Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Any suggestions with oticon more 1 amplify ALL sound around me?

This topic is closed.

21 replies2.4k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
Edited

Hi, one of my main problems is understanding speech so I purchased the oticon more 1 model hoping they would help. They do seem to help when I’m in a one on one situation or watching tv. However I’ve found a problem though when I’m in a situation in which I’m speaking to someone and there are others speaking around me, that the sound seems to all get amplified and it becomes overwhelming. Last time this happened I was a Dr. office where I was trying to talk to a receptionist and there was another patient talking to another receptionist 3’ away plus all the other people talking in the waiting room. It was too much for me to handle.
I only have one more visit audiologist visit covered by my insurance plan. Is there a special setting I should use when I’m in a setting like this or should the hearing aid automatically compensate?
My 2nd question, should you hear slight feedback when you brush your ears when wearing the aids? This didn’t happen with the oticon 3 hearing aids I had before these.
thanks

6 people in this conversation10 min readJump to latest

The More aids are designed to allow you to hear all around but should lock on to the person in front of you. I have the More1 aids and love them. I would go back to your audiologist and explain the issues. Also, if you have the Oticon ON app the default program should also show MoreSoundBoost with it enabled the aids should narrow the sound you hear to your front.

Yes I can hear the slightest amount of feedback. Also do you have domes, or custom ear molds? If you have domes they can allow you to hear straight into your ear if they are set correctly for your needs. More than likely you have open domes.

@innerharmony said:

Is there a special setting I should use when I’m in a setting like this or should the hearing aid automatically compensate?
My 2nd question, should you hear slight feedback when you brush your ears when wearing the aids? This didn’t happen with the oticon 3 hearing aids I had before these.
thanks

There is a special setting you can try without burning up your one remaining audi visit. It’s called the MoreSound Booster and it’s an option which you can only find in the Oticon ON app. Next time you’re in a difficult environment like at your doctor office, try to enable it to see if it helps. It’s supposed to help suppress the surrounding sounds to help allow you to focus more on the sounds in front. Your audi can probably create a program that has a similar effect to the MoreSound Booster option, but why do that when you can readily already have it at your fingertip through the ON app anytime you need it.

On your second question, I don’t really know which Oticon model you’re referring to by “Oticon 3”. Are you saying the Oticon OPN 3? Or the Oticon OPN S3? Anyway, the More should have the same equivalent MoreSound Optimizer to the OPN S OpenSound Optimizer, which is the advanced feedback prevention technology (the original OPN doesn’t have this). It’s possible that in your OPN S3 (if that’s what you had), you had it set to “Full ON” or Normal, but in your More 1, your audi only set it to Low (see screenshot below for an example of Feedback Management setting at the bottom of the screenshot). If so, then have your audi set it to Normal to see if it helps.

It used to be Full ON (Normal now) of OFF before in the OPN S. But some people reported hearing fluttering/warbling sounds at times with it. So Oticon updated the firmware to give people another option to reduce the effect of this MoreSound Optimizer feedback management, which results in a new setting called Low.

image

My Audi put a program on my More 1’s for when in crowded places such as a restaurant, etc. kind of pushes everything other than the person I’m talking to to the back making it so much easier to have a conversation in a loud setting.

In reply to @Volusiano

The hearing aid I had before is the oticon opn S3. I’m not very technical but I will have a look at this tomorrow to see if I can figure it out. I know that he put the program that works with More on my phone and got rid of the other one for the opn 3, but really haven’t tried to use it yet.

Hi Volusiano I just turned on the oticon app and found the sound booster you mentioned. I will try it tonight when I watch tv with that setting to see the difference from the normal setting. thank you again for all the detailed instructions. I’ll be going to costco in a few days and will check it out in the store as well.

In reply to @cvkemp

I’m going to try the setting for sound booster the other chap suggested tonight while I watch TV. as well as hopefully in a noisy environment when I go to Costco in a few day. I have domes with the hearing aids. thank you again for your suggestions

In reply to @innerharmony

There is no name for it, at least I wasn’t told of one. I just explained that I was having problems hearing when in noisy environments and she knew right away what needed to be programmed. So now the default program is what I use most often and when out for dinner or in other types of crowded environments I switch to program 2 and that leaves program 3 for the v streamer. Good luck

thank you the other fellow gave me some good tips on finding the program. I tried the booster last night while watching tv but it really wasn’t the right way to check it out.

@innerharmony said:

I tried the booster last night while watching tv but it really wasn’t the right way to check it out.

That’s true. There’s only the sound from the TV coming from the front and there are no other surrounding sounds noisy enough in your home (I presume), so most of the programs including the MoreSound Booster let the front sound in anyway. So that is not a good test, even if you choose a content on the TV like a very noisy restaurant, all that noise still only comes from the TV tiny front speakers anyway.

If you’re unable to go to your doctor office where you actually struggled in that environment before for a real test, comparable tests would be to go to a noisy crowded mall or restaurant to test out the MoreSound Booster. And you’d also need to bring someone with you who can carry a conversation with you in front of you.

In reply to @csmothers

@csmothers said:

Program 2 for my More 1s is called Speech in Noise.

