Looks Great! What size vent did you end with?
My Audi changed my power dome to a large which has a small amount of vent, and I don’t feel the terrible occlusion that I had. Now I have to get used to my voice again using closed domes. The Omnias are definitely a great improvement over my previous ’s. I can heard lots of sounds that I was missing and the speech in noise understanding is great. This morning I could easily understand my wife talking to my while she was in the shower.
I think it’s about 1 mm vent size. AFAIK, they don’t label the bore sizes on the supplied plugs and it’s a little bit hairy trying to measure the actual opening size of the ven.
IIRC, I decided to use a vent originally for pressure equalization when descending or ascending while flying. My molds fit that well.
Today was the first time I received a cellphone call on my vehicle with the Resound Omnias and the iPhone using CarPlay. What was different is that it used the vehicle microphone, but the audio instead of using the car speakers came through the Resound Omnias. Don’t know if this is normal or was it a change on the new iOS 16.3. The bad thing about is that the car radio can still be heard.
Under Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices, what do you have for the Audio Routing options?
I have “Always Hearing Devices” for Calls but “Automatic” for Media. What’s happened with these settings is that when I go to play a podcast using the Automatic setting, the audio output always goes to my iPhone speakers, even when my Omnias are connected to my iPhone. Maybe for the microphone in CarPlay, there is a similar routing choice and rather than leaving it on an “Automatic” setting (if there is one?), you need to pick a settings choice that force the microphone to be on the Omnias (or perhaps CarPlay just treats hearing aids as a listening headset, not allowing for them to have input microphones?). I would think that your car microphone would be a better bet as that ought to be directly in front of you whereas the mics are on the side of your head. Perhaps the audio pickup depends on the beamforming capability of each type of microphone.
I’ve developed a problem with my left M& receiver and mold. To get a tight fit and avoid feedback, I was firmly pushing the mold into my ear canal, probably too far, thus distorting my ear canal’s shape (my hypothesis). As I reached about two weeks into owning my Omnia 962s, I was starting to get feedback in my left ear. My right ear is doing great. Zero feedback problems. Going along with the idea that I was pushing the mold in too far, pulling the mold out just a tad would prevent feedback.
Well, today, two weeks after I got the ’s, the audi finally did (fixed her machine?). The right ear was spot on the programmed fit and needed no adjustment. The left ear was a few too low in the 4 kHz range, so the audi cranked the gain up appropriately. Result: feedback galore! And it’s very hard to find a position where the mold stays in place and talking or eating doesn’t displace the mold from its optimum position. So it seems like I’ll need to have another impression taken, and ReSound will need to have another try at creating a mold that occludes my canal enough that no jaw motion or nearby reflections create a feedback loop. Other than the shape of my ear canals, my left ear is not too much different in hearing loss than the right ear. But it’s that extra few dB of amplification in the mid-tone frequencies that my left ear requires (haven’t updated my yet) that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, along with probably distorting the shape of my ear canal by pushing the mold in way too much.
Edit_Update: One funny thing I’ve noticed is that exercising cuts down on the left ear feedback after the REM adjustment. Related to that, I’ve wondered if wax buildup on the mold helps seal whatever’s not quite right about the fit or whether it’s more warm blood swelling my ear canal tissues for a better fit? Be interesting to hear what the audi has to say and whether a mold remake is going to be on the house!
Jim, I finally was able to get the MRIE’s today a set came in last week but were #2 in length way to short for what I like … I wear a #4… I have them in my silicone molds and initially had severe backfeed until my audi ran the … I asked my audi about resound molds and he said they make a great but he stopped using them for molds to may problems… I’ll let you know what I think in a couple days after wearing them in different enviroments
I asked my audi about resound molds and he said they make a great HA but he stopped using them for molds to may problems…
I was very happy with my first set of molds for my ReSound Quattros. I think the problem with my Omnia molds is that almost four years have gone by since the audi took my impressions for the Quattro molds. She just ordered the Omnia molds made from those Quattro impressions, perhaps because the Quattro molds fit so well, and she did not make new impressions for the Omnia molds. So, that may be the crux of my problem: in four years of aging, calcium bone loss, or whatever, the shape of my left ear canal may have changed. Rather than tell her I expect a new impression and a new left ear mold for free now, I am going to pay her another $100 for a new impression and a new left ear mold. That way, I won’t feel bad if I run the situation into the ground trying to get the best possible left ear mold out of her by repeatedly rejecting any poor remakes. And maybe she’ll learn that it’s worth the trouble to make a new impression after a couple of years have gone by.
If any providers happen to read this post, I wonder how long any of you folks consider a mold impression good for?
