Great post, jimbrownsmart! Here are my observations on same:
I have been using the Halo 2 RIC 312 (i 2400) for about a month now. It is really discouraging that each year the manufacturers explain with unbridled excitement that finally, the perfect hearing aid has arrived and it is so much better than last year’s model, about which they said exactly the same thing (last year). But, sucker that I am, I decided to place a huge bet on the Halo 2 RIC 312 model.
People like me with mild hearing loss are difficult to please with hearing aids because they hope to regain perfect hearing. I also have low frequency loss, which is difficult to correct with HA. I’m still a beginner (I’ve been using hearing aids now for about a year and a half), so it is not surprising that I have been dissatisfied with all of my previous experiments, which were:
– Stakey Halo (made for iPhone): I was distressed at the low quality of music reproduction, even using the “Music” program, and I found that streaming music from the iPhone was intolerable. I have since learned there are two reasons for these problems, (a) feedback control involves introducing a warble into the sound which is probably OK for rock music but is horribly irritating when listening to classical music and (b) the low power version of bluetooth used by hearing aids (to connect with the iPhone) has a low “bit rate” which translates into low quality audio reproduction – good enough for voice but lousy for music, especially classical music where each note counts. However, in the end, I decided against these HA mostly because they were too big. I felt like I had horns. My glasses kept hitting against the hearing aids. I started to look around at the aids other people wore and I found that their choices were much more innocuous than the Halos.
– Resound Linx2 (made for iPhone): these were smaller than the Halo so I was happier wearing them. They also use bluetooth connection and are “made for iPhone”. The batteries only last for about 3 days, but I did not mind changing batteries often. The iPhone “Resound Smart” app had a “focus” feature that was useful in noisy environments. But the low frequency amplification on these added distortion on some very low male voices (and other low frequencies) that made these voices impossible to understand. My audi worked very hard at removing this distortion but I now feel that it is a byproduct of the algorithms that are used with these aids. When she removed all the low frequency amplification the distortion disappeared. Still, I could understand ordinary speech better with the Halos. In slightly noisy environments, the “focus” feature helped, which made the Linx2 a better choice than the Halos for noisy situations, but in very noisy environments (including most restaurants these days) both hearing aids were totally useless anyway (and incredibly frustrating).
– Starkey Muse i2400: These use the small 312 battery and are about the same size as the Linx2. They don’t use bluetooth and the batteries last about 5 days. According to my audi these had the same electronics as the Halo but without the bluetooth and iPhone control and in fact I found that I could understand speech better with these than with the Linx2. The iPhone app does not have the variable “focus” that the Linx2 app has.
After many months of experimentation and adjustments, I settled on the Muse i2400, but I have been constantly frustrated with trying to understand speech in noisy environments, at times finding that I could do better by removing the hearing aids completely. I don’t even try to use the “streaming” function for music. I asked my audi to turn off the feedback control in the “Music” program (she was very reluctant to do so) and I found that I could listen to classical music provided I use low amplification and put up with the occasional squeal when, say, hearing a long violin note of just the “wrong” frequency. BTW I love the newer Starkey “comfort” domes. On the other hand, for most situations and especially for quiet conversation in small groups, these hearing aids have really changed my life and I have come to depend on them.
The new Halo 2 RIC 312:
These are very pricey. (I went with the top of the line i2400.) My audi says the “normal” list price is something like $7800; she was able to offer them to me for $7000 and she gave me a 50% trade-in on my Muse aids because they were (just barely) less tha one year old. Maybe my hope to buy a new car will have to be delayed for another couple of years.
The Halo 2 aids use the smaller 312 battery and are about the same size as the Muse, so I am happy with the size. The batteries seem to last much longer too. The “Truelink” app for iPhone has many wonderful enhancements, including the much-desired “focus” adjustment. You can download this app for free and experiment with it in “demo” mode to get a good idea of its capabilities. (In this app, the wider the white circle is, the more noise and undesiriable sounds are filtered out.)
According to my audi the Halo 2 aids each have two microprocessors as opposed to the original Halo (and the Muse and the Linx2) which have a single processor. My audi says that the top of the line Oticon also uses two processors, but I found that although the “Oticon ON” app is useful and flexible, it does not provide the same level of customization as the Starkey app. In the last few weeks, GNResound has unveiled their new Linx3D with great fanfare, but I don’t know whether these have dual processors.
In the Halo 2, the second processor is used predominantly to process speech in noise. Since this was the main source of my problem with the Muse I decided to give them a try (with the usual option to return after a certain period of time, less a certain “restocking” fee). Also, the processing speed on these aids is twice as high as on the Muse, and the sampling rate is higher, which is supposed to result in greater sound clarity.
My experience is that, indeed, this is the case. It’s not so much that I notice a huge change, but rather that I no longer feel constant frustration at not being able to figure out what people are saying. The Halo 2 aids seem to be much “less noticeable” than the original Halo, so I suppose that means they are working much better!
Speech in noise: The app offers many different parameters that can be customized, and my audi downloaded several “programs” that are designed to help with speech in noise. I chose “Auditorium” (for understanding speech in live drama, or in lectures and seminars) and “Restaurant”. You can start with any of the standard programs and then modify them, saving the result to a custom program (up to 20 custom programs may be saved). So now I have “My Auditorium” and “My Restaurant”, having fiddled with the various noise filters, especially the “speech focus” in the app for these two programs.
Can I now hear speech perfectly in a noisy environment? No. In a loud restaurant full of young professionals drinking beer and laughing at the day’s scandals, can I hear as well as the 25 year old kid sitting beside me? No. Can I hear better than I could with the original Halo aids? Yes, definitely.
Music: The “Music” program is surprisingly good, much better than with the original Halo aids. I have been using the “Music” program with the smallest level of feedback control (a setting that can only be adjusted by the audiologist), but I may pressure her into letting me try the music program with no feedback control, realizing (as I mentioned above) that I will probably need to lower the amplification level and put up with the occasional squeal.
iPhone connectivity: In my case, iPhone connectivity and the app worked flawlessly (although the range is short and the connection drops if the distance between iPhone and HA is more than about 4 feet). I found the “streaming” function very useful for phone calls.
Some limitations of the Halo 2:
-- The Muse hearing aids are connected to each other via the 900 Mhz radio link, so if you use the button on one aid to change the volume, it also changes automatically on the other. With the Halo 2, the connection between left and right HA passes through the iPhone, so if the iPhone is out of range then you need to adjust each HA separately.– “Streaming” music from the iphone is horrible (see low power bluetooth limitations above), and so when I work out in the gym I remove the HA and go back to using a separate pair of earphones for music.
– The Halo 2 does not have a telecoil (which I would probably not use anyway).
– The Linx2 can be outfitted with a “micro mic”, a lapel microphone that communicates directly to the hearing aids, which can really help when two people are trying to converse in a noisy restaurant. Starkey does not (at the moment) offer a similar product, although you can use the iPhone in “microphone mode” to act as a (rather large) mic.
– Bluetooth on the iphone places a constant drain on the battery and I find that my phone needs recharging a bit more often.
– Purchasing the Halo 2 will wipe out your bank account (at least it did mine).
In summary, I think the Halo 2 is a definite improvement over the original Halo and Muse models, so I will keep them, but there is still lots of room for further improvement.