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Rexton Reach fitting troubles

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Hi, can I get some help from this great community? I am coming from KS9’s with an open dome I am struggling with my Reach / to the point that I am wearing my 9’s again and waiting for my appt with the Costco Audi.

Initial fitting was with a vented . Occlusion was terrible (really terrible) and that along with the switch from the opens made it a non-starter so I went back a few days later and went to open domes which the fitter agreed to do (she felt it would be “ok”) . Visit 3 to reduce sharpness resulted in fitter changing software from “Costco” to “Rexton. Proprietary”- whatever that means. Made things worse all around unfortunately (sharpness/edge, phone volume for calls, etc). Additionally, I do get feedback somewhat frequently - primarily the right ear (chirp) and then I get periods where one ear feels “clogged” (right more frequently) which I think is reduced input?

I want to see what the Audi recommends based on all this and am willing to try one more time with the Reaches or change to another Costco HA. Does anyone have any thoughts or feedback? I am really a set it and forget it HA user (I thought about getting the programmer but after adjustments, I would likely not use it again….).

My sincere thanks.

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Edited

It’s not surprising you are getting feedback. I’m on the ragged edge of open dome feedback with my open domes. So far I only experience it with my Philips 9040 aids when getting my hand to close to my ear or wearing a hooded raincoat.

Did you hearing aid fitter make sure you where actually experiencing occlusion and it wasn’t just an amplification issue by having you speak with the hearing aid turned off?

I wonder if the clogged issue is the feedback manager trying to control the feedback you are experiencing by lowering the gain. If so, then it would seem your theory is probably correct.

There are several fitting rationals. Basically, they provide preset gain settings based on your . Each rational has different preset gain settings.

I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t put you into another Phoank sub-brand, Sennheiser, that they sell. Perhaps that hearing aid wasn’t available at the time you got the Rexton.

It seems like feedback is going to be an ongoing issue for you with open domes. As such, I would try either sticking with the Phonak sub-brand or the Philips 9050.

The Philips 9050 uses a slightly different open dome, called the open bass dome. So it’s possible that their style of open dome might work out for you.

Note, you can certainly try to make modifications to a to vent it more. That might give you some idea if a vented mold could work for you.

Since you are not big on self programming. If you own a smart phone, I would down load a frequency analyzer app to your phone like Spectroid.

Spectroid2

Audio Spectrum Analyze...

Then I would go to an voice generated web site like Typecast and see if you can identify any frequencies and volume levels that are giving you problems.

With that information, you can bring it to your Costco fitter to make adjustments to those frequencies.

AI Voice Generator with Emotional Text to Speech8

The online AI voice generator that can turn your text into life-like speech. Our extensive selection of hyper-realistic voices. Create your content just the way you want it!

Yeah this is a fitting issue, not the , go back with what you’ve discussed here, correctly vented molds is the obvious choice, but also ask about the “click sleeves” type of domes,

@jkish1 said:

Visit 3 to reduce sharpness resulted in fitter changing software from “Costco” to “Rexton. Proprietary”- whatever that means

This means the fitter is talking nonsense to you! But it’s possible they ment changed the fitting formula, but even so that’s not the correct way to deal with the “sharpness” which is the high frequency response been set too high, pretty easy for the fitter to see your old KS9 set up in target to see how you prefer to hear things, I’d bet those higher frequencies are set a lot less.

I went from KS 10’s to the Rexton Reach and am very pleased. The vented are very comfortable and no Occlusion. I am going the route but the Costco tech was very close. The Rexton app has a very powerful assist that can help with some problems and the changes assuming you approve them in the app are permanent, So go back to Costco and get them closer to your liking then tweak them with the app. Or go the Dyi path.

At 1.5k you’re at 40db and 60db

At 2k you’re at 50 and 65db

It depends what you want from your hearing aids. Do you want comfort or maximum benefit and clarity? Why did you get new hearing aids in the first place? Did you get them to hear better?

With your hearing loss you will not get the most benefit and clarity with open domes, you just won’t. Just because that’s what you’re used to does not mean that’s what’s “best”

The reason your hearing aids sound sharp is the dispenser is attempting to get you more high frequency gain, but you are not getting enough gain in the low and mid frequencies to offset the highs; this is because you have open domes.

The only thing left is to nerf your high frequencies and reduce the benefit you are getting to stop the feedback and make them comfortable for you. IF however you can get over the occlusion then you will be in a better place overall.

I will tell you something that I have found to be true in close to 100% of the fittings I have done: if you were a new first time hearing aid user you would acclimate to more occluding domes without an issue, but since you are used to your current under-amplified hearing aids with open domes you are less willing to get used to what will help you the most because you prefer the comfort of what you had and want this new pair of hearings to “feel” the same but work better. Which will never happen.

Protip with Rexton, they should always run and most likely need will find they need boost 800hz-2k by about 5-8db. Also, running “MyVoice” helps tremendously with own voice issues.

