Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Adjustments to Philips 9050 to prevent violin distortion

This topic is closed.

8 replies592 viewsLast reply

Link to this topic

I play violin and the Philips 9050’s I’m currently evaluating painfully distort the sound. I raised the issue with the Costco fitter who scanned the list of “unusual” complaints in the database provided by Philips and adjusted them by reducing something by 2 ’s that controls the maximum volume. It didn’t help.

When I go back, are there specific things I can suggest to him to try to make these ’s work?

BTW, I found the Widex Moment 440’s and Phonak Spheres to work just fine with my violin without any special adjustments. I’d say that both actually improve the sound to my ear. I’m only evaluating the Philip’s now because they are significantly lower in cost and I thought I should at least give them a try.

Thanks.

9 people in this conversation5 min readJump to latest
Edited

It’s impossible for us to diagnose your hearing settings without knowing what they are set at.

Outside of making sure they have all the noise and directional settings turned off and maybe even the feedback manager turned off if you are wearing , bringing in your violin to your adjustment appointment, and asking if there is a hearing aid fitter that plays an instrument that can be your fitter, that’s all the advice I can give.

Costco hearing aids are a bargain, but they may not be able to spend the time necessary to get your hearing aids dialed in.

It’s been said many times before, the person adjusting your hearing aid and your ability to describe what you are hearing can make all the difference

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Fh-M9EjIW2B0J1EX2w0Wo4fTRwznpLHnFFVExS8wZNvE.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dfb91a0e866666dc1bdd3a04bd4f70e8c59282a15&rdt=4029412

The other option is to go .

In which frequency do you have the distortion?
I don’t know the violin sound range.
Perhaps around 2-3khz?
First of all you have to know in which frequency range you have the problem and tell that to your audi.

I’ve tested Philips 9050 and Oticon Intent 1 and I’ve noticed in both some kind of distortion/annoying sound around 2-3khz, mainly in “sh” sound. For example, Toothbrush, English, Shopping, even in Picture, Information. These words sound annoying depending on the person pronunciation.

Maybe it could be same problem you have. I’ve experienced the problem with open domes and 85db receiver.

I’ve tried to switch the feedback manager off, with no speech rescue, but no improvement.

I don’t know if it’s a problem, a receiver problem,…

I assume that when you say painful distortion here, you’re talking about the sound getting too loud (cause of the pain) and fuzzy or crackling or over saturated because it’s driven more than what the receivers can amplify.

Short of guessing where the resonant frequencies are that’s causing the distortion and try to tone it down through trial and error, I would suggest that you bring your violin to the fitting session. Then there are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to hook you up for , then have you play the violin, and look at the dynamic response on the gain curves as seen on the REM screen to see where the over saturation occurs, then tone it down in those resonant frequencies. Basically you’d be doing REM against the violin sound as you play instead of against some artificially simulated noise sounds. This is probably the quickest because you’ll see it on the screen as you play where the painful distorted peaks are and the fitter can adjust it on the fly until you don’t get the distorted sound anymore.

If the Costco fitter is not willing to do the REM test, then he/she can try to make adjustments and you play the violin after that to see if it helps. If not put it back where it was and adjust elsewhere at another frequency or frequency zone, back and forth until you find the right “zone” to reduce the gain.

Is there a hi-fi music program that you can select via the app or long press? If not, ask for it.

Since I have had my nose in HearSuite over the last week building my own music listening program, I have couple of thoughts . . .

The standard Music Hifi program shuts most things off but leaves the wind noise and soft noise filters on. The soft noise is very low level noise – ac fan noise for example. Tell the audi to slide them to off. Likewise the program switches the mics to an omni mode. I switched this to pinna and – as far as my tired ears told me – it sounded better with a bit of ‘glare’ removed.
I also reduced the gain upward from 3KHz by -2dB which killed a fatiguing edge I heard.

Bear in mind, these are all my perceived improvements on my desktop system (Focal Solos), so your results WILL vary . . . but they are things you can try.

fit-music

Violin is an interesting case because your left ear is very close to the instrument, and the right ear much farther away. Your hearing loss is pretty symmetric from side-to-side. By default, the hearing aid programming software will program each side to the , assuming your hearing world is the same on both sides of your head.

If you play the violin without hearing aids, can you hear it OK? Do you play just by yourself, or as part of an orchestra or group? What other sounds do you need to hear when you are in a musical session? Do you have to stop and listen to instructions from the director, for instance? Do you need the hearing aids to hear the other instruments around you?

I would guess that you need to have a special program set up that gives you normal amplification on your right side, and very little on your left. I’m sure one of the professionals here on this forum has worked with a violinist before, I hope they will chime in.

Multiple violins from good CD hifi sounded terrible through my old Phonak M70s - ‘clogged’ and with added pitches a couple of octaves lower until my
marvellous audiologist matched the roll-off of my ears (3.5 k) with the equalisation.
Much better. And yes, at her invitation, I did take in an instrument - a small keyboard and subsequently a harmonica - to confirm success. Never settle for restricted single-tone testing!

Edited

In the 9050 fitter software, they can change a feature called “Sound Perception”. That’s most likely where your guy/gal made the 2db change. Have them take another look there and tweak some more. I’ve found that there are some options in the HearSuite fitter software that do not appear as options working on the 9050. In particular, SoundMap Amplification with selectors for “Phoneme Focus” and “Envelope Focus”. Right below the guide are also options “Compression Control” and “Gain Control”. Basically, they’re in the Help Screens but not on the devices.

Related discussions