Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Oticon More level 1 instead of 2?

@Volusiano: Thanks for the explanation, although I must confess that I still don’t understand this way of doing things. I suppose that’s because I assume that audiologists have “loaner pairs” at their disposal, similar to the demos (clearly marked so) that I was loaned when my Mores were sent back to Oticon to investigate my battery issue.

I wish there were more people that are really skilled in setting up HA where I live. I’d shop around but the 3 other Hearing aid techs (? not sure of their name but weren’t audiologists) really didn’t do a good job of making the hearing aids sound natural to me. I only have a few moments before I leave for Dr. will read and reply to others later today. thank you

@innerharmony: Best of luck!

As someone who is still fine tuning the More 1 with a new Audiologist, I would like to offer some advice. This has been a long process for me.

Please get the Oticon rep involved with the process to trial both left and right More. Ask the Audiologist to call his Oticon
Rep to ask for help. The Oticon Rep has power, and should be willing to help. Hopefully the Audi office sells/fits enough Oticon product, the Rep is willing to help them and in turn help you.

You are a longtime Oticon wearer-assure him you plan to proceed with the purchase, but due to finances and your insurance coverage you need help getting thru this purchase in different years. His office can, and should, verify the full $2000 annual coverage can be applied to only 1 hearing aid. (and it isn’t split 1k per aid.) Ask about available payment plans for your out of pocket. Look for no finance charge - not everyone can afford a premium hearing aid, and most Insurance coverage is not adequate. Ask and let them “sell you, and solve this problem”.

Get a current hearing test from this same Audi so he gets paid for the hearing test. (If you haven’t already gotten one from another office. I think Medicare covers 1 per year. ) Test is Separate insurance coverage from the Epic hearing aids. The Audi can give you guidance if More 2 is adequate for your loss. But, maybe buying the top More 1 - without the extra work of fitting and comparing to the More 2 is incentive for Audi office and Oticon Rep to help you out - simplifying the process for the Audi, and you get a better hearing aid, that is a huge improvement over OPN3.

Watch out for a fee per aid, if you decide not to buy after the trial. This fee could easily exceed your out of pocket.

To clarify, wearing combo More 1 and OPN loses the communication between the aids. They are different chips. It kinda scrambles my brain a bit. Can you do it for a few weeks waiting for the second More - yeah, it would be better than no hearing aid. I absolutely would not consider doing it to Evaluate the More for a purchase. This is where the Audi/Rep can help with navigating the Demo/trial/purchase. We are approaching the end of year, they can help with the time frame.

Our brains get used to whatever crappy sounds we throw at it. Doesn’t mean we actually hear conversation or speech. If you are forced wear the combo More/OPN, ask the Audi to quickly reprogram your OPN3 to your current hearing test - Which takes a minute, and you should do anyway for keeping the OPN3 as back ups anyway. He may not be willing to update the OPN3, unless you buy the Mores, which I totally understand.

Good Luck, let us know how this turns out for you.

@innerharmony -

You’ve received some great advice already. Fwiw, I recently decided upon the More 1’s after having tried the More 3’s (not my intent, but that is how things worked out). I heard well with the 3’s, but when I put on the 1’s I had to triple-check with the Audiologist that she had not made programming changes other than what the fitting software automatically adjusts, the difference was that significant.

You of course have the 2’s though. With some features, the 2’s are closer to the 3’s and with others the 2’s are closer to the 1’s. Furthermore, and possibly more importantly, there are a number of tuning parameters where the 1’s provide more flexibility with a wider range of options.

You are not going to be able to evaluate these differences without sufficient wearing time with each in your situation, and without an audiologist knowledgeable and experienced in fitting patients with Genie using the open paradigm.

An audiologist can easily get to “first fit” with the More’s. There are about a half-dozen questions the patient is asked and then the software provides all the fitting choices and you’re done. But this is likely to be a far cry from optimum for your unique needs and wants; that requires an iterative process.

