Oticon More Sound Booster Vs Speech in Noise

Thanks for your reply, @cvkemp, Chuck. I’m standing at the sink right now, and it’s doing a great job taking the edge off the running water, which is off at 70° to my left side…

I’ve boiled it down to turning MSB on in noisy restaurants when I’m trying to focus on one person speaking (as @cvkemp pointed out) and in the car when i want to have a conversation and the road/engine noise is getting in the way, particularly at highway speeds.

More generally, I turn it on in noisy places and when there is unwanted mechanical true noise… fans, engines, etc. that I want to ignore in that particular situation

To me, MSB does two things:

1. Put noise suppression on high and this only applies when there is enough noise to suppress….This is also the reason why people don’t always notice the effect (when there is not enough noise). I find this to be forward beam-forming as noted elsewhere
2. When there are newfound sounds that the More is able to bring out (fans, etc) but in that particular situation get in the way. This seems to be a wider noise filtering mode and to me appears to be omnidirectional. It also does not need the noise to be particularly loud.

I am not claiming inside or scientific knowledge… just enough usage to generalize based on my own experience.

YMMV

@Luga said:

Put noise suppression on high and this only applies when there is enough noise to suppress….This is also the reason why people don’t always notice the effect (when there is not enough noise). I find this to be forward beam-forming as noted elsewhere

@Luga: Yes! I think you’ve put your finger on it, exactly! I believe this is why my perceptions of what MSB does have been inconsistent - I have not been taking into account the level of ambient noise, but I have noticed that there seems to be a “trigger point”, at which the MSB kicks in over the interval of about 2 seconds to reach full power.

I’ve noticed exactly the same things that you’ve described in your post, but could not find the words to describe. Thank you for sharing these insights: these things help me to get the most out of my Mores.

It’s funny, though, @Luga, this seems to fly in the face of what @mingus has just posted in the

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Oticon More level 1 instead of 2?

thread.

That’s correct @Volusiano - it’s only available in my VAC+ (P1) default program. The button is absent in Speech in Noise and MyMusic.

Yes I used it all today with my More1 aids and it works better. I could tell a difference between having the MoreSoundBoost off and on. But I wasn’t having issues hearing in the noisy restaurant without the MoreSoundBoost but with it it was even better.

@cvkemp said:

I could tell a difference between having the MoreSoundBoost off and on.

@cvkemp: Can you be a bit more specific, Chuck? What was different or better?

Some of the explanations given in that thread are consistent with my experience, particularly the reduction of what I call “fan” noise noise in less noisy situations.

In any event, the MSB function is far more noticeable with their Mores than it ever was with the OPN S.

I have to say that based on that explanation in the other thread the MSB function could be described in very simple terms as just a “4db noise suppression override in simple situations”. Maybe the marketing team turned that down as “too simplistic”

@Luga: I agree with your analysis of Otocon’s description! [They turned down my suggestion for a rebrand: MoreSound Bullster®️]

@cvkemp said:

The conversation i.was in just sounded clearer and the noise was farther in the background.

Interesting, as I have found the sounds that the Sound Booster reduces don’t do much for me. I can hear the difference, but it is so minor as to not be worth the trouble. Normally, I just put the aid into the Speech in Noise setting, drop the volume by one click, so there is less chance of distortion with loud voices and I am set. I do that prior to entering those environments.

A note: it is odd that they named a sound reducer as a Sound Booster; Noise Reducer or Less Noise would be more appropriate!

If only they made MSB program agnostic and more available via Apple watch and device buttons

I have 2 General programs located in P1 & P4 - each has MSB.
Therefore, I believe (and I am not a DIYer) the MSB is available in the named General Program regardless of it’s location, not necessarily only in default P1 program.
I do find MSB helpful, and use it, esp when I am tired. MSB takes the edge off the noise, barely noticeable.

The specific MoreSound Intelligence environment suppression settings and the particular model of the More, may both be factors determining what, if anything, MSB does. This may explain the variance in MSB experience across various users. Consider:

The documentation (such as it is) describes the MSB as an on-demand back-filling of up to 4db, for a noise suppression setting in the MoreIntelligence - Easy defined environments of less than 4db. So a user with a configuration set at 0db can realize up to an additional 4db, a configuration of 2db can see a 2db increase, while the user with a setting of 4db will according to the Oticon Q&A experience no benefit above the cap. However, the More 3 user is constrained in Genie/the literature to 0db in Easy and the More 2 user is constrained to 2db. Why would the MSB give More 3 users up to 4db of suppression, and More 2 users an additional 2db of suppression, which according to the literature is exclusive to the More 1? Either Oticon is giving More 3 & 2 users this an exception to the caps, or the feature is of no use to More 3 users at all and less use to More 2 users compared to More 1 users.

In a Difficult environment, noise suppression is limited to 10db. It is unlikely that a More 1 user with a setting at 10db would receive any additional suppression from the MSB given that, for sound quality reasons, 10db is an absolute cap. If that user has suppression set at 6db, MSB would provide an increase up to the 10db cap; or if set at 8db, the MSB would provide an additional 2db. With the default at 8db, this 2db would appear to be the typical benefit for More 1 users. However, the More 2 & 3 users are limited to 6db in Genie. So once again, either the MSB is giving those users an additional 4db of suppression that they have not paid for and is supposedly limited to More 1 users, or MSB is not available to them in Difficult environments at all. Not clear. But this would explain why the documentation repeatedly refers to simple and easy environments, making no specific mention of its use in Difficult (although the video illustrations imply such).

In any event, there is a dearth of information and we are left to trial-and-error with this feature.

EDITED

If it were me, I’d rather just set up a program with General VAC+, put a max of 10 dB for Difficult NNS and max of 4 dB for Easy NNS (or whatever the maxs are available for the More 2 and 3), set Directionality Settings to Full Directional, set the Environment Configuration to be Difficult for Moderate/Complex/Very Complex, turn on Speech Rescue (only if necessary for your hearing loss), and use this setting whenever I feel like I want to enable MSB, and forget all about MSB altogether.

Then I’d change my Virtual Outer Ear to Focus. And my Sound Enhancer to Comfort. All for the purpose of boosting front beam forming/directionality to the max because that’s the whole idea behind the Bullster.

At least this way, I KNOW what I’m getting exactly, instead of having to guess what I MAY be getting or not getting from the wishy washy and confusing description/explanation of what MSB may or may not be from Oticon.

I’d have to give up a program for this, though. And there are only 4 programs available. I may want to combine this with Speech in Noise if I don’t have enough programs to spare.

By the way, my sarcastic remarks above are due to something new I learned in the thread below, starting at post 99 onward, in case somebody reading this thread is not aware of the backdrop from which @mingus and I are drawing from for our recent discussion here:

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Oticon More level 1 instead of 2?

Can you please elaborate here? My impression was that MoreSound Booster’s effect was all around, not directional. (Btw, I didn’t take your previous clarifying reply as accusational, not in the least. I appreciated it.)