Oticon real 1 static….is it my ear or the hearing aid?

Hearing Aids
#1

Hello all,
First post so hope I am doing it right but I am desperate for suggestions! I am new to this journey and have had hearing aids for about a month.
First I have very steep slope loss. Better than average (-11 to 19 db below 1khz), then 45 at 1.5 and then 75-90 above 2khz. Both ears have a similar slope with right ear worse than left.

I started with the oticon real 2. My molds took forever to come in so I started with open domes in 6mm and love them. My voice while talking and singing sound very natural to me. I know on paper I should be in molds but I have the tiniest ear canals imaginable and the skeleton molds they had to make were intimidating. I don’t have significant feedback issues, esp now that I know how to get the domes snug.

The right ha from the start has had this odd static sound, intermittently. It’s a combo of static and bursts of static or a reverb on certain sounds. Sounds like a vibrating boom box speaker. I could maybe get this happening only on high freq sounds of sh or ch but it happens at all frequencies. Also it is way worse while streaming or teams. I could be live listening to a song in my car and it is perfect than immediately stream the same song and hear static on right.

To test, I put the right dome in left ear and hear the sounds there too. I put my left dome in right ear and hear it 99 percent less.

Other odd things on right- when someone shouts or laughs suddenly I hear a burst of static. I don’t have feedback neutralizer run now but did have it previously and it happened then too, so that’s not it. Also, I hiccup or burp I hear this odd flare on right side only.

I upgraded to real 1 and like the sound better but my aud changed out the aids not the wire or receivers as these are loaners until mine come in.

Any ideas? Could I have a bum receiver? Is there such a thing? Is this due to my loss and right ear being worse? I have a very tiny and flat ear canal on right could it be compressing the receiver or dome in an odd way?

Open to any and all recos. If this is a matter of brain training, I am up for it. Just does not make sense this would happen at all frequencies. Thanks for any suggestions!

#2

I also noticed a static-like sound with “sh” on my right ear, perhaps because of the high frequency dead spots (though I don’t notice it with “ss”). It seems to sound cleaner when inserting the right hearing aid in the left ear, so I’m not sure it’s a problem with the receivers.

Since you noticed it in both ears, I would suggest asking to get the receivers replaced to rule that out.

#3

Thanks for your reply. Yes in the beginning I only heard that on sh too (and also not ss), which I kind of understand given my high pitched loss but now it is on random things so I am really stumped!

#4

It really sounds like your right receiver has gone bad. Receivers do go bad fairly often. The mark of intermittent static sound is probably the saturation/overdriving condition that your receiver is experiencing when louder sounds cause the louder amplification to overdrive the receiver. A good working receiver should be able to handle a strong amplification (within its specs), but a blown receiver may work on softer sounds but can no longer handle louder sounds, or sounds at certain frequencies.

Fortunately it’s easy to swap receivers and most HCPs have plenty of them in stock. That’d be the first thing I would try out if I were you. If you don’t want to wait for a visit to the HCP’s office, and if your receivers are of the same size, and if you know how to swap them at home properly (should not be hard to do if you can find an instruction on a YouTube video for your brand/model), then you can temporarily swap your left receiver to connect to your right HA. Naturally because of the wire orientation, you’ll still have to wear the receiver on your left ear, but now the right HA is driving it to your left ear. If the right HA now sounds good with your left receiver, but your left HA sounds bad with the right receiver, then most likely it must be the right receiver gone bad already.

#5

Thank you! This thing is new (less than a month) but I will insist on a new receiver to try next time, because it is annoying me!

I hope that solves the issue!