The HCP DID redo the feedback test with the new molds so I assume whatever adjustments that were required were in fact made. The feedback only occurs when i am near a solid surface with my left ear. About a foot or closer. So far I don’t have the issue in the car. The problem has been less with the smaller vents of the new molds if the shape and size of the mold didn’t change. For the time being I will continue to monitor the problem. Really appreciate everyone’s input.
My right ear mold is very sensitive to the exact position in my ear. My audi commented that sometimes one can attempt to push a mold too far into one’s ear canal. She suggested that I try backing off a little bit. Also, I’ve noticed it makes a difference whether one is pushing relatively straight ahead into the ear canal or more to the right or left or up or down. IMHO, the audi was very generous with my default start volume. It’s set to be “9” in the Smart 3D app. If I turn it down to “7,” I can still hear perfectly well and there is less chance of feedback if I get very close to something, put on a hat or headband, etc.
I also think fooling around too much with a mold can make your ear canal sore, perhaps causing it to swell up a bit. Then the mold no longer fits as well and it’s easier to get feedback, IMHO.
I think you will find that is the default Jim. I have had five different pairs of Resound aids and they always had 9 as the initial setting. Going down to 7 is a 2dB reduction incidentally.
Dropping mine to 7 does help to reduce the feedback to an acceptable level. I am going to try to find some of the vent plugs and experiment with those at the default level.
Yesterday, I picked up my Jabra Enhanced Pro 10 T hearing aids. My Costco fitter used Real Ear Measurement and did some subsequent “fiddling” with settings to make make everything just right, or then again, maybe not (just right).
Now that I’m home, I noticed that phone calls and streaming from my iPhone sounds very “tinny” having a thin, metallic sound! And I do not think I have as good a speech comprehension as I had with my old Preza(s). (In fact, I finally put my old Preza(s) back in while watching TV because the sound was marginally more understandable.)
I saw earlier posts in this tread mentioned that phone calls and streaming from their cell phone sounded “tinny”. Has anyone who has experienced this problem with their Jabra(s) ever gotten the problem resolved. Or is it just something you’ve learned to live with over time?
I use the app to boost bass and cut mids and highs. I stream only from TV, and I usually don’t need any adjustment for that. Having said that, if speech remains harder to understand with the Jabras than with the Prezas, I’d go back to Costco or arrange an online adjustment.
Did you ask your fitter if he/she copied or mimicked your Preza settings? The relative amount of bass in your fitting program settings can be adjusted by the fitter (within limits). You might also want to give your brain time to adjust. Perhaps the problem is somewhat the reverse: maybe the Jabras are better at reproducing high-frequency sound than the Prezas, more IRL for normal-hearing folks, and you’re just not used to the high-frequency sounds you weren’t getting with the Prezas. For instance, I wear Omnias, and if I walk barefoot in the house, I can hear a very high-pitched “Shssshhhh…” of the soles of my feet scuffing against a tile floor as I walk. I can’t hear those sounds at all if I don’t wear my HA’s. So that might be a relatively easy in-home test for you of high-frequency sound reproduction of the Prezas vs. the Jabras. Another in-home test for me is the high-pitched beeps the keypad of our home security systems emits: can’t hear them at all if not wearing my hearing aids. So, for a person with significant ski-slope loss like me and good low-frequency hearing, the world changes from a bass-oriented one to a much “tinnier” one when I put on my hearing aids. But then I find all the sounds I’ve been missing in my bassy HOH world!
If your problem is from too much high-frequency sound in the 6K to 8K range, you might ask the fitter to try the NAL-NL2 fitting algorithm rather than ReSound’s proprietary Audiogram+. IIRC, the NAL-NL2 fitting algorithm drops off more in the 6K to 8K range than ReSound’s Audiogram+. So, if that’s where your problem lies, switching fitting algorithms, in addition to any relative amount of bass adjustments, might help, too.
BTW, crickets are another thing that’s not there when I’m not wearing my HA’s. But, man, they get a bit overwhelming at the peak of their summer season around here with HA’s on! It’s probably too late in the year to try a “cricket test!”
Thanks Jim!
Yes, my fitter did use the Preza’s setting’s as the starting point for the Jabra. Then he used Real Ear Measurement to adapt the Jabra to my narrow and twisted canals. He did quite a few additional tweaks that I had no idea what he was doing (other than making adjustments based on the Real Ear Measurements). My Jabra’s also have Telecoil capability so he replaced one of my four programs to enable this capability. (But I don’t think that would have any bearing on the Tinniness Issue.)
I had an hour long conversation with my sister this morning and the tinniness just about drove me crazy. However, I do understand what you recommended about giving my brain (such as it is) a chance to adapt my hearing to the Jabras.
I will definitely ask the fitter on my follow up visit about the possibility of using the NAL-NL2 algorithm as well as possibly doing an overall adjustment of increasing the Base and reducing the Treble.
I hear most of what is going on around me, however I feel somewhat more isolated wearing the Jabra. I also don’t think my word recognition is as good (it hasn’t been great for a long time) as it was with Prezas. Hopefully continuing to wear the Jabras will minimize these perceptions.
Good luck! With your loss, you should be wearing fairly occlusive custom molds. Otherwise, a lot of bass will be escaping your ears. IDR if you said what sort of molds or domes you are wearing. Are they the same as you wore on the Prezas? Maybe you need to see if the fit of your molds can be improved to retain bass better in your ears. In the fitting software, there are settings for the degree of venting in your closures and that setting needs to be properly chosen for each ear.
This is a great story–thanks!
New molds for the Jabras. They have VERY small vents. The molds fit further into the ear as well. Feedback is really not a problem.
