Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Do I need ultra-power hearing aids?

This topic is closed.

36 replies2.4k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
@Volusiano said:

but on your left ear, an UP (Ultra Power) hearing aid can help by giving you more amplification.

He just might get by with a less powerful aid with Speech Rescue enabled.
Moving those high frequency losses to a better area of hearing.

Edited

Indeed, Speech Rescue would be the first thing I would try out for him it I were his . Then if it’s still not helpful on the left ear but proves to be helpful on the right ear, then my next step would be to put him on the Xceed with Speech Rescue, of course.

Thank you very much for the insights. At the risk of further revealing my ignorance, I have not heard of using two different models of hearing aid for each ear, even if from the same manufacturer. Is this common? Does it limit technology sharing between the aids? I see my on Friday and will definitely ask about Speech Rescue. I am not satisfied with my trial of the Xceeds and my trial ends next Monday. At this point, I will probably return the Xceeds and try the Phonak Lumity Naida 90 UP. This will be the first time in 30 years wearing that I have not been happy with a new pair.

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

Then if it’s still not helpful on the left ear but proves to be helpful on the right ear, then my next step would be to put him on the Xceed,

Looking at his I would think both ears would do equally as well with the same aids using Speech Rescue.
type aids would probably be fine.

Just think of our loud.

Edited

I totally agree. Even if his right ear doesn’t need the Xceed but the left ear can benefit from it, it’s better to switch both aids to the Xceed. Having one aid as the Xceed and one aid as the OPN 1 would not be helpful simply because they can’t communicate with each other for and spatial processing, as well as other things like simultaneous program changes or volume changes, streaming to/from the phone or an accessory like the ConnectClip or TV Adapter, linked up on the programming, etc.

@TomHalf → I never suggested using one hearing aid model for one ear and a different model for the other ear. What I was saying that if Speech Rescue enabled on the OPN 1 that you currently seems to have helped for not just the right ear, but also for the left ear, then it may not be necessary to switch to the Xceed for both ears. But if Speech Rescue doesn’t help much on the left ear but helps with the right ear on the OPN 1, then the next step I would suggest is to try Speech Rescue on the Xceed FOR BOTH the right AND left ear. I would NEVER suggest using 2 different models on each ear for the reason cited on the paragraph above.

I can see how my wordings in the previous post may have caused a misunderstanding, though. I’ve edited that post to remove the misunderstanding now.

In reply to @TomHalf

@TomHalf said:

I am not satisfied with my trial of the Xceeds and my trial ends next Monday. At this point, I will probably return the Xceeds and try the Phonak Lumity Naida 90 UP.

If you currently already have the OPN 1 PowerPlus, the Xceed probably is not going to be a big enough step up for you in terms of significantly more powerful enough amplification compared to the PowerPlus version of the OPN 1.

Also, it’s not very clear what your dissatisfaction is with the OPN 1 PowerPlus. Are you feeling that you’re not getting enough amplification power from it? Or you get enough power but it’s still not good enough for speech understanding in noise? I assume feedback is not an issue because you wear custom molds with minimal venting.

It’s hard to make suggestions if you don’t clearly express what your issue is with the OPN 1 PP, or what it is that you’re looking for better in a new model. The Real does have a number of technology advancements over the OPN, but without knowing your issues or needs or desires clearly, it’s not clear if those newer technologies will apply to the kind of improvements you’re looking for.

Thank you for your patience and continued input @Volusiano. It makes sense to provide more background on why I am trialing new .
My objectives are: 1) Try to improve word recognition which has been my greatest challenge over my 30 years of severe hearing loss. I want to see if a newer generation HA can help here. 2) Avoid a crash and burn situation if my current HAs fail. I really don’t have a good backup option at present and being without HAs is waaay not fun. My OPNs would serve as a good backup. 3) I’d like to hear better when driving with passengers in my car. Historically, I’ve had limited success understanding what a front seat passenger is saying and rarely understand anyone in the back seat. Although I can do better with someone in the back when I am able to read their lips using the rearview mirror (and there is the need to focus on the road ahead periodically).
I really don’t have any issues with the OPN 1 PP, but am always looking for an improvement in word recognition. I long ago gave up on trying to understand most spoken names - only rarely does lip reading help with this. I stream music and TV frequently, and the OPNs have been very good for this as well as for phone calls.
I am currently leaning toward turning in the Xceeds and asking instead what improvements can be made with the OPNs (as you have suggested). My alternative is to trial the Phonak Lumity Naida 90 UP.
Again, please accept my gratitude for the insights offered by you and others on this forum!

Edited

Thank you for elaborating your objectives in looking for a new pair of aids. I didn’t hear that you find your OPN 1 PP version is lacking in the amplification department, so that’s understandable why switching to the Xceed would make much difference for you anyway.

