Oticon launches Opn hearing aids and Velox platform

If you’ve just started wearing aids, extraneous noise seems magnified/annoying. You will learn to ignore them which is what you did when you had good hearing.

That #3 is strange. Most newer aids can adjust to forward bias using a smartphone app. If you have such an app, try it with #1 program and compare.

@Volusiano said:

Are these 4 programs standard and come already set up pre-built for the OPN? Or they were created and customized by your audi based on your request?

If they were standard programs already pre-built for use, then I can just inquire to see if my audi and just pick them out and set them up for me.

I’ve been reading on this forum about OPNs and the impression I seem to get is that while the OPN allows up to 4 programs, it seems like audis like to just set up a single all-purpose program for their patients based on what people are saying here. But maybe I’m wrong.

Not standard as I know. I think the audi must program them.

M

The latest issue I have with my OPN is that only on my right HA, I can hear OK but when I start talking, it sounds like the HA starts to get occluded/plugged up. After I’m done talking and return to listen mode, the occlusion eventually goes away after a while. This occlusion seems to happen more often in noisier environment. In more quiet 1-on-1 situations, I don’t seem to have this problem. Also no occlusion in listening mode. Only kicks in when I start talking.

I don’t have this issue with my left HA, however.

Another issue, again with just the right HA, is that when listening to TV on loudspeakers, I can hear saturation/distortion/sssshh noise at the end of words in speech, especially on words that contain “s” or “sh” in them.

As seen on my hearing chart, I have worse hearing on my right ear. I have the 85 receiver on both HAs. I’m wearing a single vented dome. No feedback issue.

I’m seeing my audi and an Oticon rep who will be in town next Monday to address these 2 issues.

But if anybody has come across similar issues in their own situation, I’d really appreciate to hear how you solved your problem. Thanks.

@ volusiano can you outrule any problems with your right ear? negative pressure? water inside the middle ear? problems with your lower jaw? when was your last ENT visit?

Yes, this is definitely a possibility. If the OPN rep can’t fix these 2 issues with programming changes, then I think the next logical step would be to try the 100 db size receiver. The catch is that the 100db receiver requires custom molds so I would rather stick with the 85db receiver and take off a little bit of the edge on the high frequencies via programming as a trade off if it solves the issues.

I wouldn’t be afraid of molds. There are several types – hard plastic and soft silicon. The depth (size) and be full or partial. A smaller, soft isn’t that far from double domes.

My TV Adapter 3.0 arrived today, so I now have a chance to try direct streaming to the OPN from the TV adapter. Right off the bat, I can tell that the OPN can produce better lows than my Rexton Insite+ CIC HAs. This is probably why a lot of folks attribute the OPN sound to being more natural sounding, because the lows are more filling. Of course, the OPN still can’t produce the very lower ends (booming sound) that a good pair of headphones can. But that’s to be expected as a limitation of most HAs anyway.

Compared to the sound from my Bose QuietComfort 15 noise reduction headphones, however, which sounds nice and clean across the frequencies, the streaming sound from the TV Adapter to the OPN sounds a bit too warm and muddled, if you ask me. Like they try to over do it on the low frequencies. I think the Bose headphones sound more clean and natural than the OPN streaming sound, in my personal opinion.

I notice that if there’s no sound coming through the TV Adapter after a while, the OPN automatically reverts back to the default mode 1.

It’s nice that the power port on the TV Adapter is a micro-USB port so you don’t need a 120V source to power it on. Any USB source should do.

While it has RCA connectors for audio, I wish they have a mini headphone type input jack as well. That would help provide a cleaner connection than using the cumbersome RCA connectors and adapters.

There’s a black “mode” button on the back, but the manual doesn’t mention what it’s used for.

The range is pretty far. I can be probably about 25-30 ft away from the adapter before the signal fades out.

The TV adapter is very unforgiving when it comes to low battery. As soon as the HA chimes 3 times for low battery power warning, you’ll start losing connection between the HA and the TV adapter shortly soon after that.

Because this is the first time I started running low on battery (I’ve only had them for a little over a week, but the audi put in new batteries each time I saw her for an adjustment, the last time being 5 days ago), I wanted to try and see how long a low battery will last before it goes completely dead. Well, it took a whole day between the first low battery warning (which is about 80% full on my battery meter) until the dead battery warning (which is about 65% full on my battery meter). So if you don’t have the need for streaming, you can probably squeeze a good full day or at least another half day out of your battery in regular listening mode before your low battery dies.

My left battery started the low battery warning first the morning of the 5th day. By night time it ran out, and the low battery warning on the right started its first warning at around that time.

I have a few old 312 batteries still unused with June 2013 expiration date. I’m trying to use them all up before touching the newer/fresh ones. So far they still seem to work OK. Will be interesting to see whether they’ll last me the full 5 days like the newer ones or not.

@rayjay said:

I do have a mini jack adapter that came with the set and I can plug in to my tablet or PC with the mini jack and plug the RCA connector into the mini to stream to my aids.

