This should be a regular feature of AudioXpress or else a sister publication of some kind. Maybe HearingTracker can offer this writer some incentive.
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No, you only have the Autosensce one, which is not optimized.
If you can, on your next appointment bring some music with you on your phone, and if you have over ear headphones, take them. Have your audi add the Music program, and give it a listen, and as them to tweak as needed.
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Thank you so much! I will do that.
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This is a topic which interests me greatly. I was never really satisfied with my old Widex Dream 220 RIC. However 4 years ago I was fitted with a pair of Phonak P90 RIC. The sound quality is immediately more natural. I can appreciate music much more, even when using its automatic program. Typically I listen to my audio system for at least 2 hours a day. I did go back a few times to the audiologist and I have tweaked them with DIY programming. At the end of the day I’m more or less back to the initial fitting which is really good.
I agree wholeheartedly that there is much to improve with streaming music although spoken word streaming is extremely good. I use Widex large tulip domes (semi vented) because they are the only ones which fit and stay in my oily ears. They also sound excellent.
I look forward to the day when hearing aids find the holy grail of intelligible speech in background noise. The advertising blurb on speech in noise is farcical.
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Our product review of ASI Audio’s 3DME In-Ear Monitor evaluates the system as an alternative to hearing aids for music. by Nancy M. Williams, Founding Editor |
The first time I played the piano wearing the 3DME In-Ear Monitor System, I was so overcome by the sound that I rested my head on the piano and sobbed. The pealing, sweet high overtones and the rich vibrations of the bass transported me back, to that time before I had lost so much of my hearing.
ASI Audio’s 3DME in-ear monitors are earbuds with state-of-the-art microphones optimized for music, whose natural sound output may be programmed to your unique hearing profile and whose fit may be customized to the unique shape of your ear canal. The monitors’ form factor consists of earbuds wired to a battery-charged bodypack.
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Yes hifi headphones carefully d-i-y equalised can do a fine job on music, and will deliver right down to 20 Hz if that floats your boat.
What I would add is protect your ears from potentially high levels as a result of adding gain at the top end, which many people do want. At age 80 I do for sure.
Software needs to include a limiter that ideally has a virtual ‘side chain’ that can be targeted at the top. Set to act just on peaks there, it’s less destructive of the music than you might think.
I don’t like headphones. I much prefer to listen to my hifi speakers. The IEM may interest but I do get great music sound with my Phonak P90.
I know this is off the Widex subject but the Rexton Reach uses Connexx software that is live adjusted, you hear the results of changes in the fitting live. You can make adjustments using over the ear head phones or speakers with your aids in and hear the adjustments being made live. I have tuned the auto program for voices and the music program for music so it sounds correct to me.
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Bill thanks for this detailed post. Very interesting for those of us music lovers who are totally let down by the poor music reproduction our standard hearing aids give us.
I listened to a Zoom talk recently by one of the partners of Hear Adviser, which is the owner of this listserv, Dr. Steve Taddei, via my local chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America. Very knowledgeable and unbiased, excellent educator. He’s in Chicago area.
Your post reminded me of a couple of interesting points made during that talk.
One, according to Dr. Taddei, was that there’s no substantial difference in the technology of the four or five dominant brands of hearing aids.
Secondly, a listener to the talk, a musician, said the music setting on her Widex was awful in reproducing music, and could not be made right. But, unlike you, she had a very rapid hearing loss and now wears a cochlear implant with a hearing aid. So it struck me that the hearing loss experience of the music lover may greatly influence how well any hearing aid works for them. The tech is more or less the same across the brands, but each user is unique.
Finally, in answer to a question from me, Dr.Taddei said it might be helpful to buy a supplemental device, such as an Apple AirPods 2 for listening to music, specifically, streamed music, I think. AirPods were recently approved by FDA for use as an OTC nonprescription hearing aid. They are under $200, I believe. Forbes has written a review of their capabilities. Haven’t read it yet.
Conventional hearing aids, even very high-priced ones, just don’t cut it for music.
Now I’m not sure about their utility in live concerts, or in music making. But it’s not such a steep cost that it might be worthwhile to trial them.
Glad to send you a transcript of the talk, if you like.
Nancy
Washington, DC
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I was looking at the AirPods also but I am still happy with the music on my Rextons
I can see the AirPods working great for streaming but for live concerts I have my doubts
I’ve had my Widex SmartRic for almost a year now. I play guitar and they work pretty good for that, not perfect. One of my issues is that I use Puresound 99% of the time. And while it works better than the music program for live guitar playing, it will suddenly decide to increase noise reduction and lose all the treble. I don’t see any way to turn this off in the app. I did try to make a guitar program in the app based on Puresound but I think it still does it’s automatic AI thing whenever there’s too much of what it considers noise. It’s very annoying and I guess I need to ask my audi about this. I don’t see anything in the Compass program to address then, just setting for the speed of this autosensing change.
PureSound is pretty amazing even though I do get some feedback at times. I’m just at the point of having too much gain for PureSound but since it also makes my own voice so much less obtrusive to me, I don’t care if I have to be slightly undercorrected to use PureSound. My audi set me up as inexperienced so the gains are much lower. I just wish I could get music sorted out better. I’m using the dual vented sleeve domes which I like a lot too. If I find myself in a very noisy environment then I have to switch to Universal mode because the noise reduction is much more aggressive than with Puresound.
Oh I’ve also tried a custom music program with high frequency lowered a bit thru the app. I do have the Compass software but have not resorted to DIY with the Widex like I had to do with the Philips and the Costco techs. My current HearUSA tech is really very good and listens to my complaints and seem to know more tricks. I’ll have to ask her about this music issue and autoswitching.
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