Naida V UP review

Hearing Aids
#1

Hi all!

I have been wearing Naida V UP’s since April and I decided it was time I do a review!

The inital fitting was some what of a disappointment. Both my audi and a Phonak rep were there because it was my audi’s first Naida fitting. After about 5 minutes the left aid stopped connecting to the computer and we had to order a new one without me getting the aids.

When I finally got them two weeks later it was great! I went to a group meeting right after getting them and I was able to at least have a little bit of directional sense so I could speech read. In as little as three days my speech had vastly improved. and everyone was quite impressed.

Right of the bat I have liked the sound that I was getting. It was a little funny sounding at first but it didn’t take me long to adjust as it is the only sound I can hear (I hear nothing without my aids) However as my hearing dropped a little more and we adjusted them with more gain I started to have problems with the sound. I was feeling really uneven and over whelmed by the sound. My audi adjusted the compression and that helped the uneven feeling. She also reduced the gain and that helped with the over whelmed feeling.

We also reduced the SoundRecover a little bit and as a result my own speech has gotten a little worse. I found that the stronger the SoundRecover the less I understood the sounds around me. I don’t understand many of the sounds around me to begin with so that wasn’t good. Starting in the fall my audi is going to slowly increase the SoundRecover and the gain to where it should be. I won’t let her do it now because I am in mainly speaking environments when I need to use what little hearing I have as much as possible. When she adjust things I can’t understand anything for a few weeks while I relearn my auditory world. Come fall however, I will be in signing environments for the majority of the time.

Over all I think the aids are great. For a person as profoundly deaf as me they are able to provide a decent range of sounds and awareness of my auditory environment. Although I can’t descriminate speech at all they allow me to hear the direction of the sound and speech read accordingly.

Although I have had my fair share of tech troubles, the aids turning on and off, I am happy with them now. They are keepers for sure and as new technology comes I will try it if my audi suggests it.

As for the MyPilot and Icom, I have neither. I don’t really have a need for the MyPilot as I rarely change the program of my aids. I don’t use a voice phone (i use TTY) so the Icom seemed fairly useless as well.

Anyway that is my little breif overview on the Naidas!

#2

Hi Jenny,

Nice hearing about your journey with the Naida V UP aids so far. You have helped me a bit in trying to figure out some of the functions I have not understood…such as the Soundrecover function.

I still have some configuration issues with my Naida V UP aids too. I have had no less than 4 adjustments, 2 have been by a Phonak rep. I really think some of my hearing functions have been aggravated by too much background noise, which seems to knock out the direct one-on-one talk between me and and another person in a noisy environment. If I reduce the volume of my aids, it seems to help, but it also reduces the lower sounds that I had been hearing in the initial adjustment. How do you know what Soundrecover sounds like? I’d like to know your detailed input regarding this function…

My main priority (for my workplace hearing success) seems to be the FM setup I have, which is a Phonak Smartlink SX and one Phonak ML10i receiver. I have noticed that I do not have the full benefit from one receiver, as I hear one-sided. I do like that the Smartlink is compact and also has bluetooth, which helps me to create a bluetooth/FM hearing aid to use in talking on the phone, but I will probably need to activate my Internet function on my phone to use the WebCapTel website to also have captions to supplement my hearing. I am currently working on getting one of three combinations from my audi: one iCom plus compatible DAI receiver, another ML10i receiver, or possibly a different FM transmitter altogether.

I appreciate hearing from you regarding the Naidas…keep up the reviews!!

#3

To me the SoundRecover makes the sounds more monotone and it sounds almost slushy until I can adjust to it. Once I adjust it the new levels everything sounds normal.

As far as background noise in concerned I cannot pull a voice from it ever. I can be in the car and have someone talking and I can’t pull their voice out of the ambient car noise. I have just come to terms with this and know there is nothing that can be done. I can’t recall what your heairng is like but mine is very profound and I am getting more benefits from the aids than I should be anyway. I take what I can get!

#4

I think my hearing loss is in the 95 dB range…more of a ski slope type that starts around 80 dB and drops…I dont have a current audiogram to explain, the last test I simply looked it over…I told myself I was lucky that it had not changed in 5 years…whew…

#5

Does the SoundRecover sound similar to a compression noise, like water-in-the-ears type? I’ve had that type of sounds in the older aids…

#6

Jenny,

I was thinking, have you used FM equipment before? You could use it in situations like the car and direct the transmitter to the other person…I’ve done that with my Smartlink SX with some success…

#7

I wouldn’t compare SoundRecover to compression noise…maybe there is an audi out there who has listened to the aids and may be able to better explain it?

As for FM, I do have one. The thing is I can’t discriminate speech at all. I speech read 100 percent of the time with spoken conversatoin. If one person is wearing the FM I can tell that they are talking but I have no clue what they are saying. I use my aids to tell who is talking, and it I can only hear one of those people it kind of defeats the purpose…if that makes any sense?