The myVoice feature in Rexton does help a lot , I agree.
It’s possible that, with the Phonaks , he was set with SoundRecover2 ( frequency shifting). When I entered my in phonak’s target , the software enabled the Soundrecover feature by default (and that’s what my audiologist used, I got rid of it , music sounded horrible). The Connexx software never recommended the frequency shifting . Maybe this difference is what is causing the issues. If I have extra time tomorrow, I’ll enter his audiogram in both softwares , I’m curious about this. I’ll let you guys know .
I’m one of those that fought against using , I just detest the occlusion plus I miss the low frequency natural sounds. I found the perfect balance with Oticon’s OpenBass domes with my Phonak. They are a fantastic piece of engineering.

I’m such a nerd , I’m not sleepy and decided to run this little experiment. It took me less than 5 min .
As I predicted , target recommends frequency shifting by default, Connexx does not.
I’m not saying this is the cause of the difference but it’s interesting to see the difference in the approach . With frequency shifting, the feedback issue “maybe” can avoided. I’m not saying this is a good solution, it’s just a different explanation.
See pictures below for a graphical view of the recommended targets
Again , this is just a theory

https://imgur.com/a/GGdtC8p16

Thank you all for the awesome responses!! Collectively, I will take this to the Audi and see what I should do. I decided it was time for a new pair for 2 reasons - 1 sane and 1 not so sane. The sane one is both of the KS9’s went through recent repair service so they are fairly “new” and will be a good long term backup (I am really attached to my ’s) , and then I am concerned with the rising costs of products due to the tariffs. Thank you again! Very much appreciated. if anyone else has any input, I will take that along for the ride to the Audi. Will post what I decided to do in the end in case anyone is interested.

Hi I wanted to come back and update you all. I went in and visited with the Costco Audi armed with all this knowledge and watched what she did and asked questions. She spent a good 45 minutes working with me. (I also mentioned I had received some great info here!). Anyway, after fully resetting them, she changed to tulip domes and did (selecting the right domes) and Real Speech (If I am calling it right). When I got home, I still had unacceptable feedback in my right ear, I called in again, and she (or someone) did something remotely and it solved that problem. At this point, finally, I am thinking these may work. She said 85% of her Reach clients have no fitting problems… Thank you again to everyone. I hope to repay the kindness.

In reply to @jkish1

I’m new here and new to ’s. I got Rexton Reaches and had exactly the same problems you did.
I got tulip tips recently. They have helped a little, I’m still getting an occasional feedback. I go in tomorrow to the Costco Audiologist to see what else she recommends
You mentioned and Real Speech. Are these things I need to ask for or is Reel Speech automatically in my hearing aids? I’m new to the world of HA’s so I’m getting used to the terminology.

Question for you guys : what’s the difference in performance between the tulips and the closed/vented signia/comnexx sleeves? In other words, why choose one vs the other ? I checked with the connexx software and the widex software and the feedback curves (default) are about the same. Are the tulips more “closed”?

This actually depends on ones audogram, as in how close the gain is between them, but definitely you should notice quite a difference between closed,power and tulip, so no closed click sleeves are going to give you more usable gain, just as the power would, I’d say it’s your degree of loss is not making mach difference, for me it’s a lot of difference between those, so which ones do you prefer, as I’d test in real world conditions before deciding which to stick with.

In reply to @Bellsage

Hi welcome. I am experiencing the same issue as you. Occasional feedback but nowhere near what it was. Also, sometimes the ’s seem to act up and my experience is sub-par, but at least now that is the exception. I am also going in for a follow up in the next few days and will share my experiences with the Audi. is real ear measure. Make sure it’s done with the tulips if you will stay in those. Real speech is I guess similar to REM in that it’s automatic. You don’t have to respond to any inputs….but I may be a little confused.Good luck!

Edited

Well, I went back to the Audi and she unfortunately made it worse. Now my left ear is clogged - I suspect she tweaked the left ear feedback as I was getting more feedback in the left than the right, I did a follow-up virtual session (the fitter was very nice) but that did not improve things either- I am at the point that I think I am going to return them as I have had too many problems and will just wait for the KS9’s to break or potentially wait for updated Sennheiser/Phonaks to hit Costco. I thought about going ahead and getting the noahlink but I just don’t tinker with them after they are working well enough -

What do you mean plugged? Like you have something in your ear or like you can’t hear anything?

With your I can basically guarantee your KS9’s with open domes were cutting off the majority of gain past 3k and a good amount prior. Phonak’s feedback strategy is to chop it all off, and their open domes are extremely open.

If you want clarity you need to close your ear up. A tulip dome isn’t occluding enough to do that. If you want the same as you had before then why even get new hearing aids? At some point you’re going to have to it learn to accept feeling more occluded to get more benefit. Open domes do not work for your hearing loss.

Thank you for this “eye opening”. I am going to give it a real chance. I went ahead and ordered a noahlink and waiting its arrival so I can make my own minor adjustments and see if I can improve my overall satisfaction on a trial and error basis. I figured (I hope) I have many years left of wear and its worth learning how to do this…

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