Just fitted with Oticon Real 1 yesterday. I have been wearing Oticon More 1. Went for usual bike ride and the Oticon Real definitely handles wind noise much better the the Oticon More. The Oticon Real is better with the s and sh sounds reducing or better controlling the harshness at the end of words. Example “Sally sells seashells by the seashore” is cleaner and clearer than with the Oticon More. I play tennis on Friday morning and will give some additional feedback after tennis. Also will be going out to eat and shopping at Samclub where I always have to change my programs to cut down on echo noise from the high ceilings or crowd noise.
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@rgilbert , I also currently wear Oticon More and am considering trialing the Real. When you go out to eat, maybe choose a loud, echoey restaurant, and bring both the Mores and the Reals and switch off between the two sets of HAs. I would love to hear about your experience in comparing the two sets in a challenging environment. Thank you.
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I do not have my Oticon Mores with me at home for a direct comparison by switching them while in a current environment. I am doing the trial after leaving my Mores with my audiologist. I can tell you that in a noisy restaurant last night the Oticon Reals handled the noise better than my Mores. The echos were definitely reduced and the conversation with my wife was much easier.
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Thank you @rgilbert. That’s very helpful. Also interesting because it seems like the only differences between the More and the Real are the improvements in wind noise and handling noise reduction. Yet you notice a significant improvement in speech comprehension in a challenging environment. If Oticon had made significant improvements in that very important area you would think that they would mention it prominently in their marketing.
“Significant” may be too far to go but there was definitely a “marked” improvement to my ability to hear and understand my wife in a noisy environment. I did not have to strain or concentrate to understand her conversation. This is solely my take on the situation. I dislike having to make adjustments outside my preset programs to be able to hear or understand someone when they are talking to me. I am looking forward to testing them on the tennis court this weekend.
Most aids have very few if any problems with wind noise or wind interference. Thus you rarely read a post on HT that mentions wind and aids. There are way higher priorities for aid performance and hearing clarity, versus minor wind disturbance. Like how aids work inside where wind isn’t present or outside when wind is not blowing.
Not quite, its actually a major issue for “all” HAs, this is why manufacturers are constantly blowing their horns on how good their products are in these situations.
You sure about this, it comes up regularly.
I agree, wind noise and its control or reduction is high on my list of wants from my hearing aids. I spend a great deal of time on my bike and on the tennis court. Every hearing aid wearing individual has different needs and I can appreciate those differences. If they go outside to “play” wind noise will soon be something they will want handled by their hearing aids. Again, solely my personal opinion.
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You folks are way off base if your basing purchasing a HA on how it performs in wind noise. Are you all riding motorcycles with your helmet off? Last I checked people with hearing loss bought aids to hear better inside, outside, in quiet setting and in noisy settings. If your going to throw wind noise into the equation fine but that’s a pretty insignificant (category) to pre-judge hearing aids performance.
And how exactly are you all comparing various aids to specific wind conditions? Are we talking low level breezes or hurricane wind? Are we talking BTE aid or canal aid in wind? Are we talking aids with one or two microphones or more? I could go on an on but wind noise ranks really, really low when someone considers purchases a hearing aid. Pretty much because all HA’s act the same in wind. And should a HA be returned (during trial period) it most likely will not because the user was unhappy with aid performance in dealing with wind. It will be because the HA users was not satisfied his or her hearing level with trialed hearing aid.
I personally think it’s NOT “way-off-base” like you think to consider the effective handling of wind noise an important feature. It’s more common than you think. It’s not just when riding a bike or a motorcycle or be outside on a windy day, which I agree can be less common. But many people use fans in their home, especially in the summer time, even if they have the AC on, but not too cold and they supplement their AC use with fans to save on energy. So this type of use alone is common enough to make wind noise handling an important consideration.
I have a small table fan in front of me (on top of my min grand piano) when I play piano to help keep me cool because even though I sit still to play the piano, my brain activity and fingering activity still generates enough body heat that requires a small table fan to dissipate heat. My OPN 1, which “act the same in wind, like pretty much all HA’s”, as you put it, gives me the fluttering sound, which is very annoying and distracting, but I just had to put up with it because I need the air flow. This wind handling feature from the Real would be important to me, not just for this, but because I use fans throughout my house to help me save cooling energy. Indoor floor top or table top fans are a very commonly used household item for everyday use in the summer time.
While it’s not a deal breaker, but if I were to look into a pair of the More or other brands/models that don’t handle wind noise as well as the Real, I’d give the wind handling a lot of weight over the other HAs in my consideration.
And how exactly are you all comparing various aids to specific wind conditions? → Easy, anything that makes you hear the fluttering sound in your hearing aids is bad enough to want to remove. Even a small table top fan aimed at you at the right angle can EASILY cause the fluttering noise, over and over and over again the whole time you have it on.
