I am DIY experimenting with Widex. The Widex receiver seems to be angled more than the Demant miniFit receiver I am more familiar with. Is the Widex receiver intended to go deeper into the ear canal? So far I’ve not found the right domes to keep things from slipping out but it does seem to go deeper. I had a similar problem with Demant domes and settled on LiteTip molds for now.
The colored plastic collar of the LiteTip mold can fit the Widex receiver - not sure whether it is supposed to work that way. It is hard to assess on my own ear whether the LiteTip places the Widex receiver less deeply in my ear and at a different angle versus when using domes. Would this angle/depth be better retained with Widex specific molds and is there a hollow option?
Yes the Signia/Widex receiver is angled for a better fit, seems to work for most, you don’t post your audogram but nothing beats custom made molds with canal lock, keeps everything in place and a perfect fit, as you have the lite tips you know how good they can be, why hollow tho, also what about the click sleeves have you tried those, and yes Widex have a range of lite tip available.
Are click sleeves and non-click sleeves two different dome types? I thought click sleeves do not fit a Widex V2 receiver but non-click sleeves fit? How do the sleeves compare to Oticon Grip Tips?
Hollow molds have a shorter vent length which gives a larger effective vent size for a given vent size. I tried solid and it didn’t work well even with the largest vent. It’s not easy with mid-frequency loss. It might be possible to find an even better setup.
Is the Widex Open Ear-Tip from that image hollow? From the shape it looks like it would not fit that differently than the LiteTip and therefore the receiver would not go in as deeply.
I am exploring getting titanium molds from Microsonic which are now available: Titanium Earmolds These are the same as the Hörluchs ones.
Yeah Signia calls them click sleeves so Widex use the same receiver, but yes Widex as per the chart use just “sleeve” I don’t use Widex so can’t confirm, but I can say they do exactly the same thing, as for “how do they compare” to the molds, well that’s something you’d need to find out, try some and see, I used click sleeves on my Signia models as they gave a lot more usable gain until I moved over to custom molds, the molds from that chart do have hollow but how deeply they fit with the V2 receiver is again only something you’d know by trying them, everyone’s ears and different, I think your on the right track getting the custom titanium molds, as these will fit deeper for sure, one thing about the receiver size is not just the length,the distance from the receiver end to the bend also changes.
I’m not sure I’m following - receiver wire length or receiver power? End of the receiver to which bend?
I’m sure my molds could be deeper. Last time they took three sets of impressions and let Demant figure it out. Should I find someone using an ear scanner instead of impressions?
Is anyone optimizing the mold acoustics to the hearing loss? It can seem like guesswork.
Yeah so from the end of the receiver (that’s the bit you put in you ear canal, the bit you fit the dome to) and the first bend in the receiver wire, not just the overall length there’s a tool you can use that helps with choosing the right one.
Well the software does this depending on what level of loss and formula used, but definitely not everyone is the same, so you can ask them to fit as deep as possible, your obviously not happy with what you so need to try something different, the cost is a bug bear when trying to find the right type/style that your happy with.
I’m still not following what you mean by first bend. The wires come in different length for different ears. Maybe you mean length to the first bend over the top of the ear? Or you’re saying a longer wire might let a dome go deeper because there’s more wire below the top of the ear?
I’m not referring to software coming up with a fit. I’m not sure how well it can even do that with a dome/mold unknown to it and without REM or in situ. The best I could probably get now would be a mold design that maximize both residual hearing and aided hearing? ActiveVent is another approach I’ve not tried. Perhaps some software can make domesuggestions and I’ve missed that but what we can access likely isn’t detailed enough?
Well the software gives you the recommendation on which dome or molds including the vent size to use based in your audogram, so yes it’s just a guild, obviously the software couldn’t possibly know the “actual” physical features of your ear canal to give the exact size and how deep it’ll fit, you could read a very detailed handbook on molds to see if this helps you find a solution, just google
earmold handbook pdf
the Starkey and microsonic ones are so detailed.
Starkey showes how deeply their receiver fits in some molds they make.
The Microsonic one is pretty detailed but all about BTEs with tubes. Even if that analysis can be applied to RICs acoustically, it does not take into account streaming, calls, TV streaming, etc. While the info Microsonic presents says an open mold would work best for me, I’m not sure due to the delay in sound coming through the aid and streaming limitations except in very quiet environments. I plan to still test this with the nearly entirely open titanium mold too just to be sure as that sort of mold seems to not exist in plastics for RICs.
Anyone know more about the helix versus hollow molds in that Starkey image? Does the helix go deeper, but have less venting and/or cause more occlusion?
But molds are not made or designed for streaming, I’m confused about what your actually trying to achieve, I mean your fitting is 2 parts, not just the mold, the programming of the HAs also needs to configured regardless of what what mold, or how deeply it fits etc, and yes if you have more open or large vent then yes you can perceive an echo type, a delay as such, let us know how you get on with your titaniums, Phonak did the Active vent receiver
Molds still have to work at least adequately with streaming because most people these days use aids with two sound sources: the environment and streaming. Whether that’s possible for me with a fully open fit isn’t clear yet. With the molds I have which are less than fully open streaming could be better. Perhaps I need an Airpod type setup I can use with the aids in.
Yes but I don’t why you think molds aren’t going to work adequately for streaming? Yes OPEN will allow the Bass to leak out,so that’s clear it’s the main issue, but with molds this isn’t really an issue, I mean the biggest vent will still be better then an open dome, but you don’t post your audogram so it’s just really hard for anyone to say, are you mild moderate or severe? This determines what’s suitable, but you shouldn’t worry about streaming in the same way as what you hear around you, including what people are saying, concentrate on your speech comprehension not how good your streaming is gonna be.
