There’s a specific disclaimer on the mold order form that you can’t have M& receivers with encased molds, but there are several acrylic molds such as the hollow cavity and micromold where the receiver pops into the mold. I’ve even seen videos on how the acrylic molds are installed and removed from the receivers.
My uncertainty is whether what I’ve seen and read was with the M&RIE receivers, or standard receivers. I will post an update. If in fact my molds are acrylic for the M&RIE receivers I will post pictures so you can show your fitter. I briefly had silicone molds with aids years ago, and didn’t like them. And if it comes to it I’m fine with the medium with the M&RIE receivers.
I picked up my molds today, and even though the order form specified clear acrylic molds with beige faceplates, they are silicone, with select-a-vent. We did have to use plugs to make the vents smaller and rerun the feedback calibration.
So far they are comfortable, even more so than the medium . The 3 length receivers are a shade too long, and the 2s are a shade too short, so we stayed with the 3s.
I changed up the programming to have an All Around with All Access Directionality, All Around with M& directionality, Ultra Focus with Ultra Focus directionality, and Music with Omni directionality.
The All Around with M&RIE directionality, which I’d been using with the medium closed domes for the last two weeks, does sound the best to me when listening to music in the car. I’m still switching between tboth All Around programs in other environments to test the differences.
I go back in a week, and will likely settle in on my four programs at that time, with the expectation that I’ll stay in All Around 95% of the time.
Even those these molds are silicone, that do seems to be a harder silicone than molds I tried with Siemens Triano aids years ago, and ultimately returned. They are the same molds as shown in this ReSound one review video on Youtube.
In terms of sound quality using silicone molds for a couple of hours versus the medium I’ve worn in the last two weeks, the quality seems mostly the same. The one minor issue is that it’s harder to hear the clock near me on the wall ticking, but it could also be that my brain has started to tune out that sound.
The Jabra app is exactly the same as the ReSound Smart 3D app, except for the background colors. The Jabra app has a blue background, whereas the Smart 3D app is red.
My ReSound Prezas would connect to either app. My Jabra aids are discoverable by the Smart 3D app, but it eventually indicates that the Jabra aids are not compatible with the Smart 3D app.
I like the functionality of the app, and find it to be more sophisticated than apps from other manufacturers.
After a couple of days wearing the M& receivers with the silicone molds, I’ve decided to return them and revert back to the medium . I’d initially ordered molds with the expectation that I’d need them to prevent any feedback issues with the M&RIE receivers. It turns out that the closed domes worked just fine, even through feedback calibration indicated a possibility of feedback.
The silicone molds negate all the things I liked about wearing the aids with the closed domes, and don’t provide an overall improvement in sound quality. The biggest issue I have with them, though, is cleaning and maintenance. The way the receivers are placed in the molds, it’s impossible to get easy access to clean or replace the or mic filter. And while on the first day the receivers slid back out of the mold fairly easily, now that don’t. The mold, as you would expect with silicone, seems tight to the receiver.
I’m okay with returning the molds, and looking forward to getting back to using the medium closed domes. They fit comfortably, with the wires laying close to my ears and hidden from all but the closes inspection. The placement of the molds is such that a 2 wire length I too short, and 3 is too long, and the wire doesn’t lay close to my head, which is one of a list of things I don’t like about the molds. The biggest issue, though, is how difficult it would appear to keep the molds clean and clear of wax.
The way the receivers are placed in the molds, it’s impossible to get easy access to clean or replace the wax guards or mic filter. And while on the first day the receivers slid back out of the mold fairly easily, now that don’t. The mold, as you would expect with silicone, seems tight to the receiver.
For the first six months of my Quattro’s, I tried every time of dome imaginable, open domes, power domes, double domes, tulip domes, and different sizes, too. In reviews I’ve read of mold-making, they say that there is the human element of mold design - that from the impression taken, some human has to decide on the best mold shape/receiver placement in the mold to go with from the shape and size of the ear canal, etc. And the quality of the impression to begin with can make a difference, too.
