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Intermittent "static" in KS9

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Edited

I’ve had my KS9’s for a bit over 5 months now and have made many tweaks using Target and have been happy with the results. Lately over the past 2 weeks I’ve noticed intermittent static at times in the right hearing aid. It sort of sounds like a temporary hiss, sort of the sound it would make if you slowly dragged a finger over the mic. When I’ve experienced this I’ve disconnected the phone Bluetooth, removed my glasses, and even tried moving the aid slightly away from my head to rule out the phone connection or something rubbing against the microphone. None of this has eliminated the static when it’s happening. I don’t think it’s program related because it sounds like it’s only coming from the right side. Is there anything I can try through Target such as a “reset” (if there’s such a thing)? I’m beginning to think it may just be a defect starting to show itself. I’m planning on contacting Costco to make an appointment and I’m hoping the wait will not be astronomical these days. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.

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Edited

If you have an expansion feature in the software you might want to increase it. I did and it eliminated the sound. It could also be from a clogged . My hearing aids do that when I need to change the wax guard and using a hearing aid vacuum to clean them and give them a good cleaning. Replace the wax guard and they where as good as new. I also had a circuit that went on my hearing aid that sounded like what you are saying you hear. In that case you need the hearing instrument specialist to check it out. It could also be the wire is going bad. That too would make the same sounds you are hearing. It is a great idea to let Castco fix them. I hope this helps you. Good luck getting your appointment and I hope you get a speedy fix to the problem.

You can factory reset the aid in target. I’ve done that many times over the years since I started self programming in 2011.

You could try swapping the receivers over to see if that is where the problem is, this would at least eliminate one possible cause.

In reply to @anon51048403

What do you mean by expansion feature? I’m not sure I’ve seen that option in Target. I upgraded the firmware this morning to the latest version. I’m secretly hoping maybe that will resolve the issue. So far so good but it’s probably too soon to be sure. Also I called Costco and they said I can just stop in and they’ll change out the wire/s. No appointment necessary so I’ll probably do that on Thursday. I’m still within my return window and I’m debating whether it might be smarter to just return these and purchase a new pair. I’ll have to see how long it will take to get new ones. I’ll update here as this all progresses. Thanks for all the advice.

Another thought is do you use a hearing aid dryer? They have a nice one at Costco.

In reply to @bytes2bits

@bytes2bits said:

What do you mean by expansion feature? I’m not sure I’ve seen that option in Target. I

Yeah I think that’s a ReSound feature, but probably others as well, it’s where you can turn down soft environmental sounds, it supposedly can help with your issue, hiss and static types, apparently it’s the receivers own sound you can hear, but I would say you would need near perfect low frequency hearing to hear it tho!

Edited

In reply to @bytes2bits

Expansion helps reduce certain types of sound to avoid them being heard or being too loud. Like that hissing sound that hearing aids make is a common example. It not feedback that is different. It is found in the programming software used to program my hearing aids. It a feature that is not available for all hearing aids yet. That was why I was asking. More for my knowledge. I got access to it when accessing the program for my hearing aids. It has been effective to make the hearing aids sound clearer. It is different from noise cancellation. For my hearing loss which is tricky to treat as there are medical issues in addition to the fact I severe to profound hearing loss. I will take every advantage I can get to hear better that is very important to me. What it did is to help make sounds and words clearer when I activated the feature. It countered some of the problems that where caused by the compression. If you want more information there are some videos on it on YouTube that explain it great. I am thankful the hearing aids have been so effective in treating my hearing loss. Also as mentioned where drying your hearing aids is helpful too. Just be careful if you have rechargeable hearing aids some dryers are not recommended for them. There is a professional dryer that hearing aid dispenser may have that does a great job drying out hearing aids. As for your hearing aids issues it sounds like you have a great plan to deal with the problem. I wish you good luck in finding a fast solution to the problems. It is frustrating when your hearing aids do not work. I went through that after having to change my hearing aids when they died after 10 years of service. Have a great night and thank you for your question. I hope I answered yours.

