Trialing Oticon Intent vs OPN

I’m about 3 months into my new Intents and have pretty much the same observations. I came to them from about 2 months with the Real units, and before that about 4-5 years with OPN.

I am curious how you were able to adjust EQ on the music program, unless you mean fiddling with the settings in the app. Personally, I find what I have in the music program slightly over-emphasizing vocals. I play a instrument, but do not sing, so I am more interested in how my instrument sounds in the mix coming to the monitors off the sound board. I find the general setting to be just fine for that. If there is a way to fiddle with the Music program to allow me to use that, I’d be interested in knowing how.

@eliotb said:

If there is a way to fiddle with the Music program to allow me to use that, I’d be interested in knowing how.

Try the “sound equalizer” in the Companion App (not to be confused with the “streaming equalizer”).

@Sara_Smile said:

After a quick look online, seeing the complaints about the new Music program, I changed the EQ a bit and it is much improved.

Thanks for you input, Sara.
I think you should make note of which bands you tweaked with the app EQ, and ask your audi to make the changes in the Genie2 fitting software, so it’ll be saved to you HAs, and the database.
Good luck!

@eliotb said:

I found that “sound equalizer” thing and will fiddle around with it a bit. thanks for pointing it out.

I’d advise you take the same steps I recommended to @Sara_Smile.

@Kelly3 said:

. I’m testing a pair of Costco Phillips and…well, they’re not going to work out.

Welcome to the forum @Kelly3 !!
You probably need some further adjustments on the Philips HAs.
They are generally very highly regarded, and in may ways similar to Oticon.The 9040 is similar to the Real.
The Phiips version which is most similar to the Intents is the 9050, which is not yet available at Costco.
A lot of users are playing the lottery, and buying the 9040 model with the hope the 9050 will be released before their 180 day trial period ends, and they can exchange them.
The savings you’ll get at Costco with a properly fit product, will be very much improved over the old Oticons, and worth the investment.

Update after a week: The improvement in speech clarity is really significant. The unimprovement in music is really significant.

I have fiddled with the EQ, moving Bass down and Mid and/or Treble up. When playing my violin at home (as an amateur and hobbyist, not as a professional), the sound of it has improved from bad to bearable. Last night, out of desperation, I put my OPNs on while playing the violin and the sound became beautiful again. (I know putting the old HAs back on during a trial is probably a No-No.)

At my violin lesson this morning, I told my teacher about the new HAs and the new bad Music program. I played some scales with the new HAs and switched to the old HAs that I had brought along. She could hear a difference. She said my tone with the new HAs was clear but harsh. And my tone with the old HAs was sweeter. This is what I hear too, with the Intents my violin sounds harsh and with the OPNs my violin sounds sweeter and more beautiful. The auditory feedback loop seems to encourage bowing more sweetly with the OPNs than it does with the Intents. What we hear is what we play. I had no idea that what I hear is what someone else hears, too, when I play.

I will ask my audiologist to tinker with the settings of the Intents to improve the Music program and make it like the OPNs. I’ll bring my violin along, too, for testing. I’ve seen various suggestions and possibilities to make it work. Or, as a last resort, I could use the OPNs as my “music ears” and use the Intents for my “everyday” ears. Would that be a crazy idea?

You could ask your audiologist to copy (manually) the music program from your OPN to your Intents. I’ve done that from OPN to More, and from More to Intent, and the music programs sound very similar. I notice a bit more of “resolution” with the Intents though.

Sara, I will follow your journey with the Intents with great interest. Although I haven’t played an instrument for years, I am a classically-trained amateur and love both classical music and jazz. If moving on from my OPn’s were to result in a pronounced degradation in my musical enjoyment, I would be inclined to hold on the OPn’s for as long as possible. On the other hand, if you come up with a solution to the problem, I would be much more willing to consider an up-grade to the Intents.

Thanks for your reply. I better get back to the audiologist at Costco and keep trying.

The biggest problem is that my voice is too loud, like it’s too amplified in my ears. Of course when we were setting them up I was stressing that, and she turned them down. I need to turn them down to zero when we left and did some shopping in the store…wow. Every rustle, every wheel of every cart was too loud, everyone’s voice, etc. I turned them down minus 2, I think. I know everyone says your brain has to relearn, etc, but I’ve only had this loss since last October and sure know that that is NOT how things should sound. Having said that, in the audiologist’s room, after the initial set-up, her voice and my husband’s voices sounded very natural. But holy-moly, when I left that room…yikes.

@Volusiano said:

The way @e1405 suggested would be the way I would do it, too, as long as you’re a lucky few who have the OPN available. Just copy every single gain value in the whole Fine Tuning section for the legacy built-in Music program to overwrite the gain values in your MyMusic program with the OPN values, and leave all the other settings the same.

@flashb1024 said:

I tried that, and so did the Oticon rep who came to the VA audiolgy center when I complained about MyMusic.
The problem is, as I’ve explained before, the MyMusic program utilizes it’s own unique fitting rationale, and doesn’t allow you to copy every gain value as they interact within the bandwidth allowed by the program itself.

You have to create a “Custom” Music program using VAC+ or DSL v5, and copy your gains from the Legacy Music program.
I believe @e1405 uses DSL v5, and I have, as well.
Just turn off More Sound Intelligence NNS, DNN , and set the Directionality settings to Fixed Omni.
In Automatics, turn off all settings.

Thanks for clarifying the part in bold above, @flashb1024 . It makes a lot of sense. I stand corrected about changing the gain values of the MyMusic program. Like you said, one should create a new program using VAC+ or one of the other available standard rationale (seems like DSL v5 is the preferred one so far) and copy the legacy Music program gains into there.

I will take all of these suggestions to my visit with the audiologist next week and get a new Custom Music program worked out. I appreciate all of this information. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, don’t stop “fiddling around” until you are satisfied! (Couldn’t resist the double entendre opportunity)

Ok, this is the correct way to input your audiogram:
At top of forum page, click on “Forum”, and select “My Hearing Tests”

You’ll be asked to log in, and you can input your readings there.
Your audiogram link will appear below your avatar.