Hearing aids for ukulele player

Hearing Aids
#1

It’s way past time to replace my aging Phonak Excelias, but I need advice on brand/s and models that would work well while playing my ukulele. I also play with a group, so in addition to my own uke, I need to hear all the others, as well as understanding speech in discussions.

So far my 13 or 14 year old Excelias give me accurate sound from my uke when playing alone. I just don’t hear well at all in a crowd.

Another brand (Signia) during trial period gave me wonderful speech in noise, just about everything but any ukulele sounded terrible when I played it. General music as a spectator was wonderful. It’s probably holding, playing an instrument that distorts audio.

What brand to try next? (Apple products heavily used for phone, streaming music as well.)

Just had hearing test. Luckily my hearing hasn’t worsened since getting first hearing aids! (The Phonak Excelias)

#2

Widex Evoke 440 for music and excellent speech in noise. F2 has the soundsense app to make your own adjustments, custom IP evoke 440 has the tonelink app. I bought my son the F2s and I have the IP, they work really well with iPhone 8 and above.

2 Likes
#3

My friend is a deaf professional musician and she wears Phonak Sky Q70 UPs. She has 2 x music programs, 1 for singing and 1 for playing her piano and violin.

She also said she had to turn off WistleBlock on all programs as it made her job as a musician a lot harder as there was a thrill (spelling).

#4

Widex certainly have a great reputation with music. Recent Signias actually have 3 different music programs available and one’s intended for performance with other musicians. Don’t know if the one you tried was set up that way. I imagine more important than hearing aid is finding somebody willing to work with you to get them set up how you want them.

#5

As @MDB mentioned Signia 7Nx (Rexton Emerald 80) have three music programs. There is one intended for playing an instrument. It is set up like this:

image
image.png731×299 14.1 KB

  1. Automatic Noise Reduction is turned off
  2. Automatic classifier is turned on, so some automatic functions are left available.
  3. Intelligent Wind Noise Reduction is turned on, but I suspect it could be turned off if you only plan to perform indoors.
  4. the microphones are in manual Omni directional mode to pick up sounds all around you.
  5. The Intelligent Feedback Preventer is turned on, but set to Slow mode. I suspect depending on your hearing loss it may be possible to turn it right off. Feedback prevention is the most likely culprit in messing up the sound of music.
  6. Directional microhones are turned off
  7. Sound Smoothing (peak limiting) is turned off
  8. Voice Ranger and Reverb Reducer are turned off.

I suspect other hearing aids could be set up in a much similar matter, if the fitter takes the time to customize a program for playing an instrument.

One other thing you could look for is a high (113 to 116 dB) input sound level capability. Live musical peaks are loud, and if clipped can sound bad.

1 Like
#6

I play flute in a geezer band, and do handbells and choir at church (also a bit of guitar now and again). I recently got Phonak Marvels and they seem reasonably good to me for music. They have a special music program that seems to help a little with balancing out the music over the normal, autosense program.

If you do go with the Marvels, make sure your audiologist has the frequency lowering or compression turned off for the music program (but only for the music program). Leaving the compression on will provide some slightly funky intonation at the highest frequencies, e.g. above about G7 (~3000 Hz).

@TraderGary is a much more accomplished musician that I am (classical pianist), and he swears by his Marvels.

#7

It must be noted that TraderGary is a brand new HA user of only 10 months and that the Marvels are the only HA that I’ve used during that time.

In the upcoming year I’m going to try out other makers depending on whether they will be supporting the new ASHA protocol. My Android Google Pixel 3XL already supports ASHA.

#8

Thank all of you above for such prompt and very helpful responses. What a great forum! (Remember it was a Canadian University student on this forum who solved my problem with the first hearing aid earmolds I was indeed allergic to. That was years ago.)

Thursday afternoon I’m getting new Signia Stylettos. The audiologist will be programming them from scratch. I’d done a 3 week demo trial on Stylettos as well as Signia Charge N Go NX7 at same time. Although both were setup the same day by same audiologist I got better speech in noise (restaurant, etc.) wearing the Stylettos, using Cafe Mode. It was perfection! (I’m concerned because Cafe Mode is discontinued on Signia’s new app for iPhone! I think also Musician setting is omitted from new app.) My own voice and really everyone else’s voice sounded better with Stylettos than Charge N Go NX7, too.

I will not be permanently committed to keeping these and know time with audiologist and my ukulele will determine if Stylettos are the answer.

Reading all posts above gives me excellent feedback on settings for other by Signia, as well as Phonak and Widex. I’d not even considered Widex until reading here this morning. (And meanwhile another audiologist who was looking at my audiogram suggested Oticon.)

The best news I have is that there are no significant changes in my hearing since that first audiogram after experiencing sudden hearing loss. My choice of Stylettos may not be wisest option due to level of hearing loss. It concerned the audiologist at first, but his favorite person with Signia tech support feels not only for current hearing loss but also “wiggle room” should my hearing decline Stylettos will be fine.

