Phonak Marvel / Paradise + Roger Select to understand speech better in noisy environment

Another thing, look into starkey, they released table mic as well. With 8 mics vs select’s 3 (and 6 beamforms). Can’t recall how many beamforms starkey has.

But they’re significantly cheaper combo. But I think they’re only for iphone? Not sure though.

On the paper, they’re definitely very very similar, but I don’t know anyone who tried it, it’s new product. Worth checking out though.

I haven’t done any test so far for words recognition score and sentence in noise. I have limited option for test here in UAE

So far haven’t tried any external mic.

First option will try to get the best out of my current Oticon OPN1. If that doesnt help, I need to switch to other brand to get the best speech understanding.

I have hearing loss since more than 25 yrs, however I started using these HA only since past 2 years. Prior to that I managed my work/communication without any aids, as I was working in closed office
Secondly, all my bosses that time were from Asia/Middle-East hence I hardly faced any issues understanding their speech
I am struggling since 2-3 years as we moved to open office & bosses have changed too

I know the Widex F2 Evokes and custom Evokes can be used with the Roger range as my eldest is using the Roger Pen and Roger conference discs (sorry not sure of exact name!)- you need a Roger receiver placed into the FM Dex to stream to Widex aids.

I have more questions than answers. Do you wear domes or custom molds. How much venting?
Do you have any idea how high a frequency you actually hear a tone? Is having somebody wear a microphone around their neck feasible or does it have to be something you would sit on a table?
How many people would be sitting around the table? Does your employer offer any kind of services for employees with disabilities?
Now for my guesses. I would think Phonak Audeo Marvel or Paradise (or potentially Phonak Naida Marvel), combined with frequency lowering would be an improvement over current hearing aids. For one on one conversations, even adding a PartnerMic (worn around the neck or clipped to shirt) would help. Select iN should help in small group discussions, but for conversations around a big conference table with many people one would likely need at least two TableMics. For one on one conversations with your current aids, the addition of a ConnectClip could help. Good luck.

I wear Custom molds with 105db receiver. The vent size is 1mm.

Somebody wearing a Mic around their neck will not be a feasible solution
The best option is to keep the remote receiver on my desk itself. Usually the colleagues comes to my desk. Ideally I can keep it on the front most location of my desk so it will be bit closer to the person who will come near my desk to talk.
For meeting, there would be max 5-6 people sitting on a table within the range of 8 to 10 feet Max.
Unfortunately the employer does not offer any services for empl with disabilities. Infact I am more worried, bcoz of my hearing issues which impacts my performance.
Hence somehow I want to get the best speech understanding in office so I can continue working without losing my job.
I would prefer something for one to one conversation, and also small group discussions.
Will the roger select or table mic help in my case?
Lets say if I place the Roger Select on my desk & the person is standing approx 5-6 feet away from this mic. Will this help ?

@sufhl table mic 1 and 2 are designed for quiet situations, just distance. 2 has ability to cover close and a bit apart distance from the mics.

Select is made for noisy restaurants.

Compared to select, what I get with pen isn’t even close. But since I got used pen, maybe there’s something wrong with it, although I don’t remember being astonished with performance of new one either. Select was miles away in performance.

But. Not for such big distances which @brandong81 needs. If range is 8-10 feet from person to the mic, that’s a lot. A lot.

Select works nice on the table when people sit around it, mouth to mic half that distance, so 1-1.5m / 4-5 feet.
In quiet, eg meetings, it could probably catch from further away, but in constant babble, I’m not sure.

It’s specific situation, definitely I’d recommend trialling and testing, both select and pen. Maybe pen and interviewing people could work. Or just do that with select, hold in your hand.

But definitely, having a chair so people can sit down opposite from you, and select at the table, that could work better. For speech babble around you.

The closer you can put the mic to person speaking, the better the sound will be.

I think there’s some chance it works good for you, especially when meetings don’t have background noise of speech babble. But you definitely have to try it.

I’d definitely look into starkey table mic also, and their setup, I’d expect lower total prices.

@sufhl I agree with you, prices are insanely high. Select here is 1000 eur. Common price for paradises 90 is almost 3000 eur, per piece.

There’s also possibility, if level 90 of tech isn’t needed but mics bring a lot, to buy lowest tech that’s feasible (50 maybe?) and mic, that way it ends significantly cheaper and you still solve hard situations with select on the table.

Speech to text apps sounds also like a good option to help. If job allows that.

I’m curious where you get that TableMic is for quiet situations? Admittedly both Select and TableMic do better in quiet if speaker is any distance away, but I think they’re both pretty much the same technology but the TableMic has better networking capability to use on big conference tables. Including @RogerPM

Yes, they both use the same underlying technology and perform similarly in noise. There is a slight difference in sensitivity when Table Mic II is used in the “wide” pick-up mode, which allows it to pick-up sounds that are ~6dB softer compared to Select. This is mostly useful in quiet situations, so in that respect Blacky has a point.

It not so much the audiological performance that sets them apart, it is more the handling and specialization towards different use cases. Table Mic II is really tailored towards work life, specifically meetings. Business meetings are often a more controlled affair than family dinners etc, so the need for fine-grained control over the device is less. It’s more important that the device stays out of your way and lets you focus on your work. Sometimes having too many options is just stressful.

Select is better suited for chaotic situations where you need to be able to decide what you want to hear, as there can be multiple discussions going on at the same time.

Well, this has probably been discussed enough, but I’ll throw in my 2¢. I have Marvels with a Roger Select iN. I find the Select to be a huge benefit when I’m sitting at a dinner table with a group of people, say a round table that seats 6 or 8 people. I put the Select in the middle of the table and can understand everyone, even people across the table. When I used to go out to dinner with my spouse (pre-COVID, of course), I had her wear the Select around her neck. Again I could hear her quite well, much better than without the Select. Her voice would cut above all the background noise, likely because her voice was essentially piped directly into my ears. Kinda like an electronic ear trumpet.

I’m guessing that if someone came up to your desk, the Select would vastly improve your ability to hear them even if you just placed the Select on the edge of your desk closest to the person to whom you were talking. You could also put the Select in the palm of your hand and hold it toward them. Of course, a better option for that would be the Roger Pen, which is more highly directional. You can get some directionality out of the Select by turning on or off some of the mics around the disc, but, as I understand things, it’s not so directional as the Pen.

In looking at your audiogram, I’m thinking you would benefit greatly with the frequency lowering that you’d get with the Marvels or the new Paradise. When I switched from 8-year-old Oticon to Marvels a couple of years ago my ability to hear and distinguish high-frequency phonemes was obvious in the first couple of minutes after the Marvels had been fitted.

Now, as to difficult British accents, I understand completely. When I’m watching the nightly news on TV, or a Red Sox game, I can understand what’s going on just fine. But, when we’re watching a British TV show on BritBox, I always plug my Select into the audio out of the TV. I understand the Brits much better when they’re essentially beamed directly into my ears through the electronic ear trumpet.

That is difficult to say. One reason might be that you are not sufhl. One really need to try this out for one self. What works for one person might not work for another, and that can be due to plenty of reasons: your hearing loss, type of fitting, the actual noise level in the specific situation etc. There are simply too many variables to make a valid comparison.

I guess even in my case also, this OPN paradigm makes things more difficult. Sometimes i feel that i can understand better without HA in very noisy environment. Hence I dont want to invest in connectclip as it is compatible only with Oticon.

I agree on that. Better to get a trial first to see if it really helps in office environment.
I have already made this request and by next week they will advise if they can provide Marvel & Roger mic for trial of 2 weeks.
Unfortunately Paradise is not yet available in UAE.