Lyric Hearing Aids

Hearing Aids
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#1

Hello all,
I am new to HAs and the forum (newbie alert :o).

I think I am to the point that I am ready/have to get something to help with my hearing loss. I am a 37 year old male. I don’t have my last hearing test in front of me, but it’s been getting worse and my conductive hearing loss has especially getting worse.

So I was looking at the audiologist’s website and they list Lyric hearing aids (http://www.lyrichearing.com/) which seem nice because they are hidden. But I was wondering if anyone has used them and what your thoughts are about them?

#2

Your mileage may vary, but… I ruled them out almost immediately, even though “invisible” was very high on my list of priorities.

You can remove them yourself. You need to visit your audiologist to put them back in – and they can’t get wet.

You should cover your ears in the shower, and you can’t go swimming without removing them.

If you’re like me and want something invisible, think about mini-RITEs. I’ve pointed mine out to a few very close friends, and they all say “oh, wow, I didn’t even see them.”

#3

Forget about invisible and get what will get you the best hearing. If you get a BTE with RIC very few people will know you have hearing aids and no one really cares if you wear hearing aids. Your hearing loss is way more visible than any HA would be. I’ve worn both BTE’s with earmolds and BTE’s with RIC and no one notices either one, people just don’t look at your ears when they talk to you. Find someone who knows what they are doing in setting up your hearing aids and get what will work the best. Good luck!

#4

Probably 50% of my satisfied Lyric folks are happier about the reduced effort of day-to-day use than the invisibility. They like not having to change batteries, clean the aid, etc, even though these are simple and easy functions. Lyric patients are among the happiest that I have. I’ll list my pros and cons from the audiologist perspective.

Pros:
-Ease of use. Very rarely do you have to think about your hearing aids for 2-4 months at a time. Phone technique, etc is unchanged
-Overall sound quality. Many experienced HA users love the quality of the analog circuit and the receiver so close to the TM

  • Spatial hearing. The deep canal placement allows for the preservation of true outer ear function, improving the ability to judge the direction and distance of sounds
  • True invisibility

Cons:

  • Many are not candidates. Short canals, narrow canals, sensitive canals, heavy cerumen producers, those on blood thinners, severe to profound losses, ski-slope losses, outer or middle ear pathology history, underwater swimmers, etc are not good candidates.
  • Long term cost. First year is about the cost of a standard pair of modern HA, but then you re-subscribe and pay every year. When it is working very well, many don’t mind budgeting for that at all. For others, the long term cost is too much.
  • Inconsistency of lifespan of each device. Can be 8 weeks, can be 14 weeks, really tough to predict. And early failures do occur.
  • Lack of some of the excellent features of modern devices (e.g. wireless communication)
#5

Thanks for the responses. Trying to learn the lingo here…
What is RIC?
RITEs = right in the ears correct?

#6

RIC = Reciever-in-Canal

RITE = Reciever-in-the-Ear

Both refer to the same thing which means the speaker is in the ear canal.

#7

Finally a subject that I feel well informed about. I have had Lyrics for 36 months…I DO NOT have to cover my ears in a shower I have been fresh water swimming (not diving) just playing in a pool and lake without ANY issues. I have zero pain with lyrics and forget they are in. For last 3 months with my doc I have tried every HIGH other phonak in the canal ( almost invisible) In the ear ugly and full ear feeling and behind the ear …after a 30 day trial of each I was worn out I NEVER came close to hearing as well as I did with my lyrics truth be told not even close. The Behind the ears got very well tuned and would have been a solution that I could live with just not be 100% happy with. I am on my last trial till 10/15 with starkys sounds lens VERY close to my lyrics more of a PIA with battery changes and cleaning but by far the best hearing quality for me next to Lyrics…still to be honest if Lyrics were a 10 these are a 8.5 the next best were BTE at maybe a 6. The difference is money the sounds lens will cost me 6500.00 for a pair that will last at least 3 years where the Lyrics cost 3000.00 a pair every 12/14 months …also all the forums say digital this and that is so much better so I thought let me see for myself.( They can be reinserted by user if you have common sense I have done it 10+ times) I got hit with a snowball and cut my ear so I removed and let heal and reinserted went skin diving and removed and reinserted, and I had 2 ear aches (not from Ha) that I removed aids for…I also remove because they give you 8 aids a year ( per ear) and sometimes I remove a aid and shut it off and save it and have them replace so I get a few extra months . To sum it up I hear everything naturally without issues of any kind no stupid compression kicking in and having the HA “choose” what I hear. No one has a clue you have HA’s and there is no maintenance once every 5 weeks you go to office and they remove and insert new ones in and out in 20/30 minutes max at my doc’s fastest was 12 minutes! There are a lot of lyric haters for some reason on forums in general…trial is free and if you have same luck as me you may have to face same decision I am right now If they were 2K a year I Never would consider anything else…I only wish they had Bluetooth capability Hope I gave you some insight.
Nick

Also I do not wait for my lyrics to “die” I schedule the replacement based on my lifestyle every 5/6 weeks as I never shut them off wonderful to be able to hear when sleeping or just waking up.

1 Like
#8

Thanks NickD… I was wondering what the cost was… yike’s $3K a year!

