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What to try next - custom in ear hearing aids

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I am looking for advice/suggestions for custom aids. I am currently trialling some Starkey Edge half shells, but there are some sound issues. My audiologist is looking into this with Starkey and I am going to try a remake tomorrow. If the problem persists I am going to have to find something else. It has to be custom aids so please no suggestions about as it’s for physical reasons and not vanity or embarrassment. I am currently torn between the Oticon Own or the newer Oticon Own SI, but I am not sure if I want to give up Bluetooth, go for an older version or go for newer tech and forfeit the Bluetooth.

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Have you considered the Phonak Virto infinio Titaniums? they are incredibly small. They have no blu tooth or other connectivity though so this may be a deal breaker for you.

Edited

I was considering them this morning, but my previous hearing aids were Lumity (RICS which I cannot tolerate) and I really didn’t like Autosense so I am not all that confident trying Phonak again.

EDIT what you said about them being non Bluetooth has made me stop and consider them again as the main issue with Autosense was the constant changing to Bluetooth streaming + mic when I was reading the news etc and there were adverts so when they immediately switched to Bluetooth streaming + mic I was bombarded with the advert sound or hiss if I had my volume set to off. If they’re not able to stream, then this would not occur. Thanks for reminding me.

My experience with Oticon Own devices has been largely positive, although I have not personally fit any of the newer SI versions. My only big-ish gripe with Oticon’s and devices is that the microphone covers come off a little too easily. If I saw an like yours and was going to go with custom devices, I would want the impression to be deep enough to reduce/eliminate occlusion effect and vent to reduce insertion loss, particularly with your normal low frequency hearing.

Thanks for that info. I have to say I would be a little concerned to think that microphone covers might come off.

That’s very good to hear, thank you. I have a new audiologist and I am confident that if it’s doable she will do it. My previous audiologist said she couldn’t do that.

Just to explain how I have my virtos set up: on the highest tech level, they have 4 or 5 programs I forget the exact number
I have auto sense disabled. I start them up and they go into the music program. I have mine configured for button pushes. each button single press raises the volume. volume 1 to 5, then when you get to 5 it goes back to 1 again.
long press cycles program.
program 1 is music
program 2 is slightly modified music with max
program 3 is some noise block so I can hear speech in crouded places more easily.
program 4 is max noise block plus speech enhancement which gives me the best chance of hearing speech in gackground noise.
Program 5 I once had as a mute program where the volume was riight down low. They are very easy to switch around and the batteries, at least for me lasted 5 days. Nice little clever units, I would definitely consider them.

Thanks for the replies, I have seen my audiologist and Starkey have had some reports from other users with the same problems. They have produced a fix so with remade hearing aids and factory reset the issue is pretty much solved. I’m going to keep the Starkeys for the rest of the trial period and hopefully they will continue to be fine.

Yeah it’s very odd it’s not there yet. I can understand the sphere sold way and above what they were expecting, but surely the Virto rechargeable can’t be that difficult to make.

In reply to @PaulC

@PaulC said:

If I saw an audiogram like yours and was going to go with custom devices, I would want the impression to be deep enough to reduce/eliminate occlusion effect and vent to reduce insertion loss

I’d have £1 on the likelihood of some struggle with occlusion with a half shell though. Difficult to maintain 3-4mm through: even with a collection vent.

You’re right I do have some occlusion. I did know this would be likely beforehand, but I cannot tolerate RICS for physical reasons so I took the chance. It’s not intolerable and I am prepared to accept it for the benefit I get.

That’s fair enough, if you get the audiologist to try boosting the 500-750Hz for medium and louder sounds it might mitigate some of the presentation of your own voice.

I have a serious chronic illness which means I have to spend a lot of time lying down. I also have fairly small ears and wear glasses, which means that the wire over the top of my ear made my ear sore and painful.

In reply to @Um_bongo

The one really irritating thing about the virtos I’ve found is not so much the occlusion effect, but how that occlusion effect changes throughout the day depending how the devices sit in the ear. To be clear they are at least in my opinion, good impressions, but even a slight MM shift means the occlusion effect is different on one side v another. I have a very tight bend in the ear canal on my left hand side which means the device can sshift ever so slightly and so that sense of my own voice wiggles about in my head sometimes. then after a long day and with some chewing of food, the devices can shift a tiny tiny bit more or develop a pressure bubble behind them. which makes the hydrops worse. it’s all sort of managable and I know I could get impressions with jaw closed etc, but I think I’m probably just overly sensitive to it compared to most :slight_smile:

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