Yes, mine came with a mini jack adapter, too, which I also use to plug into my PC. However, the mini jack adaptor and the 2 RCA connectors add weight to the mini jack connector of the PC and this added weight can stress and deform at the connection if you move your laptop or tablet around a lot. If the TV Adaptor has a mini jack in the first place, then it would be a simple mini-jack to mini-jack wire connection between the PC and the TV adapter, which makes a simpler, cleaner and more reliable connection than having to tote a heavy mini jack adaptor to 2 RCA connectors around.

@Gery_R said:

I use a TV adapter, too. Mine doesn’t switch to programm 1, might be a setting in the programming software to make it do that.

Mine doesn’t switch to program 1 very soon. It takes a few minutes (maybe 5 min) of silence before my HAs switch back to program 1.

@Volusiano said:

If the TV Adaptor has a mini jack in the first place, then it would be a simple mini-jack to mini-jack wire connection between the PC and the TV adapter, which makes a simpler, cleaner and more reliable connection than having to tote a heavy mini jack adaptor to 2 RCA connectors around.

Is there an adapter that can plug in to the RCA of the TV adapter so you could buy a cable with mini ends to go to the laptop/tablet from the adapter plugged in to the TV unit? The weight then would be at the TV adapter end.
Personally, I don’t move the tablet around much if I’m using the TV adapter as it’s a pain in the _ss with the TV adapter unit having to go with the tablet.

I had my 4th fitting with my audi tonight on the OPN. To recap, the first was the initial try-on. Second was to swap to shorter receiver wires (which helped allow me to use the bigger dome without much occlusion and the big domes eliminated feedback). Third was to add 2 modes (max noise, and max noise with directional) which didn’t seem to make any difference.

This 4th fitting was special because this time there was an Oticon rep present. They basically started all over again and had me listen on the loud speakers to 5 or 6 scenarios without any HA on, with A & B comparisons and tell them which one I like better, sound situation in A or in B. I don’t remember the exact scenarios but it’s about preferences. Like whether I like sharper sounds or softer, more natural sounds. Whether I like to hear variety of complex noises or simpler noises (less varieties). Whether I don’t mind startling sounds or not, etc. Based on my personal preference feedback, the HAs were then programmed according to my preferences. I think they then had me go through it once more time with the HAs on next to confirm my preference choices again.

The Oticon rep then went on to tell me that there’s definitely noise reduction in the program. In fact, the technology is so advanced that NR happens even between words in speech, etc. Basically the same thing you read in their marketing brochure. I asked him if so then why I didn’t hear any NR before. After all I’ve had the OPNs for 1.5 weeks already. He said just try it again because this time they reprogrammed everything from scratch, according to my personal preference profile, etc. It made me wonder (not aloud) why this wasn’t done in the first fitting with my audi to begin with? It took the 4th fitting with an Oticon rep present to do all this choice stuff. Why? Is this a new procedure they just came out with?

Anyway, on my way home, the fan noise in my car when set to maximum still sounds as loud as before. There’s no noise reduction on it. But when I tried to talk aloud to myself (I was the only person in the car), I notice that the fan noise was reduced when I started talking. But if I stop talking, the fan noise resumed just as loud as before.

I think this makes it obvious now that Oticon made a conscious choice to suppress background noise only during speech (or when there’s discrete sound). Not sure why they can’t just suppress background noise altogether, whether there’s speech or not. Maybe they can’t because in this new “Open” paradigm, they gotta be “open” to everything, and they can’t differentiate which is speech and which is background noise unless both sources are present. So when only background noise is present and speech is absent, background noise is treated as “sound” and not as “noise”, and therefore amplified and not suppressed.

I’ve wondered before how my Rexton has been able to suppress background noise all the times just fine, but the OPN can’t (it can only suppress background noise during speech). I assumed that maybe my Rexton had some smart inside to analyze and know and be able to differentiate what’s speech and what’s background noise. But now I’m beginning to think that maybe the Rexton was not that smart like I thought it was. Maybe it simply just suppresses everything around me and let through the directional sound from the front (without really knowing or even analyzing what’s noise and what’s speech). The OPN, with the new “open” paradigm, maybe does have the smart (and power/speed) to analyze and differentiate between background noise and speech to suppress one and open up the other; BUT, ONLY IF both sources are present and compete. If only one source is present, then the OPN still doesn’t know any better and has to presume that that source is the “sound” and not the “noise”. Perhaps its analytical power is not advanced enough to do profiling to know for sure what’s background noise and what’s not, unless there’s a reference sound that stands out and contrast against it (the speech part).

I have one more follow up fitting with the OPN rep tomorrow night. So I’ll ask him to see what he has to say. The above are purely guesses and conjections on my part. But my observed fact is that noise reduction seems to be apparent in the OPN only when there’s speech (or other discrete sounds) present.

