My Oticon Real experience

[Volusiano]

@Bucco

You also implied that REM might not make that much difference in your case, and you may be right. …So for me, REM made a huge difference, but then my hearing loss is a pretty straight forward ski slope loss ending at 65db, which maybe could make a difference?

In general, according to many posters here, both users and HCPs alike, REM seems to make a difference to them and their patients because the aids tend to underperform to target for the most part, statistically speaking.

But I just want to chime and and say that while I agree that REM is definitely a best practice and should be done, it doesn’t automatically imply that without REM, you will always get a subpar performance no matter what. It depends on many factors, depending on not just the performance of your hearing aids, but also the ear canal shape and size, the fitting, and also the type of hearing loss.

But I do appreciate that @Bucco here qualifies very well and carefully that REM made a big difference to him, but then his hearing loss is not as severe as @mstrmac in the first place. So this is well placed acknowledgement of differences that may or may make REM more or less necessary. But because you just don’t know how much of a difference REM can make for you, it’s still best to do it at least one time to know so that if you change your fitting for some reason, it can help you determine whether you think it’s still important to get REM done again or not, considering the situation you’re in.

If you have an audi that always includes REM as part of their best practices without extra charges each time REM needs to be redone, then for sure you want REM to be redone each time. But let’s say if it costs you $300 each time to get REM done, and you have very bad hearing loss like @mstrmac that this factor overwhelms all the other variables that would affect REM, then that should be factored into the consideration.

[ToriNi]

I purchased my Reals from an audiologist in Denmark and it’s been more cost effective to do this (Aids, with moulds etc and four years’ warranty £3,000) but they don’t do REM. I have had REM for each fitting previously, and especially due to a complete change in fitting (going from BTEs to MiniRITEs), I’m getting REM done at the end of this month with an audiologist in the UK (£150) once I have my skeleton moulds to replace the canal ones I am currently wearing.

I have had some vibrations at the end of sounds or words occasionally, so not sure if any frequency bands need adjusting or not particularly in the low frequencies, especially as these have more bass than my Opns did, so I’m glad I have arranged for this. Not sure if you know what I am talking about?

When I had REM done for my Opns, the first fitting Oticon did via Genie 2 was very close to the REM so hopefully it’ll be similar for the Reals.

[biggar]

@MDB

The Mores were BT 5.1 so it seems unlikely the Reals regressed.

I downloaded the “Instructions for Use” for the Real miniRITE aids. The FCC ID given in that document is the same as the FCC ID given in the document of the same name for my More 1 miniRITE aids. So I expect (but don’t know) that the same radio is used in both aids so it would make sense that the Bluetooth version is the same.

[cvkemp]

That is also my understanding, it seems that Oticon updated the processor and add the sudden sound prevention and the wind noise reduction to make speech more understandable in both instances. When I worked my way through the technical data that is all that I can find as the difference.

[Musician]

Amen to this. I went to a local Dr. Cliff guy. He proceeded to tell me that REM didn’t matter. He may be right that in my case it doesn’t, why associate with Cliff by signing an “I promise” statement. Thank you for your post. Cliff has good infos, but I don’t trust his “network”.

[Musician]

Ty for your honesty. I’d go to you. Of course you’re 3.5k miles away… it may be a slightly inconvenient commute!

[SteveCh]

And many customers too. Me being one.

[mstrmac]

Thought I’d ask this here instead of old threads from years ago about T-Coils.

How does one initiate the T Coil when entering an area that uses an induction loop system?
Does it need to be turned on by the HCP in a program?

I should know this after decades of wearing HA’s though my search here and elsewhere have shown no results. Keep forgetting to ask my audiologists

[Volusiano]

There are 4 different built-in Tcoil programs that you have to ask your HCP to assign into 1 of the 4 program slots on the Real. And you’ll need to manually select that program when you want to use it.

1. There’s just a plain Tcoil program (where the mics on the aids don’t pick up any sound) that will pick up the Tcoil magnetic content only.

