Getting these pesky settings just right!

I had my meeting with the audiologist yesterday and she listened with interest to all my points.
Of interest to anyone going through the same process -
She could see that my original moulds were too short and will be getting new ones for me which will fit further into my ears. On the basis of that we didn’t actually go much further in terms of adjustments but -
This hospital can do an REM and she will do that when the new moulds arrive. (New year)
She can try a different fitting formula to see if that helps with the Boss/wife voice problem.
She can adjust my HAs to help with the PartnerMic although at the moment I am happy with those settings.
It was all very positive. So often it is knowing the questions to ask that results in problem solution.
I really feel that I am getting ever closer. Much of it is down to this forum. So thanks to you all.
Rog

@rogerinshoreham said:

So thanks to you all.

@rogerinshoreham: Congratulations! And continued good luck to you as you pursue your clear objectives! (I’m curious to know what your audiologist thought of your word list!)

I’m glad to have provided such great assistance, Rog! (It’s a pesky, iterative process, and just requires plenty of patience.)

She was able to keep a straight face when I mentioned 123 words. BUT she did know what I meant by sibilant. She asked me to bring it all with me when she fits the new moulds. Humouring me? Maybe. Doing a good job? Yes, I think so.
We all do it in different ways - the thing is not to give up, don’t you think?

@rogerinshoreham said:

Humouring me? Maybe. Doing a good job? Yes, I think so.

@rogerinshoreham: For whatever my opinion may be worth: I think your approach is brilliant, as you Britts would say. A lot of posters have advanced meticulous but impractical schema for “optimizing hearing”. I think that your approach, which is practical and based on what you need to hear to function is (as I’ve already stated) … brilliant.

[Addendum: I think, if you read past posts from those of us who are reasonably happy with the performance of our hearing engines, there are a couple of attributes that we seem to share:

1. We have audiologists who will entertain our suggestions and “learnings” (from the internet, from friends, from experience - I am loathe to call them hypotheses). I believe you’ve suggested this is “humouring” - be that as it may, if it gets results! And
2. Persistently advocating for our own auditory needs and peculiarities (cf. @cvkemp).

… I maintain that most successful users share these common attributes.

So, Rog, I encourage you not to be discouraged or skeptical about achieving your targeted results. You may fall short of the pristine clarity of an audio signal piped directly from your TV to your aids, however; you have created a benchmark that others can readily understand and help you to achieve.

That’s my two chitlins worth.

It took so darn long to get results. Getting replacement hearing aids that work hasn’t been easy.
That’s a major failing in the system.

@DaveL: What in the world are you referring to, Dave?

I got same M70 a couple of months ago on NHS, and they did REM on me and I have to say compared to having them not done on Resound Quattro’s it makes a difference or the Phonak m70’s are much better, coupled with them being the tubed ones and not BTE with wires, overall they are far clearer and the custom mould/tube though bigger works far better for me.

@DaveL: Not a problem, Dave. I just didn’t understand - it “did not compute”

I’m hoping for the same result as you after Christmas. The video way back in this thread convinced me that REM must be a positive in reaching the ‘best that we can get’.

Hi Dave,
The response to what was a cry for a bit of feedback has amazes me. Glad you got something from it. Hope the pooch is getting less of a problem.
Rog

@Alejo said:

The Cosco’s Phillips 9030 are to the Oticon More 1 what the KS10 was to the Phonac Paradise P90. Same manufacturer and identical features. Just different branding…

I wonder if you have actually owned both the 9030 and the More in order to draw that kind of conclusion. And even if you’ve owned them both, have you done any DIY programming with both of them and have actually experience with the 2 programs well enough as a DIY person to have the qualification to profess that they’re the same? @Abarsanti has done both of those things. I’d suggest you browse through the 9030 thread that he created a while back and educate yourself on what he had to say to learn how they’re not the same like the KS10 and P90.

And Philips and Oticon are 2 different manufacturers who make their own respective HA brands, unlike Phonak being the same manufacturer for both the P90 and KS1.

William Demant owns Oticon, Sonic and Bernafon, but it doesn’t own Philips. It only licenses the hearing aid technologies to Philips. Oticon, Sonic, Bernafon and Philips may share some of the peripheral technologies with each other because they have the same parent company (and for Philips, the licensing partnership), but you cannot base on that to make an ignorant conclusion that their core fundamental signal processing technologies are exactly the same as well. They are 4 different companies with different hearing aid cores under 4 different brands. Which is not the same as Phonak being one company making the same hearing aid cores under 2 different brands.

Two different kind of business models here. Apples and oranges.

Mmm, yes, you are right. I made a few assumptions based on my personal experience with both hearing aids. I have a technical background, but I didnt read any white paper. I also didnt mentioned that I only tested the More 1 for 3 weeks and now I am trialing the the 9030 (3 weeks today), so my experience is limited. But I did, actually, obtain Genie, nohalink and downloaded Hearsuite and I had a good play with the settings of both. So I made my (I admit it) poorly-informed guess based on the comments of my audiology at Cosco (about being the same parent company) and when I saw her using Hearsuite (the similarities with Genie 2 reminded me of a kid trying to cheat in a school assignment) … And my limited sensorial experience (I have mild to moderate HL), but I am a musician and they do sound incredibly similar to me. I wanted to test the KS10 and I missed out by a couple of weeks… I am new to HA, but because I notice a while ago how obscure is this industry in the way it operates and the ridiculous cost of the devices, which who know what it is, because the price tag includes the services provided to all of those who didnt buy the HA they tested. And yet reading your thread, I get the impression that you would understand very well why I didn’t notice the difference between them. Depending on perspective, apples and oranges are not that different. Definitely not A$10K to A$2K different! In any case, I apologize for the offense and I will delete my comment shortly.

Hey guys!
My original post was way off this subject and at no point did it deteriorate into a slanging match. I don’t want to be associated in anything like that so if you want to follow what you’ve dived into can you start a new thread? Please.
Happy Christmas.
Roger (more a rocker than a mod)

As indicated, I don’t have access to the Costco hearing aids. I’ve had my hands on the KS9 and it was indeed very similar to the M90 with some features removed. The Phillips looks to be a Bernafon clone to me, not Oticon, and those hearing aids function very differently.

But what was your actual point? My point was that my patients purchase hearing aids at my clinic in order to get access to me. I don’t care if they get Costco hearing aids and bring them back to me and purchase my services a la carte, if the devices aren’t locked. We are certainly a boutique clinic, but don’t think that the gap in price is all (or even mostly) differences in service costs. The manufacturers sell to Costco at 10% the price they sell to independent clinics. I’d love to sell hearing aids at Costco prices, just… Not enough to actually work at Costco. I certainly dream of winning the lottery and setting up a free clinic, but so far no luck. I don’t control the pricing at my clinic, but I know enough about it to know my employer isn’t a predator (I also know those clinics are out there).

What I spend a lot of time thinking about lately is: in the current economy, it would certainly be better to offer lower prices. But manufacturers are increasing our costs, not lowering them. So to decrease prices we’d need to strip services, strip patient care time. But I don’t want to do that either. So. . . . I dunno. I’m thinking about where we can tighten things, but we’re not terribly inefficient NOW, so it’s tough.