To me, noise reduction should serve 2 purposes:

1. Get reduced to help make competing speech more intelligent (the OPN seems to do this).

2. Get reduced even in the absence of speech to help reduced listening fatigue on the wearer from having to hear the amplified background noise droning on and on constantly. This the OPN doesn’t seem to do. And while other HAs seem to do this, maybe what they really only do is simply turning down the overall volume everywhere except on the front where the directional mic is pointing to.

wish I had a rep present in my sessions… my audi seems to be an oticon noob, might change since I’m set on the oticon. He even said in the 1st fitting that you couldn’t add any programs and this aid would be only automatic… that’s the kind of guy with alot of experience and cockiness I actually wanted to avoid

If you opress backround noise all the time, how would you work in such environments. sometimes you need to hear cars or hums if you want to repair something. If the hearing aid would always try to be a “smartass” and supress things, you might find yourself in a situation, were you need to look out for certain sounds and the aids would simply always work against you trying to hear everything.

I wouldn’t want to have only 1 program that suppress background noises all the times. Actually in certain situations, I don’t want any noise suppression at all, like when I listen to the music, for example.

Currently my Rexton CIC is set with a normal mode with only nominal noise suppression. Then there’s a noise mode with maximum noise suppression. Then there’s a music mode with no noise suppression at all. I think this would be the ideal setting for most HAs, the OPN included.

It looks like Oticon likes to advocate a single “open” mode only because in the new paradigm they’re promoting, they want you to hear everything. They do suppress noise but only if it competes with speech. That’s fine and dandy, but if you’re on an airplane, you don’t want to hear the plane noise droning on for hours on end if you’re reading a book or sleeping. That’s why so many people wear noise reduction headphones on the plane. Also, when you listen to music, you want to hear EVERYTHING, including all the fine nuances of reverbations and melodic background that might be attributed to noise by the OPN and suppressed in between the sounds of the main instruments. So there can’t be one single mode suitable for all environments. There can be one “commonly used” mode for most of the times, but there needs to be a max noise suppression mode and a music mode as well, because even the OPN with its advanced technology still can’t guess and know and adjust perfectly to every single the environment the user encounters. The ultimate choices still needs to rest with the users.

So yes, I want to buy into the new “Open” paradigm Oticon is selling. But that doesn’t mean that I must also be pigeon holed into this paradigm. With all that new technology the OPN has, more power and choices should be put at the hands of the user, not taken away from them. It’s almost as if Oticon is trying to go the Apple route and wants to simplify things for the user, maybe a little too much. Some users may want options and flexibility and control that Android offers. Needless to say, you can probably guess that I’m an Android user.

@Volusiano said:

I wouldn’t want to have only 1 program that suppress background noises all the times. Actually in certain situations, I don’t want any noise suppression at all, like when I listen to the music, for example.

Currently my Rexton CIC is set with a normal mode with only nominal noise suppression. Then there’s a noise mode with maximum noise suppression. Then there’s a music mode with no noise suppression at all. I think this would be the ideal setting for most HAs, the OPN included.

It looks like Oticon likes to advocate a single “open” mode only because in the new paradigm they’re promoting, they want you to hear everything. They do suppress noise but only if it competes with speech. That’s fine and dandy, but if you’re on an airplane, you don’t want to hear the plane noise droning on for hours on end if you’re reading a book or sleeping. That’s why so many people wear noise reduction headphones on the plane. Also, when you listen to music, you want to hear EVERYTHING, including all the fine nuances of reverbations and melodic background that might be attributed to noise by the OPN and suppressed in between the sounds of the main instruments. So there can’t be one single mode suitable for all environments. There can be one “commonly used” mode for most of the times, but there needs to be a max noise suppression mode and a music mode as well, because even the OPN with its advanced technology still can’t guess and know and adjust perfectly to every single the environment the user encounters. The ultimate choices still needs to rest with the users.

So yes, I want to buy into the new “Open” paradigm Oticon is selling. But that doesn’t mean that I must also be pigeon holed into this paradigm. With all that new technology the OPN has, more power and choices should be put at the hands of the user, not taken away from them. It’s almost as if Oticon is trying to go the Apple route and wants to simplify things for the user, maybe a little too much. Some users may want options and flexibility and control that Android offers. Needless to say, you can probably guess that I’m an Android user.

I don’t know if this helps, but I came across this provider in the UK that has some experience in programming the Oticon OPN 1. I saw an entry on their blog:

Free trial hearing aids ~ safely assess the technology before paying.2

The safe way to explore better hearing... Did you know that in Germany you are obliged to have a free trial before you make up your mind? In the UK, we have offered a free trial to everyone for over 7 years. This is ...

If you scroll down to the date Sep 13 2016, you should see the following (although I have to say, birdwatching has an entirely different connotation here in the Uk!) :

The Oticon Opn doesn’t as yet have any pre-designed manual programmes.

For a patient we created 3 extra programmes. We named them CAR, RESTAURANT and BIRDWATCHING.

For Car and restaurant, the COMPLEX NOISE REDUCTION was adjusted to max.

For RESTAURANT, open sound transition was adjusted to high and the mid frequencies were turned up 2.

For BIRDWATCHING, open sound transition was set to low, the brightness perception was increased to high and the MPO and gain in the highs was turned up.