Diagnosis with hearing loss in one ear. Not hearing all sounds in hearing aid

Update. I went back to audiologist. They enabled “High Frequency Boost” in the widex software which boosts 6k and 8k frequencies.

However this has just make things more bright and harsh and not fixed the problem. Its not great so Ive gone back to the default.

They confirmed that the fit was optimal and the music program didnt have any compression.

I definitely like the sound quality and when using the music program it really does make things louder and clearer. I am just still missing the high frequencies when listing to music from speaker or movies from my Sonos ARC.

When I listen to the same source from my phone and hold the phone speaker closer to my ear, I can hear the high frequencies, even without the aid. The further I hold the phone away, I lose them. It’s like to lower/mid frequencies drown them out.

I am thinking of trying the oticon intent 1. Just so i’ve tried an alternative. Also, I like the idea of using the telecoil so I can wear headphones over the aid for better sound quality.

Another thing I’ve read about is “Functional Gain Testing”. I might ask my Audi if they can run this to see if I am hearing soft sounds better with the aid.

I know my right ear can hear higher frequencies normally, but I am right in thinking I should be hearing triangles, sleigh bells, chimes etc on movies/musics if they are under 8k Hertz with the hearing aid right.

You won’t necessarily hear them if the aid decides they are harsh noises, pure-tones or if the prescription is off/ignoring the conductive element.

With Widex aids, sometimes it’s better to just put the Music program in the default P1 slot. Less processing and interference etc. If you find you still need the aids turned up, you can ask for that or just do it on the app.

I cant hear those sounds at distance in the music program and adjuating treble etc in the app makes no difference.

Ive just put the treble up to max and then and I can now hear them from a distance on my phone. I will test with speaker’s.

Yes, I tried them for a couple of weeks. They weren’t very good for me tbh. The Widex provided more soundstage, better clarity and much better sounding for music.

My audiologist has since tweaked a puresound preset with the feedback manager, compression, AI etc turned off. I use it for watching movies and listening to music.

The only thing the Octicons did better was managing feedback.

@Brother_Luke said:

I cant hear those sounds at distance in the music program and adjuating treble etc in the app makes no difference.

Perhaps your receiver wire is too long; therefore, the HA microphones cannot catch high-frequency sounds in front of you because they are placed more backward making mics less effective especially in higher pitches.

Sorry, that’s not how the microphones work. You’re right that high frequency sound is impacted by head/body diffraction though, just not quite like that.

@Um_bongo said:

There’s a massive difference in what you’ve just illustrated and having a wire slightly too long or too short: aids are designed to accommodate about 15 degree variation to the horizontal plane

It was a Calm situation program, where the microphone’s directivity was set to 1 of 8 possible unit (in speech in noise there would be 20 possible unit max). However, strangely, when I set it to 8, I did not see a difference from setting 1.

I think this is because it is difficult to make all variations ideally the same while experimenting alone.

@Um_bongo said:

However hanging the aid off the side of your head at x degrees in free-field will cause the directional field to become poorly orientated and that’s most significant in high frequencies.

Indeed, I noticed the same.

@Um_bongo said:

If you put the aid in Omni mode and actually position it vertically it will do better.

Not experimented, but I understand that assumption and the reasoning.

I raised that issue because I thought we might have a relatively simple solution for better high-frequency amplification.

@Bimodal_user said:

where the microphone’s directivity was set to 1 of 8 possible

I’m guessing that’s a bit like the traction control system in a Mercedes: says it’s off, but it’s not off off.

The ‘microphone’ (pair of mics) are doing directional stuff all the time, switching between cardiod, super-cardiod and hyper-cardiod patterns, by varying the delay function between the two ports. Depending on the particular setting, they might be less focussed forward, but still operating as a directional system. Which is why the directional response deteriorates when you tilt it over.