I just saw my aud-guy today to have the “restaurant” setting tweaked on my Oticon Opn miniRITE aids. Previously, I’d found little if any difference between Program 1 and Program 2. That’s cuz the only thing changed was “full directional” setting on Pgm 2! They both had the same MINIMAL noise management control and identical frequency set-up. D U H.
After explaining to my aud-guy that ALL situations outside of a cozy, well-padded room make it difficult for me to hear/discriminate speech over the ambient noise, he has set up Program 4 to try out. This one will have full directionality, aggressive noise management AND he turned down the lower frequencies in a sweep of ranges (wish I could give the exact numbers, but it was the lower 1/5 of the total ranges). So far it seems to be better than Program 2 with the minimal difference from my default program.
The jury is still out till I try these out in all locations: the mall, Costco (and busy stores), intermission at the concert, restaurants, airports, about 1000 other locations & situations.
I think the key here is to be persistent and articulate the problem. It isn’t always a simple fix, as there is fit, seal, programming and the various adjustments to noise management and frequency channels.