Yes, normally one would want to try out the built-in Speech in Noise program first to see if it helps. If it doesn’t help so much compared to the Default Program 1, then the MoreSound Booster would be the next step to try.

The key difference between them from what I understand is that the Speech in Noise program tries to clean up/enhance the clarity of the speech in front as best as it can (depending on what you set for the Neural Noise Suppression level in there), but all the while still trying to preserve the surrounding sounds so you don’t lose out too much on being able to hear the surrounding sounds.

But if this is still not enough to understand speech in front better, then the MoreSound Booster will take you to the next step and try to suppress the surrounding sounds more aggressively as well, in addition to what’s already done by the Speech in Noise program, to give you that extra “boost” (hence MoreSound “Booster”) of clarity by increasing the front speech signal to noise ratio even more via suppressing the “noise” more. But some have commented that it acts more like a MoreSound Suppressor than a MoreSound Booster, because it gives them the perception of the surrounding sounds being suppressed.

Also, normally Oticon doesn’t like you to always be using the MoreSound Booster because that counters the “open” paradigm it promotes on the More (and OPN/S) line. So that’s why they put the MoreSound Booster for the user to access in the P1 default program only. If you have P2 containing Speech in Noise, for example, you will not be able to enable MoreSound Booster on P2 Speech in Noise. And if I remember correctly, upon reboot of your ON app or More, you’ll need to re-enable it again, it doesn’t remember that it was on from the last time.

You can read this thread on the forum for more details:

Oticon More Sound Booster Vs Speech in Noise
Does anyone know what the Sound Booster actually does? I’ve seen people talking about using speech in noise or even comfort mode when in a loud environment but I never see anything about the sound booster. What does it actually do and when is it worth using? Also, I believe there are some users here that have a more direct line of contact with Oticon but why is this feature not able to be turned on using an Apple Watch? I love that I can change everything from my watch but always forget about t…
@Volusiano said:

But if this is still not enough to understand speech in front better, then the MoreSound Booster will take you to the next step and try to suppress the surrounding sounds more aggressively as well, in addition to what’s already done by the Speech in Noise program, to give you that extra “boost”

@Volusiano: Sorry, MrV, but this is one of the rare times that I have to disagree with you, because listening through my ears, More Sound Booster does NOTHING. I have never been able to detect a reliable difference. Sometimes I think there may be a slight difference, but most of the time, it sounds the same to me whether MSB is on or off.

Edited

It’s no problem, Jim. In fact, many people pointed out the same experience you have, that the MoreSound Booster doesn’t seem to do anything to them either. But then, there are some people (if I recall correctly, Chuck @cvkemp) claim that it does make a difference and helps them as intended.

I think that although it’s Oticon’s goal with the MoreSound Booster to help people who find noisy environments challenging and want some extra help focusing on speech in front, it doesn’t always have the intended effect for everyone. It may work for some, but not for others. That’s at least my observation based on what I read as experience feedbacks from those who have tried the MoreSound Booster or the OpenSound Booster in the OPN S.

I think there are many variables that can or may not affect the effectiveness of the MoreSound Booster. For example, the OP here tried it with the TV at home, thinking it should help but it didn’t. Then the OP tried it at the grocery store and it seems to help somewhat. So obviously the (right) environment (for it to be effective) matters. Of course your type of hearing loss and level of hearing loss also matters. Then there’s also your “brain hearing” level of fitness as well. A long time wearer of the More or OPN S who might have trained their brain hearing fitness well enough already may not find it as beneficial as those who just started out wearing the More and still not used to the open paradigm. Then there’s also the personal expectation of what the thing does or should do for you as well.

So the bottom line is that it’s something made available by the manufacturer with the intended purpose that you can try out. If you try it out and it doesn’t work for you, at least you gave it a try and know. But if it works for you, then you have another tool in the bag to use.

I still find it very frustrating that even with the top of the line hearing aid More 1 that I still have problems understanding speech.
People wearing masks (or masks + the plexi barriers) make it harder as you can’t see their lips or expressions, & it muffles the sound from going forward.
I find it also depends a lot on those not wearing masks if they enunciate their words or not, have a strong accent or especially if they talk really fast.
For my tv I do have a $150 sound bar, but still use CC because I don’t always understand what is said in shows. I think I’ve become dependent on it.

You need the tv streamer. There is a world of difference in the quality of sound when using it. I also have a sound bar but that’s only because I bought it before getting my Aids.

Another option beside the TV Adapter 3.0 streamer is to get the ConnectClip, but only if your TV has Bluetooth support. This way, any other thing that plays audio and has Bluetooth support like your laptop or PC or Android smart phones can be streamed to your hearing aids as well.

wanted to thank you all so much for what you wrote to me. I let the audiologist know about wanting to get the testing done, it took time but it was amazing the difference that it made to get it done right.

He said that he just got the equipment in November and when he did the test saw that there was too much suppression in the aids the way they were programed.

It seems still a bit too loud though.
I walked outside to the street and found it too loud. He reduced it 3 levels but said it wouldn’t be good to reduce them further or I will end up with the same problem. (?)

Related discussions