Oticon Spirit Zest

I was issued a pair of Oticon Spirit Zests yesterday on the good old NHS as an upgrade from my Spirit 3’s that I’ve had for about 2 years.

I’m really impressed with the difference and improvement in sound quality compared to the “3’s”. They will need some minor adjustments at a follow up appointment in four weeks but they are much more comfortable both physically and “audio-logically”, it will take a while to get used to both new sounds that I’ve never heard before and sounds that I have heard that now sound slightly different. I haven’t told my wife that I could hear most of her conversation while talking to the kids in the hall way while I was in the living room though!

My only criticism is the audiologist must have had a bad morning, she only explained the details of the aids be-grudgingly when asked and didn’t seem to believe me when I said that the left Aid wasn’t working, as her computer clearly said it was…until she made some more adjustments and it came on. She also said to tell her how they sound while she looked at the computer and went through paper work!! I after a minute I reported that I could hear nothing as we were in a sound proof room as she wasn’t speaking or making any sounds to listen to!!

Would it not be better to allow us to leave the sound proof room and take a ten minute walk listening to the normal world with back ground noise etc then return and adjust the aids rather than wait for another month to adjust them?

At least the next appointment is in the morning!!