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Ready to upgrade from Oticon Opn 1. Should I select Oticon More or Phonak Paradise?

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In reply to @SpudGunner

He hooked up the hearing aids to his computer with the proprietary software. It was the identical display to what I had seen at Peel Audiology. the new audiologist Showed me where gain was set. Showed me where the limits were supposed to be set as displayed on the screen. He showed me that there was no high frequency adjustment.
We talked for almost 2 hours. It started with a hearing test.
He explained that it would take a lot of work to set up the hearing aids properly. However, he was confident that other Phonaks would work with my iPhone better. That’s been a problem with me since I got my first Phonak hearing aids. I use a ComPilot to stream.

I hope this helps.

I believe that the secret to getting good hearing aids that serve me well is to find a good audiologist. I work for a school board. A specialist who helps many children with hearing disabilities in our Board referred me to the new audiologist.

@DaveL: I’m going to defer to one of the many fitting gurus among the Forum’s membership who know about Phonak machines and fitting software. I’m not well enough acquainted with either to be of any help.

In reply to @cvkemp

cvkemp I appreciate your comment.

I went in with my eyes open. I told him what my problems were.

I need help hearing—I don’t hear words well in conversation. I can’t hear well behind…equipment on construction sites. Walking on my street there’s no sidewalks. I literally can’t hear cars behind me and am frequently scared by them.

I have to use my ComPilot with my Phonaks and iPhone 8. I’m afraid I don’t use it well.

The new audiologist said the Paradise would work much better than my Phonak Audeo B70-312’s and solve my hearing problems. He volunteered he could set up my Audio B70’s and would if the request to replace my hearing aids early is not allowed but suggested that it would be better to request the change.

In reply to @DaveL

I will say this when I got my aids back at the end of 2018, I did have about 14 months of monthly adjustments to get the aids as best they could be set up for me. In the process it was found that my receivers weren’t powerful enough, and because they were hearing aids it wasn’t convenient to replace the receivers. Seeing my hearing loss is service related my audiologist got me new hearing aids this time the MiniRite aids my Audiologist transferred the settings from my previous aids to the new ones. With the newer aids there were very few additional adjustments needed. This was in the middle of the virus shutdown so an issue with the aids didn’t get taken care of. And when I could get back in the VA instead of repairing my aids replaced them this time with the news aids that just came out. I received them with my previous programming transferred to them. And no additional adjustments have been needed. I understand you can’t possibly have this happen to you. I also know as a teacher or even working in a school system money is an issue. My first wife was a teacher for 29 years. But what you need is to be patient and work closely with your audiologist. If you don’t fill comfortable with your audiologist you have the one advantage that I didn’t have early on and that s going to another audiologist.

In reply to @DaveL

I don’t ever go as far as recommend hearing aids, but I will say you may want to try the Oticon More aids they are designed to give you the capacity to hear all around you. I can even understand conversations from individuals that are behind or to my sides.

In reply to @DaveL

@DaveL said:

He volunteered he could set up my Audio B70’s and would if the request to replace my hearing aids early is not allowed but suggested that it would be better to request the change

I hate to stick my nose in at this juncture, but I really do not feel your new is not being totally candid with you.

If, he is indeed a qualified Phonak , than looking at your new , and your current settings on the Audeo B’s, it shouldn’t take him more than 15 minutes to dial in those aids.

Sure, the Paradise is a big step up in technology, but in the meantime you still can’t hear!
He’s not helping you.

@cvkemp said:

If he knows they are miss adjusted then why didn’t he make the needed adjustments? Is this audiologist just wanting to make a sale?

This, exactly!

Looking at your loss @DaveL, it is a slight ski slope, and not too far removed from Jim @SpudGunner loss, and he got excellent results from the Oticon More 1’s, I believe Chuck @cvkemp has had an even better outcome with the More 1’s… Alternatively, Phonak Naida Paradise Power aids, might suit you if you like the Phonak sound, I have the Ultra Power Naida Paradise BTE, with the 675 batteries, they are both excellent aids… Perhaps you should trial both, More and Paradise, and see what you like, good luck…

In reply to @flashb1024

Some years ago I met a fellow who helped me a lot.
Common sense…he sold hearing aids in Windsor. We all live in Toronto. He commuted.

