Has anyone upgraded from Oticon Opn to Oticon More?

Hearing Aids
#58

In the old days, a “dirty” (cheap?) analog amplifier would have the floor noise be quite audible if you crank up the volume, because the signal to noise ratio of the amplifier is poor. Nowadays with digital amplifiers, the SNR is good enough that you’d be hardly pressed to hear any floor noise.

To my surprise, when I first got the OPN 1, although I didn’t notice any floor noise, whenever I put it in full directional mode, if I’m in a quiet environment, I would notice the floor noise if things are quiet enough around me. I started reading up and sure enough, there has been research papers mentioning this effect in directional modes via microphones control. Generally, in this mode, it would cause a low frequency roll-off, and as a result, the system compensates through amplification at the low ends, resulting in higher internal mic static noise level (what I call floor noise). I learned about this when I was trialing the Sonic Enchant 100, where they tried to solve this issue by creating a multi-frequency band design so they can leave the lower frequency bands in omnidirectional (to prevent the low frequency roll-off issue) and only activating directionality in higher frequencies. But apparently the OPN doesn’t have this multiband design feature because I can hear the floor noise in full directional mode.

Anyway, to make the long story short, it sounds like what @Kem103 is hearing in the car or van may be this floor noise, especially confirmed if it’s diminished when the volume is turned down. Perhaps the More somehow switches to Full Directional mode for some reason in the car and van, maybe because the conversational speech wasn’t clear enough, and this resulted in the low frequency rolloff amplification to compensate, making the floor noise heard more clearly.

Of course this is all a guess. But if it’s not the road noise or the wind noise and it sounds like the constant floor noise of the amplifier, then this is the only plausible thing that comes to my mind.

If playing with the MoreSound Intelligence parameters in the screenshot below doesn’t seem to help, you can try to have the audi create an custom program for when driving and set the Directionality Settings to Fixed Omni (as seen in the lower right hand corner of the screenshot below). This will force the More to not be put in the Full Directional mode, thereby avoid the low frequency roll-off situation and help minimize the floor noise you hear. However, this may force you to hear the road noise more, so you may end up avoiding one thing just to hear a different thing anyway. But it’s worth trying out, so that if it helps, whenever you’re driving, you can go to this program which is optimized for driving, then return to the default when you’re not driving anymore.

image
image1602×915 123 KB

2 Likes
#59

It’s possible you are just hearing new sounds that you have not heard in a long time, don’t know or understand them. These new sounds can be like your description. My hunch they will slowly turn into recognizable sounds in time. You just need to give your brain time to learn them.

1 Like
#60

I wear Oticon Opn1 and am currently trying More1. I must say I expected better. As Volusiano says, it’s not a wow effect. I think it’s mostly marketing.

3 Likes
#61

@Val: If you’re already wearing properly-adjusted hearing instruments that work well for you, why would you ever expect to have a “wow” experience?

Also, I think that some kinds of profound hearing loss preclude a “wow” experience because they’re out of the hearing aids’ effective range to help.

I’ve never worn Opn or OpnS, but I’ve read all the excellent reviews. I think it’s hard to improve much on that.

If you’ve read the white papers, the main differentiating factor with More is that it uses a Deep Neural Network rather than engineers’ mathematical algorithms to detect noise vs speech and process the two in the fastest, most effective way possible.

I think it’s like venturi carburators versus fuel injection. The car runs pretty much the same - no “wow” factor - but the way the fuel is delivered to the cylinders is radically different.

Was fuel injection just marketing hype, then? Luddites would say yes, however there’s more to it than that, IMO.

2 Likes
#62

I think I’ve narrowed down the errant sound. Volusiano mentioned riding in a van and not hearing his daughter. I was at the Audi’s office and the minute that the air conditioning went off, the sound disappeared. This has been repeated in several situations, all involving air conditioners. If I pull out my hearing aid slightly from the canal, the sound becomes less dominate. Maybe this is a dome thing or setting, but my Audi has never heard of this before. I am testing the More and today is decision day.

