In 2017, I tried out the Oticon Opn 1 hearing aids. However, I discontinued the trial due to distortion I experienced when encountering (sudden) loud speech or sounds sometimes. Subsequently, I tested the Resound LiNX 3D, which didn’t present this issue. All hearing aids were used with power domes.
Fast forward five years, and I encountered the exact same problem with the Oticon Real 1 hearing aids. Once again, I ended the trial. Interestingly, I didn’t encounter this problem with the Resound Omnia and Phonak Lumity Life models, both equipped with domes. Despite this, I decided to give Oticon another chance. I’m currently trying out the Zircon 1 model and have taken things a step further by using custom earmolds (which, if I understand correctly, use UP speakers).
Strangely, this problem seems to be exclusive to Oticon’s products. Describing the issue is challenging, but it resembles distortion, making the sound appear excessively “loud.” It’s quite puzzling – any idea what might be causing this phenomenon?
You’re ignoring this member’s posts.
EGXA15 people in this conversation13 min readJump to latest↓
What do you call “distortion”? Oticon have special function “transient noise management”. It can be turned on/off, and its level can be adjusted. Maybe you hear this function as distortion?
It’s quite puzzling – any idea what might be causing this phenomenon?
It’s gotta be their brain-hearing philosophy and artificial intelligence with Deep Neural Network () some kind of thing?
I’ve never been able to use Oticon models with any success, but “distortion” was not one of them. @Volusiano can most likely help you narrow it down.
I’m having a tough time explaining, but it’s like distortion when the sound gets too loud for the speaker to handle. It’s like a stuttering sound with maybe a slight touch of an echo sometimes.
One thing which I noticed that it only occurs once. For example: when using a language learning app which pronounces words, sometimes I get this distortion effect. Immediately repeating the same word at the same volume doesn’t cause the distortion again.
I find it difficult to believe it’s transient noise management, because that should be more comfortable. But this effect is really uncomfortable.
I’ve been wearing for only a few months so my experience is mostly limited to the Oticon Reals I have or the Mores I trialed.
Mine will sometimes produce odd audio artifacts in certain situations. I was at a concert not long ago and noticed chirping or echoey sounds occasionally that I’m sure weren’t supposed to be in the music. Maybe some note bounced off the wall funny and got amplified. I dunno.
This isn’t noticeable for me very often. Just in noisy situations.
I’m currently trying out the Zircon 1 model and have taken things a step further by using custom earmolds
Did you also experience the distorted sound with the Zircon 1 model and custom molds?
If not, then i assume the distorted sounds occuring due to oticon feedback management , while you were wearing power domes with OPN1 and Real 1.
Because custom moldes having a better tighter fit and the receivers are sealed inside the mold.
Whereas power domes are open to the outer ear and sound/resonance can leak outside from the receiver/speaker easier than from custom molds.
Hello @BeLo , i just came across your thread and i think that the issues are because of the “open” acrylic SlimTip mold , where the receivers ar not enclosed in the acrylic itself.
Due to this there is a tiny leak of high frequencies from the receiver housing itself into air and outside the mould. This causing feedback and the feedback manager going strong. Perhaps the acrylic mold itself reflecting the leaking frequences from the receiver housing to the outside, whereas the silicone mould …
Oticon Opn has older feedback manager, without newer layer of feedback control with short sound interrupts (causing “chirps”). But it has a transient noise management.
I believe the “Compression” on the Oticons crossed all the bandwidths and is not adjustable to zero in on a specific frequency or spread out, like and octove bell curve to compress a wider area. I think the distortion is caused by to much hype in the low end, in a failed effort to make them more normal as frequency loss is usually in the high end. It is also a shame Oticon app does not provide enve basic functions to adjust Hi’s Mid’s and Low’s, like Widex. Even so, the equalizer on the Widex products is a joke. If you could roll off everything under 200HZ you would probably have less distortion.
If you don’t encounter this “distortion” with the Resound and Phonak aids, but encountered it across the board with pretty much ALL Oticon aids so far, one possibility is that perhaps there’s something about the Oticon VAC+ proprietary fitting rationale used for the default P1 program is not suitable for your hearing loss for some reason. Have you tried to have the give you a few more programs using the standard fitting rationales like NAL-NL1 or or v5a Adult? There are up to 4 programs you can have on the Oticon aids, so you can have all 4 fitting rationales (the Oticon VAC+ and the other 3 standard ones) programmed into your trial aid so you can do A/B/C/D comparison between them all.
That is the one common denominator between all the Oticon models (the VAC+ Oticon rationale) that would be different from whatever is used on the Resound and the Phonak. I would try this first before trying to mess with anything else.
