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Oticon Agile: Directional vs Omni

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I have had a Oticon Agile for around 5 years. They were adjusted as my hearing got worse. My ability to understand speech is getting worse. I didn’t trust all the fancy automatic switching modes in the Oticon so I had the audiologist make it very simple: An omni mode and a directional mode.

I prefer the Omni mode for everything so I tested the directional mode under controlled conditions. I put a softly ticking clock on my desk and moved away on a swivel chair until I could barely hear the clock. If I rotated on the chair, the ticking became louder when one ear or the other was facing the clock,and it was even louder when my back was to the clock! The same happens in omni mode too.

The only thing I can think of is that since the is behind the ear, sound can reach it more directly from the back of the head. When facing the clock, the sound looses energy when working its way around the ear and approaches the mics from the back rather than the direction you are facing.

I certainly can’t be the first to discover that the sound is worse in the direction you are facing.Many articles I have read show that directionality in a real environment is not as good as laboratory measurements. What is going on? Is directionality a technical breakthrough or a marketing breakthrough?

Directionality was a breakthrough many years ago. Oticon Agil technology (in general) is now approximately 7 years old. Their directionality technology used in Agil (not Agil Pro) was not terribly different than previous models such as Epoq XW, which is now over 9 years old. And how exactly it will work for you will depend as well on the type of acoustic coupling you have (meaning, the domes/molds in your ears) and also exactly what frequency the sound is. So the answer to your questions, in order, are:

I don’t know without more info.

and

Yes.

Edited

I have the Agil Pro with , and tulip domes. It’s hard to say what the frequency range of the ticking clock is. I can hear it from 8 feet with the in: and just barely at 1/4 inch without the HAs. So it must be above 3KHz.

If I stand 10 feet away I can’t hear the clock when facing it. I can hear it distinctly if my back is to it.

So, as it is, I think directionality is a breakthrough in marketing hype, but not a technical breakthrough.

Another problem is that there seems to be some “intelligent” mode that keeps playing with an internal volume control because the sound keeps slowly fading out and coming back. My audiologist doesn’t respond to my complaint, and fiddles with the program and simply says it should be better now. It never is.

I have been looking more into the efficacy of directional programs and came across this article that shows that older hearing aids may loose their capability for directionality. Directionality depends on a matched pair of microphones. However drift in microphones due to aging, environmental distress, etc. can cause a significant mismatch.

Hearing Aids With Directional Microphones

Many hearing aids have directional microphones to help the user when listening in noise. The question is, do the hearing aids maintain their directional properties as they age?

Here are excerpts from the link:

Six hearing aids that use dual microphones to achieve directional performance, and had been in the field more than one year, were measured. The hearing aids were all of a single make and model obtained from a local dispenser, and were programmed exactly the same …

… only two of the hearing aids showed directional polar plots, and even of the two that did, neither showed a cardioid polar pattern, as was programmed. Instead, they showed greater gain at 180 deg (where a cardioid pattern should have least gain) than at 120 and 240 deg.

Since this problem happened with my HA, I’m having the audiologist remove the directionality program.

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