How to trial Oticon More

I see just what you’re talking about and hadn’t thought about that. Thanks.

This does bring up a question that I just realized I haven’t thought about, which is… how does an automatic program work these days? I don’t know. My understanding, from the time that automatic programs started to replace the fixed programs that I would have to manually switch between, was that there was a set of fixed programs, and the automatic program’s job was to determine which fixed program was best for the current sound environment and select it.

A better way for an automatic program to work, given enough processing power, would be to do this with an algorithm that would twist the dials in a more optimum way for the unique sound environment of the moment.

If it’s the former, then it seems as thought the HCP could figure out which fixed program is shutting down on me, and open it up a bit, and I would now have an automatic program that would be more tailored to my preference. If it’s the latter, then nobody is going to mess with the basic algorithm of the hearing aid; the only way that the automatic program would be tunable to my particular preferences would be if the manufacturer has made certain parameters of the algorithm (such as the amount of background noise permitted) accessible to the HCP.

Lacking such a capability, what you are suggesting is the only answer to my question. Interesting that you mention music. Our car has a wonderful radio and we love to listen to music while we drive. In spite of my high end hearing loss I am able to appreciate a really nice radio. When we are at low speed the sound is best. At higher speeds music sounds get shut down because the hearing aids are filtering out road and wind noise. I want to try more openness in this environment, and have been planning to ask the HCP next week to set up a Music program, for me to try out. (Music while driving is actually one of the applications that made me interested in the Oticon method.). If there is nothing to be done to get the automatic program adjusted to my background preferences, I’ll start with a Music program.

Because this is a thread with an Oticon More title, your post probably doesn’t get the visibility it deserves to be seen by many KS10 wearers. I would suggest you open a new thread with a more appropriate title to entice KS10 wearers to notice and view and chime in to help answer your questions better, because I’m not a KS10 or Phonak user so I don’t know all the details of how Phonak aids work in terms of autosensing the various environments.

But the Phonak AutoSense feature uses some built-in smart to scan the environmental sound landscape to decide which environment it thinks that you’re in. Based on this determination, it switches to a pre-determined built-in program designed for that environment. From what I hear, it works well for many people, but some may find issues with how often it changes back and forth between one program to another if there’s a gray area between one environment and another, because the user would notice the frequent change back and forth and find it annoying. For these users, they may decide to just disable AutoSense and manually decide which program to switch to based on their own judgement.

I’m guessing (not sure 100% because I’m not a KS10 user) that AutoSense switches between built-in programs pre-designed. I don’t know if you alter a built-in program to make it become customized, whether AutoSense can still go to that program or not . I’m guessing not, but it’s better to ask this question to KS10 or Phonak users.

@Volusiano said:

I don’t know if you alter a built-in program to make it become customized, whether AutoSense can still go to that program or not . I’m guessing not, but it’s better to ask this question to KS10 or Phonak users.

Modern Phonak and KS9 and 10 aids programs can each be tuned extensively.

My thoughts are some fitters change these programs up too much and that is why some people wearing these aids complain about changing programs. It becomes very noticeable.