Analogs vs Digitals

I do agree with you actually completely on your above points. I guess my posts are always a bit “hearing aids are rubbish” which I appreciate can get a bit wearing but that’s because I think I am in a fairly unique position when using them. You guys use them as another sense, along side sight. For me, they are my only sense to navigate the world. So if they sound rubbish,if they turn things up or down, if they compress things I don’t want them to, if they only go down to certain frequencies, my world is made much smaller. I agree with you they all focus on speech above all else. Widex doesn’t by the way that is one thing they have always said. The problem is for me, speech is only part of the answer. So yes you can play around with the fitting, but it’s just that I think most of the hA’s are basically all the same and most don’t sound anywhere near like real life does. not when you are noticing every single tiny thing those hearing aids are doing differently compared to what your regular hearing is doing. This is why I don’t wear hearing aids at the moment because despite my loss of hearing, I have felt safer and more able without them. The only reason I’m needing them now is because in certain situations, big rooms with quiet people for example, I can’t understand them. My poor wife Widex pure is something in my opinion all hearing aids should have. The world would sound a lot nicer.

@Sash88uk said:

This is something I’m interested in about frequency, as I don’t actually know the levels on my audiogram

Check out the speech banana and compare it with your audogram when you get a copy, plus if you wanted you could upload it to your profile.

I had something like this done when I was younger, can’t find my chart anywhere, it was over 20 years ago. This is going to sound really stupid, but it has for example a crying baby in that chart, does this mean if you can hear that and dog barking, is that where you fit the profile (moderate)

Hi there, I went to Audiology, forgot to ask for copy of audiogram , I know right ear is profound and my left ear which is my better ear is moderate/severe. She was a lovely young lass, but she didn’t understand much what I meant in a lot of issues I have. So at the moment I’m having slight muffled sound and a bit of ear pain in my left, she kept noting there’s no sign of infection…but I know it’s deep in the ear of something like the Eustachian tube narrow or something. I never claimed to have infection, but pain and muffling is coming from the ear. So that bit was frustrating. Then trying the digitals was another matter, it wasn’t successful today, although she synced it to match my hearing test or whatever it is they do, I couldn’t still make out what she was saying even though I could hear her, but no clarity in what she said and it felt like I had my mouth deep in a microphone where it crackles a bit, she is going to refer me to a senior as it was beyond her limitations, otherwise she was lovely and understanding, so felt like a waste of a visit really as it seems I need to see an ENT about my ear itself. I’d appreciate any feedback.

I also wish the digital aids sounded more like those old school analogs! I
I’ve had a moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss for about 40 years. I used Phonak ( for 25 years and Starkey for 15 years. I used hard plastic skeletal earmolds. Those analog BTE hearing aids were low maintenance and very reliable. Everything changed with the transition to the new age of digital technology. I been using the Resound 9 61 Quatro Rechargeable RIC hearing aids for the past 5 years. They are set at a higher MPO in my all around program for a fuller richer sound experience. I am still using the same type of skeletal earmolds.
This Resound brand and model of hearing aid is always needing adjustments and constant repairs. The main problem is an automatic lowering of sound in only one aid, never both at the same time! It lingers in this position a lot longer than is necessary! It’s very annoying. The audiologist has Resound fix one aid and shortly thereafter the other aid will start having the same problem and need to be sent in for repair. This has been happening on average Every six months throughout nearly 5 years! On a side note, no matter the problem with the hearing aids, the Multi Mic is good and the Bluetooth streaming is fine. I wonder if The hearing aids are too complicated for the audiologist ! I’m thinking about asking him if he can turn off all that automatic junk and switching it to where I can manually shift the programs myself?
Is that a good idea? What do you recommend?

Very frustrating and reassuring to hear that quiet a number of people do not like digital hearing aids, frustrating part is how they are able to create amazing technology and yet can not design a hearing aid to be either analog or digital to suit the individual. Let’s face it there ways far to many levels of hearing losses and personal preferences is how we hear or like to hear.

I’ve heard about the fact you can change your programme yourself, strange my audiology neglected to mention this.

@Ziby said:

I been using the Resound 9 61 Quatro Rechargeable RIC hearing aids for the past 5 years.

Strange. I don’t know much about these HAs, but they should work in sync with one another.

New HAs, especially Starkey and Phonak are very robust and reliable speaking of environmental endurance.

@Ziby said:

I’m thinking about asking him if he can turn off all that automatic junk and switching it to where I can manually shift the programs myself?
Is that a good idea? What do you recommend?

I am not a good person to give advice, because I am biased and I try to use all the modern features. I tried a linear amplification from a DIY project today, but I did not find it much better (YMMV), and the lack of compression of louder signals bothered me a bit.

@Sash88uk, @Ziby, I recommend that very informative seminar:

Sash, eustachian tubes can muffle sound when they’re blocked. We’re entering spring and allergy season. A simple possible help may be using a nasal rinse. IME these also help, at least temporarily, with unblocking my eustachian tubes (similar to but longer lasting than a valsa maneuver.) they definitely help moderated allergy reaction longer term.

Thanks Jeffery I have usually taken antihistamines as I’ve suffered nasal issues which in turn affects my ears, but I might give the nasal spray a try and see if that makes any difference, thanks for the tip

Thanks for the tip, but yeah annoyingly the doctor looked inside the ear and said “it’s all clean and no sign of infection” well thanks but my ear still sounded muffled, surely they can’t see that far down to the Eustachian tube to know it looks “fine”, eventually they have me steroid nasal spray, which I’ve never used before, this has actually helped.

@Sash88uk said:

surely they can’t see that far down to the Eustachian tube to know it looks “fine”

There are tests for Eustachian tube patency. What did you tell the ENT doctor?

It was just my local GP doctor who had a look, but they’ve referred me to ENT anyway, I used to go regularly for years, but cancelled appointments during Covid and then seemed to have forgotten me since then.

Forgot to add my ENT also had me do the val salva maneuver frequently to help clear the ears. Seems like they finally stayed open and unmuffled after a week or so.