Oticon Agil

Hearing Aids
,
#1

Two days now with my new Oticon Agil BTEs. Love them, even before fine adjustment. Natural sound, great frequency response range, aggressive directional feature, effective music program, effective compression circuit. These things have a high frequency range extending to 10 KHz, and it sounds like it. So far the only adjustments I am going to request are to up the volume in programs 1 (normal hearing) and 2 (directional) and add a bit more energy to the “chest sounds” in the range 50 - 500 Hz. Not sure yet about the BTE feature as I had previously used half-shell instruments. Given the extent of my hearing loss, I will need to have earmolds made - because of the gain that I require, the perforated cones that relieve occlusion will release too much sound to the microphones, causing feedback. This is the way hearing instruments should be made - put them in and they sound great.

I had tried Audibel (made by Starkey) Platinum Plus instruments and they were awful. The sound was unreal, like hearing through a wooden tube, the compression circuit seemed to work in reverse expanding on loud sudden noises, and the “search for voice” function mostly found any loud noise in the room… I Lost $300 when I returned them to the audiologist, too. My audiologist that supplied the Oticon instruments will charge nothing if I decide to return them.

G Werkema

#2

Thanks for the review of a model I’m considering. Re. the following

I wonder if you’d care to elaborate. Do high frequency instruments sound natural, eg. the violins in an orchestral work or the hi-hats in a jazz group? Is the stereo field sensed well?

It’s funny, HA professionals have told me I’m expecting too much for listening to music, yet an actual musician tells me Oticon “saved his career.” Both could be true, of course. :wink:

-Ron

#3

Ron,
Have your Audi add a music program to your HA. This takes away some of the treble and adds Bass making music sound a lot richer.

#4

Ron: by “effective” I mean that I was able to distinguish between an alto sax and a trumpet. The harmonic structure of each was clearly discernible. The music program does add more bass compared with the “normal” program and seems to be more mellow as well. I’ll be testing that further on Saturday 11-19-2011 at a symphony concert. On the program is an organ symphony, so emphatically a test. The effectiveness of the directional mode is my only disappointment so far, and that may be a matter of adjustment or learning. On the other hand, I was able to understand a conversation with a person some 15 feet away - that is remarkable!

  • George
#5

Another issue is the matter of listening to polyphonic music. Thinly scored music, such as small string ensembles, jazz trios and quartets, etc., are readily understood. But when it comes to complex scores, such as a Brahms symphony or a Bach organ fugue, there is just too much going on to make a lot of sense out of the sound. That’s my problem, and not the hearing aid. There are just some problems that relate to degradation of the auditory nerve and the processing center in the brain for which no hearing aid will be able to compensate. And that makes me wonder whether application of stem cell research focused on hair cell restoration will help all that much because there is more going on than just hair cell death. Hearing loss is expressed in a variety of ways.

#6

a Bach organ fugue

A Bach fugue or canon is hard enough to follow for people with normal hearing too!!!

#7

I wore my Oticon Agil Pros to a symphony concert last week. Using the music program, the results were spectacular. I’ve been missing a lot with my six-year-old Bernafons. I sampled the normal and directional programs, but in the music program both balance and clarity were excellent. The program included Grieg Peer Gynt Suite #1 and Saint-Saens Symphony #3 (with organ and piano). “In the Hall of the Mountain King” was a good test what with the major role of the bassoon section. The Agils gave good registration of overtones from that neat double-reed instrument. The very wide range of frequency and volume of the pipe organ was handled very well. The symphony did not have a “busy” score for organ, but the full organ in the fourth movement came across clearly without distortion that I could detect. Unfortunately the lid of the piano was open to the rear of the stage so the nice arpeggios in the fourth movement were lost in the sounds of the string section. Perhaps this was more of a music review than a review of the Oticons, but it does show that the HAs were quite capable in concert hall situations. So far so good. I’m buying these Oticon Agil Pros. Frankly, they were a drop-in fit, and my audi and I are just tweaking a few settings. I’m currently using the rubber cones on the receivers, but I’ll get my earmolds early next month.

George in Lynden

#8

Hello, it’s great to hear you enjoy music listening with your Agil’s.

When you stream music do you use bass boost & music widening or do you just run the non streamed music program to get such great results?

Thanks!

#9

George, You say normal and directional programs but my Audie says they only have one program. Oticon claims it works for both. I have just decided to keep my Agil Pros. I had very poor experiences with music with the Ambras and the Clears but the Agil Pros, music is quite enjoyable. I have yet to try the streamer.