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Newbie, need advice after trialing Phonak Audéo M90 and Oticon Opn S

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Thanks guys. I have the gain values because I own a Noahlink. My understanding was that everyone has a necessary amplification acording to the . To ensure that the correct amount of amplification is achieved the audi performes a and adjusts the fitting formulas according to your needs. I concluded that your needs are independent from your so the after REM you should be at the same level (e.g. at 1000 Hz you need 25 amplification for loud speech). And that’s no matter what HA you own. Maybe I’m wrong.
Generally I was positively surprised of Oticon. I loved the silence in the car, the music sound better, I could hear more sound samples, and the speech understanding was not worse than Phonak. But I have 3 major prblems woth them:
1 - Whistleblock by Phonak works perfect. I have a custom mold with 3 mm venting. No problem for Phonak, by Oticon feddback problems. Maybe I should try a smaller vent.
2. Oticon is made for IPhone. For an android user there is no direct streaming or phonecall. Not a big concerne although.
3. Windblock clearily better by Phonak.

If your audiologist used the same fitting algorithm for both aids, your assumption would be correct, but it’s pretty clear he didn’t. The algorithm determines what is “necessary.” There’s also the question with of how close is close enough. Ultimately picking a hearing aid is a compromise where you have to figure out what is most important to you.

Thanks for your explnation, it makes now sense. You are right , there are the proprietary fitting formula in use. I was just surprised that they show so big differences. 15-16 in some frequencies is a huge amount of amplification.

In reply to @steffner

@steffner said:

Generally I was positively surprised of Oticon. I loved the silence in the car, the music sound better, I could hear more sound samples, and the speech understanding was not worse than Phonak. But I have 3 major prblems woth them:
1 - Whistleblock by Phonak works perfect. I have a custom mold with 3 mm venting. No problem for Phonak, by Oticon feddback problems. Maybe I should try a smaller vent.
2. Oticon is made for IPhone. For an android user there is no direct streaming or phonecall. Not a big concerne although.
3. Windblock clearily better by Phonak.

  1. The OPN S is supposed to have a better and new feedback prevention technology than the original OPN, but maybe because of the OPN open paradigm, it’s still more prone to feedback than other brands, especially considering your steep ski slope hearing loss, which should require aggressive feedback management.

  2. My personal experience with wind noise management on my original OPN (not OPN S) is that it’s really mediocre. So the OPN S wind noise management is probably the same. If this is important enough for you, you probably want to go with the Phonak.

Thanks for your answer. I managed now to reduce feedback by reducing the vent size. Feedback is acceptable, but he occlusion is more present. I know that by Phonak there is an option to reduce occlusion in the Target programm. I can’t find it by Genie 2. Is there no such an option?

@steffner said:

I know that by Phonak there is an option to reduce occlusion in the Target programm. I can’t find it by Genie 2. Is there no such an option?

Your better off trying to accept the “occlusion effect” then trying to “fix” it by using the software, as all it really does is drop the lower frequencies, but you may not mind this judging by your .

So I could try to manually reduce the low frequencies to obtain the same result. I also observed that the Oticon fitting formula raises earlier the gain (I have amplification starting at 500 Hz) as the Phonak software. That can be the explanation why by Phonak the occlusion pereceptin is not so pronounced.

Edited

@steffner, when you said you reduced the vent size, I assume that you have custom molds. Based on your steep ski slope loss, it’s expected to give you more occlusion. But I would say before you do anything drastic, give it some time and maybe you’ll eventually get used to the occlusion and it may become no big deal for you after a while (like a month or so). Based on my personal experience, I felt the occlusion in the beginning, but after a while, it became no big deal to me. You can always make more drastic changes after you’ve given it a good while and still can’t get used to it.

I think I’ll go back to Phonak. The Marvels have absolutely no feedback with a lrger vent, where the occlusion effect is not that bad. I absolutely wanted to trial the Oticon Opn but I think Phonak, although not perfect, is working better for me.

Hi again. My trial journey goes on. I recently received the Phonak Virto titanium. I wanted to trial obligatory a -. Unfortunately all my settings are gone, new hearing aids mean that you can’t transfer these settings, it has to be done again. It’s a pity, because I got used to my Audeo M90. First impressions:

  • the pros: positive first impression, small HA, almost invisible (I have the power receiver) excellent wearing confort, perfect sitting in the canal (I absolutely notice no difference to my custom molds, the vent is almost the same), sound not so high pitched as the Audeo, absolutely no feedback, no wind noise

-the cons: slightly intenser occlusion, no connectivity (not so important to me), no button for volume/program (I know it can be ordered, but my audiologist means that it’s not so important, my audeo is working almost all the time on Autosense), no possibility for home setting with Noah

All in one an impressive HA. I’m a little bit disappointed because of the settings. I was quite happy with what I achieved with the Audeos, my audi told me we can’t transfer the setting to the virtos.

Now my questions to you.

  1. The Virto has the same marvel platform as the Audeo, so I concluded it’s possible to achieve the same hearing experience with them? It’s just a matter of setting. Am I wrong?

  2. What other negative aspects do I have if I choose CIC vs, , other than smaller battery and no connectivity (important for me is the sound quality).

Thanks.

Interesting comparison between the Audeo and the Virto Titanium. They should tune the same, surprised you couldn’t transfer settings. Just a guess, the Audeo aids have more microphones.
Does your fitter use cables to program the aids?
The occlusion can be tuned out. Hopefully the P receivers can give you the highs you like with your loss.
Are you using Sound Recover 2?

Yes a cable was used for programing. The problem is that I could nor check the setting as the virtos don’t have wireless conectivity, so I have to believe what my audi told me. Next week comes the . Hopefully it will be helpful. What do yo mean with P receivers. Are they not able to deliver the needed gain in the high frequency? And yes, sound recover is turned on.

I read P receivers by another member, not you. Sorry for the confusion.
A HiPro and cables would let you into those aids. If you got into the Audeo aids with your Noahlink Wireless you do have the settings.

Once is done you may have a different opinion about these aids. Let us know how that goes.

Maybe there’s no automatic transfer of settings, but you don’t have to go through the whole procedure again if that was the problem in the air. I mean, screenshots + pen & paper should be enough to record information and enter it again into the new device. And you can also ask to take photo and compare at home if you’d like :smiley:

You are absolutely right. The automatic transfer would be for my audi quick and confortable. That’s why he denied to “apply” the audeo settings. Thanks for the idea with printing, I’ll ask my audi for a copy of the settings.

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