Having attended mainstream schools with profound loss I managed to clear my A levels. Now I have to start my Diploma in Advanced Graphic Designing. Usually I am the first to submit projects and feel proud to hear the comments of my teachers. But then when someone taps my shoulders and points out that someone has been calling you cant you hear? I cant sleep for a week. If someone can update me on what hearing aid would suit me best in a laymans language particularly Opn 1-3 or OPN 13 while I attend the Diploma classes it will help me take the right decision. The sentence How are you Tanveer coming from the back row. Which hearing aid will make this sentence audible to me?
Just looking at your audiogram, I’d think an ultrapower aid like Phonak Nadia V, or their new Nadia B.
Resound Enzo 3D in ultrapower version would give you made for iphone.
I personally think that at your age still being in school and all, being aware of the sound environment all around you is very important. Like you said, if somebody is saying something to you from behind, you want to be able to hear them. You’re probably in very complex environments all the times, so automatic and seamless transition between environments is also important. You don’t want to have to constantly be making decision on what environment you’re in then make program changes that suit that particular environment. You want to be able to just put on the hearing aids at the start of the day and forget that you have them on until you take them out at the end of the day, and not have to fiddle with it all day long with this program and that program.
To that end, I think the OPN will give you those 2 things: 1) A constant awareness of everything around you (and your young brain hearing can do the cognitive filtering of what you want to hear as needed), and 2) a single default program that will work and adjust and transition very seamlessly between any kind of environment, from simple to complex. You use 1 default program all day long and don’t need to worry about changing to different programs as you move in and out of different environments at school.
The traditional hearing aids will tend to be more directional to get the kind of noise reduction it needs to have, thereby blocking all sounds around you except to the front. It’ll be hard to pick up sound around you, unless you fiddle with your hearing aids to change between directional and omni as your listening situation changes. You’ll constantly be aware that you’re wearing hearing aids because of the program change fiddling so it won’t be a put it on and forget about it type scenario. There are newer hearing aids models that do automatic environment detection and automatic program change. But whether the environment detection is accurate and quick enough is unknown until you try them, and the program change, even if automatic, is still discrete, going from one program to another. With the OPN, on the other hand, you can stay in the same program (the default program) all the times, and the changes from simple to complex environments within this same single default program is continuous as far as noise reduction application is concerned.
Having said all that, the OPN open paradigm strategy (whether it’s the 105dB receiver miniRITE or the BTE 13 PP type) will only work for you if their 105dB receiver is powerful enough for your loss. If not, then you’ll be limited to ultrapower type aids like the Phonak and Resound offer. But Oticon does market their OPN BTE 13 PP as the product to use for people with severe to profound hearing loss, so I wouldn’t dismiss the OPN BTE 13 PP outright without trying it out in lieu of the other brands’ ultra power version.
First and foremost, you should want to know if the OPN BTE PP 13 is powerful enough for you. If it is, then the OPN miniRITE 105dB receiver version should probably be equally powerful enough for you, although its 312 size battery may not last as long and the 105dB receivers in the canal may not be as reliable as the BTE 105dB receiver in the HA casing.
The decisioin to go between the 1 or 2 or 3 version is secondary to the first reason. I think either of those 3 version will serve you well. It’s just a matter of which level you can afford.
If you say you have to make decisions up front and don’t have trial demo option in your country, then look at the Phonak Nadia V or B and the Resound Linx 3D ultra power receiver specs and see if they’re anymore powerful than the 105dB receiver spec from the OPN in the first place, If they are, then it may help you sway your decision toward them. But if not, then maybe the OPN would be a more suitable type of HA for you given its open paradigm and single unviersal program support.
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I think the 4 microphone system in the 2 OPNs is used to estimate the spatial arrangement of the noise, as seen in the excerpt below.
Figure 4 explains how the depth of the noise source is considered by the null direction (strong attenuation) such that the null direction for noise placed further to the back is stronger than the null direction for noise placed to the side.
Went to the hearing aid clinic. Asked for a demo for Resound 3d power hearing aids. When the audiologist inserted my hearing loss parameters in the computer he said that your loss threshold is outside the range for Resound 3d linx.
He has recommended the Resound Enzo power hearing aids with ear moulds. He is saying that for my loss the domes won’t work.
I want to try the domes version. Is there any chance of success or should I drop the idea?
The distributor for Resound is giving only service warranty for 6 months. Is this a fair policy for such expensive aids?
Opn differentiates distant versus close speech by its modulation rate.
