First impression of Oticon More 1

[ubabopepton]

H!,
I want to share my first impression with MORE hearing aids. I have been using it since last Wednesday.

I used OPN 1 for slightly over 3 years. Recently I had a slight problem with my hearing aids because the sound was artificial and sometimes very irritating from the high pitch. After googling from here, I’ve decided to have MORE 1. (Unfortunately, I’ve asked my Audiologist but he kept telling me it’s the same idea of hearing aids and it won’t be different)

However, I’m working as a health care professional in a hectic and nosy environment. During the pandemic, the mask and face shield is tremendous obstacles for me to communicate better. Anyhow, I’ve purchased from another Audiologist, and he set up based on the most recent data from my hearing aids with a few adjustments.

Pros: 1)First of all, the sound is very natural to me and no more irritating high pitch at all. (for me, I have an issue hearing high frequency). 2) First a few days, the sounds at work were quite too loud to me but surprisingly not annoying. 3)Also, I could hear my voice very clearly without any occlusion but not bothering at all. 4)Tinnitus effect-setting like white noise is excellent. Previous OPN 1 has the same function, but MORE has a function on the app to adjust in detail, such as ‘tinnitus sound variations, with equalizer.’ 5)Now, I can hear very balanced music from my HI-Fi system. With OPN, I had to compromise on the particular music genre like Symphony (Lots of instruments play at once), but More is impressively satisfying to me to hear certain music. 6)Rechargeable battery is fantastic. I love it. For previous hearing aids, I constantly changed the batteries almost every 3 days, and I should keep/carry additional just in case of emergency. (Usually, I use hearing aids for about 18 hours, and More indicates 50% left at the end of the day). (I don’t use video or audio streaming at all. Only I used streaming for calls, less than 10~20 mins a day) 7)The previous hearing aids couldn’t help me have a conversation on the phone (NOT Bluetooth, but using the receiver on the ear at work. Like the traditional way of receiving the calls without any Bluetooth gadgets). However, suddenly the sounds from a phone with MORE hearing aids are very articulated, and I could hear each spelling naturally.

Cons: I couldn’t think about any. However, I need a little bit of time to adjust/get used to a loud noise around me when I work in a noisy environment such as machine beeping/people talking/shouting/phone ringing because More hearing aids provide lots of information rather than OPN hearing aids, I think.

[When I received the MORE, it came with regular previous OPEN Domes, which is not compatible with MORE anymore. At first, I could feel the volume was low from MORE with OPEN DOME than OPN hearing aids, and then I contacted an Audiologist to ask about it. Later he found that he sent OPEN DOME instead of OPENBASS DOME. After switching OPENBASS DOME with MORE, the volume was satisfying, and the voice from T.V./Radio/people was very naturally articulated.]

Bottom line is, I’m very happy with MORE hearing aids.

[Volusiano]

Glad to hear that the More 1s are working out well for you!

The original OPN 1 doesn’t have a telecoil (although later versions give you that option), but the More comes with telecoil right off the bat. So that’s probably why you can hear better with the More on the phone the traditional way of holding a handset speaker up to your ear. I assume that the new provider programmed the telecoil program into the More for you.

Loud noises should be no problem and you’ll probably get adjusted to it eventually once you get used to it. In the mean time, if it’s a little overwhelming for you, you can always turn down the volume. Or on your next visit to your provider, you can ask them to make some more adjustment in the MoreSound Intelligence page to increase Neural Noise Suppression and/or adjust the Virtual Outer Ear setting and Sound Enhancer to fit more to your liking. See the screenshot below as an example showing the settings you can adjust on the More.

I think the More line up has the bass dome with double vent as an offering. In the OPN line up, it has that, but it also has a bass dome with single vent offering as well, which doesn’t seem to be available in the More lineup. But I think they should be interchangeable. So if you’d like a little more closed sound even, you can try the bass dome with single vent. It’s not terribly different than the bass dome with double vent, but I thought I’d just mention it so you know there are 2 kinds of bass domes.

[SpudGunner]

@ubabopepton

Anyhow, I’ve purchased from another Audiologist, and he set up based on the most recent data from my hearing aids with a few adjustments.

Good morning, @ubabopepton. I’m happy that More1s are working for you (I’ve been wearing Mores for almost 2 months, and they’re performing very well.)

I am curious about how your HAs have been set up. Did you not have a new hearing test? Were your Mores fitted to an audiogram, or did the audiologist from whom you bought the devices just import the settings from your old HAs?

Did your first fitting include REM?

[akk]

I have Opn 3 and now testing More 1. I have hearing loss (basically on highs) in my left ear, right ear is quite normal (can hear up to 11 KHz). I think that More is clearly better, but I have still balance problems when listening music with my hifi-gear. Stereo image is focused more to right side (normal hearing ear) , which bothers me. If I put my palm as ”cup” behind my left ear, balance will be corrected to the center. I wonder which could be best possible settings to my More, my Audi is quite novise with these.

[Volusiano]

Do you wear only the More on your left ear only then?

