Audiologist has suggested new hearing aids for me. Currently have Signia c&g ix7 she has suggested the oticon intent 1.
I am not happy with the signia as streamed music sound sucks and I still struggle to hear in restaurants.
Will the Oticons be a better choice?
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The audi should be able to adjust your Sigina hearing aids to sound much better when streaming music. I donāt know if the Oticon will sound better in restaurants. Will your audi let you have a trial period with the Oticon aids? If she will, you could judge for yourself. If she does not, check out ZipHearing.com which offers a 45 day return period and fitting by a local audiologist in the US.
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You need to be more verbose when describing your issues āstreaming sucksā isnāt enough. You should push the Signias as far as possible, with your audi, before trying Oticons.
That being said, Oticons have newer streaming tech, if your phone supports it (BT LE Audio).
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The sound from streamed music is very thin and sounds overly compressed. Live music is not much better and I actually like it better with the aids out.
I have Signia ax7 aids. these come with a dedicated Musician program. I play classical guitar. The dedicated program was unusable until I had my audi and a Signia rep do what Chasin suggests in his instructions for setting up hearing aids for musicians. afterwards, and since, Iāve loved my Signia aids for music! Many blame the brand of aid for faults that are a result of improper or incompetent settings by the audi. to be fair, Audiologists are trained to program aids for speech/speech in noise etc. Programming for music is 180 degrees opposite of all that. Look for Chasinās and others pdfs on āprograming for musicā on this site. Iāve begged the moderators to provide a sticky/headline link for this topic which comes up several times a week, to no avail. I give up.
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Theyāre talking about streaming, profiles arenāt applied to streaming. It has a separate equaliser in the fitting software.
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Iām guessing that youāre mostly talking about the lack of bass. Iām also guessing (looking at your audiogram) that youāre fitted with open domes (flower-like).
Earbuds occlude your ear to keep the bass in and amplify it. Itās the same thing with hearing devices, you need a more occlusive dome.
Youāre also probably fitted with S receivers, the least powerful, it will be enough for correcting your loss but not enough for streaming.
Last but not least, no matter which manufacturer, hearing devices wonāt be as good as earbuds for people with mild losses like yours.
Because the receivers are limited to 8-12kHz (where the most important sounds like speech reside) output, earbuds are 48kHz.
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The domes are vented and the Audi mentioned the receiver is good for 65db. Should I ask for a more powerful one?
Thank you I will look for chasin guide for setting up the aids for music
Iām a fan of the Oticon Intent 1s. They made a substantial difference for me in restaurants and the like. I donāt do a lot of streaming but I am happy with what I hear when I do. I also play in a couple of musical groups and like what Iām hearing coming back in the monitors both in the āmusicā program and in the āgeneralā program. I actually tend to prefer the general setting, but will sometimes switch back and forth to get the best result for the circumstances. Iām also a fan of ZipHearing.com and have used them for my last three sets of HAs.
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I am puzzled by your audiogram. the results for each ear are identical. That seems a bit off to me. did you enter your prescription correctly?
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Thank you. Some interesting points to review. I did not know the receiver power level would make an important difference.
Streaming will sound like garbage when using open domes since the bass leaks out of your ears. With your hearing aids in your ears, plug your ears with your fingers. Streaming should sound much better.
If streaming is important to you, you will need to use closed domes or ear molds. The downside of this is that you will experience occlusion.
You can reduce the effect of occlusion by venting the closed dome or molds. So there is a trade-off. The more venting the less occlusion and the worse streaming will sound. A open dome gives the least amount of occlusion and the worse streaming sound.
My suggestion is to try the closed dome with some venting to see if you can live with the occlusion. The other option is to try ear molds with venting.
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Well, still. Streaming ia also different between different hearing aids. Last 6 months Iāve trialed Signia C&G 7IX, Resound nexia 9 and now oticon intent (i also have a old set of phonak P90 and resound linx 3d)
Streaming on linx, nexia and signia ix is terrible, nexia the worst. Phonak is good, Intent very good
(Exact same domes btw, these Instant Round Eartip Enkelt - Ear-Tip - Lydkupler - Japebo.dk)
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It looks like these are Widex double vent domes. How much occlusion do you experience?
I guess my only concern is if they come off in your ears when placed on other manufactures hearing aids. Any problems with them coming off?
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Itās not HAs, itās all in the fitting, youāve heard of a equaliser, the Signia have the best by far in Connexx software, Phonak is also adjustable, Oticon not so much, so in this case the domes donāt make the difference.
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Youāll find most are interchangeable, Signia and Widex are exactly the same, Phonak work well on Signia receivers as well, canāt say for sure with Oticon tho.
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Interesting. We have some folks say the Oticon Intent is the best sounding and others not so much. So is it just in the programing or is there something else?
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If music streaming is important, get some high quality over ear headphones. The sound quality will be MUCH better purely because of a large diaphragm and power output plus it has the added bonus to signaling to others you have headphones on so they wonāt interrupt you as much.
Whilst most modern over ear hearing aids have Bluetooth, they arenāt all created equal. The phonak lumity uses Bluetooth classic which is the highest quality but biggest battery drain. Others use LE (low energy) but can have signal quality issues with your phone even if itās in your pocket.
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Thatās my experience with open domes.
Plugging my ears with my fingers and with the hearing aids in does improve the sound quality a lot, but itās not as good as headphones.
So itās a trade-off, you get the convenience of Bluetooth for streaming and phone calls, but loss some of the fidelity that you get with headphones.
If you are wearing domes or ear molds without venting, do headphones work?
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