Anyone find hard acrylic earmould more comfortable than silicone?

@cvkemp said:

Then I hope I never become profoundly hard of hearing, I can’t use silicone ear molds, my ENT says I am allergic to the material.

You can get special ear moulds that are coated with a safe material so it is possible.

@kevels55 uses them. He can’t trim the ear moulds otherwise the coating won’t be on the part he’s trimmed/shaved.

Never heard of that tbh.

Sorry, I’m talking about BTE. I have no experience with RIC.
Your audiologist would use REM for your molds (I hope), this should correctly set the volume needed.
Due to all the different factors involved in level difference in molds, there should not be a simple selection in software to select acrylic or silicon. I simply manually increase the volume of my HA’s to compensate (sometimes) for the difference between the silicon and acrylic molds. One click (HA level control) is normally fine, completely non scientific.

The material silicon reflects less sound than acrylic so there will be a sound level difference in what reaches your ear drums from your HA receiver.

Just had a thought…
If you are not using an in ear transducer (what they call receivers) but plastic tubing, then the difference is probably non existent.

The inductive compliance of the different mould materials is unlikely to cause this variation.

However, different fittings will physically change the tubing, residual canal volume, and venting. This is usually why the REM will show varying outputs under the same input.

Both of the molds worked well. I was just surprised that the acrylic handles feedback better for mine so happy about that

Sounds like you’re just getting different gain with the different types of coupling. Why couldn’t your audiologist, for example, measure the on-ear response of the acrylic mold and then just duplicate it in a secondary music program for the silicone mold and you could just stick with the silicone. Or vice versa, depending on which one you like better. Unless you’re getting dramatic differences in venting.

@Zebras said:

I’ve been told to re-run the feedback test every time you get new ear moulds as the fit is always a bit different.

In a perfect world, if the fit is good you can just turn the FB measure off altogether.

But you don’t want a whistly experience. Likewise, you don’t want to grandfather in a feedback measure that is limiting audibility if the new mold is better.

Coupling is similiar between ‘my’ acrylic and silicon moulds but silicone earmold resonance amplitude values2 do need to be taken into account. The fit does vary every time I have a new canal impression made which is why I had my latest acrylic and silicons made at the same time. Venting is still a consideration. Thought about having a program for each material but its a button press on the left HA button, or a button press on the right HA button.
Why change? Personal preference, when I’m working alone and listening to music, the acrylics give me a better music experience, when I’m with people, the silicons win. I’m due for my first new HA’s in 7 years so hoping that may change, if not then I can have one set of HA’s for each

This is how much I hate soft silicone.

I’ve been to a Country Show today so I’ve been walking around a big field all day seeing different things.

Despite not actually physically sweating as it isn’t really warm, my ears have created so much moisture, it’s blocked my tubing enough that I can’t really hear anything now.

There’s pros and cons to both for me I love the comfort of softer silicone they’re less prone to making my ears sore or slowly inching our of my ear I’d I chew or eat or talk a lot. Downside In the past I’ve often had allergic reactions or sensitivity to certain makers moulds. Also I find soft silicone makes my ears sweat terribly which can lead to ear infections or swimmers ear. They definately don’t last as long as acrylic moulds.

I love that acrylic/skeleton moulds tend to have a better fit overall, they don’t stain as easily from wax. Downside is they aren’t as flexible I often find if I’m sweaty or chew chewy foods they have been known to slide out gradually. If they’re poorly for due to impressions that can make my ears sore if I do full Skelton ones.

Currently have 1/2 ear canal acrylic moulds and I actually prefer the style after a lifetime of full moulds but they always needed a little canal hook to hold them in place my current ones don’t have that but they’re still pretty secure

My absalute favourite NHS mould was something called vario therm I think. It was recommended after years of issues with both acrylic and silicone moulds. Starts off hard at room temperature then softens with body temperature so the outer part moves a bit more like a cross between silicone and acrylic. Amazing moulds but I had to fight tooth and nail to get a newer NHS audiologist to authorize making them when I moved away from my NHS audiologist of 15 years. She was adamant I go to the cheapest option I point blank refused and said no these prevent ongoing ear infections, I never have soreness, they don’t need replacing every 6 months or so I never get ear infections with these or reactions like I did to the so called hypoallergenic ones. My ears would be red raw or blistering they spent a few years trying different moulds before those ones and I do NOT want to have to start over again because you think it’s too expensive. That one conceded My 4th NHS audio after another move absalutely refused to do the variotherm moulds again due to Costs, she was adamant they could not get the authorization alas I ended up with repeat ear infections and reactions from silicone moulds and gave up asking. Then moved abroad. I should ask Costcos if they do a similar mould as I’d love to go back to that material.

I wish you luck!