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Had trouble hearing at Thanksgiving gathering

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I haven’t really had much experience hearing in noise since I got my aids. Once I went to a small music performance by a wonderful blues and folk singer-songwriter with about 20+ people in the audience, plus before and after get-together. I did pretty well with that.

We had Thanksgiving at my niece’s apartment with only 8 people, one of which was my 4 year-old grandniece. It was not really noisy, other than slightly and occasionally with my grandniece.

But I found that while I was trying to have a conversation with one or two people, with other conversations going on in the background, I had a lot of trouble hearing. It made me feel somewhat old and out of the loop, although I did have sucessful conversations. It felt a bit like being impaired (I am) and on drugs (I wasn’t).

The worst was my adored grandniece kept whispering sweet somethings in my ear, and in spite of my and asking her to repeat herself, I couldn’t understand a thing! In that case, her voice is probably kind of high, and she was whispering.

Any comments, other than tweaking my aids, and getting molds? I have the Jabra 30’s. Oh, and I can ask my grandniece to talk to me not in a whisper, as wonderful at that would be if my hearing were better!

I had the same problems. 9 adults and young adults, add a dog that barks loudly at random times. A very noisy house and one woman that speaks loudly. Even the Roger On was overwhelmed.

Similar here with the 3 yo granddaughter’s voice being difficult to understand (even for my wife), and considerable noise. The Jabra Hear in Noise setting was very beneficial at times, though not magical.

I find the Hear in Noise setting is especially nice in our social group gatherings after the girls are into their second glass of wine. Happily retired teachers can get really loud at times. :slight_smile:

I find hear in noise is best for groups like that. I also had my aud create a favourite with speech focus which works well. I use tulip domes. Have you spoken to your aud about these concerns. I have been back a number of times to get my volumes tweaked. You did get Real Ear Measurement done? I got my aud to give me a copy of those graphs which showed me she was being too conservative at the higher frequencies so I had her boost those.

More occlusive domes, like tulip domes, helped me in noisier spaces. This is a help with keeping outside sound from the hearing aid clearer by mixing less outside sound. Though, I’d consider this a stepping stone, going back to prescriptive more open domes in time.

If your have both a front and rear facing mic, try switching to front only. This simplifies the sound, less overlapping echos and rerberation from the space. This may require a custom mode or just a selectable in the app.

Take the time to explore the modes and their fine tuning settings and the HA app usualy has some control of modes too. I’ve found mode for transport works great in some noisy restaurants! If its a space with a lot of clanking dinnerware lowering the high frequenices gets all that noise out of the way and voices pop out as clearer. Just experiment and have fun with it.

I get how you felt when you couldn’t understand your grandniece close to your ear, been there, done that - awful. Admittedly that’s a low sound level of high frequency speech in a noisy space - the worst case scenario - but it does have me thinking about a couple of points. Firstly, how good the fittiing is, has it been test/update in the last 6-12 months. Second, how long you’ve had the HA and your hearing centers in your brain have had to adjust and regain comprehensions skills. IME, after 15 years with hearing issues and getting up to 10 “What?”/hour in quite spaces it’s been 2 years with HA to feel competent again.

Get your tech to add as a favourite the hear in noise program with speech focus that can adjust for voices in different zones: Wide, Medium, Narrow & automatic.

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