I’m also trying to figure out which aids will work better for speech in noise, particularly the ability to distinguish between several simultaneous louder voices. Similar to Mark, I have pretty drastic differences in my hearing losses between my right and left, with the left sudden loss occurring just earlier this year.
I have tried both the More as well as the Paradise so far, and personally have found the Mores to be far better in helping me distinguish between multiple noises. If you’re in a scenario that is noisy but there’s really only one speaker in that noise, perhaps the Paradise would work better, as the background noise attenuation is fairly noticeable compared with the More, but in a setting like a restaurant where there is likely to be nearby voices that are loud, I found the More to be more helpful in understanding the person that I actually wanted to understand. The Paradise just created a wall of noise (voices) that blended and was inseparable. I did not try any Rogers accessories with it, perhaps that would help.
I am currently demoing the Pure Signia AXs, and haven’t quite subjected them to a highly complex noise environment as I have with the other aids yet (I intend to), but as far as their performance in noise is concerned, to me, they sit somewhere between the More and Paradise. With the More, I felt that the soundscape was more “natural” to me (there’s a whole thread with a bit of debate as to what that means to each individual), but the overall environment sounded closer to what my hearing was like prior to my drastic change in my left ear earlier this year; there is less attenuation of background noise, yet speech is relatively defined or focused through that noise. Though there were still times I felt like the overall sound environment was a little more heightened than what would naturally occur, thus sometimes distracting (though it could be attributed to the fact that I have in fact have had hearing loss my whole life without aids until now).
The Paradise creates more of a separation, thus making it sound more unnatural to me, but if someone’s sole focus is to be able to hear actual speech better, than I think it certainly accomplishes that. My issues with these aids, as mentioned, is when there are several loud voices all in the vicinity. While background noise doesn’t get in the way, it’s distinguishing between those voices that becomes nearly impossible for me. There were several instances in which I actually heard better after taking out my HAs. Seems quite counterintuitive. I suppose it just really shows how difficult it was for HA tech to truly mimic the auditory process of the ear and brain.
I’ve only had the Signias for just over a week, but they do seem to be middle ground between the More and Paradise, probably because of their dual-processing approach between voice and noise. Voices do seem to be heightened and brought to the foreground, yet background noise is still distinguishable and audible. The sound seems layered, so still not quite as “natural” to me, but not unpleasant either. Because I have the Paradise for trials and was given the AX as a demo, I currently have both of them, and have been able to do a couple A/B comparisons. The layered effect vs. the strong beamforming/attenuation effect is definitely noticeable in certain situations (at a busy dog park, for instance), but in other situations, the difference between the two are less prevalent. I set up my laptop and played a random noisy YouTube clip, and tried to watch a recorded show on my tablet and tested which aid might help me hear the show the best. I’d say the AX slightly edged out the Paradise, but to be honest, without the immediate A/B comparison, there wouldn’t be much of a way to definitively tell the difference.
Given that our personal experiences and preferences will differ, I would recommend trying the AX too! I’ve seen very little actual user reviews of the Evolv so far, would love to find some.
. Two things I noticed. First, the “Speech in Noise” program is louder than P1. Second, P1 recommends sound enhancer to “Balanced”, while Speech in Noise “Detail”. That puzzles me, I thought this would be the other way around.
