#61

I was raised to understand that you buy more than you think you need or you will be paying a lot more when you discover that you needed the extra little bit. Pay now or pay later and in the long run it cost you a lot mere.

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#62

But remember, Chuck, some people can’t afford to pay 20% more - it’s all they can do to afford the basic.

A Chev with no chrome still gets you to work and back…

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#63

Will agree about cars, mostly. Hearing aids aren’t the same the extras are functional differences not looks.

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#64

I don’t have a copy yet. The audiologist has it but I will be getting it when I have to submit to insurance. That won’t be til after the month trial or so.

#65

Point taken, Chuck…::

#66

I have found with my hearing aids, and in the beginning with my VA Audiologists that fully functional and just what I needed at the time meant new aids before my aids aged out. And it in the early days when I was found to o have service related hearing loss but my hearing loss wasn’t bad enough to rate a disability rating had to make due until my aids aged out. But now that I am rated with a disability it doesn’t seem that I have to wait for my aids to age out. I am still confused by what my Audi said at my appointment in March. I guess I will find out mid May.

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#67

Hmmm. That doesn’t sound right to me. In my mind, medical records are always the property of the patient.

Maybe I’m wrong…

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#68

My records are now available to me on my patient page of the VA website. It is a secure site that I can see my medical history, and order my prescriptions renewal and see my appointments. And hopefully when this virus is behind us I will be able to request appointments again.

#69

I always get a print out of my audiogram right away right after I get tested. It’s almost necessary that they show you the result right away to discuss your hearing loss with you right after the test. If they don’t give it to me, I would ask for a copy right away. I think anybody holding back your audiogram is playing games with you to make sure you commit to a trial or the sale of some sort.

Usually most places would take an appointment to do a free audiogram for you, then show you the results, give you a copy, discuss your hearing loss and how they think they can help with it. Then you can decide whether to proceed or hold out to do some more research if you want.

The audiogram test and a copy of the result should usually be free with no strings attached, even if you decide not to go with them.

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#70

I can get one, just didn’t ask for it.

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#71

@cvkemp & @kevels55: Lord knows how much I hates having to eat my words, in public, no less, but - after due cogitation and powerful mental ciphering - I’m obliged to concede the point and say:

You’re probably RIGHT, dammit!

I know that my More3s satisfy my performance requirements today in a quiet environment, and even in a moderately noisy one, like the supermarket, however they’re sort of marginal in the dentist’s office where there are lots of different voices, different timbres and volumes, clattering, sustained whining from several drills going, up and down the hall. This is a difficult acoustical environment, without a doubt.

My hearing surely isn’t going to improve in the coming months and years. I have 47 months to go before my next new set of hearing instruments … how will More3s score in 24 months? Still “marginally acceptable” at the dentist’s, or “lacking”? I gotta wonder …

No - I’m not going to be living in the dentist’s suite, but this summer, it took about 3 months to diagnose, surgically excise, and follow up on a (benign) hemangioma on the roof of my mouth. The surgery was exquisitely painful once the freezing wore off, and the entire process stressful.

My old, sadly underperforming Unitron North Moxi Fit 800s made everything that much worse, since I had to ask for everyone involved in my treatment to repeat descriptions and options multiple times in order for me to understand well enough to make the decisions necessary to proceed.

I’m sure, had I been wearing my More3s, that I would have fared much better, but - when I stop to reflect on it - what’s to say that I’m going to hear any better in 2 years with More3 than I did with Moxi Fit this year? Not because the More3s are presently inadequate, but because Oticon has reduced the power of the Tier3 devices such that my audi and I have no “wiggle room” in which to make adjustments: in some key parameters, we’re already "maxed out ".

So, it’s with a cringe and a wave of nausea that I must admit that there’s a compelling argument to be made to buying more power (:joy:More power, get it?) than one needs today, bearing tomorrow in mind.

:unamused:sigh

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#72

Hi Jim, thank you. As a rule of thumb, having enough headroom should always be a consideration when choosing new aids, even more essential if you are in the severe/profound threshold, hearing loss is most certainly a progressive thing, unfortunately it usually accelerates as we get older… Your own loss, could become more troublesome if that “Ski Slope” loss gets steeper? Hopefully that is a few years down the line! I am aware you get your aids from the Canadian Vets association, would it not be an option for you to contribute to a higher tier level of Oticon’s, if they only pay for tier 3, could you not pay the balance to upgrade to tier 2 or 1, in order to facilitate your loss at some point in the future? My argument would be, if you need it, then you should get it! Cheers Kev :wink:

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#73

Just a minor correction: VAC stands for Veterans’ Affairs Canada. It’s part if the Department of National Defence (DND), and it looks after those with service-related injuries (like the VA in the United States of America).

It’s not like the Legion, with which I’m not affiliated.

[Just for the record.]

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#74

I just want to clarify the use of the work “headroom” here in the context of the 3 tier levels of the More. We’re not talking about “gain headroom” that may be needed in case of worsened hearing loss as you get older in the context of the differences between the 3 tiers. You can wear the More 3 and if your hearing loss gets worse later on, you can just change to a larger receiver that can handle the bigger amplification for the worsened loss. You don’t need to get the More 1 for this “gain headroom”.