2. Then there’s a Tcoil & Mic program where both the Tcoil content and the environmental sounds get picked up from the mics and combined.

3. Then there’s a Phone Tcoil program where only the magnetic sound coming from the phone’s speaker is picked up by the Tcoil.

4. Then there’s a Phone Tcoil & Mic program where both the magnetic sound from the phone’s speakers get picked up by Tcoil and combined with the environmental sounds that get picked up from the mics.

[mstrmac]

Thanks for that concise explanation.

[mstrmac]

Got another question for which I’ve been researching for a replacement but cannot yet find the info I need. My connect clip (2016) which I use as a remote mic has suddenly failed to work. Could be that the battery hasn’t enough juice (fully charged) to stream. I realize I could replace the battery.
What is the difference between the two? I want to replace with one or the other specifically to use as a remote mic.
It must be able to fully mute the hearing aid mics while streaming from the remote mic only.

Thanks in advance.

[Volusiano]

@mstrmac

What is the difference between the two? I want to replace with one or the other specifically to use as a remote mic.
It must be able to fully mute the hearing aid mics while streaming from the remote mic only.

I’m not sure I understand your question. What “two” are you talking about? There’s only 1 ConnectClip, 1 remote mic function, 1 battery. There are no 2 of something to be compared against per your question.

[mstrmac]

I’m very sorry…I forgot to add that there is a Edu Mic besides the Connect Clip.

[Volusiano]

Ah OK, EduMic vs ConnectClip. There are quite a few differences, even both of them support the remote mic feature.

1. ConnectClip:

1.a The only streaming sources you can get from the ConnectClip is either via the Remote Mic or the content from a device that connects to the ConnectClip via standard BT like a laptop or Android phone, or actually any device that can be used as a streaming source and sends audio via BT, including the iPhone/iPad even if you can already use MFI to connect directly without the ConnectClip.

1.b You don’t have to change to any special program to use the BT streaming from the ConnectClip, you’d just start hearing it stream when there’s content. You would have to put the aids into the Remote Mic program (which gets created when you pair your aids with the ConnectClip). This program is the one that preceeds program 1 or after the last program in the chain. If you do have a TV Adapter program, this Remote Mic program will follow the TV Adapter program, but still preceeds the P1.

1.c You can also use the BT connection to your Android (or even iOS via BT iPhone if not via MFI) as a mic/headset for a phone call. In this case, the mic on the ConnectClip (which is used as a Remote Mic) will act as the phone mic.

1.d You can only pair the ConnectClip to 1 pair of hearing aids at a time, unlike unlimited hearing aid sets pairing with the TV Adapter or up to 10 hearing aid sets with the EduMic.

1.e You can use the ConnectClip as a remote control for your hearing aids for volume change and program change and to mute the aids.

2. EduMic:

2.a Unlike the ConnectClip, you cannot get a streaming audio from a BT wirelessly connected device (like a BT laptop or Android phone of any other audio source that can send via standard BT connection. You can only get your audio source from a mini plug hardwire connection. Beside that, you can also get a hard connection from a standard Europin wireless FM (DAI) connector for an existing mic system in the classroom.

2.b You can also get sounds picked up remotely from the built-in mic of the EduMic, which will function similarly to the Remote Mic feature of the ConnectClip.

2.c The difference is that you can pair up to 10 sets of hearing aids on the EduMic, while you can only pair with 1 set of hearing aids on the ConnectClip. The Edu Mic program will be automatically created for you when you do the pairing of the hearing aids to the EduMic. The TV Adapter allows pairing to an unlimited number of hearing aid sets. The (up to) 10 paired sets of hearing aids to the EduMic will automatically activate and go to the EduMic program in those 10 sets of hearing aids when they’re within 65 ft of the EduMic.

2.d Although you can only pair up to 10 sets of hearing aids to automatically go into the EduMic program within 65 feet for the EduMic, you can actually pair more than 10 sets of hearing aids with the EduMic. But the 11th set of hearing aids and later will not be stored in the EduMic and therefore will not be automatically connected to the EduMic within 65 feet. But the act of pairing will add the EduMic program to the set of hearing aids, so that you can manually select the EduMic program on these 11th set and on in order to connect to and hear from EduMic’s mic.

