Ear molds. Like 'em? Hate 'em? Pros? Cons? Problems? (Phonak Lumity)

Hearing Aids
#61

Could you ever try a “mute” function on the Phonaks? My audi just put one on my aids - so it’s not a dedicated program, but it does require a one-second press on the lower half of the button on that “bean” behind my ear. I just tried mine out: it MUTES and UNMUTES with that same one-second press on the button.

What I don’t know is if that same function can be enabled on the myPhonak app. I simply haven’t downloaded or used that yet. (Mainly cuz the STOOPID app only allows ONE pair of aids to be controlled. If Phonak rechargeables gave me a full 24 hours a day of usage, I wouldn’t need TWO redundant pairs of them to get through ONE day.)

Maybe chack that out? I totally get you about the “distraction” dimention of aids ON/OFF! And that you don’t want to be labelled or defined by your hearing.

Even so, at 69 yrs old, I am SO OVER what other folks think. On top of which - maybe due to my age or the fact that I’m not a musician/performer - I swear NO ONE CARES. It is only us in our minds. I was like that in my 30s, but now I just let it RIP when something’s on my mind, and welcome others to be as frank and honest. Time’s a wastin’ and I just want to get the distractions over with and get back to what’s important.

BTW, you sound like a super talented musician. Now I will have to google “wind synthesizer” for my own edification.

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#62

Thanks.

I’m 77, and for my personal life, I don’t care who notices my hearing impairment.

I am happily married to a musician wife http://www.s-cats.com, and I also write music snippets (bass, drums, etc.) for other musicians to use on stage and call their own at https://www.nortonmusic.com

My wife uses the same hearing protection I used to use before the disease took my hearing away, and thankfully, her hearing is still perfect. They work, I just got unlucky with a hard to diagnose, very uncommon hearing loss.

I’ve been a pro musician most of my life. I’ve opened concerts for The Four Seasons, The Association, and so many others, and eventually for Motown, where I also did some studio recording. Almost had a record contract, but our management and Motown couldnt agree on money matters.

The wind synthesizer is actually two components. A Wind MIDI Controller which connects to synthesizer tone modules. It allows me to sound like different saxes, trumpet, trombone, guitar, harmonica, and hundreds of other instruments and pure synth sounds.

I find on my Oticons, with closed domes, turning the volume down on the ‘bean’ is enough for me. I’m pretty sure the ear molds will do the same thing on the Phonaks. As soon as the replacement pair comes back, I’ll have the molds made.

BTW, the batteries on my Phonak seem to last all day, but I haven’t had them all that long. I know that batteries lose some of their capacity as time passes.

With my job, mostly at night, I usually take a half hour nap before work, so that’s enough time to get charge back in them if they lose their capacity.

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#63

Me, right here. No dome stays in my bad right ear. I tried a few molds but still had leakage. Finally went to a skeleton mold and that thing stays with zero leakage

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#64

Never heard of that before, took me on a google trip. I hope I don’t need to go that far.

#65

Well that is a very interesting story - and thanks for sharing the links! What a lovely picture that is of - shall I guess? You and your wife?

I’d never even heard of a Wind MIDI Controller, but shots of folks using them is like something from a sci-fi movie! Very intriguing.

So you have Oticons AND Phonaks? I had to kill my Oticon Intent 1 trial for one reason only: Bluetooth instability. Could not work around that one on my Android Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 phone. I’ve lived in both Oticon and Phonak camps, and today, I slung my sleeping bag over the fence back to … Camp Phonak! I bought the new 312-battery Lumity Life aid. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. The fact that mine are in Precious Pink should appeal to your wife at least. :wink:

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#66

Yes, my wife. I met her 46 years ago. We were in different bands at the time and liked each other’s music. Both our bands broke up within a week of each other, and we found ourselves in the same band, with a couple of musicians from each.

We eventually got married.

We started this duo in 1985. She is an incredible singer and plays guitar and synthesizer. I’m an adequate singer and on stage play sax, flute, wind synth, and guitar. I also record the drums, bass, and other instruments for our background (I play 7 instruments).

We celebrated our 46th anniversary last week.

My Oticons are 6 or 7 years old, and still work. I got the Phonaks for the advances in technology over that period of time. I also wanted something that works with Android. The nortonmusic.com business requires a Windows computer, and Apple products don’t play well with Windows.

I bought a refurbished TV Connector for my Phonaks. When I get the molds, my intent is to feed the music in at a low volume and between songs, flip to the hearing aids, so I can understand the audience members. It’s worth a try anyway.

Now I’m waiting for my new Phonaks. My audi determined my last pair was a lemon and sent them in to be replaced.

Not a good first impression of Phonak though.

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#67

LOL, you have ONE more year of marriage on than my hubs and I! Altho, if I count the years we lived together with my sister in the other room (like "Three’s Company), we’d be at 49 yrs together.

Wow, that is an eye-opener about Oticon, cuz if you are a long-time user of them and now find they are unstable with Android phones Bluetooth, that says A LOT. I felt like the Intent 1s (which never connected to my Android phone unless I had selected LE Audio) are focused on a future when folks with aids may care about Auracast. For now, Auracast has FEW benefits to those with hearing aids. It’s an infrastructure AND stability issue.

By contrast, Phonak’s BT on Android is ROCK SOLID. I hope you get a new pair that works, cuz experiencing a lemon is frustrating, anxiety-inducing and kills confidence in a product.

Have you considered the Roger ON iN as an alternative to the older TV Connector? Yes it’s an investment in a portable mic, but that portability also works as a dedicated TV streamer. I’m no techie, but I bet you could plug it into the same port as you plan to use for the TV Connector. Thing is, it does MORE than just work as TV streamer. I take my Roger when traveling to stream the hotel TV; I park it in front of a cell phone to stream calls (if it’s someone else’s phone, and I ask for it to be set to "speakerphone); I take it to restaurants … but, well, okay, in noisy places it still isn’t my HOLY GRAIL solution.