3 Likes
#63

I’ve trialled the Oticon More and posted my first ever hearing aid review on YouTube: Three Hearing Aids Reviewed | Oticon More Vs Unitron Moxi (Phonak) Vs Widex Evoke - YouTube.

Please be kind… I am new :slight_smile:

1 Like
#64

It’s natural for you to find that you can hear all the noise in the Oticon More at the (perceptibly high) volume that they’re at because of the open paradigm promoted by Oticon. But although you classify them as noise, they’re still just different sounds all around you.

If your brain is not used to hearing this much sound then you’re going to find it uncomfortable like you’ve experienced. But it should not be so loud as to damage your hearing further. If that’s truly so, then your HCP has not adjusted the hearing aids at the proper level for you. Most likely, that’s just your perception that it’s too loud because you’re new to it. That’s why they have 3 phase automatic adaptation to ease you in first at a lower volume then gradually move to the second then final third (default) volume level over time.

The important thing is that if you can understand speech well (you mention in your video that speech feels like it’s in high definition, I take it to mean the clarity of speech is good enough so that you understand it well), then it has done its intended job, which is to give you the speech clarity you need but still not “snuff” out the other sounds around you.

The point is that it counts on your brain hearing to learn to filter out the other sounds (which you call noise). If you think about it, normal hearing people hear “noise” sounds just as loud as speech. They don’t have hearing aids to filter out what they don’t want to hear, so they need to train their brain hearing to tune out what they don’t want to hear and focus on what they want to hear. That’s the premise of the open paradigm and brain hearing in the Oticon More. It doesn’t want to block out sounds so you can hear better. It wants to let you hear all the sounds and let you decide which sounds you want to tune out and which sounds you want to focus on by you using your own brain hearing to do this. But if there’s speech going on, it’ll help make speech more clear for you by suppressing the other sounds very momentarily (almost unnoticeable to you) only while speech is happening so you can understand speech better.

Not everybody who’s hard of hearing likes this open paradigm. Many prefers to have the noise from behind and on the sides blocked out for them so they can focus on the front where speech is usually is. The Oticon More has a similar feature that can be activated in the ON app called the MoreSound Booster that you can try out to get that similar experience that other hearing aid brands provide.

4 Likes
#65

Thanks so much for your detailed response, it is much appreciated and spot on! I did find myself using the MoreSound Booster quite a lot and will probably give the Mores another try before deciding, but am currently leaning towards Widex.

I also asked my audi about the new Signia AX, but she said that Oticon, Phonak and Widex are all ahead of Signia, especially in speech in noise…

2 Likes
#66

I have been wearing Oticon Opn1 for 4 years, and decided to change this year. At the moment, I am testing More1. I see a difference, I can hear people talking about ten meters away in the street, in a quiet environment, and at a shorter distance, I understand what they are saying, whereas previously this was not. Also when I chat with people what they say is clearer. I specify that I have more loss in the low and medium frequencies.

On the other hand, it seems to me that I hear traffic noises more, and I don’t like it at all. It’s tiring. At the end of the day, I have the feeling that my head is going to explode. And I don’t like hearing noises around when I’m in a conversation either.

Therefore, next week I will try Phonak Paradise in the same range as More1.

3 Likes
#67

Very interesting information!
Thank you, Val.

#68

You can have your audi go aggressive on the Neural Noise Suppression (set both to max values), set the Virtual Outer Ear to Focused, set the Sound Enhancer to Comfort, and the Difficult Environment to start from Simple, like in the screenshot below. This should help make things sound less tiring for you. If this isn’t enough, turn on the MoreSound Booster in the ON app to block out the sounds from behind and the sides to focus on sounds in the front only. If you still don’t like it after making these adjustments, then I think the Paradise will probably suit you better.

image
image1600×918 118 KB

#69

I have been wearing the More 1’s for a couple of months now and previously had the OPN S1’s. One of the first things i noticed was increased background noise. What you would consider road noise…. Leaf blowers, lawn mowers, road noise from a nearby street, the fan from the A/C, trees in the wind are all more noticeable. At the beginning it was very distracting but now I’m used to it and its not bad. I did have the Audi increase the noise suppression, etc which helped in noisy situations.