2.e This EduMic program is incidentally the same program as the TV Adapter program, so I don’t really know what happens when you need to pair your hearing aids to both an EduMic and a TV Adapter. I don’t really know which will take priority and snuff the other one out. Or maybe they’ll both come through and get combined/mixed together. If anybody who happens to have both and knows the answer to this, please share.

2.d There are no volume buttons on the EduMic, unless the ConnectClip which has 2 volume buttons to help control both the streaming and hearing aids’ mics volume combined. There’s only 1 general purpose button on the EduMic.

2.e The EduMic can also be used like a telecoil to pick up the magnetic audio loop in a theater or church or from a neck loop. You must specifically push the general button for 10 seconds to activate the telecoil mode. Once in the telecoil mode, the mic in the EduMic is disabled. You can mute/unmute the audio in the telecoil mode. Long press for 2 seconds to exit telecoil mode.

[mstrmac]

I guess I should have asked this on the old threads so that others can see this information but oh well.

I made a trip to the shop and they had a new connect clip in stock which they gave to me for $99 discounted and it WORKS!!! I read here earlier about these connect clip batteries don’t last forever. Mine was on a charge for a few years since 2017 and seen more use in the last 4 weeks than ever.

Instead of waiting weeks sending mine for a new battery, I need it now. It failed at dinner Wednesday night in an echo chamber with lots of patron chatter and was a total disaster for me.

Thanks

[Volusiano]

I think you got pretty good life of your old ConnectClip battery already. That’s a real good deal you got for just $99 for a brand new ConnectClip.

[user815]

Looking forward to a new Oticon Real Level 2. Fitting is not until September 21. New Medicare Credits made this financially affordable. I opted for the battery rather than charger after fires and earthquakes here in Northern California. It has made me think about all the devices that would be dependent on my car battery or running my car in an emergency should the car survive. I have been using a Costco Phonak for several years so this is a significant upgrade. I am profound in my right ear and have difficulty with speech recognition in my left so this will be a Bi-Cros setup. The Phonak model was in the ear and left ear only so I will have to get used to over the ear models and both ears with a hearing aid. I wear reading/screen device glasses which is why I switched to in the ear before. Has anyone had experience with the Opticon microphone device? I have used external mikes with Android Google Live Transcribe to improve sound reception for the phone for conversations in noisy rooms.

[Volusiano]

@user815

Has anyone had experience with the Opticon microphone device? I have used external mikes with Android Google Live Transcribe to improve sound reception for the phone for conversations in noisy rooms.

What Oticon microphone device are you referring to? There are 2 mic accessories for Oticon. The ConnectClip, which is a BT streaming device connected to a BT transmitting device (like a laptop) to hear the audio content from it), but which also has a built-in mic for use as a Remote Mic feature and for also for use as a mic to pickup your voice in a phone call so you don’t have to hold your phone close to your mouth as long as you wear the ConnectClip with its mic close to your mouth, like using a neck lanyard or clip it on your front pocket.

There’s also an EduMic accessory device that’s more geared toward a classroom environment where a teacher may use it to transmit his/her voice more clearly from the EduMic (worn in front) to students with Oticon aids.

They all seem to work fine for their intended purposes. The ConnectClip mic for use in phone conversations is not designed to be used with any app to do any kind of live transcription for you.

[user815]

The connect clip is what I was referring to. I did not see the EduMic in any Oticon literature. I expect it is only offered to teachers. I have been using the external blue tooth mikes attached to my phone to transcribe conversations without any hearing aid in situations when my Phonak was useless and my Pixel (6) mike was not picking up what the other person was saying accurately enough due to background noise. It’s essentially “Close Captioning” life through a free Google app called Live Transcribe. There’s an alternate app on Android phones that will transcribe voice mails so they can be read.

[user815]

So the clip connect does not use ASHA protocol to connect to the HA?