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What hearing aids are best for giving sharp sounds?

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Hi all. Exploring private hearing aids. Thankful for NHS but just not giving me good quality sound. My previous post someone recommended Phonak Sound Recover. High frequency speech sound is not there at all for me. Why is there no sharpness… my audiologist said she has set it to the sharpest sound because I WANT to hear the letters I am unable to hear without my hearing aids when having a conversation. I have read people who explained they always have sharp sounds in the high frequency consonent sounds, like Sssss. Fffff. Ppppp, etc with their hearing aids. I do not hear any of that all… no sharpness. Nothing. It all sounds foreign. Is it the hearing aids I have simply not capable of it? I hear other high frequency sounds like my washing machine, my microwave, work keypad beeping. Could I still potentially have dead regions whereby my hearing just not picking up ANY consonant sounds in the speech banana of my ?

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You don’t really have aidable hearing above 2 kHz. If you want /s/ to be audible for you, it will need to be lowered. Phonak (and Unitron) probably have the best options on the market right now.

My audiologist said the hearing aids I have she can do which she said she has done but honestly cannot notice any difference at all. So those branded hearing aids I would hear sharper sounds with frequency lowering on those?

I basically have the same hearing as you.

I currently use the Phonak Audeo Lumity L90 and in the past I have been wearing Starkeys, and both have the .

On the Lumity it’s pretty effective (some female voices sound even too sharp) but it concentrates more on speech rather than other sounds.

Test yourself listening to high ringtones from your mobile and see if, with your hearing aids on, you can hear the very high tones that you wouldn’t normally hear without .
To me, that was the proof that the frequency lowering works because some ringtones are well above 2khz.

Ciao!

In reply to @craftycrocheter

Your experience of the sound probably wouldn’t be sharp, but it would be audible in a lower frequency range.

You can ask your clinician to strengthen the setting. Can you hear the /s/ sound now? Can you tell when someone pluralizes something?

/p/ and /f/ can be very difficult to provide.

In reply to @craftycrocheter

With your hearing loss, I would expect to be able to make /s/ audible. The caveat is that /s/ occupies similar frequencies as /sh/. /Sh/ just has a bit more low frequency spread. When you lower the /s/, it can often sound very close to /sh/. I think it’s worth trying to adapt to this in order to get access to the audible cue, but some people are too bothered by the shushiness and can’t adapt. But others do adapt and find it valuable.

The reason I like the sonova (phonak/Unitron) is that it only turns on for high frequency phonemes. For example, in the word “cat”, it turns on for the ‘c’ and the ‘t’ and off for the ‘a’. This reduces unnecessary distortion on the vowels and users often find the sound more acceptable. It can also lower further than others, but this shouldn’t be an issue for you.

In pediatrics, well-applied frequency lowering can make a big difference to the child’s speech. It’s hard to learn to say s-sounds if you can’t hear them. /S/ should be verified with rem and there are standard guidelines on how to set it to ensure audibility while minimizing distortion, but unfortunately outside of pediatrics I’m not sure this is done regularly.

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