He candidly said to me that lesser grade hearing aids work when they are st up right.
He also commented on workman’s comp. He said it was really hard to qualify, and I needed to be careful. Well I qualified…and I’m so grateful.

I’m carefully saying that I’ll solve the problem whatever way I have to. If it’s adjusting my current hearing aids, so be it.

(When I started this journey about 20 years ago I could only afford one hearing aid. I kept that one going for about 10 years. It was painful to wear! I was so happy when I was referred to Lydia Kreuk. Every visit she solved every problem I had with the hearing aids i got from her. She was amazing!

I was referred to Peel Audiology through the school board experts. They were ok. Or so I thought. But twice i’ve had them make things much worse. And it’s taken 5 visits and retesting to make things better.

You know hearing aids and audiologists are like optometrists. I go there and expect that my senses will work better when I leave. I can with a change in glasses. But it’s time to move on when it doesn’t happen with my audiologist.

I know it’s all about money. The new audiologist will make more if he sells me the new hearing aids. If that doesn’t work I’ll get them set up as well as I can, and when I’m due I’ll get new ones.

When I got the Phonak hearing aids have now I asked a bunch of questions. I asked why can’t I get higher tech (bluetooth)? Why can’t I get rechargeable batteries. Answer to both was that they weren’t approved.

a heart-felt thanks to everyone. I’ll be here for a while. I really care and ant to learn. You all help a lot.

DaveL

In reply to @DaveL

@DaveL said:

He also commented on workman’s comp. He said it was really hard to qualify, and I needed to be careful. Well I qualified…

So the Audi may not want to program the current aids to be workable, as that would not be consistent with the basis for getting new, upgraded aids from workers comp.

Deciding on Phonak Paradise vs Oticon More. I’m now one week into trying demo More aids. I had trouble hearing my 6 yr old granddaughter this weekend, and had no way to improve that. With the Paradise demo , I was able to adjust the program and hear her 2 yr old brother very well and he is more difficult. I have an appointment for a remote programming by an Audi intern, so I’ll see if she can improve hearing of soft voices.

I also had a repeat of a problem with my Opn HA. When I leave the TV connect program, the HA don’t disengage cleanly, and make various clicking and beeping noises until I turn them off and back on.

I’ll try the ha in noise today and tomorrow.

In reply to @LawyerFL

That’s right.

He said he could do it…My take is that I still would have hearing aids that don’t play nice with my iPhone 8. (I use waze as I’m driving. I want to be informed of hazards ahead. Turning off tones (that bother me) would shut off the warnings that I enjoy using. I travel and drive a lot for work.

And I have issues. If I have my Phonak ComPilot on in my car then I often respond wrong when I get a call. And I lose the call. My age is showing.

Edited

I’m copying this relevant text from another thread:

@SpudGunner said:

These Oticon More1s really are the
:honeybee: Bees’Knees :honeybee:.

[ Another member has speculated that @cvkemp Chuck might be enjoying better results than me, but I don’t think that’s possible. I just can’t post any comparisons to emphasize the differences I am noticing because I refuse to put down my old Unitron North Moxi Fit 800s on the grounds that they were incompetently fitted. ]

I will, however, stick to my original assessment of these Oticon More devices: they represent a genuinely life-changing improvement in hearing and speech comprehension for me because of the fact that:

A. I very much like the Oticon OpenSound concept, and
B. The instruments are correctly tuned to treat my unique hearing deficiency.

I may not hear fairies singing from behind the red honeysuckle berries, but: I HEAR and UNDERSTAND HerSelf®️, which is, in itself, a little gift from heaven!

//SPUDCOM//SpudGunner out//sg

Thanks everyone.
I have a call out to my new audiologist to see how my claim is going.
I’ll ask him about changing brands too…maybe the Oticon Open Sound are available as loaners.

Dave

In reply to @DaveL

@DaveL said:

He said the hearing aids were of low quality.

How on earth were they low quality? Phonak Audeo B70 are very good Aids. Yes, now they are not the latest model but at the time, very good Aids.

Surely your new audiologist just wants to make a sale!!!

In reply to @kevels55

I also have (am trialing but will keep) the Phonak Naida Paradise UP. Much much better than the Oticon Xceed I trialed.

Regarding the “sound,” I trialed Phonak in the past and disliked them. They sounded tinny. But these sound good. I think Phonak has caught up with Oticon in producing a more “natural “ sound.

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