My Jabra Enhance Pro (with MRIE2) are great, but automatic noise limiting (maybe) is killing me!

This is my first set of non-Kirkland hearing aids, and the MARIE has been a revelation for me. I’ve had several receivers that developed mike failures, but when they’re replaced its almost a “Hallelujah–I can hear!” experience for me. BUT . . .

. . . none of the other hearing profiles do ANYTHING for me. It’s almost like when they’re on it’s like wearing ear plugs. I know the aids are working because touching the external mikes causes the usual scratchy racket. So this means I ALWAYS use the all-around setting.

. . . When in a noisy environment–especially when I speed up on the freeway and the wind and tire noise increases–the hearing aid automation (in all-around) kicks in and turns down the gain so that I literally can’t hear what the passenger is saying. If I stop the car, then after 30 seconds of low-noise the amplification level returns to normal. I can “force” the gain to renormalize by using the app to switch away from all-around and immediately switch back. In a noisy environment it takes 10-15 seconds for the automation to jump in and turn the gain back down again.

Is this normal and by design? Or is something off that my audiologist can fix? Or are they just defective?

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Welcome to the forum. In the short term, go into your app and then to Sound Enhancer. At the Noise Reduction slider, select something other than Automatic. Find which you like best most of the time (off, mild, moderate, considerable, or strong) and then ask your clinician to make that the default setting without you having to go into the app.

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Also, in noisy, high-speed driving situations, you might find having a remote microphone for your passengers helpful. I have the ReSound Multi Mic and it works very well when hung around my wife’s neck to help me better hear what she’s saying in noisy driving or restaurant situations (she usually doesn’t like to wear it, though, unless I insist!). Although I got my hearing aids through an audiologist associated with TruHearing.com, I was able to buy most of the ReSound accessories I use (the Multi Mic, the TV Streamer 2) through Costco at a reduced rate compared to what my audiologist would charge and the accessories are easy to pair with your HA’s without needing help from a HCP. My audi did give me a good price on the Phone Clip+, though, when I purchased my original HA’s back in 2018.

Don’t know if your Jabras have Front Focus (or UltraFocus). That program provides selective beam-forming in front of you. I’d say it selectively amplifies the sound volume ~2x of what is directly in front of you. I find it helpful in noisy situations such as grocery shopping, where I selectively want to hear my wife or the checkout clerk. I warn my wife that I’ll only hear her well when I’m looking directly at her.

You don’t mention how open a fit you have. In noisy situations, I find a more occlusive fit helps tremendously. You have relatively good low-frequency hearing and if you have an open fit, a lot of noise will be bypassing your HA processing and going directly to your ear drums. A more occlusive fit reduces that. I also find in very noisy situations that using Speech Clarity tremendously helps speech understanding (turning up treble and mid-tones, turning down bass amplification). If the Speech Clarity button isn’t available in the program you’re using (say, you’re streaming), you can enter the Sound Enhancer and manually tune those settings to your liking.

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I have the same aids with the mrie. I love them as well and have had the same issues. I don’t like the noise reduction features. I have mine set to mrie all of the time, so it’s using that mike most of the time. There are several places that it will change the gain in turned off noise reduction and in the environmental settings (where it changes based on sound) I set the ones where it would drop it also to 0 so it wouldn’t change. Btw the noise reduction you can change manually in the phone app, but to permanently change that or the other requires programming. I do my own.

It takes some getting used to but overall I am much happier with it that way. You could ask your HIS at Costco to make a new program set that way and try it out. I never use any other programs.

I’ve had quite the adventure with my Jabra Enhance Pro 10 HAs. I started out with the M&RIE receivers, but only about a month in, my complaints (poor recharge longevity, lots of feedback) led Jabra/Resound to send entirely new hearing aids. I gave the M&RIEs another chance but after continued retention problems in my ear canals–the longer M&RIEs wouldn’t insert fully and the sports locks broke off–and more feedback issues–I asked to be fitted with conventional receivers. These may not have quite the degree of natural sound, but they fit so much better, and no more feedback, so I am a lot happier with them. BTW, I am using closed domes, which I prefer to the previous less-occlusive tulips, but it all depends on your hearing profile, preferences and other factors.

As for your noise reduction issues in All Around and frustrations with the alternate programs, the app has good work-arounds if you know how to use them. I suggest creating Favorites, based on either All Around or Outdoors or maybe Restaurant. You can modify the Sound Enhancer features in any of these settings (bass, treble, mid, noise, wind) and then hit the little plus button and create a Favorite, which you can then name. This will save your tweaks, and you won’t need to have your HAS set new defaults. I’ve even done so for TV streaming, as I like a lot of noise reduction when watching sports, but not all other programming.