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Expectations for speech in noise?

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With all the talk of molds vs. domes and background noise and hearing aids that reduce background noise, I have an observation!
It is, impossible to reduce background noise if the noise is coming through the vent or dome!
The must control all sounds!
The HA has no control over the noise that is not in its control!
There for, background noise or not, the HA has to control what you hear!
When I first started wearing HA, I was told that I did not need to amplify the sounds I could hear naturally but just the ones I couldn’t.
Natural hearing and aided frequencies were always out of balance!

In reply to @carolagate

@carolagate said:

If you put the Lumity in Restaurant mode it does an amazing job of cutting down the background noise. But then the mic won’t work.

@carolagate. My genuine Oticon brand More1 are the same. I find that both ConnectClip/EduMic and Speech in Noise are very effective at improving my speech comprehension. Too bad, but - like Lumify - they can’t be used conjunctively.

In reply to @user30

@user30 said:

It is, impossible to reduce background noise if the noise is coming through the vent or dome!
The HA must control all sounds!

Exactly! That is why I am ordering earmolds even though my Audi is not enthusiastic about it.

You have received many great suggestions. Your audiologist should do absolutely everything in their power to help you hear as well as you can in as many conditions as possible. Having said that here is a list of must do’s to ensure everything possible is being done:

  • Your hearing aids should be matched to your hearing loss via a verification test. If this has not been done then there is no way to know if you are getting adequate gain and response to match up with your loss.

  • You should have a speech in noise test completed to get an expectation of how well you may do understanding speech in noise. Sometimes if can be determined from the results if you should expect any improvement whatsoever in noise.

  • Adjustments can be made to your hearing aids in a properly equipped fitting room with an array of speakers positioned all around you with speech babble playing or simulated community hall crowd noise, etc… to determine the best setting and program to use to ensure you are getting the best results.

  • A remote mic can be very helpful for hearing at least one other person in front of you in a noisy environment and at the very least should be given to you on trial to determine benefit.

One other key point is most of us have varying level of difficulty understanding speech in noise as we get older even with so called normal test results on an . I guess another question before you give up on the hearing aids is have they helped you understand speech noticeably better in all other listening situations ? I would not recommend throwing in the towel if this is the case.

In reply to @raylock1

As long as the vent is not as big as a horse’s leg!
The vent should be very minimum!
Just learn to deal with the occlusion in order to get the best hearing! After all, we buy to hear better, not hear our selves speak!

In reply to @cbhearing

@cbhearing said:

Adjustments can be made to your hearing aids in a properly equipped fitting room with an array of speakers positioned all around you with speech babble playing or simulated community hall crowd noise, etc… to determine the best setting and program to use to ensure you are getting the best results.

In the decades that I’ve worn aids and with the many audiologists I’ve been treated by, none have ever done this. Seems like it would be incredibly helpful.

Edited

While we are on this topic - are you aware of Live Transcribe for iPhone? It is helpful for speech in noise. I have found it very difficult to hear in a Church auditorium. You know - the peaked roof, hard walls structure echo chamber. It was the worst for me, and my Roger equipment was of little use unless I used a Roger pen around the speaker’s neck. Otherwise forget it - even with the loud speaker system. Recently I had a funeral to attend. I sat near the front with my friend who lost his wife. When the minister started to talk - blotto - the word recognition was lousy as per usual. I brought out my iPhone with Live Transcribe on it and fired it up. Surprise! It worked quite well. It picked up the minister’s words with very good accuracy. First time I could hear in a church like this in 20 tears. You point the speaker end of the phone at the speaker and it has a flip screen on it so you can read the words. Big text - easy to read and you can save the talk if you wish. Only downside is you look like a teenager in church staring at your phone,
I have found it is also handy when listening to speech from your computer if the speaker has a slight accent and your word recognition fails you. I am very pleased with this additional tool that works better than I expected. And it is inexpensive too.

In reply to @hass5744

Agreed. There has never been an acceptable Aid to have us hear in a noisy enviornment. The best thing you can do is sit next to your person and look at his lips, or move away from the others and have a conversation in another quiter part of the room.

I’m finding that I’ve always found speech in a not very noisy environment to be much better than in a noisy environment i recently got new molds for my hearing aids and there is a improvement but it’s far from perfect. I often find myself wishing that there was a way to turn background noise down to just a level where you can just about hear it as for me it is not easy to turn and look at the person who is speaking all the time without it causing pain and discomfort. Because i can’t always turn to look at the person i sometimes find myself feeling excluded from what is going on around me.

@JordanK said:

Incidentally, people with normal hearing also struggle to hear in these types of situations.

I sometimes do far better with my hearing devices in noise far better than my hearing peers in extreme situation.

In reply to @danka

It is free to download it and use for 5 times. There are two levels of ability. I choose the high level. Then you need a yearly subscription of $19.99 US a year. If you use up your monthly allotment you can buy more time… Google Live Transcribe for iPhone and see more info there. Think they also have a Android version.

In the Live Transcribe (LT) (iPhone), there is no setting for the voice to be stream directly to the ? LT just translate the English spoken into wording. Pls check and advice.

@danka said:

no setting for the voice to be stream directly to the HA

The phone can stream directly.
You want speech to text to speech to stream? How would that override the default streaming?

In noisy place. place the iiPhone nfront of the person talking and hope it will stream the voice directly to the . This will help us to hear better.

Not sure Live Transcribe Apps has this function or not.

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