I think your wanting to trial the Lumity Naida 90 UP next is a good approach. I’m not an expert on Phonak aids, but I hear that it has some cool new technologies like Stereo Zoom and Speech Sensor that may help improve your speech understanding better in a car environment. It also has more aggressive directional noise reduction to help with speech, which may also work out well for you compared to the Oticon “open” paradigm, where other surrounding sounds may cause more distractions to you. The open paradigm may work out well for people with more moderate hearing, but for folks with heavier hearing losses, the open paradigm may introduce too much distraction for better speech understanding. Of course, your coming from already being used to the open paradigm, it can only help, not hurt if more emphasis is given to speech focus, although you may find that you hear less “things” around you than with the Oticon aids.

The other thing you should also try with the Phonak Lumity Naida 90 UP is the technology. Phonak uses a different frequency lowering technology than Oticon, but you have the advantage of having both brands here so you can compare and see which of the frequency lowering technologies you like better, and whether you find frequency lowering helpful at all to begin with. But it would be remissed for the not to suggest that you try it out since it doesn’t cost anything to do so and it’s already there, waiting to be used, AND your kind of hearing loss (with profound high frequency hearing loss) is a good candidate to try frequency lowering. All you have to do is disable it if you find that you don’t like it after trying it out. I think that frequency lowering may help you improve your word recognition if the fricatives in the speech sounds become more audible to you.

I’m not sure if the advancements in the Oticon Real would be much helpful for you or not. You won’t know unless you try. But at first glance, a step up from the OPN to the Real would be the new feedback management prevention technology. But since you never said feedback is an issue for you (thanks to you custom molds), not sure of its value to you.

The next big thing in the Real is the (Deep Neural Network AI), which provides a more balanced sound scene with better clarity. But because your hearing loss is severe to profound in general, I don’t think that the much narrower and limited dynamic range in your hearing (compared to a wider dynamic range hearing from folks with more moderate loss) can really discern the finer nuances that the DNN AI can deliver anyway. But if you have the means to trial the Real after the Phonak Lumity Naida 90 UP, I don’t see why not just to see if you can discern much difference between the Real and the OPN or not.

The other 2 big new things in the Real (and not in the More) is the sudden sound stabilizer and the better wind noise handling. If you rarely have any issue with these 2 things, than they wouldn’t add value to you anyway.

Second a eval. Even if you are not yet a candidate, having all that information positions you well if you become a candidate in the future.

With this level of loss, whether a UP is going to be better than a is very individual. BTE with a full shell soft earmold will nearly always be able to provide more low and high frequency gain than a RIC with a hard built-in custom UP tip (“nearly” because ear anatomy always complicates things). However, if an individual with a similar loss doesn’t like things loud, or finds that they get distortion with too much high frequency gain (which they may if there is sufficient damage to the ear), if they aren’t using all that power of the BTE anyway, then a RIC may be fine. Chances of success with a RIC will probably be higher if the ear canal is big enough for a good, deep UP custom tip on the RIC. People who are used to BTEs may be disappointed with a thinner quality sound in RICs, that said a lifetime BTE user often DOES have a good sized ear canal as longterm snug earmold use does seem to impact ear canal growth.

Fit-wise, I’ve had BTE users move to RICs and like how light and small they are, and I’ve had BTE users switch to RICs and hate how loose and floppy they are.

@TomHalf said:

rarely understand anyone in the back seat.

Don’t make this an expectation for hearing aids. Folks with normal hearing also struggle to hear what the person in back is saying regularly. Your best bet is to stick a on them.

In reply to @vigetan

I would love to do a review of it when I get around to need to buy a new pair of hearing aids, and hopefully by then the Real becomes more affordable. I’m on a set of OPN 1 right now and they’re working fine for me so there’s no justification to go out and buy a new pair of aids yet (I’m retired so I don’t have money to throw around). Plus I’m a ’er so most of the mundane issues like receiver failure, I can fix. Hence my OPN 1s keep on going.

Back in the days there was a provider in this forum who sent me the OPN 3 and the Sonic Enchant 100 on short loan to review and share my opinions. I think those reviews I wrote should still be searchable on the forum. But they’re outdated aids a long time ago already, of course.

My Audi has told me that the Real 1 is not available in UP. My research confirms this and I’m pretty sure I require a UP aid on my left ear. I’m pretty sure I will try the Phonaks and see how I like them.

@TomHalf said:

I’m pretty sure I will try the Phonaks and see how I like them

I think you NEED to try the Phonak Naida UP aids. I got the Paradise UP last year and WOW!
I also have pretty poor word recognition, and the Phonak hearing aids have made a word of difference. Don’t throw down a wad of cash until you have tried them…
Best wishes on this journey,
Dan

This morning I returned the Oticon Xceeds. I will hopefully be getting a trial of the Nadia UP within a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for results. Thanks again for all of the valuable input.

Related discussions