I trialed the Phonak Lumity L90 a few months ago and did not like the way music sounded with them. However, I’ve been wearing Oticon hearing aids for many years now, so I am in no position to offer any insights here.
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It is possible I won’t be happy. However, I have been using one Oticon Nera on the right side only, which has only two programs. I think one is for quiet and one is for loud. I usually use the loud program throughout the day, no matter what’s going on. There’s no special music program that I am aware of. Singing and listening to music are much more comfortable with the aid than without. So if it is similar to the Oticon Nera, I think I’ll be happy.
It’s really the responsibility of the HCP to understand or at least ask what’s important to their clients (and in this case, it sounds like singing and music listening), then recommend the best HA type for their clients based on that. Then if the client still wants to deviate from the most optimal type of HAs recommended for other personal reasons, then it’s the HCP’s job to make the client be fully aware of what the compromises and trade-offs are if they still want to go with a less optimal type of HAs for their hearing objectives. It doesn’t look like the HCP has done this job properly for this client based on what has been discussed on this thread.
Nonetheless, given the situation as is and the client has already made a decision on the HA type regardless, and has already placed an order in, I think if it’s any HA brand to compromise with and settle on having just 1 program to try to be a jack of all trades, then the choice for an Oticon aid to do this with is not a shabby choice, thanks to the Oticon subscription to the open paradigm for their aids, and also the way they design their general program to be a jack of all trades as much as possible in the first place (with compromises, of course).
Who knows, maybe @snorkelfan still has an option to revert back to the CIC type aid if the Own type of CIC or ITE aid using 1 program is not good enough for him/her after all?
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@snorkelfan OWNs are good instruments but they don’t switch automatically. They have a button you push to get to the program you desire
My loss and needs is probably very different but throwing my experience out there in case it helps. I tried a few Owns (IIC/CIC), the lowest tier. Turn all extra functionality off, and loved the sound for music, both as a listener and as a musician (piano and strings). They were more prone to strange feedback type noises but that may be because the physical fit was always a bit off regardless of how many times they were remade, which is why I did not end up with them.
I did not end up with this aid and instead ended up with Phonak, which I feel is lacking in the way it sounds compared to the Oticons.
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I’m confused here. Are you implying that the OWN models support multiple programs? Then why in Genie 2 I only see 1 program available. Can you show a screenshot of a Genie 2 page for the OWN aids that displays 2 programs or more available if they do support more than 1 program like you implied above?
@Volusiano The Own IIC is non wireless and does not have a push button, so there is no way to get to another program, hence the single program. If you are simulating CICs or larger in Genie, on the Selection page you need to check the push-button box (and/or 2.4 GHz for ITCs and larger), and then under Program Manager you can add programs.
Ah, indeed, you’re correct. It didn’t occur to me that the push button option is the secret sauce to be able to get multiple programs for the Own.
@snorkelfan , our OP on this thread. Do you have an IIC Own or do you have one of the other Own models like the CIC or ITC or ITEFS or ITEHS? If it’s not an IIC model, then perhaps if you do have a push button version of the other models, then I’ll need to take back about no more than 1 program for the Own.
@PianoJoy , thank you very much for sharing your experience with the Own IIC. It gives me a lot of hope that this is going to work out.
I picked them up this morning. The HIS was in a rush and I could never see his screen. He really wasn’t interested in going through all the setting options with me. He told me to try it as is, and if I really wanted to, I could come back in a few weeks. He said 99% of his clients are satisfied at the first fitting and don’t need to come back.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t happy. They are too loud, but they seem to be muting a lot of environmental sounds, distant conversations sound very quiet and distant, no advantage, no extra birdsongs…and my own voice is really loud. It’s especially too loud when I am singing, but it is always too loud.
When I was at the mall earlier, I kept taking the left one in and out. I couldn’t decide if it was better with it or without it.
I really want to sit with someone who will go through all the setting and features with me and tweak it to my liking. I suspect that there is a lot of noise suppression going on that is making me uncomfortable. I told him that I want to hear everything and decide for myself what I want to pay attention to, but I don’t think he understood.
I am really hoping once the noise suppression is removed, which I am assuming is the issue, I’ll get that new hearing aid joy. I’m hoping to find someone who will do this with me next week. I can’t take the time off to get it done immediately.
@Volusiano , it is the IIC. There’s only 1 program. I still have hope that with the correct settings, I will be happy. I am hoping to go to the HIS that programmed the Nera Pro 2 that I have. I like how that sounds, and he will know exactly what he did there.
I don’t think we saw your audiogram before, until recently. You have a very mild loss on your left ear, and the right is not bad at all until 2 KHz.
