I’ve enjoyed seeing virtually every store clerk have to ask me to repeat what I said, when wearing the mask. THAT is the experience of most who have a mild / moderate loss, but with one major difference: Over the years, we have learned how to infer most all the missing or irrelevant words. The exceptions are when precision is called for: “Call” “Fold” “Raise” in Vegas can mean break even, or +$350 / hour. As a pilot, repeating back what the controller just said, can and has saved my life a few times. Communicating “accurately enough” doesn’t require perfect hearing or speech. But it does require the skills to know when to insist on perfections and when to just nod, and assume that was “close enough”.
Once you get fitted properly, I’ve got a few tips for the M-90s I also have: First, GET some custom molds. Comfort is perfect, and the sound can also be perfect. Also, they don’t fall out as others have reported, and you notice when they are out. But they are imperative if you like great fantastic sound / music.
Now, want a PERFECT music system, that is likely better than anyone without a hearing loss has ever heard? Insist on some TAPERED “occlusion plugs”. If you insert these, ambient sound is no longer “as fitted”, so to simulate the slightly open ports to hear your environment, pull the mold slightly out of your ear. But, the most important reason is this: I’ve you’ve never heard fantastic audio equipment, you now have a close to perfectly capable, and perfectly tuned audio system, which you couldn’t duplicate for less than $10,000, a lot of labor, and even then, it still wouldn’t even be tuned for others’ hearing!
Why?? The M-90-R’s are normally rated to sharply “fall off” any frequencies below 100 Hz, but with Bluetooth, will go below 8 HZ!. This is partially why all audiologists have been incorrectly taught the mantra, “These HA’s are ‘made for speech’, not music, which will never sound very good”. This is BS, or at least can be BS. Want to extend the bass < 100 down to below 8 Hz?? Simple: Use Bluetooth, molds that are fully seated and sealed, and find a perfect sound source. Tighten your molds so no air gaps or open ports allow the low bass frequencies escape. Now, find a perfect Bluetooth music source and a good modern phone or PC. Find some music that was done after 2000 by great studio engineers. You will hear the differences in some recordings, between lossless FLAC recordings, and typical 256k CD resolution. I use lossless FLAC at RadioParadise.com. (Change the sound quality settings in their OPTIONS.) Now, just wait for some great music to play, but one that was “well engineered”, typically nothing before 1980.
(Want to really hear something with great BASS?? Try: Song: “Imaginary Friends” Artist: Deadmau5 Album: “W:/2016ALBUM/” Released: 2016, or most anything they do. This WILL convince anyone that the sound quality, all the way down to almost counting the beats below 8 HZ. I think this music has bass that is at the limit of the lowest bass produced in music, produced by a pipe organ.)
AUDIOLOGISTS: Don’t believe me on the Bass issue? Test it yourself. Then, find a patient that REALLY likes music and make this work properly for them – you’ll make a friend for life!
Pair your Cellphone to your HA, and run the free Frequency Generator from KEWLSOFT, (they call it a FUNCTION GENERATOR) . It takes a bit of learning to make it do precisely what you need. Set it up so you can easily change the frequency of just a pure sine wave for each ear, individually, and the volume. You should be able to get it down below 8 HZ and you can almost count the waves by hand. (Once low enough, you can’t use your ears to hear, you can only “feel it”.) The challenge for you is to teach how to easily shift from occluded mode to open for regular speech. Alternative, when using Bluetooth, you can change the balance of ambient / BT sound. Still not sure?? Stick the microphone near the eardrum and measure what they hear-- PLENTY of BASS!!