@bytes2bits
Expansion for phonak isn’t called that way, but it’s simple - check the tab marked 35db (i think it’s too the right of fine tuning), lower gain there. And you just increased expansion. Voilà :smiley:

@tenkan I heard that immediately on my bad ear and it drive me nuts, and it was high frequency area that I hat to lower to get rid of the ‘loud silence’, ok not completely but significantly more. I think it was fine but now when I wrote about it I hear it, so it might be that brain can get more out of after since training, so I might decrease that even more.
And I have low frequency ‘total loss’, so my case definitely isn’t low frequency sounds.

Thanks everyone for all of the great information. The information on “expansion” is very interesting. The only reason I would disagree that that’s what I’m experiencing is that it’s intermittent. It’s not always there and I can almost hear it “click” on when it starts to happen and then it clicks off. I originally thought maybe a program change (automatic) was happening but as I said it’s only on the right side and I thought a program change would occur in both ears at the same time. So far it has not occurred since updating the firmware but it’s still early to be sure. I had changed the already and also I never have an issue with moisture with my ears/aids.

Judging by your , it really looks like you’d expect same behaviour.

However, this expansion is/can be done separately for each program, and for each program in autosense.

It might be that that ear and brain learned to hear more with time, and yes, autosense switches to some other program.

Unfortunately there’s no easy way to see how autosense switches, except by staring at my phonak app and click on edit and then it’s show which program.

However, my suspicion is that it really is one ear that’s more sensitive, big expansion and tada - stream.

In bt stream is probably mic set on quieter than streaming, so you don’t hear it there.

In autosense quiet is there (expansion).

But you don’t hear it because your brain is good at ignoring stuff. However when stream turn on, off and gives click, your brain pays attention and then you hear everything.

Why stream turns on? Haptic feedback, some website has media, some notification. Even if phone is muted, intent is send and HAs catches these intents, even if there’s no sound, they try to catch it, but soon stop. That’s probably that click.

I have a solution for that, I’ll post it in a bit :smiley:

This is really interesting! And thanks for taking the time to explain all this. I look forward to hearing more. Sounds like you may be on to something!

If you search the forum for floor noise it might help you make a decision if that is what you are hearing.
The noise you described can be more than a few things. It could be tuning or a defective aid or receiver. Do you use a hearing aid dryer?

Sometimes when we mess things up tuning wise it is best to start from scratch and reprogram the aids using another client. Staying close to default target settings usually prove to help most who try this.

You have mentioned having the aids for 5 months. You are well within retuning them for a refund if needed.

Edited

I just discovered similar behaviour that you described - hearing silence and program switching. But too fast to catch it in the app.
At least I thought so.
Then I realised that after it finally connected, I don’t have access to edit, and cannot see in which AS program it is.

Cause? I shut down the other aid, not planning to use it, and at first I thought it’s streaming issue with some pages I was watching, but then I tested it.

Then I turned in the other aid, in the box nearby. Everything works perfectly, silence is silent and not loud, no switching of programs or what it was (I mean programs in autosense, so no sound, only normal silence and loud silence for a second and then back to normal for a while).

My guess? want to talk to each other, and when couldn’t, I got my interruptions.

So, check the status of the other HA, battery or if not in ear, then distance.

When I had only one HA, such things never happened. Or if I’d stream in one HA only (Lace training), then it’d go between streaming and hearing all around when sound wasn’t coming, similar like this now.

Then I turned off it again and so far the other one is quiet.

So maybe try turning both on and off when that starts and see if that helps?

Although, if I touch my mic, that is really loud noise, not something I’d use to describe my ‘loud silence’… So maybe of yours is definitely more like scratch and not white noise, we might be looking in the wrong direction…

In reply to @Raudrive

I don’t use a dryer but I’ll definitely take a look at some at Costco tomorrow when I travel there (65 minute ride). Interestingly it’s been over 48 hours since updating the firmware and it has not happened since. Maybe just a coincidence. Hmmm…

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