As my first experience getting hearing aids, so much proves to be skill of the audiologist and patience to work with someone as “picky” as I am for speech, live music, videos with good home audio system, TV broadcasting in general, lots of streaming music, and my passion for ukulele. Admittedly that’s a whole lot to ask! I’m spoiled because it finally worked for me after sudden hearing loss. (You’ll see history of that saga here on this forum, minus the private back and forth with Canadian University student who saved my sanity…and probably my marriage!:wink:)

#9

These well detailed instructions on settings may be a life saver for going with Signia. If Stylettos aren’t up to it the Signia NX7 should be! Thank you so much! I’ll report back next weekend.

#10

You may also want to consider the Costco Rexton Adore Li. I think you may find they are very similar to the Signia 7Nx and should have the Playing an Instrument Music Program option. They also should have Own Voice Processing which can help a lot with your own voice. It has to be trained to recognize your own voice for it to work though. They are rechargeable and I believe priced around $2500 a pair. Rexton and Signia in many models are the same except for the name.

#11

I don’t think the Styletto streams direct to the iPhone with MFi.

#12

I see you’re already on your way with new HAs. I was going to chime in that I use Oticon OPN S1s as a mandolin player with one band and a second set of musicians doing entirely different material. The new as of August 2019 HAs for me means I can now differentiate what others around me are playing and I can actually talk to another band member as we’re playing/practicing/performing. I was totally deaf to voices while on stage before that. Hope all works out well for you,

#13

My demo Stylettos did stream music from both iPhone and iPad. However, it was a bit of a nuisance to have to remove them, place both in the case, then open the other device. Place the Stylettos back in my ears.

I could hear very well for phone calls but everyone on the other end reported although they heard me, my voice sounded “funny.” This isn’t the case using my Airpods for cell calls.

#14

Interesting! That’s actually good news. As I mentioned I’m not locked into the Stylettos purchase yet. Both Signia NX7 and Oticon easy options. Have never trialed Oticon. Life will not be complete until I can easily play with my group, hear comments, hear my own ukulele/s “voice.”

#15

I’m not a Costco member, could join. Does Costco allow certain span of time to trial? Full refund if what I trialed didn’t work out? (Have heard from another who purchased his that he couldn’t return even after just several weeks. He’s still wearing them but can’t hear conversation at a dinner table.)

#16

I stand corrected on the MFi. I think the early versions may not have had it, but it was added later. The trick with using an MFi phone for wireless calling to your ears is to hold the phone close when you are talking into it. It is not in speakerphone mode, just normal talk mode which needs the phone close to your mouth.

Having the iPhone pair with the aids, or a vehicle and back happens automatically. Also easy to have sound go to the aids or the phone is easy. Pairing the aids to other devices other than the iPhone is not so easy. It involves unpairing and pairing again.

#17

In the US I believe the full refund time period is 6 months? As far as I know they don’t do a free trial though. You have to buy them and then get your money back if you don’t like them. They usually have demo models in the store that you can try though. With the price of hearing aids, the cost of a membership is a trivial factor. Costco does not charge for the initial audiogram and testing. The don’t charge for off the shelf fittings or essentially unlimited follow up fittings.

Their current Kirkland Signature 9.0 model is very close to a premium Phonak Marvel, and is priced at $1500 a pair with 312 batteries, no tinnitus masking, and no telcoil option. I have no experience with it. If you poke around here, I recall some have experienced a trilling sound from pure musical notes with it, but I also recall it can be addressed by turning off the feedback suppression. I have the previous KS model, the KS8, which is essentially a Signia 7Nx.

#18

I am a guitar and ukulele player and have a set of Costco KS9s. I started with testing the Phonak Marvels and learned I could get the same basic hearing aids from Costco and save $5000. I have a manual music program where, essentially, I started with their music program, turned everything off (particularly the feedback manager), and set the mics to Omni. After some tweaking on my own (I downloaded the Phonak 6.0.1 Target software and bought a NoahLink Wireless) I am absolutely delighted with the aids.

I still have to work on a program for a noisy environment - particularly, a crowded restaurant - but that’s a minimal concern. They do OK now, but I think I can make them better for me.

I use open domes as I like as much natural sounds as I can get, and my loss at the low end indicates I can do this, so streaming music in the aids sounds anemic. But that’s OK, as a musician I have some great headphones and can EQ the sound going into them to fit my loss.

And yes, Costco in the USA is great about returns. I tried the Philips aids they sell, but could not get a good fit. I took them back after a month (had them at the same time as the KS9s) and they simply took them back and gave me a full refund. Costco gives you six months to try their aids.

1 Like
#19

I trialed the Signia NX7 at the same time I trialed the Stylettos. Chose the latter because voices sounded so natural, mine as well. Funny how much easier it is to talk, to sing when my own voice sounds natural. I’m so eager to see how the replacements for Stylettos I purchased work out. We are going to program from scratch again, although I was very pleased with first go ‘round on demos.

Meanwhile, I’m soaking up all feedback from members responding to my original post. You’ve been so helpful.

1 Like
#20

I so wish I could “tweak” my own! (My husband would’ve had so much fun doing this!) Meanwhile, input from a guitar player is fantastic. Admittedly I have concerns about not only playing my ukulele on my own but particularly with my group. My ancient Phonaks are understandably not what they used to be, yet so far better than anything I’ve trialed when it comes to my ukulele sound, much less for group. I think in most cases it has been a matter of programming rather than make/model.