#9

What “receiver in the ear” means is that the speaker itself is inside your ear, and a little wire trails off of it and over the top of your ear.

It follows the normal shape of your ear, so it blends in a lot. The insulation on the wire is clear, so it picks up the color around it.

The electronics for my aids is black, which I thought would be very visible, but they match my glasses closely, and the aids sit behind my ears, under my hair.

A good friend knew I was getting them, but didn’t actually know I had them until I said “hey, look at this!”

#10

To repeat some of the above:
I had told a friend I was getting HA the following week. Several weeks later he asked when I was going to get my HA. I told him I had been weaaring them for a few weeks already. He never noticed them the numerous times I saw him
People are more “put off” when you have to ask them to repeat something or have the TV and music up too loud. They won’t notice the HA and if they did, it isn’t any worse than wearing glasses.

 I didn't know the Lyrics were so horribly expensive.  And, that you have to schedule multiple appointments in the course of a year.  In my case, since we travel a lot, that fact alone would kill the deal.  I would guess regular HA cost $4K a pair and last 2-3 years or more.
#11

On Wednesday, just at the start of my game, I heard the dreaded double-beep. So I stepped off the ice and got another set of batteries from my broom bag. No big deal. You can’t change the batteries in a Lyric, or insert a new one yourself. It was my sport that drove me to get hearing aids in the first place. Lyrics won’t fit my lifestyle.

#12

I’ve never worn hearing aids before but I have some mild hearing loss and I figured it was time to do look into doing something about it. Plus I have good insurance benefits for hearing aids. I’ve narrowed down to the Phonak Lyric and Starkey Soundlens. The invisibility factor is important for me and I like the fact that both of these seem to fit that requirement…the Lyric perhaps a bit better, it really is completely invisible. With the Soundlens there the clear wire which could be slightly visible if you look closely. I got fitted for the Soundlens, they are on order, and should arrive in a few weeks. In the meantime I’m doing the 30 day trial with the Lyrics. I have some observations on the Lyrics after about 1 week and wanted to see if I could get feedback in this forum from others who have tried Lyric or are currently using them. I have normal hearing in the lower frequencies and my mild loss is in the higher frequencies.

The first thing I noticed after having the Lyrics inserted was that I could obviously hear things more clearly. After having read or seen a lot of the Lyric reports and testimonials, I was expecting the sound quality to be very good. However I noticed that in my case the sound quality is very "tinny’ or “high pitched”. I’ve read in some other hearing aid forums that the initial ‘tinny’ sound quality with hearing aids is somewhat normal. The audiologist noted that my low frequency hearing is getting blocked since I have the Lyrics inserted, but this sound should moderate over a few weeks as I get used to sounds going through the Lyric device. Have others noticed the ‘tinny’ sound quality at the beginning with Lyrics and did the sound normalize over time ?

After almost a week of wearing the Lyrics they are getting more comfortable. I feel like if this continues I won’t even feel or sense that I have the Lyrics inserted in the ear canals. But occasionally I feel/sense that ‘occlusion’ effect with the ear canal being blocked. Does the ‘occlusion’ effect gradually become less noticeable over time ?

I have a chronic sinus congestion problem which I take Allegra-D for. Having the Lyrics in seems to make the sinus congestion a bit worse in terms of feeling congested or blocked in my sinuses. If anyone else has experienced this would appreciate your feedback.

Thank You

#13

Couple of replies up here stating you get 1-3 years out of a standard aid. This figure should be more like 4-6 years, with 8 not being uncommon (for me, anyway). This will play into the cost analysis.

#14

An elderly friend in New York City recently needed an adjustment on her Lyric hearing aid. But the shop had closed. She was told that the nearest shop was a long subway and bus trip away in another borough. She gave up.

#15

Yes, i have lyrics now for 4 months And is the best thing that happen to my ears.
i will never GO back to the others.

#16

I hope that you can get use to the lyrics, to me they are the best, no problems at all, i can not feel that they are in my ear is completly normal.

#17

For many of us who use “regular” HA, we are so unaware of them, we forget they are there - which can lead to problems if you start to take a shower, get caught in a rain w.o. an umbrella etc. As others have mentioned, they are not noticeable to most people looking at you. I’m not vain, so I don’t care.
Are these Lyrics user replaceable, or do you have to go in and have them professionally installed every couple months? That would be a deal killer for many people right there - besides the high cost.
As someone mentioned above - For those of us who travel a lot - we couldn’t consider a system like this.

#18

I have Lyrics. I got the one in my right ear two weeks ago. I got the one in my left this week, because there was bruising from the first attempt to place a Lyric in my left. I have no problem with the aid in my left ear. But in my right, for the lack of a better way to describe, it’s simply like having an ear plug in all the time. Once I put on my ear, it seems to “open” it up a bit, but it quickly goes back to the way it was.

Has anyone else had this issue and any suggestions? Thanks so much.

#19

KevinI,
This happens to me all the time with my left ear. I’ve learned the problem is the HA is sliding away from my eardrum. I’ve then used the tool provided to push it back up. I don’t know that I’d recommend this because my ear always hurts for a couple days after but the sound quality is back to normal. I’m going to request my audiologist place the next larger size in during my next appointment to see if that stops this from happening.