Your audi should have programmed in the Automatic Adaptation Manager for you so that they don’t sound too loud to begin with, but over time, in phase 2 and phase 3, the volume can get programmed to be a little louder after you get more acclimated to the amplification. If your audi didn’t do this, you can still just do it manually by reducing the volume on both aids to a comfortable level for a week or few days, then increase it a little bit more for another time period, until you get used to the default volume level.
I’m surprised to hear that you find more sounds being muted than you think, given the open paradigm of Oticon aids. But then there’s no telling what your audi did for your setup to begin with. Does your IICs have a vent hole in each of them? How big is the vent hole? If there is a large enough vent hole in each aid to minimize occlusion, this vent hole should have also allowed the natural sounds to come in so that at least your left ear should be able to pick up a lot of these sounds naturally. It sounds almost as if there’s no vent hole, or the vent hole is too small, and this causes the natural sounds to be blocked from coming in naturally for your ears to hear, hence the subtle sounds might begin to sound too muted for you.
But I think it’s pretty preposterous for him to be claiming that 99% of his clients never come back for a second fitting. I guess it must be such a huge coincidence that you happen to be his only 1% unsatisfied more-than-one-fitting customers. What are the odds of that??? 
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I don’t even have a volume control…he just asked me if I liked how “A” or “B” sounded, and “A” sounded good in his office. But I really didn’t have time to think it through.
This is from [this] (https://www.oticon.com.au/-/media/oticon/main/pdf/master/opn/pbr/167372uk_pbr_opn_1_product_-guide_h1_2016_final-approval.pdf) page 39 of this document.
I’m not sure if Own has similar options, but I’m guessing I’d prefer Pinna omni.
The vent he selected is “Max”. I think it’s really amazing that he has such a high satisfaction rate…maybe he is just trying to discourage people from wanting to come back and tweak… 
You don’t have a volume control due to the lack of a push button, but surely you can connect the aids to the Oticon Companion app on the smart phone to control the volume there, no?
How do you know he selected Max for the venting option in the Genie 2 software? But whatever he selected in Genie 2, it should match with the kind of physical vent hole you have on the hearing aids. Do you see an actual vent hole on your hearing aids? Do they seem big enough for you? Maybe you can take a picture and post it up here so we can see how big that vent hole is.
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Thank you for asking, I will do that!! I saw on the receipt when he placed the order it said “vent max”. But I have no idea, as you said, if he selected that in the software.
Yes, the left could go without an aid, but it feels unbalanced when I only have the right. I also think it fluctuates a bit.
Tomorrow I will be at work in my noisy classroom… that will be interesting!!
The top picture indeed shows a very large vent on the inside next to the receiver. However, the blurry second picture doesn’t show very clearly an equally large vent hole on the outside. I see the white plastic pull tab, and I see the battery door with a couple of tiny holes on the door, which I presume is venting for inside the hearing aids.
Then I see a very tiny opening on the end of the outside that I think is supposed to be the outside vent hole. That is a very small tiny inlet for the outside of the vent hole, so regardless of how big it opens up on the inside, the diameter of the outside vent hole equally matters and needs to be just as big. This tiny outside vent hole should let some sounds in, however. But it would have been better if the outside vent hole were bigger than that. But you gotta admit that there’s simply no room left anywhere to make it bigger anyway.
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I guess if I moved up to CIC then I could get a larger vent… I will first try adjusting these with the audi who took good care of me with the Nera Pro 2 adjustments.
Maybe I should check out widex moment ric, or oticon reals… I am thinking that being able to adjust my own aids is really important, and the sound is really important… and the invisible aids aren’t really invisible either, anyway…
The Oticon Intent is the latest model with a lot of major enhancements compared to the Real, so you’d want to go for the Intent if you decide to go with an Oticon RIC setup. The advantage a RIC setup can afford you is that each aid has 2 microphones, so the directionality control is a lot more flexible than the single mic option in the IIC, not to mention push button availability to do on-the-fly program change or volume change right on the aids without needing to do it on the phone.
But I can’t imagine that you can’t do volume adjustment and maybe some other things like equalizer adjustments via the Oticon Companion phone app with your Own IIC. Have you tried installing the Oticon Companion app on your phone to do at least volume adjustment?
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The Own IIC has no connectivity, no app, nothing…today I am wearing my old Nera Pro, which isn’t quite enough for me in the noise. It’s lunch time, so I might try wearing the Owns for the afternoon classes. As of now, I just don’t think I’m going to keep them.
Hm, I didn’t know that. That would be very limited and would be a deal breaker to me.
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