#8

So the aids really help add some sound to the lipreading abilities? If you turn around, the voice understandability goes down the drain? If that’s the case, I’m just like that too…that’s where I like the Captel captioned phone capability, so I can have some sound to the text I read…then again, I have texted and email so much in the last several years, that mode of communication is what I really like to do the most…it even overrides the pone options. If I had a choice between talking on the phone and text/emailing, I would use the latter first!!

#9

They don’t even help with speech reading. I am actually better at speech reading without them distracting me. I can’t use a phone, captioned or not. I use a TTY to communicate that way.

When my audiologist does speech discrimination testing I get 0%. Basically I hear only vowels and even then I can’t always say which vowel.

So if someone were to say to me…“Hi Jenny! How are you today? I am great!”

I might hear…I ey! o a oo ooa? I a a!

Now, that makes no sense right? Well on a good day I may hear that.

On a normal day I might hear…Iey! oaoooooa? Iaa!

So no spaces between the words just a string of vowels, often a string of monotone inflectionless vowels.

#10

In a normal way, this sounds funny (primitive apemen talking :slight_smile: )…however, I sympathize with you regarding the speech discrimination. I have some difficulties also with speech discrimination, though I do understand the sounds as long as I have the lips to help me comprehend the sounds. Without lipreading, it is a mess of sounds for me. I pretty much give up trying to listen carefully. If you add background noise to the sounds, the discrimination becomes zero…nada…

With the difficulties you have with your hearing, it seems that you could be already a prime candidate for a cochlear implant. Still…this is a scary procedure to me because of surgery…I hate knives…

#11

I am candidate for a cochlear implant, audiologically anyway. I haven’t done other testing for it. I don’t want to do it though. I am Deaf as well as deaf. I communicate with ASL, and I can speak/speech read too. I don’t feel a need to get a CI for any reason. I am very comfortable with my hearing aids and what I do get from them.

#12

I guess it’s like trying to make you change your native language. If you are comfortable doing what you are doing and don’t feel you will benefit having a possible outlook of better hearing with cochlear implant surgery, then it won’t be a great idea to force yourself to change.

It will be very difficult for me to jump the hurdle to cochlear implant surgery, if that ever comes to light. I think I kind of like the quietness at times, sounds in today’s world can be very irritating… :slight_smile:

#13

You can always take the CI off and have the silence again but I just don’t see a point to having a surgery for a device that I won’t use, and that I can get along with without.

I am happy in my deaf world. I like it, it is safe and quiet.

#14

Are you sure it’s safe? :smiley:

#15

Aside from almost being killed by the occasional emergency vehicle it is safe :stuck_out_tongue:

I meant that I feel safe in my silent world though, the sound scares me!

#16

Gotcha!! :wink:

#17

JennyB ~ my loss is almost identical to yours. My audi doesn’t even bother to test my right ear anymore, the line goes below the chart. My left ear is catching up. I guess you would classify me as a power user too. Though I’ve been HI since birth I’ve always felt a part of the hearing world. There were no deaf people where I grew up, no one to teach me to sign. I’ve relied on speech reading & visual clues my whole life. I do love the silence when I don’t wear my HA, when my family is not home it feels so good to take it out :slight_smile: Later in my life I did meet some deaf ladies who were wonderful, they taught me a little bit of ASL & I loved being with them. Unfortunately we moved away & I haven’t met any deaf people in our new town.
My audi has said I would qualify for a CI. I don’t know what I want, half of me wants one, the other half is happy with me the way I am. I guess time will help me decide, need to think about it more.

Serendipity42

#18

If you have been deaf your whole life (sorry I hate the HI term…hope deaf doesn’t offend you) then you may have less success with a CI. I am just really apprehensive about it. I live my life as a Deaf person very successfully. I am employed, support myself, I am going to school, I have a good social life, I have everything a hearing person of my age could hope for and I am Deaf. Why do I need to change that? A lot of my jobs revolve around being Deaf, I work with Deaf kids and teach them that being Deaf is okay and to embrace it. I just don’t see a CI fitting with my life at this time. I also don’t have the time to commit to therapy and such afterwards. I am just happy being Deaf!

#19

Serendipity42,

Can you use a voice phone? Or do you use a TTY?

#20

Though I’ve been HI since birth, my loss has gotten worse thru the years. I remember being able to hear people talk & I could use the phone no problem at all. I used to talk with my best friend in high school on the phone for hours, drove my dad nuts <G> In college I started out as a music major, imagine that. I did fine, even in theory where you had to listen to tones & repeat them. But that was not for me, changed to geography my sophomore yr. Now I am almost 50 (yikes!) and I can’t hear much at all anymore. I use the online relay service for phone calls, or else have my husband call for me. With my new Naida & Icom I can actually make some calls myself, but only to people I know so they don’t mind me saying “huh???” all the time. I am happy for you having a job where you work with Deaf. Right now I am not working, but we are okay financially so that works out okay. I love my family, my husband is wonderfully understanding & my two daughters (ages 19 & 20) are too. I am active in a lot of things, I love my dogs & do dog sports & have no trouble doing that. My audi has told me because of my history that a CI would be successful for me. So I am still torn. I guess it comes down to what goals do I have for the rest of my life? Would a CI help me? Or am I fine the way I am? Hmm. something to think about…

Serendipity42