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Filter only buds for a very good hearing capabilities

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Hello,

This is my first post concerning a several-years long question. I just discovered your forum. Please apologize if I misuse it in any way. And also for my broken English

I have a very good hearing !
But I have a very poor brain that’s unable to filter sounds, due to neurological issues, and that’s irritated by noise. I always have a pair of active noise reduction plugs with me. Spending some time in a restaurant is simply impossible, causing far too much fatigue.

So I’m looking for a way to reduce noises… I’ve started with simple plugs, then active noise-reducing earbuds to limit sounds, but that also suppresses any way of social contacts, of course. You hear less, but you also communicate less. However, it’s good for phone conversations, for instance.

What I’m looking for is something that could reduce as much as possible any ambient noise while keeping the person I’m listening to at a good level, without increasing it at all ! Maybe even lower it too in case the person speaks too high.

I’m thus very interested by earbuds announced to filter noises. But each of them is announced to be targeting at least moderate hearing loss… That’s not my case !

I’ve asked Sennheiser directly - they answered something generic and useless.
I’ve asked Nuheara some years ago - they answered to buy and return the product if I was not ok.
My physician encourages me in this way but has nothing to advise.
No one seems to simply tell me if a solution exists that fits my needs - and the budget is high to simply give a try.

Could someone help ?
Have an idea ?
Simply, I’d appreciate those buds to be able to stream music (for the train…) or also give a phone call.
And… I live in Europe !

Thanks to any one in advance !
Marc

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Understanding speech in noise is a big issue for just about everybody. Technology offers two basic approaches. 1) Directional microphones on the hearing devices. They limit the direction the sound will come from to that just in front of you. 2) An auxillary microphone that the speaker holds next to them.
There is a 3rd approach that uses Artificial intelligence to try to sort out noise from speech but my take is it’s still a work in progress.
For your situation I’d look for earbuds that claim to have directional microphones or come with some sort of auxillary microphone. The old Bose Hearphones had directional microphones but they are no longer sold. I don’t know if anybody makes such a product anymore.
Hearing aids come with directional microphones and some have auxillary microphones but much more expensive than earbuds.

Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus, Nuheara IQbuds2 Max, and Apple Airpods Pro 2nd generation (if you have an iphone) will all do everything you want here. There are others, but those are the ones I’ve used and been happy with. I found the basic speech-in-noise performance of them all to be pretty comparable, and all have their pluses and minuses depending on your situation and lifestyle.

Looks like they’re $250 new in the US:

https://www.nuheara.com/usa/products/iqbuds-max/6

I don’t know where you are or whether they’d ship to Europe. I’ve seen them for less than that on ebay.

There’s a very similar new product, the HP Hearing Pro, that may replace these.

HP Hearing PRO | Advanced Self-Fitting OTC Hearing Aids10

HP Hearing PRO are advanced self-fitting hearing aids for those listening situations where you need help.

I haven’t tried it, but I don’t think it will be as good for your needs. The IQbuds have a specific speech in noise feature where you can control how much background noise is filtered out, in addition to directional microphones. The Hearing Pro has directional microphones, but not the speech in noise filter. Both have active noise cancellation, but you wouldn’t be using that while trying to have a conversation anyway. It’s also quite a bit more expensive.

Thank you, CombatWombat !

I live in Europe and Nuheara iqBuds2 max are “Out of stock”.
The “us” page you give me is redirected to a 404. I’m just wondering if this is still in production ? Or maybe planned to be replaced by a successor ? I’ve seen nothing on their website.

I wasn’t aware of HP Hearing Pro. Thanks for the link and for the information you share. Unfortunately, it’s available in the US only, as it seems…

I’ll try to have a look on ebay for Nuheara, or if it’s available on any other places.

Thanks for your help !

M2C: In Germany a large consumer comparison portal says the Sennheiser buds are better than the Nuheara, and they’re available in Europe.

Agreed that the Sennheisers are a good option. They’re more expensive than the Nuheara (at least in the US), but if they have a trial period like they do here, you can just return them if they don’t work out for you. In terms of noise canceling, they work at least as well as the Nuheara. I only had two issues with them:

  1. They’re larger and positioned differently than the Nuheara, and after a while they’d hurt my ears. That will be different for every person, so there’s no reason to expect you’d have the same problem.

  2. There are three conversation noise cancellation levels: quiet, moderate, and noisy. (I forget the exact words, but it’s something like that). Quiet cancels a small amount of background noise, and noisy cancels the most. You can’t choose between them. It automatically picks one based on the level of background noise. When it switches from noisy to moderate, it sounds like everything just got a lot noisier, because less of the noise is being canceled. But in reality, everything just got a little bit quieter, which triggered the switch in levels. So I’d often be looking around trying to figure out where the sudden dull roar was coming from, while no one else knew what I was doing because they didn’t hear anything different. When the noise is on the border between two levels, it switches back and forth constantly, and I found that too annoying.

I already had both the Nuhearas and airpods, and they were $850 at the time, so I returned them. But if they’re your only option, they’re definitely better than nothing.

CombatWombat, thank you for sharing your experience !
Price is high, indeed. But at least I know where to pay attention if I have the opportunity to test it.

The only ones I’m sure of are made for hearing aids. The Phonak PartnerMic is an example that works with Phonak Marvel, Paradise and Lumity hearing aids. There are likely similar microphones to use with earbuds, but I’m unaware of them.

Edited

It can also be done with an iphone. The LiveListen feature allows the iphone to be used as a microphone connected to the airpods, but it also works with remote bluetooth mics. I’ve had good results with this one, but I’m sure there are better ones out there:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZZ964PH?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details3

The base piece plugs into the iphone, and then the microphone can be clipped to someone’s collar. When used with LiveListen, the audio from the mic is streamed directly to your airpods.

Honestly OP, for what you’re thinking of spending on the Sennheisers, I think you can get an old iphone and a new pair of Airpods Pro 2 and probably be better off. But maybe there’s a way to make the mic setup work with androids that I don’t know about.

In case anyone stumbles across this later, I’ll add that while the airpods and iphone LiveListen/remote mic made a huge difference, upgrading to Phonak aids and Roger devices was a huge leap in quality. That’s to be expected, because this is what the Phonaks are for, whereas I was just tweaking the airpods to do things that they weren’t really made to do.

Thanks a lots for all your sharing !

Phonak system looks great. Out of price for me, but I’m glad to know something I wasn’t aware of.

CombatWombat : I’m really not ready to spend that much money for a Sennheiser product (that will fail in 5 years or so) without being sure it might change my life… Your idea to give an old iPhone a second life is very good. (I’m on Android).

If anyone has clues of a similar feature available in Android world, that would be interesting for everyone !

Thanks again !

Apple Airpods Pro 2 are pretty amazing, you can set Noise Cancellation, Conversation Boost and Adaptive Audio… say a few words and they will automatically recognize you are having a conversation, and speech from the person in front of you will come through loud and clear.

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