Generally, cupping your palm behind your ear puts the volume focus on that ear. If you increase the volume on your left ear, did you not get the same effect?

[akk]

Yes, I use HA only in my left ear. Volume increasing seems not to help, Audi have even put 3 dB increasing to 1-3 Khz range…also tried with Opn 3 increase highs, that didn’t help either. If I increase volume enough with More, there is quite lot back ground noise.

[ubabopepton]

Hello,

Luckily a few weeks before purchasing the MORE, I had hearing test updated. Also based on OPN1, it was up-to-dated with a few adjustments based on new hearing test. (I had a copy of test result)

So after contacting to new audiologist for More, we’ve talked a little bit for the setting because MORE comes with OPENBASS Dome (I used open dome with OPN1). To be honest, I do not know how he adjust or modify the setting. He asked me what was bothering me most? how about high-pitch noise ? any mechanical irritating sound? any difficulty to hear between the alphabet? … these kinds of questions, and then he modified. (He mentioned at that time … be patient with MORE because due to the technology I may hear lots of sounds all of sudden and sometimes it might be loud … )

In conclusion, he looked at the hearing test graph and checked the OPN setting… asking me a few questions above, and then he adjusted. I am pretty sure we haven’t done REM. HE hasn’t mentioned any and I haven’t any. I want to do later after adjusting this setting for now. (I haven’t had REM before ether)

[ubabopepton]

I understand that it might be annoying to you especially when you listen to your favourite music with Hifi system. I was also very frustrated with OPN hearing aids. it was ok with single solo instrument music but symphony or orchestra music was very annoying and the sound wasn’t separated properly. It’s more likely mixed and squeezed … that kind of feeling.

Unfortunately I don’t know what would be the best answer for you. I only wish you could find a way to feel and hear better for your favourite music.

[ubabopepton]

Thanks for the tip. I checked the app with my secret gadget to see what kinds of setting I have…

Yes, the setting is almost same but noise suppression wasn’t selected as maximum. it was middle.
I was a little cautious to adjust or modify right now because I only used a few days with MORE. However, I will definitely consider later if the sound/noise is too loud. This is very good information for me for the further setting if required.

Thank you.

Yes, you are right. Thanks to the telecoil, it’s a whole new world. Believe it or not, I was a little bit anxious when I had a phone conversation because I couldn’t hear very well with previous hearing aids and a little bit frustrated with my hearing impairment. However thanks to MORE, now I’m really comfortable to pick up the call and deal with phone calls without any hesitations. The telecoil is now one feature that I will check for the next hearing aids when I need to switch a few years later.

[akk]

When I listen music, I use “Music”-programm. It allows clearly more dynamical sounds to be heard.
Music itself and instruments, vocals etc. comes clearly and separate. So I would say that’s ok.
I don’t know if this is somekind of spatial (adjusting) problem or what. If I recall right “cupping” your palm behind ear increases volume by 10…15 dB, which is a lot.

[Volusiano]

@ubabopepton

Yes, the setting is almost same but noise suppression wasn’t selected as maximum. it was middle.
I was a little cautious to adjust or modify right now because I only used a few days with MORE. However, I will definitely consider later if the sound/noise is too loud. This is very good information for me for the further setting if required.

In terms of Neural Noise Suppression, if you look at the details from the Genie 2 online help below, it clearly says that “The selected level is the maximum level of applied noise suppression. In situations with less background noise, less noise suppression will be applied.” The same is said for either Easy or Difficult environments (the upper part and the bottom part of the screenshot below).

So by just picking a middle values for Easy and Difficult Neural Noise Suppression (2 dB for Easy and 8 dB for Difficult as seen in the second screenshot), you’re effectively crippling your More 1 down to a More 2 equivalent. The third screen shows what their Difficult/Easy max values are. I believe that they have a typo for the More 2 max of 6 dB. I’d almost be willing to make a bet that it’s supposed to be 8 dB on the list, because that would make it consistent with the Genie 2 menu, and it’d make more logical sense that the More 2 should have an in-between max noise value of 8 from the More 1’s 10 dB and the More 3’s 6 dB.

The bottom line is remember that this is Max Neural Noise Suppression values, not “always-set-like-that” values. Like the instruction said, if there’s less noise, a lower amount of noise suppression is applied. So you’re not going to force the More to be any more aggressive in noise suppression than it needs to be by setting the highest max values that the tier of your model allows. But at least with the highest max value, you’re going to allow the More to be as aggressive as it can be for the tier that it’s in, but ONLY WHEN it’s necessary.

[SpudGunner]

@Volusiano

The bottom line is remember that this is Max Neural Noise Suppression values, not “always-set-like-that” values. Like the instruction said, if there’s less noise, a lower amount of noise suppression is applied. So you’re not going to force the More to be any more aggressive in noise suppression than it needs to be by setting the highest max values that the tier of your model allows. But at least with the highest max value, you’re going to allow the More to be as aggressive as it can be for the tier that it’s in, but ONLY WHEN it’s necessary.

@Volusiano: FWIW, your explanation squares exactly with my first-hand experience as a More1 user.

