Is there a hearing aid that lets you control the EQ for each side individually?

My hearing often fluctuates sometimes day by day, sometimes week by week. Sometimes a volume tweak to one of the HA’s will fix it, but often what I want is a bit more bass or trebble or high in the affected ear, without having to travel to see my audi. One thing I’ve never understood, you only seem to be able to control the overall sound profile of both left and right, at least on the aids I’ve worn. Which is odd because you can change the volume of the individual left right aids. Does anyone know of a brand where this individualised control of the EQ per HA is possible?

Xonic83, I’m just the first to reply, so by no means the “final word” here, but an audiogram and make/model of the aids you currently wear would be most helpful for the thread here.

I have Phonak Lumity Life 312-battery aids, and they are programmed to work in lockstep together, so unless I installed myPhonak app on my Android phone and tinkered with just ONE aid, the volume is going UP and DOWN equally, no matter which aid I press the rocker switch on.

I do find that occasionally, I’d like to just turn up my RIGHT aid a tad. No idea why, but that ear is even more of a cinderblock than my LEFT one. It’s like my right ear isn’t hard-wired into my brain like the left ear, so I work harder to comprehend sounds going into that side.

I just re-installed myPhonak app on my Android phone today, so I can now “split” the volume and raise/lower just ONE side at a time. This would only be done temporarily, cuz I really do prefer the synchronicity of my aids and both of them working stereophonically at the same settings.

Perhaps others will chime in to say which device(s) worn as a pair can be individually adjusted? It could be that these have separate volume wheels on each device, but nowadays, it seems the way to go is with a PHONE app, which forces the user to not only learn that app, but keep the phone on their person for making those adjustments. Bit of a CLUDGE, I’m thinking?

EDIT: Xonic83, I just read at the Virto post that you are currently wearing THEM! WOW. Now I’m gonna hop right back to that thread and read your thoughts on those aids …

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HI. sorry I always forget to post my audiogram. I have no eyesight so I can’t see other peopls :slight_smile:

So with Phonak you can definitely change left and right volume, but you can’t adjust left and right EQ, just the overall sound profile. That is what I’d love to be able to do, as I llose bass and highs depending on the day. mostly bass, but usually in 1 ear.

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Ah, GOT IT! Xonic83, your audiogram is about what mine was in my 40s? I’ve still got my eyesight, but since I HEAR with my eyes, I feel lucky for that.

Well no wonder you are trying out the new Virtos. Yep. That is cool.

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I bet you could create a custom program with one aid higher in gain, and then bump them up and down together in that program, still offset. It would be an interesting experiment.

WH

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Heaven forfend. Once they start doing that they’ll be providing 10 band equalisers! /s Not on the Philips, and I don’t recall it on the Jabra or Phonak apps either. Introduces complexity in the UI and intrudes into the realm of the audiologist would be my guess.

You could have a few different programs with different levels of gain at different frequencies to suit your L/R and HF/LF situation then toggle through the different programs to get the best sounding result while adjusting the volume control as an absolute level.

Also, you might want to delete your personal details in the attached audiogram.

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OH dear, I can’t read the audiogram I didn’t even know it had personal details in it :slight_smile: will remove it. yes I think programs might be the only way. shame you can’t adjust the EQ on either side though that would solve the issue.

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You are absolutely right about that. I’d have to be careful with that gain, cuz it wouldn’t take much for it to hit the glass ceiling. I’m finding that with my newer 312s, the right aid could use something like that. Too bad my audi is in Europe for a couple weeks. :wink:

But with myPhonak app, I can split the right/left aids and boost the right volume up a bit. See where we go…?

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I tried making gains lopsided and then saving that as a new program. Unfortunately, it returned the gains to even at zero so it didn’t save the “lopsided” gains.

WH

I think you can on Widex, I’m sure I’ve done that before, but gain isn’t really the thing I want to change. I can do that easily enough, I just want to tweak the sound on one side without having to go to the audiologist and make a new program for it :slight_smile: I just find it baffling that you can’t do this. Then again I find the limitations on control via the apps baffling. I get that there should be a simple and advanced mode and I even get the audiologist locking the advanced mode, but if I’m spending £5000 on something I want to be able to use all the featuers :slight_smile:

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Starkey Thrive gives you four or five bands, but the two sides are affected equally.

You’re not gonna get Power Amp Pro, or Equalizer APO in a Hearing aid app, unfortunately.
Imagine the resources that would entail both in the HA firmware, and the app software.
Most all graphic EQ’s are only able to have have single channel control.
A two channel EQ would cost a lotta bucks!

I sort of agree, but also not. The HA’s themselves have an incredible amount of control for their size an dprocessing power, it’s just that we as users are restricted from using it. It requires a different approach and the allowing of access to some, not all but some of the controls the audiologists already have. At the very least, adjusting the 3 band EQ which already exists, but on a per side basis would seem possible if not “normal”.

Pretty much that. You’re in a small minority of people who would use it. A significant proportion of the rest of us would think it’s unnecessary clutter. I’ve got a few ideas on things they could do to give us more control but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for any of them to happen.

The problem is, to do EQ per side, they’d have to be able to apply the appropiate bandwidth to each channel, and keep the the dB levels constant.
It’s easy to split the volume per side, but EQ is another animal, and tbh, is a niche application, which they probably don’t wish to spend the resources to explore.
I could envision an external Parametric EQ doing the job, but I have no experience with them.
I know Foobar 2000 can do it, as can some headphone DAC/Amps.

The new Rexton’s/App allows you to control each HA separately if you desire. It also has a Directional feature for when your in more difficult hearing environments that allows you to select where the sound/audio is coming from… forward, left, right and rear, which essentially muffles out the the remainder of the area not chosen. Example is if your sitting across from someone and want to hear just them, then you select the Forward Pattern. Now the Forward pattern is alittle different than the others whereas it allows you to zero in the audio pattern from 180 degress down to 35 degrees. The other options are preset patterns, Left, Right, Rear.


As mentioned before, you can also change audio mode from Auto (meaning both ears) to Individual (where your controlling the L/R audio levels independently.