I bought a pair of Resound Omnia hearing aids about 6 months ago.I would describe my hearing loss as between mild to moderate and dont wear them all he time.When I do wear them it is listening to a speaker in an auditorium wearing a microphone.I have trouble understanding about half of the words. The volume of the sound is fine, but the words have an electronic sound making it difficult to understand. Does anyone else have this problem?
This is a well-known and well-documented issue. Listening over long distances is difficult due to the harmonics of the space and and background noise. The answer is to get a direct link to the speakers microphone and many public venues have the equipment to do this.
This is true for virtually everyone who wears HAs. Become aware of the two main systems for overcoming the problem, âhearing loopsâ and FM listening systems. Both mean that the producers have put in a system that you can link to. You can read more online or on this Forum. And your hearing aids will have to have added gadgetry to use the systems. Thereâs plenty of info about all this out there, but you need to learn about it.
I would have thought the Omnia would cope well in this scenario that you were in. Personally I would keep working with the audiologist to fine tune the aid to improve the situation. Unfortunately everyone struggles with this issue but you may be able to get that 50% of words up to 70 or 80%.
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Not wearing the hearing aids is detrimental to learning how to hear with them. Hearing aids are not eye glasses.
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As Raudrive says, wear them all the time! Your ears need to learn how to maximize the benefits!!
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Hearing aids only have a 3 to 6 foot range. So you need an ALS (Assistive Listening System) to hear clearly in large spaces like auditoriums and churches. If you have hearing aids with telecoils in them, then ask your hearing professional to turn on that feature and show you how to use it. Then look for signs showing an ear. It may also say Loops or have a capital T ( for telecoil).
As said above Loops and FM systems are the most common listening systems. You can usually check them out at reception or security. With your telecoil enabled HA you can just sit down and turn on you Telecoil program. With FM you need to check out a radio, and a neckloop which connects to your HA telecoils. If you donât have telecoils, then you will be given a headset to plug into the radio. Good Listening!
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Hereâs an older, but good, short video @ how hearing loops work. Juliette Sterkens is the lead voice on loops and how to benefit.
I do believe the original poster said that their hearing aids sounded to them like âthey were listening in an auditoriumâ.
My interpretation is that they were not in an actual physical auditorium but attempting to describe how their hearing aids sounded to them in normal everyday use.
@wbckr2007 Please advise if my interpretation is correct?
If I am correct, then their hearing aids appeared to be poorly adapted for fit.
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no. i was in an auditorium with the speaker mikedup. It also happens in a church.
If you repeating go to the same auditorium or church, there may be ways to reduce the problem.
But other venues may have other challenges.
If you go to a church, or other large location on a frequent basis, and youâve checked to find out they do not have any ALS, ask them if they have an ALS (assistive listening system). It would not be unusual for the minister/staff to not know what this is. So you need educational materials to give them. Look on www.hearingloss.com for information to share. That site also has information called Getting in the Loop for how to advocate for looping your church. The backup plan would be to ask them to implement an FM listening system which is much less expensive.
Good luck!
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Have you tried the Hear in Noise or Outdoor programs? The Hear in Noise program is a big help to me in small auditoriums; sometimes the Outdoor program helps.
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I find both these programs have a big positive effect on whatâs possible, too!! As weâve both discovered, Outdoor works quite well in lots of situations that are not âoutdoorsâ! Especially large spaces, like big stores.
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I am not sure where you get the 3 to six foot range. I have had better luck in a lecture hall at about 20 feet from the speaker. I have worn Oticon aids for 14 years and have a severe hearing loss. I have found that my default general program to be my best program for my needs. Also at church with my INTENT1 aids and the general program I hear better than with the t-coil program. At church i am setting about 20 feet from the pastor and 30 feet from the choir director. And about 50 feet from the choir. Yes it is a large church. I hear better at a little distance like that than right up close.
At the HLAA Convention last week. , it was mentioned a few times that hearing aids were best at conversational distances such as 3 to six, maybe 10 feet, depending on your hearing. This was always in the context of why hearing aids were not enough and ALS was needed. Of course the problems with large spaces such as reverberation and echo were also mentioned.
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Thanks for mentioning reverberationâone of the major problems with hearing in an auditorium. I ran onto this useful diagram recentlyâwhich Iâll post. Our ears are bombarded with every one of these lines of sound where they get all mixed up in our cochleae. No wonder hearing in a big space is so difficult!
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Iâm glad you attended the HLAA convention and enjoyed it! I went twice about a decade ago and always got a lot out of it! Great, and useful, event for anyone âhard-of-hearingâ! 
Great way to keep up with tech. I was able to try the new BT LE Auracast!
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My frustration for listening in a big auditorium, even with microphones and speakers( good amplification), the sound is garbled. Sitting in front does help. But if your tickets are not right in front, itâs very difficult.
Assisted Listening Systems are required under the ADA, but they so rarely work. The loops worked well at the HLAA Convention, and were a real delight! But my experiences otherwise is to rarely find one, ,especially FM systems, that work. I donât know if they arenât turned on, not set to the right auditorium, or not connected properly to the sound system.
Anyone else have this problem?