Dani's trip to his CI

@Toti said:

February

i mean January، I seem to be anxiously waiting for February😂

good luck bro

Have not heard from you in a while.
Any updates on your CI’s?

Oh wow that was a fantastic weekend!
It’s real! It’s live! It’s Guns’n’Roses near my home and I have been there together with more than 50,000 fans.

Remember: I am bilaterally CI implantet. My last live concert has been 29 years ago. It was the same music band and at the same location. Those days I used to listen with power HAs in both ears. Last friday I was “stuck” to my CIs. Axl Rose’s voice sounded a little different than the last time. But hey, he also is getting older but he and his fellows were performing like 30 year old youngsters.

Listening to the music was a pleasure. The deep bass not only was body shaking but I am also sure that I have heard the sound (with my “music” labelled program). This is a really great finding.
I think the reason that music sounds so well is that I repeatedly listen(ed) to my favourite music again and again all those past 18 (left ear) and 28 (right ear) months.

@Dani How much do you rate the CI compared to HA in scale 1 to 10?
1 = not good, 10 = awesome.
I take it the CI are much much better than BTE HA?
Thank you.

Ah, Dani, that sounds so exciting. I have been wondering about going to a concert again, but I am afraid of the general volume. The last concert I attended, about 20 years ago, Fleetwood Mac, was SO intensely loud, my husband went to the desk and asked for earplugs. I scoffed at the absurdity of wearing earplugs to a live - and expensive - concert and spurned the ear protection. Well, the drive home was intensely silent, as my ears were blocked as a result of that assault. It took a couple of days to get back to normal. My husband still maintains that concert was the start of my hearing problems - the audiologist disagrees … All this to ask - do the processors dampen the sound to a safe and comfortable level? Do you have some sort of autosense on your hearing aids (I think you have Med-El), or did you have to make your own adjustments? I don’t even know if it is possible to further damage your ears after implantation … I quit riding behind my husband on his VERY loud vintage Harley motorcycle because I fear damaging non-implanted ear any further even though I have always worn protection (unlike hubby, who still has great hearing). But an open air concert sounds just wonderful, and I look back wistfully as we drive past a summer concert venue near our home …

Hello Susan,

@susanmarylynn said:

do the processors dampen the sound to a safe and comfortable level?

YES they dampen. As long as one is bilaterally electrical CI only implantet.
At the beginning of the concert I reduced my CI’s volume for safe and later I increased that again to normal volume. The processors always keep volume in your comfortable zone if it was programmed correctly.

But: if input volume exceeds the range of the mics (i.e. greater than 105dB with Sonnet) then the sound will sound distortet. That’s the case for live Rolling Stones open air concerts In this case you should wear earplugs to protect your eardrums to prevent infections.

Thank you, Dani for that information. Very helpful.

@Dani said:

For “c)” you may try to wear earplugs like ohropax in both ears (so that you don’t use the accoustic part of your CI and no HA)

Sheryl doesn’t have the acoustic part of the CI anymore. Think it’s been more then a year since she went fully CI.

I believe you may be right. But at least she still hear deep sound in her residual ear?

@Dani

Oh maybe, not sure on that.

Well noise reduction is incorporated into SCAN but it is actually a stand alone feature.

I am playing with a few extra programs right now with SCAN turned off because I have run into a few situations where it over compensates. So I found the Custom Sound Pro user manual to see what options existed.

The important one here is Autosensitivity control (ASC) which softens loud sounds. I believe when SCAN is turned on this runs automatically to limit loud sounds.

There is also its opposite ADRO which boosts soft sounds.

There is also noise reduction, wind reduction, and various microphone configurations.

Thanks Pat.
I have read a little about Custom Sound Pro. Would love to get a copy of it, the program.
You are correct as far as I know about the sub programs. There is a lot to the software.
Thanks again.

Not sure why there is no answer to my post, so I’ll re-post it again, hopefully @Dani can reply
@Dani How much do you rate the CI compared to HA in scale 1 to 10?
1 = not good, 10 = awesome.
I take it the CI are much much better than BTE HA?
Thank you.

@Baltazard
There is no way to answer your question. You just can’t compare a CI to a HA.
Or how would ypu rate an apple to an iPhone? 1-10?