Think about it.

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#68

46 counts the 40 years we lived ‘in sin’ as they used to say.

As pro musicians, we didn’t have corporate health coverage, so by being not married, if one of us got sick, it wouldn’t bankrupt us both. When she turned 65, I married her.

What I like about the TV Connector, is that I can use the headphone output of my PA mixer. Can Roger do that?

There are a couple of places we play, where the crowd is noisy. Since I keep the volume levels on stage low, to avoid more ear damage, when the crowd is boisterous, it masks some important parts of the music.

So having the earmolds isolate, and just the music piped in, I think it might help in that situation. Of course, I suspect the TV Connector will be optimized for speech, so I don’t know if that will work. It’s the reason I bought a refurbished one. If it doesn’t work, I’m not out that much money.

As I age, and some old age loss is added to the damage done by the dust mite problem, I find it more challenging to do what I love to do, and what I live to do. I have no plans to retire, as long as I can gig and pull a crowd.

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#69

Ask, and ye shall receive: How to use Roger ON iN in headset mode

It comes with a shortie cable to plug it in - but maybe you could get your hands on one and try it out - a trial?

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#70

You might even know someone willing to sell one used, having an extra. :wink:

WH

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#71

Yeah, I’m gonna open a Used Redundant Phonak Junk Shoppe. “Two! For the price of ONE!”

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#72

only the newer Roger On v2 support the headset mode

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#73

Thanks 1Bluejay, WhiteHat, and firenzel.

Since I have the TV Connector, I’ll try that first.

I gave it a shot without the domes, and there is no noticeable delay. But on noisy days, the room noise was too much. Fortunately, most of our gigs are not that noisy.

If the TV Connector is lacking when I get the earmolds, I’ll consider Roger.

After 2 sets of ReSound, followed by 3 sets of Oticon, the Phonak is all new territory for me.

I like having the different modes like “speech in loud noise”, “music’, and so on. And I like the ability to customize them.

So hopefully the replacement pair won’t also be a lemon.

#74

yes, try the TV adapter first, for me the music over the TV adapter sounds good.

I don’t know if the Roger On is optimal for music, i have no Roger On to try.
As i understand the Roger microphones are optimized for speech.

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#75

AH - GOOD POINT! That is the model I have. I’m still learning how to use it and the myRoger app.

Doesn’t seem to be any way to LOWER the volume using the myRoger app - kinda lame? I think I read that the audi sets the “optimal” level for sound, and mine seems set TOO LOUD.

When I use the mic outside of its cradle, there’s no way to change volume. I can only turn UP/DOWN volume on my aids, and I actually need to turn it UP to hand off the volume from aids/ambient sound to the Roger mic - if that makes sense.

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#76

Fortunately, the headphone output of my mixer has a volume control.

Since I don’t know the input level of the TV C, I’ll leave it on its default, and turn the headphone control up from zero.

The mini-phone jack is designed for headphone output, so I don’t think there will be an impedance mismatch.

In our duo our mics, synth modules, guitars, and the backing tracks I create all go through the mixer. So I should get the volumes balanced as they come out of the speakers.

I assume the TV C is balanced for voice. That seems logical. But I know there is a slider to mix the amount of ambient vs. TV sounds, so I hope I can find a happy spot.

From all my decades of using musicians’ ear plugs, I’m used to hearing the music at low volumes, so that isn’t a problem.

I’ve played music for a living most of my life since 1964 or 65. In my life, I did try out two day-jobs to see what normal was all about. During that time, I still played on the weekends.

I found out normal is so overrated for me, so I went back to music full-time. Being a musician is not what I do, it’s what I am. It’s how I identify myself, and it’s the most fun I can have with my clothes on.

If Frankie Valli and Willie Nelson can still gig at 90, I’m hoping to go at least that long.

I’m in good shape for 77, with zero prescription medications, and I seldom get sick. I credit part of that to a happy life and marriage. I don’t make a ton of money, but I support myself doing what I would do for free if I didn’t need the money. That’s success in my mind.

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#77

Lower it in myPhonak. Use them together. You also change ha mic/roger balance in myPhonak.

WH

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#78

OK, VERY good to know. I can almost see me downloading myPhonak now. Yesirree BOB, I’ve bought the 312 battery Phonak Lumity Life aids!!! YEEEHAAAA!

Until now I couldn’t have used the app cuz I needed TWO (redundant) rechargeable Life aids just to get through 24 hrs. But now?!?!?! I’m on DAY FOUR and counting with my 312s still going strong. LOVE IT!

I have already removed the Roger license from one of my redundant rechargeables. As I gain confidence with these battery aids I can see me just getting back to a SINGLE pair of aids, using myPhonak, myRoger and be done with the clutter.

Tell me: is there ANY risk of BT streaming reliability if I download myPhonak? I can’t risk that.

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#79

You should be able to use the Roger upgrader to put licenses back in an empty Roger and have licenses in all three sets.

WH

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#80

Funny aside: when my audi was in the process of REMOVING the Roger license from one of my pairs of rechargeables I had the new 312-Phonaks in my ears. They were actually streaming audio from the very same Roger in her hands - and she hadn’t even transferred the license to them yet. No idea how that happened, but I actually joked: “Shall we just leave things as they are? Cuz I’m streaming right now with no license.” We went by the books and had that license removed from the rechargeable pair, then installed it in the 312s … as if it wasn’t already working without it?! :thinking:

True story.

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