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How is the sound quality (for music) of Oticon 105dB vs 100dB receivers?

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Edited

My guitar sounds much nicer through my new More3s with 100dB receivers than through my previous 85dB getup.

Sometimes it seems that even the 100dB receivers can’t handle the transient peaks when my music program is selected. I’ve read that as receiver power increases, decreases.

Can anyone tell me whether the 105s’ higher SNR is audible in practice, or does it only show up on paper?

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The ability to amplify louder on bigger receiver size may indirectly help make the signal louder than the noise, hence give you the perception of better . And also, bigger receivers may be less prone to produce distortion due to being overdriven, hence the perception of better sound quality.

I think 105 and 100 dB receivers won’t give you a drastic enough of a difference that if you already have 100 dB receivers, it’d be worth the trouble to upgrade to 105 dB receivers. But if you don’t have either one yet, then it’d make sense to spring for the bigger 105 dB receivers.

I used to be fitted with 85 dB receivers to begin with. Then I upgraded to 105 dB receivers to see if there’d be that much of a difference on the highs. But not really because my highs are kinda considered “long gone”. What I found was that when Speech Rescue (the technology) came along on the OPN, I enabled it and found that it made a much bigger difference than going from a 85 to 105 dB receiver was. And with Speech Rescue, I was able to go back to the 85 dB and still be able to hear all my “long-gone” high sounds because I now don’t need the 105 dB receiver to amplify my highs anymore. The 85 dB receivers are able to amplify the lowered sounds at the 1.5-2.4 KHz range for me just fine. In fact I chose to turn off the High Frequency Bands in Speech Rescue altogether as to not cause high frequency feedbacks. See the screenshot below for reference.

Because the Oticon Speech Rescue technology is frequency transposition and composition, as opposed to frequency compression used by other brands, I don’t feel like the frequency lowering causes music to sound “off-tune” to me. They still sound fine to me for the most part.

Instead of agonizing over differences between 100 vs 105 dB receivers, give Speech Rescue a try to see you like it or not. With your kind of hearing loss, you can try either one of the left-most 3 configurations, the 2.4, 2.7 or 3.0. You can leave the High Frequency Bands setting to On if you want to hear both the lowered sounds and the original high sounds. Or turn it off if you can’t tell much difference between the ON or OFF values, because the OFF value has the advantage of not causing a potential feedback in the high frequencies.

Have your audi set one program without Speech Rescue and another program with Speech Rescue so you can do on-the-fly A/B comparison with and without.

image

Edited

Thanks, @Volusiano, for your explanation and suggestions.

[I’m asking the question because my audi will probably have to order me new moulds due to some fitment issues. If people like yourself, who have much greater technical knowledge than I do, recommended it, the change to 105dB receivers could be made now.]

I have tried both receivers with my more 1, I honestly couldn’t tell the difference. But that could be due to my type of hearing loss.

On the statistics page the 105s have better frequency response so I thought why not upgrade as they look the same in the mould - if it were a home hifi system you’d go for the bigger speaker for better sound quality.

Thanks for your input: I follow your logic about the speaker size analogy.

I wondered whether - when in the music program - the 105dB receiver might handle the transients of my 5 string banjo better than the 100dB getup.

The attack transient of my Taylor nylon string is not compressed or distorted when played unplugged.

[I only use tube (valve) amps when playing electric guitar, so the amp (class A or ) “pre-compresses” the output so the doesn’t have to do that work.]

As I have explained: I probably would not pursue the 105dB receiver option, were it not for the fact that my audi will probably have to order new moulds in order to fit me with slightly longer receiver wires, as it is.

Could possibly be an improvement, especially if you have a musician’s ear

By the way the receiver wires for the custom moulds are easily swapped - no need to get a new mould for that.

My audiologist taught me how to do it using a pin tool to remove the clear cover, I’ve done it at home as I like to get fresh ones now and again.

I’m pretty sure my wires are glued into the flesh-coloured moulds: they aren’t the transparent power moulds, BTW.

Edited

In reply to @hisredletterbox

Thanks again for your help @hisredletterbox … that’s what I thought, too. My present wires are just a bit short to allow the hearing aids to sit a tad further back from where the pinna joins my skull.

I’ve almost lost my devices several times because of the space required to accommodate the temples of my spectacles plus the mask suspenders.

I don’t think the larger size of the 105dB receiver is an issue, in my case.

In reply to @hisredletterbox

@hisredletterbox How do you like the More 1, by the way? Which hearing aids did you have before the More 1?

There have only been a handful of new More users reporting back in this forum, so your perspective would be valuable to share. So far many folks who wore OPN or OPN S before they switched to or tried out the More seem to have the impression that it’s an incremental improvement, but they didn’t get the WOW difference factor that they were hoping for. But in general, for folks who wore a different brand of switching over to the More (like @SpudGunner here) , it seems like a more significant improvement for them.

In reply to @grantb5

Well, there are 2 sound level scales used. One is the (Sound Pressure Level) and the other is the (Hearing level). And yes, they’re measurement of the sound traveling through the air.

Your uses the HL scale. A perfect hearing would show 0 , and any negative dB HL denotes a hearing loss.

Below is the SPL value that corresponds to 0 HL values across the frequency spectrum:

image

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