Testing Resound power aid and having issues with background noise. In the past when I’ve had an aid I could always hit a designated program button (to attempt) to deal with loud background noise/restaurant setting. My Audi set up three different comfort settings - actually three different programs to see which one I liked best when testing the Resound aid in background noise. Well when I tried all there noise setting I didn’t like any of them. But then my Audi told me I needed to use “Live Listen” with designated background noise programs (via my iPhone), to achieve improved results.
That really doesn’t make sense to me since I thought most aids will try to deal with background noise through the aid itself (first) and not rely on outside accessories. Anyone else have a Resound power aid that is forced to use “Live Listen” through iPhone in a restaurant or noisy area? If so has “Live Listen” app helped in understanding speech in noise or is it just more bells and whistles that really don’t do much.
Spectrumplay, I am a newbie Resound Preza hearing aid user. Have had them for only three weeks and they are wonderful. Phone calls could be a little clearer.
There are many on this site who could answer your question better than I. It may be that you would have to use “Live Listen” a lot. I tried it once just to test and it is amazing. I think some people with Phonak use their Roger a lot. Our Live Listen is the same as a Roger. Live listen does use a lot of battery. But if you have rechargeable’s you could charge them for an hour or so and get a lot more use.
Also because many people are broadcasting from home and volume changes. It is not the same as if they were in a studio. That said, I have to adjust volume a lot.
Hearing during a phone call is not perfect. Cell to cell or landline to cell can make a difference. I believe that is a common problem with all cell phones and just not our ’s.
Personally I am thankful for the built-in Live Listen so I don’t have to carry around another apparatus.
Hang in there, your brain will adjust and you will get used to it. Good luck and happy hearing.
Check out how intense the noise reduction settings are. ReSound has professional training for ’s at Audiology Online (you can sign up for free to audit without being an HCP). In one of the webinars, a ReSound professional recommends a noise reduction setting of no more than “Considerable” for situations involving speech. The presenter recommended against using the highest setting, “Strong,” in speech settings as it cuts into low-frequency speech sounds too much and actually degrades speech recognition in noise. The STRONG setting is just intended to make one more comfortable in a noisy environment by removing repetitive droning noise per se.
Achieving directionality by some means and increasing high and mid frequency amplification while reducing or leaving unchanged low frequency amplification may also help (check out the effects of the Speech Clarity quickset settings in the ReSound Smart 3D app). Whether or not one has good low frequency hearing and an open fitting also makes a difference to people like me with good low frequency hearing. While impractical in normal everyday situations, I achieved super speech recognition in noise by wearing noise-canceling headphones over my occlusive mold fit and using a ReSound Multi Mic for directionality and more selective amplification of speech sounds. Just an experiment in a very noisy Cracker Barrel restaurant and my wife made me take off the noise-cancelling headphones in a very short while! She didn’t want to be seen dining with a nerd even in a town we were just passing through on a road trip!
P.S. On watching TV, I highly recommend the ReSound TV Streamer 2. Costco sells it as a reduced price and you can buy ReSound accessories at Costco even if you haven’t bought your ’s there. On phone calls, whenever I’m going to have an important phone call, I use my cell phone and stream to it via the ReSound Phone Clip+ (Android phone user). Can’t remember if there is a streaming only focus for phone calls but if so that should help make a streamed phone call much clearer by ~eliminating environmental background noise - use it for media streaming to eliminate very loud chirping cricket sounds and keys clinking on belt clip during nightly walks. See various threads on forum for advantages of direct TV streaming to your HA’s - you can mix it with external mic input as much or as little as you desire.
P.P.S.: also check whether wind reduction is on. In many noisy settings, you don’t need wind reduction, e.g., inside a noisy restaurant. Wind reduction settings, at least for ReSound, can cut into low-frequency speech recognition, again based on comments made by a ReSound professional in an Audiology Online course. I’ve previously posted the link below but here it is again:
Very powerful filter/search view obtainable at Audiology Online:
I do not have the Resound power aid but I do have the Resound linx 3D with the strongest power(UP).
A couple of options to try to deal with the background noise. One is to have a restaurant program which uses directional microphones and noise reduction. I have this program and I ended up setting the noise reduction to moderate and that was a good balance between background noise and speech comprehension. Another option is to have a program that uses the environment setting for noise reduction. This will use certain amount of noise reduction depending on the environment you are in. I use this for my main program and I ended up reducing the high end range of noise reduction in the software setting for this program. This program uses noise reduction when needed. I have tried the “Live Listen” and would work well when listening to a speech or during a meeting but other than that do not really care for it.
