I have severe hearing loss of 80db on average and my audiologist advised me to choose a more powerful model of hearing aids (RIC or ITC) than my current Phonak CIC SP for better hearing quality, especially for soft sounds which I’ve been struggling with. After a research of all the major brands, I found almost all of them have narrowed the frequency ranges for their most powerful models dramatically, usually from 100-7/8k hz to around 100-5k hz. For example, The frequency range of Phonak narrows from 100-7k hz for SP to 100-5k for UP, while that of ReSound changes from 100-6.71k for HP to 100-4.72k for UP. The only exception seems to be Oticon, which maintains a frequency range of 100-7.5k hz even for its most powerful model ( I guess it’s for 100 db loss).
So my question are:
How would hearing aids with such a narrower frequency range impact my hearing? Does it mean I’d not hear some sounds? Like what? Would my speech recognition be affected as well, and in which aspect particularly?
Why do most of these brands do that frequency range reduction? Is there some technical tradeoff there? i.e., for some other benefits? In other words, is it because maintaining the same wide frequency range would result in poorer hearing quality or some other harm?
Why was Oticon able to maintain the same wide frequency range? Is it because it uses some unique technology or algorithm? Would it be a better choice than other brands for me because of that? I really want to preserve my residual hearing as much as possible while hearing better with the new hearing aids.
search for keywords Balanced Armature (BA) and diaphragm,
currently the receivers are BA (one of the main manufacturer is Knowles), and the higher power UP receivers have a bigger diaphragm to produce louder volume at lower frequencys, and the bigger diaphragm is, the lesser is the ability for producing very high frequencys.
i suggest you read this thread
Quote: “hearing aids are mainly designed for SPEECH, therefore receivers (Look at the Knowles Tech bulletins, data-sheets and support notes ) are designed around the same principle. Most speech occurs in the 250Hz to 6Khz range”
Frequency lowering aka. compression like “Sound Recover2” (Phonak) , “Speech Rescue” (Oticon) is for lowering/shifting down higher frequencies and copy that into areas of lower frequency where most of the people have better hearing. Most manufacturers have some variation of frequency lowering.
I dont have much choice given my very severe-profound loss. I wear paradise p30 up .
I can hear up to 10khz sounds with sound recover 2. But I should add that frequency lowering and compression changes quality of sounds. I perceive this as a bit less treble effect. You can hear sounds but you hear them at different frequencies than the real ones. This causes change of quality. But over time you adapt to the new sounds and this becomes the norm in your brain.
If you have a profound loss, you’re not hearing those higher frequencies even if the hearing aid frequency range includes higher frequencies. I’m too lazy to look up Oticon. They may just be more optimistic. All receivers tail off at the higher frequencies. Deciding where the range cutoff is a judgement call.
Take a look at the speech banana. It will give you a general idea of what sounds you hear in life at different frequencies.
Sharing your audiogram would be helpful.
There is a standard for where to cut off the range. The range ends, at both high and low ends, where the gain drops 20 dB below the high frequency average (HFA) gain. HFA gain is the average of the gain at 1000, 1600, and 2500 Hz. The conditions for measuring HFA gain may differ between manufacturers.
Thanks a lot. I’ve found the datasheet of Oticon OWN for 100db model as shown below. As my HFA is 80db, where do you think my own range end? Should I look at the point the line cross the 60db in the full-on gain section? Many thanks.
Thanks a lot, Zebras, below is my audiogram. Any thought or suggestion? I was wondering whether I should go for Oticon or other brands with narrower frequency ranges. @Louie@MDB@Raudrive@x475aws
Thanks for sharing your audiogram.
It is pretty flat which typically makes it easier to fit.
Is your hearing loss stable? If it is pretty stable you could probably get by with RIC hearing aids.
Do you only wear one hearing aid?
Yes, I wear one aid. and the loss is relatively stable. My audiologist has advised me to ditch the current CIC model and choose ITC over RIC, because she thinks that the RIC model, given the location of its microphones behind the ear, may not give me as clear and natural a hearing as does an ITC model, as I’ve been used to wearing CIC model for a long time. And she also said the RIC model may be more susceptible to damage by sweat, etc. I’m still not decided on ITC or RIC yet.
(This board just edited out the post I just quoted of your Audiologist’s argument)
Some of that may or may not be true.
Pinna effects are reduced with hearing aids that occupy more of the concha area.
RIC are ok, don’t let the sweat/acoustic arguments put you off unless you intend to use them while exercising.
However, I sort of agree that a decent power ITE would be good for you as long as it has the beans to give you enough headroom in the fitting. Also: Oticon, not so great with the overdriven 100dB receiver. It’s a longevity issue in my book: they have a bit of a habit of failing.
Consider a Starkey too, they’ve been making power full shell ITE for years and have some good features to play with.
Thanks a lot, Zebras. Much appreciated. I got a hunch that my hearing loss has been so bad for so long that my actual frequency range has become so narrow that the wider range, especially the portion of the higher frequencies, of the HA may probably mean little to me, as @x475aws and @MDB suggested. By the way, I’ve just had a very short trial of Signia’s AX 3 at my audio’s office. The sound appears more natural than Phonak Paradise to me and there also seems to.be more, but not too much, background sounds, which I like because they didn’t affect my speech recognition. I don’t know technically what has made the difference but that’s really a surprise to me because I’d never tried Signia before and had, frankly, long rated it a level below the other four big brands, i.e., ReSound, Phonak, Widex and Oticon. It sounds a little like my first trial of Widex Moment. Now I consider giving it try. It’s just getting more and more difficult to choose…
