#1

Hi I have just received my new Oticon Mini rite OPN1 pair of aids
It appears when the volume is increased there is a background “swishing sound” that disapears when a noise is made and I hear it or say I whistle then is constant in the absence of an external sound!
Is this normal or should there be no detectable sound in the hearing aids provided there are no external sounds?
If I turn the volume down enough the sound disapears !!
Cheers
Bill

#2

Please share your audiogram. That may help with the debug of the issue.

Generally you shouldn’t hear any swishing background noise when there’s no sound present. But if your OPN is in directional mode then there’s a low frequency background noise that’s noticeable when it’s quiet. This is a limitation of directionality in general that happens to most hearing aids. Some newer hearing aids like the Sonic Enchant manage to avoid this issue by doing directionality on most frequency bands except the low frequency bands.

If you’re in the automatic mode then there should be no background noise when there’s no sound.

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#3

I noticed that. Might be the soft sound setting. I lowered it and it seemed to lessen then put it back figuring if it allowed me to hear my wife across the house it was a good thing.

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#4

I have the soft sound setting set to max value all the times and I don’t hear any background noise at all from the OPN. The ONLY time I hear any background static noise from the hearing aid is when I’m in the directionality mode

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#5

Bill, I’m assuming you mean this sound is present only in a quiet situation and it disappears as soon as sound appears.

Yea, I’m pretty sure it is the soft sound setting. I would describe it as the sound you get when you raise the volume too high on the stereo during a quiet period with no sound input. Perhaps before you start playing the music. I would call it a rushing sound. I first noticed it when I thought there was rain falling on the window next to me but there was none. I can increase the noise by going to the right on the soft sound scale and eliminate it by going to the left. As to it being a swishing sound yes there is some minor variability in the frequency so I suppose it could be described as swishing.

Volusiano, because Genie2 makes instant changes to the aids as you adjust you could try sitting in a quiet space and varying the soft sound from low to high and see if you get the described sound. If not, well maybe there is too much distance between my audiogram and yours.

Bill you can have that setting reduced a notch if the sound is bothersome but remember it is a trade-off. Lower it and you get less in the soft sound range. I found that maxed out to the right I couldn’t put up with the noise but that one notch down was acceptable.

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#6

I think you’re probably right that because your audiogram is quite different than mine in the low ends, the soft sound amplification has to be a lot more aggressive in your heating aids and therefore raising the noise floor quite a bit more than mine.

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#7

Interesting. I’m trialling Oticon Ria2 Pros. When I first put them on, I hear a rushing sound that I assumed was amplifier noise. After a short while it seems to go away, and I assumed I was actually just becoming accustomed to it.

I’ve just been experimenting with sounds. If I play the “Crystals” ringtone on this iPad I’m typing this on, I then hear a rushing sound that dies away then returns and dies away again. I assume it’s tricking the aids into changing modes for a moment.

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