But I’ve found my made-by-ReSound silicone molds far easier to clean than any dome I wore. Wax rarely gets into the receiver openings and if it does, it almost never goes down as far as the on the receivers themselves. Whereas with domes, everyday I had to clean wax out of the receiver openings and it was a pain to clean the various nooks and crevices in domes, etc.
After creating an overly fastidious cleaning procedure following an ear infection, I now just use a Jodi-Vac and NOTHING else on my bodies and molds each day - the fine pink needle to vacuum microphone openings and the wax guard in the receiver (which is ~always clean, anyway), the newer big black needle available with a Jodi-Vac to remove noticeable pieces of wax debris - I leave the molds with a surface residue of wax on them all around - no sterilization, no drying other than air drying overnight, no alcohol or ear cleaning wipes or solution used.
Once a month, I remove the receivers from the molds, change the wax guards, soak the molds and the Select-a-Vent mold bore plugs in a mild dishwashing hand detergent solution for 15 minutes or so. Then over a fine-wire sieve in a bowl to avoid down-the-drain loss, I rinse the molds, blow water out of the mold holes with an air duster, dry the molds and vent plugs on a paper towel for a bit, and after reassembly, I’m good to go. I find that after a month or two of initial use the receiver openings in the molds loosen up and it’s easy to pull them out by tugging gently but firmly on the wire right were it goes into the receiver - I try not to grip the mold too tightly right over the receiver to inhibit pulling the receiver out. Otherwise, the receiver always stay in place in my molds and the molds never move out of my ear canals (although there may be some lateral rotation - side-to-side in the canal - from receiver wire tension/springiness). Whoever made my molds did a great job!
Great writeup on your maintenance routine. If I weren’t so happy with I’d probably invest more time in getting the molds to work. I’m lucky in that my fitter has an opening this evening to get the swap back to closed domes accomplished.
And I’ve settled on the four programs I’ll use - All Around (with M& directionality), Music, All Around (with All Access Directionality), and Ultra Focus.
I expect to stay in All Around M&RIE most of the time, switching to Music when I’m wearing headphones for Zoom calls at work. The M&RIE mics are switched off in Music because the default directionality in Music is Omni, so there’s no chirping from the M&RIE mics covered with headphones.
I’ll use the All Around with All Access Directionality in noisier environments, and switch to Ultra Focus in very noisy environments with the speaker directly in front of me.
I have the Jabras with M& and 4 programs: All Around with M&RIE, Restaurant, Ultra Focus and Music. Yesterday I asked my costco fitter to replace my Restaurant program with an All Around that had All Access Directionality and she said it couldn’t be done. So, what’s she missing? I’d really like to try turning off the in the ear microphone in noisier environments.
I just asked my fitter to put All Around in slot 1 with M&, and All Around in slot 2 with All Access Directionality. No problem. The program did name the second All Around as All Around (1). You can rename programs in the app, and I’ll name the second All Around as All Access.
The default directionality for Restaurant also turns of the in-ear mics.
Thanks. It was my realization that the in-the-ear mics were turned off in the Restaurant program that led me to ask for the All Around option. It worries me that my fitter believes she can’t use All Access. I’ll check with her again. So frustrating.
My fitter wears aids herself, and I find I can communicate with her easily. We have a trust relationship, and she’s willing to try anything I ask her to. It’s been an education for both of us.
I saw my Costco fitter yesterday, and swapped out the M& for the regular receiver like I started with. I like the sound of the M&RIE, but I guess I have small ear canals because they hurt. I thought I would adjust, but after two weeks I just couldn’t take it anymore. Also even though I like the sound and the “effect” I really think I understand speach better with the standard receiver. Don’t know why but in some cases I think I understand better with the regular. Anyway, I’m very happy with the Jabras, and glad to have my standard medium receiver back.
Have had the Jabras for over 6 weeks now, and am sold on them, no need to try anything else. They work great for me.
I’m curious to know from Jabra/One users how well UltraFocus works in a very noisy environment, like a restaurant with lots of bare surfaces and lots of reflected sound (always the worst situation for me). A particularly interesting comparison might be how Jabra/One Ultrafocus compares to the focusing ability, say, of a Roger Pen or a Roger On, but then only someone with the broad experience in wearing of @efigalaxie might know the answer to that one!