I think the problem with my Omnia molds is that almost four years have gone by since the audi took my impressions for the Quattro molds
Oh yes absolutely, and your audiologist should have known this straight away, and as you say this is the cux of the problem, always new impressions for new after that length of time, maybe she’ll offer to do it for free anyway?
well I’ve worn the MRIE’s for 2 days and I can say I definitely hear conversations better … I played golf yesterday and noticed an improvment in hearing conversations from all directions… I played pickleball this morning and then umpired a softball game later in the morning… with 6 P’ball courts going at our Rec. center it can get pretty noisy but I did notice an improvement in cross court talk and chatter from courts next to me… at softball I struggled a little because there are bleachers on both sides and behind the backstop and with about 30 people sitting and watching the game the ones dircetly behind me seemed very loud… when usually I can hear them but never really make out what they are saying… I think not being used to hearing that is something that will ease up over time when I get used to it… later after thinking about it I wished I had tried my restaurant program which I have set up for a much narrower band of hearing
@Ureout . The mics on the end of the receivers will mainly work in low-background noise situations. Sound processing will be increasingly switched to the behind-the-ear mics on the bodies as the environment gets noisier, AFAIK. I wonder if part of your improved hearing with the M& receivers could be from wearing a more occlusive fit designed for molds made to hold the M&RIE receivers?
For me, the WOW moment with M&RIE receivers was hearing a bird chirp in a tree in our yard. The sound came to my ears as if it were shot from an arrow from the branch the bird was sitting on. My brain knew exactly where to look for the bird. But maybe it was just a particularly shrill bird! Normally, the localization effect is more subtle than that, but it’s definitely there for me. Except for the perception of enhanced bass with the Lumitys***, the overall sound is excellent and quite comparable, and I get long-lived disposable batteries plus all the connectivity in addition to Smart 3D app control via my Apple Watch. I opted to leave the Restaurant program out of my allotted four HA programs. I have All-Around, Front Focus, Outdoors (for wind noise), and Music. My Omnia 962s have a option, but my audi tells me to turn that on, I’d have to sacrifice one of the other programs. She consoled me by saying that telecoil is very little used in San Antonio, TX. Hoping gains traction soon and the Omnias are upgradeable. BT LE Audio would be in stereo, whereas telecoil is monaural, AFAIK, anyway.
*** Turning the bass up to +6 and mid-tones and treble down to -2 each in the Sound Enhancer, if one wants enhanced bass, and then adjusting the overall sound volume works well to provide enriched bass without having to get a to make a fit adjustment.
Edit_Update: Another thought, @Ureout, on the better hearing with M&RIE receivers, is that they might benefit from the natural pinna amplification effect. OTH, ReSound only advertises better sound localization as a benefit of M&RIE receivers, not sound amplification. Maybe the artificial average-person pinna effect in place for strictly behind-the-ear mics also includes an artificial pinna amplification factor? (I’ve already mused about this in some other post lost in the vast plains of this forum!). But I thought the Lumity Sound Enhancer feature for soft voices was going to beat the pants off the Omnia, but with my M&RIE receivers, just as you found in your experience, my wife’s very soft, not Germanically-articulated voice (no biting off of consonants, etc.!), comes through loud-and-clear, very comparable to the benefit the Lumity Sound Enhancer feature conferred. I’d love to know why?!
I grabbed two interesting slides from a continuing education course7 authored by an with GNResound. The fitting range for M& is better divided into two sections as shown on the slides. For those with steeply sloping hearing losses that cut across both sections as they described, the M&RIE receiver is specifically NOT RECOMMENDED by GNResound and those “do not typically make good candidates”.
For those with steeply sloping hearing losses that cut across both sections as they described, the M&RIE receiver is specifically NOT RECOMMENDED by GNResound and those “do not typically make good candidates”.
Yes, I reported on that after taking an Audiology Online course back in September 2021 in which ReSound summarized their recommendations after the ReSound Ones with M& receivers had been out and in use for about one year. (see graphs in my post)
No course transcript available yet - they might spend quite a while correcting typos in the speech-to-text transcript as Zoom would routinely make “M&RIE” as “marry” in the text, etc. The handouts associated with the course (all the slides and 3 white papers on M&RIE performance relative to standard HA’s) are available to me as a participant in the Audiology Online course listing and perhaps will be to anyone auditing audiology online when the course is available as a canned, archived session. …
OTH, Dr. Cliff, in a YouTube video, has said that he’s successfully fitted patients with loss that doesn’t match ReSound’s advice and that patients that he’s fitted with the M&RIE receivers prefer those to standard receivers.
I think part of ReSound’s advice might be grounded in the standard practice that people with good low-frequency hearing should have a relative so they don’t have occlusion and can use their own good hearing and pinna effect with an open fit to good advantage. You can’t have an open fit and serious high-frequency amplification with M&RIE receivers, or you’ll get feedback galore.
OTH, if you’re like me and wear a totally occlusive fit, you’re essentially also relying on your ’s for even low-frequency amplification. So I’m essentially having myself fit like a moderate to severe loss across all frequencies. And I am probably pushing the M&RIE limits. I have to have an ~almost perfectly fitting mold or I’ll get feedback. I am also pushing things by employing the fitting algorithm, which amplifies high frequencies a lot more than ReSound’s proprietary “more comfort” + fitting algorithm.
