and Phonak Marvel but the Marvel was less noticeable. The OPN S gave me the clear speech understanding on most if not all situations.
I have 3 programs
1- general with feedback shield ON- (I can notice warbling sometimes.)
2- Speech in noise
3- copy of general but without feedback shield (both ears) . No warbling but found with my Audi that when feedback is off, my gain becomes higher 1 notch. But there is barely feedback.
Note: I changed to use the Marvel double domes better than the original Oticon domes in terms of feedback. That’s what am using now.

Speech clarity is the most important to look at and your Audi should work on it with/without feedback manager.

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