Even if you ski slope moves more leftward (meaning you lose more mid and high frequency hearing) over the years, all 3 tiers have the same Speech Rescue technology that work the same way to help lower the sounds so you can hear the highs better.

The main differences between the 3 tiers that can help future proof anything is the Neural Noise Suppression settings. If your brain hearing gets worse as you get older and you have a harder time understand speech in noise due to this, then more help with the more aggressive Neural Noise Suppression can help you understand speech better.

There are also a few more features in the More 1 and 2 but not in the 3 like the Clear Dynamics (for hearing loud input sounds better), Spatial Balancer, etc. But if you didn’t miss not having it in the More 3 before, I think you wouldn’t miss it later on either even if your hearing loss worsens.

The bottom line is that we’re talking about future proofing on the functionalities, but not really the gain. If you want to future proof on the gain, get a larger receiver now so you don’t have to change it later. But changing to larger receivers is not as big a deal to have to worry about future proofing up front.

3 Likes
#75

@Volusiano: Where I live and attend my audiologist, More1s carry about a 35% premium over More3s - hard to imagine being able to justify that much of a surcharge, if you’re on a budget.

That said, more powerful noise suppression, spatial balancing, and clear dynamics may have real value to anyone struggling to understand speech in noise, or to locate the source of a sound, or a to a musician. Such users may be able and willing to ante up for access to More1 greater capabilities.

If someone has no money constraints, or has access to more insurance coverage from their spouse’s group plan, upgrading to More1s is probably a no-brainer. But - as suggested by Volusiano, More3s capabilities are not to be sneezed at.

The real value inherent in More1s greater capabilities may, indeed, lie in their inevitable relegation to the role of “spare set” 4 years down the line. The greater power built into them may ensure continued good performance quite far into the future, compared to the basic tier.

In terms of More3s serviceability in the present moment, their value and capabilities are hard to beat, IMO.

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#76

Hi @Volusiano, thank you for that reply… apart from what I have read I have really no concept of the More, 1,2 or 3. Yeah, I have worn Oticon aids before, BTE’s with custom molds, from the NHS… I am assuming these More aids are RIC’s and you can get receivers up to 105db or thereabouts, I wore the Phonak Marvel 90’s for approximately 2 years, with 105db receivers, they are excellent aids, but perhaps not quite powerful enough for my left ear, and now perhaps borderline on the right? And yes I was talking about gain, plus the added features of top tier aids, nowadays I wouldn’t even contemplate anything but tier 1, when you get to my level of loss, you want to get the best you can afford… I now have Phonak Naida Paradise 90’s BTE UP’s and for sheer richness of sound, they are excellent aids, and I have never owned better aids, I have had 4 different sets of Naida over the years, besides many other aids, but these stand head and shoulders above all else, amazing thing was no adjustments, first fit was perfect, my AuD is excellent… I have Target 7.1 and Noah Link Wireless, I did a fair bit of DIY programming over the years, I am slightly miffed TBH, but I will not try to alter anything that seems to be working fine, as I don’t think I could get them any better! IMO, nothing sounds better than a BTE aid with custom un-occluded molds, I tried the Paradise 90 RIC’s with the UP receivers for around 6 weeks or so, but I am glad that I have now returned to what I call “Real BTE’s”… cheers Kev :wink:

1 Like
#77

@kevels55: With your profound hearing loss, I think it’s wonderful - miraculous, even - that you have found hearing instruments that give you such satisfactory results.

Further to that, if my loss were like yours, I would insist on wearing Tier 1 devices, also.

:chair::chair::chair:, Kev!:+1:t2::white_check_mark:

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#78

In all truth Jim, I get very limited contextual information from my left aid… But I notice “Big Time” if I only ware my right aid! TBVT, I think because I have almost always worn aids after SSNHL, only a few months passed before I was aided, perhaps my brain never lost the ability to understand? I am sometimes amazed what I can actually hear, I have a clock in the kitchen which I have never heard in years, It is a battery clock, I can now hear it ticking away from approximately 10 feet away with these Nadia’s! Cheers Kev :wink:

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#79

Octicon Ruby 2 at no charge for me. I ordered them. Checked specs and much better than my 4 year old resounds. No charge is better than 1250-2500. She was including the Ruby 2s the the More 1-2-3. Sorta bait and switch? Even she admitted the Ruby 2s are much better and improved over my Resounds. First time I will be using anything but Resounds.

#80

@25Firefighter: You may not like Oticon’s OpenSound concept on Day1, but please give it a fair try.

I don’t know about firefighters’ training, but I feel very vulnerable if I can’t hear what’s going on all around me.

Trust me (and the other Oticonians like @cvkemp): your brain will get used to the extra information, and will learn to focus only on what it thinks is important. But you’ll have access to everything going on around you.

Please continue to post your progress. I, for one, am very interested. And … good luck!

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