The OPN only has the traditional feedback manager, while the More and Real and Zircon all have the new proprietary feedback manager. If you also hear that exact same “chirping”/“distortion” sound you hear on the Real (and the Zircon) when you trialed the OPN as well, then it can’t be due to the new Oticon feedback manager (they call it the Optimizer) because the OPN doesn’t have the Optimizer technology in it.
I assume that you don’t use the Speech Rescue technology at all because you don’t have the normal ski slope loss, but more of a linearly flat declining loss as you go up in frequency. But if you do for some reason, make sure you turn it off because 1) you don’t need it because it’s not going to be helpful for your type of loss, and 2) at least you will have eliminated another variable that may (or may not) contribute to this “chirp/distortion” you hear.
As for the Transient Noise Management, it’s in the OPN and the Zircon and More, but the Real no longer has it, as it’s now replaced by the Real’s new Sudden Sound Stabilizer. Anyway, either of those technologies are supposed to suppress the sudden sounds, so if anything, it should be a more muted experience rather than a spike of some sort that would result in a distortion/chirping sound, unless that feature was turned off completely. So it’s unlikely that the TNM is the culprit, but again, for the Real, you could have tried to turn that Sudden Sound Stabilizer feature ON and/or OFF to eliminate it as a variable. With the Zircon, it would be the Transient Noise Management. With the distortion only noticeable at sudden loud speech/sounds, you would thing that it would be the very FIRST thing your HCP(s) in those trials would have reached out and turn ON/OFF to see if it solves the problem for you or not.
You never said what your HCP(s) did when you trialed the OPN, then the Real, then the Zircon now, to try to get rid of that distortion. Surely they must have tried something and you must have recorded down (or at least remember) what they tried. Those things like turning off Speech Rescue, Transient Noise Management, Sudden Sound Stabilizer, Feedback Manager, etc, would have been obvious things that your HCP(s) should have/could have tried. Another obvious thing is whether your HCP(s) installed the Music program on the OPN (or MyMusic on the Real or Zircon) to see if the distortion went away? Usually the Music/MyMusic program are designed to have many of the signal processing features disabled, so it would have been a very obvious thing to try to establish a baseline in terms of eliminating contributing factors that could have caused that distortion you hear.
I experience similar. My own voice and loud voices seem to lose some clarity because they sound “too loud” distorted - something I did not experience with my Oticon Alta Pros. The setting is higher on the Reals compared to the Alta Pros as well. I have not been able to resolve this with my audi yet, perhaps it’s compression?
With that said, the new Oticon Companion app now has a sound equalizer to adjust the low, mid, and high for the mics (it’s a separate feature from the streaming equalizer). An app update on the iPhone is not sufficient for it to show up, it requires an uninstall and reinstall of the app. I found that lowering the mid in the equalizer (and keeping the low and high unchanged) helped reduce the distortion so that might give a clue for my next adjustment.
I’m not sure whether the Zircon is fitted to instead of VAC+. I will check this with my . Good find; I had not thought about this.
Speech rescue is definitely turned off with the Zircons. This is something I have discussed with my HCP.
I also can’t imagine it being the feedback manager. I will discuss this with my HCP as well.
The Opns, Reals, and Zircons were all fitted by different HCPs. The HCP for the Opns didn’t make any adjustments back in 2017. The HCP who fitted the Reals mentioned that the limitations of my brain were causing the issues, but I doubt her capabilities since she gave me bass domes for my hearing loss instead of bass or custom molds. I’ve currently brought this issue up with the HCP fitting my Zircons and will discuss it with her as well.
the new Oticon Companion app now has a sound equalizer to adjust the low, mid, and high for the mics (it’s a separate feature from the streaming equalizer).
Thanks for reporting this. It is indeed mentioned in the App Store entry, and it’s included in the app Instructions for Use. But I can’t get the sound equalizer to show up, even after deleting and reinstalling the app. Eventually, I guess.
It’s worth verifying what power receivers are you using. After everything I’ve read (thanks to everyone, this is a fantastic thread!) I’d think to verify the receivers aren’t being driven so hard as to generate distortion.
Given your and technical data in the Oticon cutsheets you should be using their 100 or 105 as the 85 could be struggling and maxed out for loud sounds. If your stuck with 85 the settings could changed to reduce the gain for just loud sounds.
If the chirping effect is consistent and you can recreate it, you could try to capture it and that may help the narrow down things. I used phone and an app with FFT graph to capture feedback. Then they knew where to focus their solution, which band to attenuate.
There’s many versions of free apps that do this. I use Spectorid (on Android) and they use the phones’ microphone to listen and put up a breakdown of the frequencies in what it’s hearing - the FFT part.
Here’s an example picking up my feedback, that spike just over 7kHz.
