Thanks Peter. I will try that.
In other news, I was in a bar with a group of 8 people today. The sphere kicked in which meant I could hear everyone but could only understand about 50%. So not a great result. I think I’ll go back to the novas.
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I prefer my M70s over P90s. Less things to stop you hearing what you want to.
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A new issue I have with the spheres is with incoming calls. I don’t get any notification over the aids and my phone rings instead. I can answer the call by tapping and it works fine with the aids. No problem with outgoing calls. I suspect that this issue may be due to my phone. Anyway, one more reason for returning the spheres to Specsavers. I will happily go back to the nathos novas but may try the Nexia Resound if they are fully Android compatible.
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Oh yes, this is REM. If they had the Auricle you can run autoREM with the phonak target software assisting. There still would have been probe microphones in your ears though and the clinician is checking the output against targets on the Auricle, and it still uses a speech passage, although I can see how the beeps from the probe guide might have been more memorable.
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Out golfing in the rain yesterday and the left aid started making odd noises and now has static. So will be returning these to specsavers on Saturday. I’m back wearing my novas and I really don’t think the spheres were much of an improvement plus had a couple of snags. One was that there is no ring tone in the aids when receiving a call. But the main one is that speech in noise was not great. It reduced background noise but didn’t improve clarity. The guys I couldn’t understand with the novas were just as unintelligible without background noise. Plus music was screechy and worse than the novas. Maybe a skilled audiologist could have helped but I’m not convinced of that and not convinced that my audi was fully engaging with me. Hey ho!
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I understand your problem. I thought we had found the holy grail with the Spheres but there is of course still one problem outstanding: the ability to hear in a group or even an individual in quiet hearing situations at distance, say 3 foot or more, or when there are multiple talkers speaking very quickly, is still impaired because fundamentally the signal is not coming through clearly enough. It is nothing to do with noise in this situation, it’s just our impairment which can only be helped by moving closer to the noise source, either by moving closer or by an assistive device being placed in the middle, for example, a Roger.
I have found that higher power hearing aids (if you were previously underfit) and changing fitting formulas, say to NAL-NL2 or DSL V5 can help, but ultimately, if your daughter (women’s voices) suddenly starts talking very fast over 6 or 7 feet away, or if you are in a room and there are 4 or 5 people talking and you can’t follow them, then the limitations of hearing aids with a more severe loss come into play.
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Yes, I agree with all of that. But why are some people so much harder to follow? And can hearing aids help with that? I think not because even those with good hearing struggle to understand some speakers.
I think it’s because of the diction of some people. Some don’t enunciate consonants, some slur their speech, some use slang and talk too fast, some even have a hearing loss themselves and as a consequence don’t speak at the right volume or with clarity. And of course, depending on where you live, there are accents to follow. This is made easier nowadays with globalisation etc, but it’s still a problem.
Can hearing aids help with that? I think even audiologists admit that in difficult situations (like unclear talkers) you need an assistive device once the talker is more than 5ft away. The most important thing I think is also, that we have the best fit possible, regardless of the aids we are wearing.
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Very well put. Just back from returning the spheres to Specsavers. No fuss and full refund given. I am back to the novas and enjoying listening to ELO. Much less screechy than with the spheres.
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From reading your comments it appears that the Sphere’s were never setup properly by the audiologist. It’s almost like they did the minimum initial fitting with no REM or fine tuning for you particular type of hearing loss. You really have to wonder how often this goes on. Patients walk away discouraged and back to square one.
Jordan
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Sorry, most likely you had a bad fit. The Spheres should not screech.
Well, I am certainly discouraged. I may try again in due course but am quite happy with the novas.
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What is your Word Recognition Score (WRS) in Quiet? For left and right ear separately and binaural?
I trialed 3 pairs of aids from a well known supplier, over a period of 2 years, each pair returned for refund, because I was never happy with them, I think the testing and the the fitting were a little slapdash compared to the service I have had elsewhere. I was asked politely not to return.
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I don’t know but I catch your drift.
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Was your previous HA BTE style? If you received the RIC as a Sphere, you may need to occasionally clean the receiver tip. You can clean it with a brush or, if that doesn’t work, you may need to change the Cerustop filter.
It’s also possible that the mic inlet got wet and needs to be dried.
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to me it sounds like trapped water droplets on the microphone. In that case, it would help to dry it with a hair dryer and also clean the microphone inputs a little with a brush.
Thanks for that and will keep it in mind if it happens with my novas. I returned the spheres and have bought a wide brim rain hat!
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Terry. I was in your position 6 months ago. I assume you’re going for the best you can afford. Will you want to use the Bluetooth functionality and stream material from the internet? If you do make sure your new hearing aids are compatible with your phone. My aids won’t accept calls over Bluetooth from my phone. I’m now in the process of changing them as I was poorly advised.
Richard
Yes, Richard but I do have my Nathos Novas supplied free by the NHS. They are pretty good and I am not sure I can get much better unless I can find a really good audiologist. I will probably try again in a year or two, especially if Auracast takes off. In the meantime, I’m trying to program the novas to improve the music programme.