Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Best aids for noise differentiation with profound loss

19 replies731 viewsLast reply

Link to this topic
Reply

I have had worstening hearing loss for most of my life but my most recent showed profound loss (~25decibel reduction from my last one 2 years ago) I have moved areas and my new hearing aids are Phonak Marvel SP m70 changed from Signia Stretta Aya M. I have found that hearing in noise is more difficult with these aids than it was with my last ones (at least when I could hear through them initially, by the end I could hear very little but it did still seem to mostly pick up speech) and I don’t know if this is an issue with the programming on my new aids being worse or if this is what I should expect from any brand suitable for this amount of loss? I have workable workable hearing in quiet with my new aids but with any backround noise, speech is completely indistinguishable without lipreading making conversation in cars impossible and stuggling in lectures, cafes etc.

9 people in this conversation7 min readJump to latest

I haven’t really at the moment as I still have enough aided speech recognition in quiet according to NHS guidelines and also I’ll be waiting at least another year for an review so for now not really an option unfortunately I don’t think. I will definately be asking my audiologist at my next appointment if/when that’s an option though.

Edited

My Signia Pure Charge & Go do a surprisingly good job of sound differentiation. I’m sure a lot of the effectiveness has to do with how the audiologist adjusted the units’ programming. He put speech as the “lock into it” sound. (The audiologist has been hearing impaired since birth. He is brilliant & very personally experienced about fine tuning devices.)

When there are sounds all around, like in a factory or restaurant, the devices are excellent about giving me the voice and even following the speaker if she or he moves about.
Other sounds are diminished. They sure as heck stop wind noise from interfering. It seems they recognize it and nuke it instantly. I can still hear & understand a person talking.

The negative is if I am listening to, for example, a machine or music and someone talks to me; the speaker takes precedence over the other sounds. Such is life.
Paul

Hello all Nikos here the new man around town. I also have severe hearing loss, currently using widex moment 440 and considring switching to Phonak. My question is is Phonak better with either directional focus or increased gain? I live an active lifestyle and travel a lot. I find it difficult with my Moment’s to tell where sound is coming from especially cars. Any input is appreciated. Thanks,

Yeah it’s a good question, but it’s one I think that only you would know for sure, directional mics are available on all now and only a trial in those environments will you know yourself.

Yes i know that they are, my question is for other people to express what they think. I have been with widex for 8 years using he evoke and moment and they do not do that well in noisy settings like say a train station or party so am wondering about the phonak. I figured if I called Phonak that of course they would say they are superior whether it is true or not. Your thoughts?

@Nikosman said:

I figured if I called Phonak that of course they would say they are superior whether it is true or not. Your thoughts?

Well Phonak sphere are getting some good reviews on this forum, I too had the evoke models, however i preferred both ReSound and Signia over Widex, it’s still important for you to trial before you commit, have you got a local Costco you could check out, they don’t have Phonak Sphere at the moment tho, but other premium models including a new Starkey at some stores.

I will see what I can do. Another question, I have never used rechargable aids before will they l’st at least 20 hours or will I need to recharge them through out the day? I will they still made aids with batteries.

At the end of most days (~17-18 hours) I have well over 50% remaining battery in each of my Sphere i90 aids. Once that I’ve caught it, were they less than 50%, about 47 and 49 or something like that. I’d been in a casino for a HS reunion, and they’d been in spherical mode for hours.

WH

In reply to @TheImpossibleInsect

You are basically well within the criteria for NHS Cochlear Implant’s, approximately 3 years ago, I was offered a assessment from the NHS… It’s a bit of a postcode lottery, some areas are proactive, other areas put audiology at the bottom of the pile! You meet the criteria, so push it with your local NHS Audiology Department, do not let them fob you off! I declined their offer, as I was about to retire, they gave me 3 months to decide… Tell them you will go to your local MP to fight your case, the NHS are very wary of any negative news regarding their services, your local RAG/Newspaper might be interested in your story? If the NHS refuse you an assessment… Good Luck, cheers Kev :+1:

In reply to @WhiteHat

Thanks for the info this is good. Last question, do the aids turn off while charging or just mute? the reason I ask is because, I am totally blind and thus use my phone with a screen reader in my case voice over. One good thing is you can use the battery wigit on the Iphone to see the status of any batteries connected to your phone. If the hearing aids muted the battery wigit may show their charge but if they turned off, is there any way to see charge status other than the lights on the case itself? Either way is fine just asking.

They turn off when placed in the charger. But the battery status can be viewed in the myphonak app on the phone as long as power is supplied. I configure mine not to turn on when removed from the charger, so if the battery dies in the charger after they’ve charged, they won’t be sitting there running in the charger case. I prefer to turn them on myself. The default is they will turn on as soon as power is removed.

WH

Ah thata is good to know. It would be interesting if someone invented a portable wearable hearing aid charger. Imagine this your watching TV before you leave in 45 minutes if you had a wearable charger you could hear the TV and the aids would charge.

Honestly have had no desire to top off charge on these hearing aids since I got the spheres. Battery life is great.

WH

Do you find that if you do not allow tem to die completely the batteries will last for a few years? Aslo since i play a lot of games should I get eh phonak tv connect rather they use standard bluetooth?

In reply to @tenkan

@tenkan said:

Well Phonak Sphere are getting some good reviews on this forum….

For this kind of loss?

Let’s get real here: we’re not really in territory with this loss, so the choice of aids is led by who can provide stable/usable gain without feedback and then worry about processing. Given that the OP likely needs usable gain up around 120-130dB, it’s silicone moulds, double thick wall tubing and a proper 675 aid.

Without having a deep look into what’s currently available, Enzo would usually be one of my first choices.

@Um_bongo said:

For this kind of loss?

Obviously not, truth be told, I didn’t even see his results at the time, is the first thing that comes to mind when I see a loss like this.

In reply to @Nikosman

@Nikosman said:

last for a few years? Aslo since i play a lot of games should I get eh phonak tv connect

My last aids, P90 Audeo, went 3 1/2 years before I got the Spheres. They were still doing OK, but the P90s never had great battery life to begin with. They were going about 10-12 hours depending on how much & kind of streaming. Roger & TV Connector seemed easier on battery than streaming. I had them serviced after I got the spheres. The batteries are good again.

As for gaming, I’d get the TV Connector. The latency will be lower. The quality of sound in your ears should be higher. You can adjust the balance of connector vs ambient sound volume via buttons on the aids. The toslink connection nails up the connection until you break it somehow. (Turn off connector, turn off computer or change programs, etc.) If you use an analog audio cable, then the connector will shut off the connection after a period of silence (40 sec? Something like that.) until you’ve had audio a few secs again. I always hated missing the first few second of a conversion on a call after a pause, so I got a USB adapter for my computer with toslink audio out.

I hope this helps.

WH

Thelm…

I have been trialing the HeardThat app with my new Sonite R aids. It uses your smartphone to do the speech augmentation. It takes some tweaking but when I got it to work it was impressive. Cost is $99/yr. Using the phone processor abilities instead of the tiny chip in our aids makes sense.

Give it a try https://heardthat.ai/6

Jim

Related discussions