I asked my (great) audiologist to set these sliders to the max, and the HAs work much better in noise. I wish I had asked for the same adjustment when I still had my More3s.

[Volusiano]

@SpudGunner

I asked my (great) audiologist to set these sliders to the max, and the HAs work much better in noise. I wish I had asked for the same adjustment when I still had my More3s.

If it’s any consolation, as it turns out, the More 3 has the least Max Neural Noise Suppression values already anyway, so you probably couldn’t have done any worse than what’s available anyway. If you look at the screenshot below for a pair of More 3, there’s 0 dB noise suppression available for the Easy Environment on the More 3 anyway, so you couldn’t have done worse than that. On the Difficult Environment, it’s defaulted to the 6 dB max that it can have anyway, so it’s not like you missed out on the best it could do.

Now if it were the More 1 (as seen on the second screenshot below), and the max default set for Difficult Environment is set to 6 dB untouched, like how Genie 2 is set up as the default for the More 1, then that is really a crime because they’re basically capping your More 1 to the equivalent of the More 3.

I don’t really know why they would choose to do that in the first place, but that’s what they do. It’s the same approach with the OPN and the OPN S. I still can’t, for the life of me, understand why they would go do that, especially when they clearly state in their online help that their hearing aid is smart enough to use only enough noise suppression as needed and not over-use it. Must be some kind of black magic marketing voodoo reasoning to deceptively set the default value of a higher tier model to become the equivalent of the lowest tier model (see second screenshot) when you know unsuspecting people are paying an arm and a leg for the premium tier and expect the default values to reflect the performance behooving of their premium tier, but because of their setup, they unknowingly are not getting up to their expectation.

[SpudGunner]

@Volusiano: I’ve been sharing your advice with my audiologist who’s happy to explain the merits and demerits of it, through his eyes (90% of the time, he agrees).

He was a little skeptical at first about maxing out the More1 devices, because it hadn’t hit home that More1s only apply maximum NNS when the situation requires it…

That change has worked well for me, even when visiting my friends’ large auto mechanic shop.

[akk]

In Oticon phone app there is ”MoreSound Booster” option to turn on. Information text to this is like ”use this when you are tired or you have hard to focus on speech” It will disabled if changing program, charging or removing battery. Any experience about this ?

[ubabopepton]

For my impression for a moresound booster is…

Quite good for me to focus on individuals’ conversations if the group is small in the noisy background. Because the distractions can be eliminated comfortably.

However, if I still have to focus on other sounds Along with the conversation, I couldn’t catch tiny sounds which are important. Because all of sudden I feel like it shut down a little bit around background noise which I need to hear sometimes.

Anyhow I tried because it seemed really cool idea from YouTube video but for me it’s not really helpful.

Only I’m using the moresound booster functioN when I drive a vehicle and need to have a conversation with a passenger. It’s a little bit helpful especially on the high way.

[Volusiano]

The MoreSound Booster feature basically puts the hearing aid back into a more traditional type of noise reduction, where the directionality is changed to beam forming toward the front to focus on speech in front while aggressively blocking out more noise from the sides and from behind. It basically “cancels” the open paradigm and blocks out the surrounding sounds to let you focus more on the front speech.

It’s gotten mixed reviews. Some people find it helpful but others don’t. I think it depends on how accustomed the wearer has been to the open paradigm yet or not.

[chigwell22]

I really appreciate you giving such a well detailed experience, so far I have tried only tried the wider for the last three years. They are terrible but I can’t new ones anyway soon so it’s nice to hear what is available and how it’s works.

[chigwell22]

Thank you for the information…very complex compared to my Widx.

[ubabopepton]

2 Weeks after impression with OTICON MORE 1

1)The voice from the TV is very articulated and easy to hear.
2)I can hear lots of birds singing and it’s quite nice. Sometimes kids are playing and yelling but not annoying at all. I feel like the sounds are very organized and stratified based on the importance of sound and distance.
3)Streaming through hearing aids is ok. I don’t feel any difference at all from the previous OPN1.
However, the sound from More doesn’t have a hissing sound. (OPN1 has a little bit, not very often)
4)listening to music is one of my favourite parts now again. I can hear small detail very easily.
5)Sometimes the sound from paper bag folding or plastic/metal cracking at the store was very sharp to me at first. Not huge annoying. I’ve lower the volume on the app from iPhone into (-1) from (0). Luckily it doesn’t undermine any voice I want to hear and won’t bother my ears anymore with sharp sounds. For now, I want to keep using (-1) as the normal volume setting and then later when I used to, I will set it to (0) as default.
6)Still need a little bit more time to get used to. I assumed at first it won’t be any problem from OPN1 to MORE 1 but it’s not…
7)talking/receiving the Telephone is amazing. I was quite frustrated with OPN1 when I had a conversation but MORE1(Telecoli) is amazing. I love it and it gets rid of my frustration for good.

Right now, to be honest, I don’t see any problem at all. Even I was a little bit concerned about the battery life at first… After using 20 hours in a row, still, 20 % left on the hearing aids. Quite happy with it.