How much improvement do you hear with every next generation of high end hearing aids?

This 100%. To answer the original question I would say that generally changes are minimal and it’s ok to skip a generation or two but every now and again something special happens. I am a Phonak wearer mostly. Paradise and Lumity were not enough of a change but infinio with the Hardware AI chip has been a revelation. Speech in noise must improved, battery life much improved.

@HomerSimpson.
Sometimes I wonder about the validaty of the word recognition test. A couple of times I’ve done a word recognition test in a noisy background. The noise is a consistent sound of white noise from the headphone. Isn’t that too easy for the brain to push it to the background? Noise in real life is more vairable and unexpected.
Also they often use meaningful words. So your brain is working to hear them properly. Back in the day in my IT job I came across nonsensical names of programs and files like PBD123. I remember discriminating between a P and a B was one of the hardest.

@Ed14 said:

A couple of times I’ve done a word recognition test in a noisy background. The noise is a consistent sound of white noise from the headphone. Isn’t that too easy for the brain to push it to the background? Noise in real life is more vairable and unexpected.

The tests must be standardized to be relevant. So we shouldn’t expect them to mirror our life experiences one-to-one.

I’m starting to think the same thing. I have been working with the same audiologist for the last 10 years (am a lifelong hearing aid user since age 12). He’s been acting strange lately after I roadtested the Phonak Sphere and Oticon Intent without much success. Out of the blue he’s been talking about how severe my hearing loss is (not true) and then last time starting talking about my getting a cochlear impact (are you kidding me?). My current aids are Oticon Opn S1 and they serve me fine except for noisy situations so that is why I am looking for an upgrade. Wow how can I find a good audiologist?

Terry

Where are you based Chowan?

I went from Phonak Audeo’s in the 2008 to Resound Quattro’s and the difference was huge. I couldn’t hear well with the early Phonak Audeos. Now I went from Resound One to Jabra 20 and did not notice any real difference - i couldn’t hear well with either of them. Next I trialed Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere I90 and its a night and day difference in terms of what sounds I hear, and what speech i can understand. I can hear much better with the phonaks compared to the jabra and resound hearing aids.

I once had a discussion with a young doc in residency, who was a friend of my son-in-law. We were looking for a new physician at the time. I thought to ask him, “Geoff, how do I find a good doc?”. I followed with questions such as years of experience, reputation of school where graduated, board certification, online reviews, etc. As I was going through my list, he would shake his head slowly, almost painfully. Finally I ran out of options. At that point he said to me “word of mouth”. I was stunned. Turns out it was excellent advice. Patients may not know all of the technical details of what their providers are doing, but they generally know results, lol. So my advice is to start noticing friends who have HAs - they’re everywhere - and having discussions.

Interestingly and coincidentally, Geoff is now a cochlear implant specialist, focused area pediatrics.