Hearing Speech in Background Noise

OK. Augh. Maybe that’s gonna be my scenario cuz I still don’t use the phone app. I just want ONE place to fiddle with my aids, and up to now, that’s on the buttons right on the aids.

I’ll find out if I can even do this, since I don’t have myPhonak app on my cell.

@1Bluejay
Last night, I went to a meeting in an echoey room, so I enabled both M70 & P90 to use the bottom button to mute the HA mic, while using Roger or TV Connector. I took the RogerOn to compare. I did this via the Target software.

I switched hearing aids a couple of times during this meeting. For control, the P90’s have been professionally programmed, the M70’s have been self programmed, but that part is getting better, and now very close in performance.

Conclusions:

1. I didn’t like the “long press mute”, as there was no audible notification, so I was forever running a finger over the mic’s to see whether they were muted or not. I disabled it in both sets today, it just isn’t for me.
2. I found it better to leave the mic enabled, but switch the balance (turning volume to max), to shift the input to mainly Roger.
3. Roger performed better with the M70’s. I believe this was because the base programming of the aids wasn’t as good as the P90s.
4. As @1Bluejay has stated, the sound sounds less natural from Roger, than the HAs, however it is clear, so speech recognition was good.
5. There’s no right answer in all this. Some days Roger works better, and some days it doesn’t.

Peter

This is an interesting topic. Two thoughts from a wearer of Phonaks (Lumity L70). I hope they are helpful.

1. My Audi has tuned the angle of pickup from about 45 degrees (the person right in front of me, across the table) to 180 degrees (front, left, right side speakers at the table). . Still trying this out. No comment yet. Ask your audi.
2. When I have been in a busy restaurant with my hearing friends, out in the parking lot afterwards they all say “Man! I couldn’t hear squat in all that noise!” So, I feel better knowing it’s not just me and not just my HA’s.

In June of 2023 I replaced my 3 year old Costco KS8s with the Jabra Enhance Pro hoping that a three year advance in technology would improve my ability to hear in a noisy environment such as a restaurant. I have always struggled. I know, this is an issue for most. Unfortunately my Jabra’s are no better. I have had the audi make adjustments hoping for some improvement but no luck. I have pretty well started to avoid crowded noisy situations as I just cannot hear someone even sitting across a small table from me. I have tried all the programs. Front focus, restaurant, etc. When I do go to a restaurant now, I go at three in the afternoon when it is quieter. The other issue is wind noise which is awful. Even with the Jabras at max wind noise suppression, my Apple watch is warning me of overly loud noise when it is particularly windy. While I like the Jabras for the phone hands free function, they certainly have not provided a better hearing experience then my old Kirklands. Certainly frustrating. I have an appoinmtment at a different Costco in a couple of months and I am hoping perhaps a different audi might find some magic setting that will help. Although I doubt it. On a positive note, my feedback issue that I was having when my left ear was close to wall or other hard surface magically disappeared.

@DaveL They do! On the P90 you have speech in noise and speech in loud noise. The activation time and levels can be adjusted in Target.

Sorry to hear of your disappointing experience, @PhotoCasey. The beauty of Costco is that you cannot only try another Audi but you can also try another brand with the 6 month return policy. I had no trouble with wind noise with the Rextons and they were surprisingly good in noisy environments. Good luck.

No the audie recommended the Jabras and that is what I went with. She did make an adjustment and also redid the molds. Didn’t make any difference. I was out of the country during the bulk of the trial period so had no real option to return the Jabras and trial the Phillips. Stuck with the Jabras now and hopefully they can do something with them. Yesterday I was speaking with someone outside on a windy day and found it almost impossible to have a conversation. I went inside and put in my KS8 aids and it was 90 percent better. I am going to carry my old aids with me next time I go to a restaurant and switch them out as an experiment if it is noisy.

@PhotoCasey

I wonder if I can help. My concern about my Phonak hearing aids has been that I don’t know how they are set up. Is the setup right? What’s missing? What can be changed? These darn hearing aids cost $7 grand and they dispense them like chiclets. ("Here you are. Use these! Next–and they sell to someone else.)

My new hearing instrument specialist provided two reports from Target.

• User Report
• Pro Report

Between them I can see how my hearing aids are set up.
However, I can’t use TArget. I need a device to connect to my hearing aids. Noahlink, I think. And it doesn’t work with my iMac. Just pc’s.

And lately he hasn’t given me these reports and that frustrates me. I think they are the keystone in my fight to get my Paradise P90R’s set up right.

Point is–is there diy programming you can use to set up your Jabras?

Or–can you get similar reports that show what your settings are?

Honestly, the Jabras are a disappointment. Had I not been out of the country, I would have returned them for something else during the trial period. Hopefully when I go in early May, the audi may be able to make some adjustments that help with the background noise from wind, people and my hair contacting them. I would just go back to my old KS8s but the earmolds don’t fit properly. Being hard of hearing sucks.

Know that drive welll. Lived in London 25 years. Left 23 years ago

I just had to check out Google maps. I thought you guys had teleported for a second.

Obviously, there’s a Windsor and London in the UK.

Ironically, they are much closer together, but could still be a 4 hour round trip

Take care guys
Peter

Follow Up

I had 3 appointments with HWM.

• good hearing test. 10-20 dB worse than CVA test. No wonder his setup did not work
• change. Couldn’t hear talk in Jeep JLUR
• check up. Hearing worse again Radical change in law freq. that’s my audiogram

Lesson. I NEED TO ADVOCATE for myself!