I would take notes as to what you are experiencing in your own words as they happen, and then bring them to your appointment.
Here is a troubleshooting guide that you can check off and bring with you too.
Thrive Technology Troubleshooting Guide (starkeypro.com)
I’ll just pass this on. My Costco fitter said that they were having issues getting support from Jabra. Your fitter my have a different point-of-view.
USER999 - Thank you for the advice and the troubleshooting guide! Both should help me resolve my issues. I have a followup appointment scheduled for Nov 10th.
My Costco fitter had to contact Resound during my initial Jabra setup. I was in the room and overheard the support he received. The support was helpful and seemed quite cordial. My fitter has never hesitated to reach out to Resound when he was stumped by one of my issues with my KS6s, Prezas and now the Jabras. So I hope that your fitter’s experience is not the becoming the norm!
I got my Jabra Enhance Pro 20 at Costco in Portland OR on January 26, 2024 and already one of them is not working.
The right one won’t turn on or recharge. The left one lights up in the charger and when I move it to the slot on the right, it lights up there as well. So I’ve isolated it to the hearing aid itself.
I find Jabra tech support to be useless. There are two numbers to call and neither one of them seems particularly interested in helping. They all pass the back and tell you to go back to the Costco store where you bought them.
The problem is I’m now in Phoenix for a month. I will try to go to a Costco store here but it seems there should be more help online or over the phone. I don’t know if remote support will work if one of them can’t connect.
I did try to reset the charger but that didn’t do anything.
I bought the Jabra because Consumer Reports rated them highly, but frankly I think I made a mistake. I wish I had gone with the Phillips. If I can’t get this resolved soon these are going back for a refund. I’m really disappointed.
Sorry about your trouble with Jabra HAs and support. Sounds like you’ve narrowed this down to be a hardware problem.
Costco should be able to help you out with warranty support in Phoenix. I live in Dallas, but travel to Los Angeles for extended periods when visiting family. I have worked with two different Costco Hearing Centers in Los Angeles, even though my “home” center is in Dallas. All of my records are easily available in their system regardless of location, and all of the locations have been willing to work with me.
YMMV, but you could certainly try and get support that you need in Phoenix. Let us know how this progresses for you.
It’s a problem unique to rechargeables. If changing a battery every few days would be difficult for you then you need rechargeables. But if, as a new HA user, you chose rechargeables because they seem to be the only reasonable choice these days (who’d want to run their life on alkaline batteries?) then you might reconsider. Conventional HA batteries use a unique process found in no other consumer product. They’re tiny, inexpensive, and very energy-dense. A mature technology that’s almost perfectly suited to HA’s, unlike rechargeables. So why isn’t this great technology used more widely? Because once a battery is activated (by peeling off the tab), it has to be used within say a couple of weeks. So not good for most battery-operated items, but fine for aids.
Rechargeable batteries, which are often semi-permanently soldered in, begin to decline from the moment you start using them. They’re dependent on a charger which, as you’re aware, can itself develop problems. With conventional batteries you just pop in a fresh battery at a cost of 17¢ (Costco price last time I checked) to 30¢ (reputable online sources) each. As a hearing aid user, when you get a new set in a few years you’ll want to keep this one as a spare, and a rechargeable set will need periodic tending to keep the batteries usable. No such issue with conventional batteries.
I believe the Enhance Pro is available with conventional 312 batteries at Costco, so you could return what you have and get those instead.
I called the Costco nearest to me on Saturday, and much to my surprise, I was able to get an appointment that very day. They tried to fix it but told me it had to be sent back for repair and would take a week to 10 days. Not ideal, but that’s the way it goes.
Thanks for the info. How often do the conventional batteries last?
I really hate changing batteries, my dexterity is not what it used to be. I just got a new phone and had difficulty putting in the SIM card. If I take the Jabra back, I’m getting the Phillips hearing aids instead.
Glad your local Costco is helping you out - hardware needs to be repaired (likely will be replaced with a new unit) and that is a pain, but progress none-the-less.
I used KS9s with replaceable batteries for several years. Battery (312) lasted 4-5 days with all-day HA use and an hour or so of streaming and phone calls each day. When batteries are low, I would get a warning chime, and then I had an hour or so to replace before they gave out. Process worked well for me.
Currently I have Phonak Lumity rechargeables and have been wearing for about 3 mos. They are obviously from an independent Audiologist (vs. Costco) - I started with Costco Jabra 10s last fall, that’s my post at the beginning of this thread. Eventually went with Phonak solution due to using Android phone, and Costco just doesn’t (yet) have a good solution for Android users.
Rechargeable works well for me. I charge overnight, wear my HAs for 12-14 hrs during day with phone calls and streaming an hour or two, and the Phonak app says I still have 30-40% charge left at end of day.
I get that my battery life will degrade over time, but seems like I have enough spare capacity to handle that in my use case. Also my independent Audi provides a 2-year warranty, so at about 1yr10mos I expect that I’ll report decreased battery life under warranty and get them swapped out for new ones. Battery life should then be wholly restored for the next 3-5 yrs.
Overall, I’m on the fence about rechargeable vs. battery … both form factors work well for me … but if I had to choose again right now I’d go with rechargeable as they are just a bit more convenient.
My initial experience is one of confusion. When I installed the Jabra Enhance Pro app on my Galaxy S24 the Demo App tour guide showed this screen with cards for various programs, a restaurant setting, an outdoor setting, a music setting, etc.
But on my phone all I see is a screen that says All-Around and Hear in Noise. This site will not allow me to post two screen shots in a single post so I will show it in another post.