So if I can’t get a good enough fitting left mold with a ReSound remake for my left ear, I may just switch to Audiogram+ or just cut back a bit on NAL-NL2 high-frequency amplification for my left ear to compensate.
My molds for my KS9s look more like your new ones regarding vent placement. Do you know if the mold that is giving you feedback issues tends to back out? I have big concha locks on my molds and if I orient them correctly they keep the molds snug and I avoid feedback.
Part of their recommendation is undoubtedly based on not wanting the average user to have trouble with feedback or wear a more occlusive fit than they otherwise do and then returning their aids and, at worst, switching to another brand. The average user would probably not want the complete occlusion that I accept and would want to go with an if they only have a moderate loss. And if you check either your graphs or the ones that I previously supplied, ReSound essentially divides the use of M& receivers into two camps: those with a somewhat but not completely open fit who have modest loss across all frequencies and those with more serious loss but not truly severe loss who would have to go with a very closed fit across all frequencies even without M&RIE receivers. So, anyone who is willing to join the closed fit camp can essentially wear M&RIE receivers as long as their loss does not exceed the recommended for M&RIE receivers. That’s what I’m doing.
Do you know if the mold that is giving you feedback issues tends to back out?
The left mold does slowly back out as the day progresses. But the problem is more with the fit of the mold and having it seal when it’s fully seated in my ear. The right ear, push it in 'til it stops, and it works great. The left ear, push it in as far as it will go, it’s likely not to seal, and unlike the right ear, there’s a lot of flexibility to move in around. The mold doesn’t seal until it’s backed out quite a bit compared to the stopping point for pushing it in, and then it has even more flexibility to move around. And it moves out any further from the optimum point, back to getting lots of feedback.
Thanks for the suggestion on the concha lock. If a remake of the mold from a new impression doesn’t work, I’ll suggest that to the audi. After the audi did a new impression, she tried to show me that the new impression in shape doesn’t look very different from the left mold that’s giving me feedback problems, but I don’t think one can easily visualize any 3D spatial differences and we’re probably talking here about mm’s of fit differences, if the mold shape is the problem. I tried to tell her that I’m semi-TMJ on my left side, too, and her reply was that people tend to chew on one side of their head, and that wears out the jaw on that side of the head more than the other. So, if that’s what’s involved, that might explain why the jaw “thunks” a bit as I chew or talk, which may make it easier to move the mold around. With my left Quattro external mics failing repeatedly in an unexpected fashion, one grasping-at-straws theory I considered was that the constant vibration from my left jaw movement was rattling them to death! So, look forward to not only getting a good mold but seeing how the left Omnia holds up over time. And hoping that @ssa’s prediction that a firmware update for qualified ReSound HA’s may be coming down the pipe! I suggest no one favors any HA brand for that reason until it actually happens, though.
for those that have the MRIE receivers… look at both of your receiver ends where the mic is located and see if you have a little white filter over the mic… I noticed the other day that the filter on my left receiver wire had come off and it is now just a tiny black hole… My audi called Resound today and they verified that the white filter was to keep out debris… my audi asked for replacement filters and he was given a rediculous price of around $200 for 50 of the little filters
see if you have a little white filter over the mic
It’s my vague recollection that the M& receivers I had with my trial Omnias had those filters, but the Omnia 962 M&RIE receivers that I own didn’t come with them. I’ll have to ask my audi about them when I see her soon for a left ear mold remake. An Internet search for “ReSound M&RIE receiver filter” doesn’t come up with any hits for me. Thanks if you can provide the official product name and product ID#. Did your audi say how often ReSound recommends changing the filters? Once a month?
One would think there’d be something in the user manual on the need to change the filter or at least periodically visit your to have it done.
So, how do you like your M&RIE receivers, @Ureout? My audi gave me lots of volume in my default All-Around program setting. Especially with an fit, I’ve always found it a bit loud (she said it was two notches up from ReSound’s recommended volume for an + fit (9 instead of 7 in the Smart 3D app) and I find with M&RIE receivers, I’m more prone to get feedback if I don’t have my molds in just right. So, a volume setting of 7 is more comfortable, still works great on hearing my soft-spoken wife, and avoids feedback.
Jim, my audi had no idea that the MRIE had a filter on the end until talking with Resound Rep. it just looks like a little cover over mic. according to the site you posted with the video, the filters go for a little over $1 a piece much better than Resound price… I haven’t seen any info. on how often filters should be replaced?? I think Monday I will give Resound a call for more info.
I like the MRIE’s but still getting used to them i had been waiting on new silicone replacement molds that just came in yesterday 1 of my old molds had a split in it and had to use the vent hole to hold receiver wire
Florida