You might just be experiencing the “More”…lol

Is it possible that the noise in the car was the A/C fan in the car?

Hang in there…. You’ll get used to the changes.

1 Like
#70

I just received the More1 aids yesterday, I am moving from the OPNS1 aids and before that the OPN1 aids. I love hearing the sounds of nature. The sounds like road noise, the AC fan, the refrigerator fans, and most of all the sounds of the different bird songs. I am enjoying the best speech understanding I have had in a very long time. I am enjoying the sound of music. While I don’t really know what normal hearing is this is the best I overall hearing that I have had since my teens and twenties.

4 Likes
#71

Absolutely. I should have added the refrigerator fan to my list. That was really disconcerting at first. I had to ask my wife if the fan actually was making that noise… lol

And yes, music is fuller, more enjoyable.

2 Likes
#72

I remember when I switched from one of the older Costco (KS5???) hearing aids to the OPN 1s, the noise sources of all kinds (road noise when driving, fan noise anywhere, street cars passing by) bothered me a lot. It took me a month or two before I got used to them. Now I hardly think about them.

1 Like
#73

Thank you @Volusiano, I have an appointment on Tuesday with the hearing care professional who will give me the Phonak Paradise. I’ll see how it is compared to the Oticon. Usually I only have 40% understanding in noise with a hearing aid.
I have the right to try for a month, so after the Phonak I will try Starkey Livio AI Edge. I know the Starkey isn’t that good for bass dropouts, but it has the CROS compatible system (my left ear can’t hear anything) and previous brands have a CROS based on an older platform.

1 Like
#74

What about reliability issues with the More? My audiologist has had to send my Opn’s back to the manufacturer four times within the first year for technical problems, and it looks like I may have to send them back again (but thankfully, they’re still under warranty). I’m beginning to wonder if I should just try a different manufacturer, rather than an upgrade.
My other problem with Oticon is that when I get the hearing aids back, not all the problems have been fixed. For example, my phone (an Android) model no longer recognizes the right hearing aid, and that was supposed to have been fixed after the last return.

1 Like
#75

I have had no issues with my OPN nor my Move.

1 Like
#76

Thanks for the information. I appreciate it.

#77

I posted this on the Oticon Facebook page but figured I’d post it here as well in case it benefits someone else.
I’m in the process of upgrading from the Oticon OPN 1 minirite to the More 1 minirite. My Audi convinced me to do a demo for 3 weeks and asked that I give her feedback because she knows I am a musician. Not professional in any sense but have been playing guitar for years.
My first impressions. My car has a pretty nice sound system with surround sound. Always though for what I was paying for it could be better. It got way better when I got in the car and turned it on at the Audi’s office. It nearly bought me to tears. Music has been very important to me, especially the last few years being I’ve been retired.
I love that feedback is nearly gone. I can lie on a pillow and watch TV without worrying about turning my head.
Speech recognition compared to the OPN is also improved. Even with noise in the environment, I’ve been able to pick up conversations and voices much easier.
Last night I even watched TV without the streamer. I have a Sonos sound system and always thought the sound could be better for what it costs. Last night it got better. Wow! Of course the TV streamer default is way too loud. I’ll have my Audi adjust it like she did with the OPN1.
My acoustic Martin guitar sounded like I put new strings on it and the strings are 3 months old. I’m impressed.
Only issue, and it’s not big is the right HA has a very light hash or hiss in the background. Sounds like crickets off in the distance. If I cup my hand over that ear it goes away. It’s more pronounced in the General Program than the Music program. Makes me wonder if it has something to do with feedback elimination.
Only have 2 programs now and feel I don’t need more. On the OPN I found “speech in noise” to be ineffective and I never used “Comfort”.
As far as being rechargeable, so far we are good. I put them in at 7AM this morning and it’s 4:30PM EDT and they are still at 70%. In a pinch I plan on using my OPN 1s as a back up or can do a fast charge.
Overall, I am very happy with the upgrade. Hope this helps someone. Of course we are all unique in our hearing impairments. Your mileage may vary.

2 Likes