The normal auditory system certainly can perceive distance. Although we’re not as good at it as we are visually, or as we are at localizing sound. We tend to judge close things as too close and far things as too far; the cross-over point is around 1.5 metres. There are lots of proposed cues to use, and not all of them are available in every environment–sound level, reverberation, spectral cues, binarual cues, acoustic parallax, acoustic flow. I’m missing some. The normal auditory system (eyes closed) can make also make reasonable estimates of the size of the room, depending on the surfaces. We take a lot of this stuff for granted. But, from my point of view, hearing is a much cooler sense than vision from a neurological perspective.
(Tanveer, not worth trying domes but I’ve heard a lot of people raving about the Enzo, and 6 months is short.)
My apologies. I meant Resound Enzo when I said Lynx. I will edit and correct. Glad your audiologist is on the ball.
That would depend on what he is charging you. Resound warranty is longer and supersedes his offer. I believe what he is saying is that after 6 months you will have to pay for his further services and that should bring a substantial discount. At that point, he competing with online providers and their pricing structure.
Can a distibutor change the written warranty of a manufacturer?
With the warranty coming from the manufacturer, I don’t see how it could. There are rebanded hearing aids that can carry different/proprietary status but they also come with a different branding. I guess a provider could claim something that isn’t actually correct.
I don’t think the distributor can change the manufacturer’s warranty, but one should read the manufacturer’s warranty carefully. I just looked at Phonak’s and it specifically mentions that it does not cover any services provided by the seller. I know in other businesses I’ve dealt with (non hearing aid), it is not unusual for the business to charge shipping charges to return an item back to the manufacturer for warranty work.
There is no mention of warranty terms on Resound website
Age 52.
Some dificult earing from left and harder from right.
Teacher. Hard to understand.
Noisy and confusion envioroments.
First time hearing aid.
I even dont know if one or two earr aids.
OPN1??? Or OPN 2 will be enough??? Two OPN 1 costs 20% more!!!
I read your advices, thank you.
Any sugestion more I would be grate.
Since you said that you need HAs for noisy and confusing environments, and the OPN 1 only costs 20% more, I’d suggest the OPN 1 (it has more noise reduction capability).
Are you talking about the original OPN or the more current OPN S now?
You’re not showing your audiogram so we have no idea how bad your hearing loss is. This factors into suggestions, especially if the loss is not asymmetrical between the 2 ears.
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Thank You for your quick answer.
I Went to audiologist 5 days ago - Acustica Médica ---- in Portugal.
I Think they were talking about the NEW ones!!! 16 channels …!!!
THEY SAID NEWEST TECHNOLOGY!!!
But I don´t know S mening!!!
I´lll show the audiogram.
CAN YOU SEE IT???
A can´t upload documents…
Thank you again … It costs a lot of money . I want a good article but something thats is really necessary!
OTICON
Sterilizer, charger, life time…
3 year warranty
Insure
All three options OPN 1, 2 ou 3
Thank You for your quick answer.
I Went to audiologist 5 days ago - Acustica Médica ---- in Portugal.
I Think they were talking about the NEW ones!!! 16 channels …!!!
THEY SAID NEWEST TECHNOLOGY!!!
But I don´t know S mening!!!
I´lll show the audiogram.
CAN YOU SEE IT???
A can´t upload documents…
Thank you again … It costs a lot of money . I want a good article but something thats is really necessary!
You can add your audiogram manually in your profile settings. This way, anyone can just click on your avatar (which has a little headphones icon with it) to review your audiogram from any thread. If not sure how, do a search on the forum for instruction.
You do have significant loss on your left ear as well on the high frequencies after 1.5 KHz. I would want to buy hearing aids for both ears if I were you.
The original Oticon OPN came out in 2016. Then in 2019 the Oticon OPN S came out. It has a new technology to help primarily with feedback prevention called Opensound Optimizer that the original OPN doesn’t have. It doesn’t hurt to get confirmation from your hearing care provider that this is the OPN S technology and not the original OPN. Don’t assume anything.
If you’re a teacher and deal with noisy environments all day long, I would recommend the OPN S1 over the OPN S2, even if it costs 20% more. The OPN S1 has maximum noise removal capability (of up to 9 dB) while the OPN S2 only has medium noise removal capability of up to 5 dB only. This can make a difference in understanding speech better in a noisy environment.
If you were a retired person not spending too much time in noisy places everyday, then the OPN S2 or even the OPN S3 would probably suffice for your need.
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I agree with volusiano, go for opn 1 given your needs and definitely go with two HAs. Getting help in both ears will help brain to get better comprehension.
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