I picked up my Jabra Enhanced Pro M& hearing aids from Costco August 9th, and now after 2 weeks I am impressed!
I have tried Kirkland Signature 10s (a disappointing experience, but maybe because I had mine within a few days of announcement and the program bugs weren’t worked out yet) and have had Resound LiNX 3D and most recently Resound Preza’s.
The Resound Preza was excellent, but the Jabra (It’s a rebranded Resound One) is a step ahead, much more natural voice, no wind noise, streams flawlessly, during the last two weeks I have been in numerous different environments, the ultra focus works for me as it should, I highly recommend for moderate hearing loss. By the way my receiver’s are M&. I have an iPhone12 max that is used with the ’s.
Thanks for your comments, Jim!
My experience is that “earth shaking bass” is actually felt, rather than heard. Of course it contributes virtually nothing to human speech understanding, which likely explains why hearing aid manufacturers have historically not pursued it.
BTW, I enjoy pipe organ performances in LARGE auditoriums!
Thanks again. Best, Bob.
Of course it contributes virtually nothing to human speech understanding, which likely explains why hearing aid manufacturers have historically not pursued it.
I think “The times they are a-changin’…” Perhaps some OEM’s haven’t gotten the word that there’s and music streaming, which to some is a very important consideration. Humans can actually hear down to about 20 Hz, although I agree at a certain low frequency and volume, you feel it, too. So I think even in speech with “old-fashioned” hearing aids, you might not appreciate James Earl Jones voice or an octavist’s voice in an opera or a cello. All these sounds can hit 65 Hz (Jones’ voice is rumored to be able to reach 50 Hz). Perhaps if hearing aids are only tested and spec’d down to ~100 Hz because of average male and female human voice frequencies, some HA’s just “accidentally” manage to do a better job in the even lower frequencies that we occasionally hear in human voices and can enjoy hearing coming from musical instruments. I think these days that just considering human voice reproduction in designing a HA would be old-fashioned low tech, like making a classic phone receiver that only reproduces 300 to 3400 Hz sound!
I’ve had my Jabra Enhance Pro with M& aids for a little over a week now and they are working well for me. It’s like they have given me back my hearing, or at least a good part of it. The Jabra app works fine on my Galaxy S10+ in full screen mode. However, I have problems when I run it in a pop-up window. It works OK for a while and then fails in a couple of ways. Sometimes it becomes very slow and I think the app is frozen, but then it responds many seconds later. Other times, it appears to be working, but it is not changing anything on the aids. Sometimes I need to turn the aids off then back on again to get things working right again. So my question if whether anyone if successfully running the app in a pop-up window, and if so is there anything special that needs to be done for it to work.
For what it’s worth, I returned my M& Jabra’s about 3 weeks after getting them. This was primarily based on their poor streaming performance. I’ve written about this before, but with any streaming, including phone calls, sometimes the sound was centered as it should be, other times I would hear the sound separately in each ear (presumably a left/right sync issue). And I couldn’t walk down the street with my phone in my shorts pocket without losing connection to the aid on the other side. And music was just awful, with no bass (despite maximizing this in programming by the fitter, and in the app). I don’t expect full rich sound, but this was ridiculous.
I found the App to be glitchy, often losing connection, or if I walked away from the phone, it wouldn’t reconnect with the App when I got back in range. And in my car, using Android Auto, calls went to my hearing aids, rather than the car’s system, requiring me to manually switch connection on the phone or the car’s display.
I think this all relates to the method of LE connection to my phone (Galaxy S21 Ultra). And I expect at least some of these issues will be addressed with future firmware updates. I even called Jabra’s tech support people about this, twice, but never got a sense that this had risen enough to their attention to expect anything soon.
Regarding their regular Hearing Aid performance, they didn’t clearly beat out the Widex Unique 330’s I’ve been using for the past 4 years. But in fairness, given the short time frame, it is possible or even likely we never tuned them sufficiently to get the best out of them.
I go tomorrow to get the KS10’s, and am hoping for better performance all around. Time will tell.
Northern Virginia