Like you, I have a 3rd-party hearing aid benefit attached to my Medicare plan. Although that would have saved me a lot of cash, I was limited in my HA choices and if I wanted to try the Mores, I was saddled with an Aud who admittedly had very limited experience with them. When I switched to my new Aud who has years of Oticon experience (as well as the other major brands) and has already fit many patients with the Mores, the difference has been striking.

I would take the 1’s over the 2’s, for only an additional $600, in a heartbeat. But only as long as it did not create a financial hardship and only from an Aud with qualifications as described. Find someone who will work with you, and with the 1’s you’ll likely have HA’s with the headroom and flexibility that will pay off “more” in the long run.

My 2-cents. Good luck!

@mingus said:

I would take the 1’s over the 2’s, for only an additional $600, in a heartbeat. But only as long as it did not create a financial hardship and only from an Aud with qualifications as described. Find someone who will work with you, and with the 1’s you’ll likely have HA’s with the headroom and flexibility that will pay off “more” in the long run.

This is it, in a nutshell. Excellent summary of benefits, @mingus!

thank you so much for your suggestions I’m going to forward them to my audiologist and see if he can help with getting in touch with oticon to do just that.

@innerharmony: FWIW, I think you’re making the right choice -Congratulations! If you start having second thoughts as Christmas expenses start to mount, read all the posts here, and especially @mingus ’ one.

You have indeed, gotten some great advice. Bravo!. But - you’ve been wise enough to cipher on it and heed it. Double Bravo!!

Best of luck with your new devices.

@innerharmony said:

I have been using rechargeable batteries in my Oticon Opn 3 and don’t want to go back to changing batteries. It was difficult to get right and a hassle to deal with.

Is that the ZPower rechargeable system on your OPN 3? It must be because it’s the only one for the OPN.

Have you had any issue with the ZPower batteries not lasting you through the whole day anymore a few months into it? How often do you need to replace the ZPower batteries and how many sets have you gone through already?

@innerharmony said:

What would be the “changes in the ear molds?”

I had a brief look at another post a few days ago that said they Philips charger would work with these hearing aids?
Has anyone used a different charger for the More HA. I think I read the More were around $300 and difficult to get?

I’ve said this before, you ought to post your audiogram on your avatar so people can see what kind of hearing loss you have. That’d be relevant to your question about the ear molds, whether you need them or not. What are you wearing now? Domes? What kind of domes?

Not sure why you want to know if the Philips charger would work with the More HAs? Do you know if the Philips charger is cheaper for a fact? It’s very likely that the Philips charger is the same one used for the Oticon More, BUT we just don’t know if they’re cross compatible or not. It depends on whether there’s some kind of software-based control that may limit cross compatibility or not. We’ve only begun to find out that even the batteries used between the More and the OPN S are not compatible. And the software needs to be reset when new batteries are used, and apparently some kind of history on the battery is kept to keep track of performance.

I’d recommend you stick with the charger that comes with the More. It’s included in the price already so you should not have to worry about how expensive it is. If you’re not getting the aids until end of the year, there’s a good chance that you can choose between the original (stationary) charger or the new self-powered SmartCharger designed for travel. I’d recommend choosing the later.

@innerharmony said:

I actually only wear my hearing aids when I’m going to be around people,

@innerharmony: You need to do LOTS more reading and learning about how HAs help you and why you need to be wearing them all the time.

If you want the full benefit from your aids and investment in them you should wear them all the.time. I have been wearing aids for about 17 years. I was bluntly told if I was going to get use to them I had to wear them every minute of the day I was awake. At first it was a pain but now I feel naked without them. Also I was told correctly because wearing my aids is the only way I can understand speech

@cvkemp: You’re good at this, Chuck: perhaps you could explain to the OP what we’ve all had to do to get our brains hearing again.

I think the brain hearing connection is often underplayed when we’re talking about the performance of our HAs. People don’t understand that the HAs (no matter what make) are just part of a larger system.

I will later today I am out running errands.