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HAs with directional hearing of nature sounds?

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Greetings!
I am working as an ecologist in Germany and need new hearing aids.
What really bothered me with my old ones was, that though I could hear e.g. a bird sing or rustling of leaves, it was near to impossible to locate the direction of the sounds.

I am now looking for models which support directional hearing to a certain degree.
The should also be -programmable, as I intend to buy them online and want to be able to add or change programs and settings to my varying needs by myself.

Any experiences or recommendations in that field?
Costs are not that important, latest technology and standards preferred.

Cheers,
Bernd

I cannot answer your question but for anybody to truly answer it they will need more information.

  1. Your would be helpful.

  2. Clarify what you mean by -programmable. Do you mean an app or full programming ability. With some effort and money you can have the same access as the professional hearing aid fitter. Although not terribly difficult, it DIY programming is not for everybody. See DIY section of forum for further info.

  3. What are must have features other than good ability to detect direction of sounds. Depending on your loss and what you want there are likely lots of options.

  4. Probably your best bet is to find an experienced hearing aid fitter/audiologist who carries lots of brands.

Most modern have features that help identify the location of the sound.

(1) Oticon has the OpenSound Navigator and Spatial Sound features (360 sound scanning).

(2) Widex features the Digital Pinna, which simulates the natural pinna to enhance sound localization. However, the latest Widex model, the Allure, is not programmable.

(3) Signia advertises a multi-beam architecture and real-time tracking on the IX platform, but the documentation only mentions these features in noisy environments, without explaining how they function in quiet settings.

(4) Phonak offers three sound localization features: the speech sensor, real-ear sound (digital pinna), and StereoZoom, which adjusts the mic beam to focus on the sound source.

Most major brands like Phonak, Resound, Oticon, Signia, and Starkey are DIY-friendly. Widex also supports DIY, except for their newest platform, Allure. Some sellers, like the UKs NHS, Amplifon, can lock their devices.

All brands promote these for noisy environments, but I’m don’t know how they perform in quiet places without any speech. I would love to hear what other folks can share about this.

I can tell you from experience that Phonak Spheres are very good with directional sound, especially bird song. At times, they can get overwhelmed (fire alarm) but 90% of the time I can locate a sound source.

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