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I personally think that the only 2 main improvements in the Real are just the sudden sounds stabilizer and the wind & handling stabilizer. However, I’ve heard in 2 occasions now from folks who said that their Real seem to perform better than the More in noisy situations. In one case even the Real 2 vs the More 1.
This puzzles me a little bit, too, but my theory is that unbeknownst to many folks, the Sudden Sound stabilizer is probably in action here to help make things sound better for them in noisy situations without them even realizing it. It would not be a surprise to find noisy places like a restaurant full of sudden sounds, obviously the clanging of glasses and dishes, loud bursts of laughter and loud chatters, thumping music, etc.
Even just the soothing of any of these sudden sounds can be calming enough to help the whole scene a little more soothing and reduce the level of stress and increase the level of enjoyment, leading to more positive things like less straining to hear and understand people talking. Because sudden sounds come and go quickly, if they’re stabilized quick enough, they may not even register into people’s memory as negative things, and people may not even realize that those sudden sounds were even there in the first place. So people just have an overall better impression with the Real but they don’t know why may not. All the time, it may attribute it to the Sudden Sound Stabilizer working quietly and stealthily in the background.
The only sure way to find out is to turn off and eliminate the 2 new features in the Real, then do A/B comparison between the Real and the More with those 2 features turned off, in the exact same environment in real time on the fly, swapping the 2 aids back and forth. If you still can hear a significant enough improvement on the Real, then it can be more scientifically concluded that the Real has a better core AI/DNN engine in handling noise than the More, when those 2 new features are taken out of the equation.
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Show me a study of hearing aid operation and wind correlation. I’d sure like to review it. But guess what - you won’t find one because such a test (HA performance in wind) doesn’t exist. Show me a HA performance report (consumer report - or what ever) that factors in wind and aid distortion. Doubt you’ll find one. Show me data that says X amount of HA’s (during trial period) are returned because users didn’t like aid with wind interference. You won’t find any data.
Sorry guys but you’re not seeing the forest for the trees. You’re not going to see any “huge” difference between aids and wind interference, distortion, etc when trialing various HA brands. There are so many other Major Factors (other than wind interference) that goes into to buying/testing a hearing aid, especially if someone is a first time user. Like - Can You Hear Better?
And you’ll flat out find that if wind interference is a problem - its mostly due to first time users who have never worn a hearing aid before and have to adjust to a whole different way of hearing - using a new aid. But low and behold once they adjust to their new hearing aid in 30, 60, 90 days later, wind issues (if they ever existed) suddenly disappear or are more likely considered insignificant.
OK, you asked, I show:
Of course there has been no paper until now with the Real whitepaper because none of the HA brands/models before the Real have been able to crack this issue, so none of the mfgs want to focus on this wind issue, OTICON INCLUDED, before the Real.
But now at least there’s 1 Oticon whitepaper for you to read. If you were really curious about whether this wind feature that Oticon is boasting with the Real works for real (pun intended) like I was, I’m sure you could have easily found it like I did.
How do YOU know this? Have you actually had first hand experience in trying out the Real yourself for the wind management and found it to be the same with other HA brands/models like you said? Although I have not tried it out myself, I have heard from a handful of Real users that they’ve tried it bike riding and it works for them now, but their previous HAs can’t handle the wind before like the Real did now. I believe them. Don’t you believe them?
The lack of technical papers before wasn’t because it’s a non-issue. It was only because nobody could crack it before, but now it seems like maybe Oticon managed to cracked it, so they released a whitepaper on it, and anecdotal reports from Real users are starting to trickle in, saying that it works for them.
Nor does it mean that it’s an insignificant issue to users. It was only ignored before because no mfgs could crack it, so users just gave up and put up with the lack of a working wind feature, and were resigned to look at other differences for comparison. But now if somebody manages to crack it, it’s going to make a difference. And LIKE I SAID before, it may not be a deal breaker, but when somebody can’t decide between 2 brands/models because all the BIG features are on par with each other, then it’s time for them to parse the forests to look for the trees. And the forest with the wind tree may tip the balance toward its favor from the forest without the wind tree, everything else being equal.
Nope, agree to disagree because I think you’re just speaking for yourself here. For sure you’re not speaking for me, or probably even first time users out there. I’m not a first time user, I’m an experienced user myself (30+ years of HA user), even a DIY on my Oticon OPN 1, and no matter how I slice and dice and try to adjust to my myriad of hearing aids over the years, my fan wind is still there all these years of wearing hearing aids whenever I sit in front of a fan anywhere in my house.
I do ride a bike and play tennis outdoors and used to ride motorcycles, but I don’t want to complain about wind handling in those situations because I know they’re not common situations to begin with. But again, I imagine that there are A LOT more folks who use fans in their homes and are bothered with the wind noise fluttering in their hearing aids. A little secret here: they don’t go away with simple mind adjustment.
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Are you here to be helpful or just stir sh*t like a troll?
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Sorry where did you get that from? No one said to buy HAs based solely on this? I play a lot of golf and those of us who use HAs are always complaining, it doesn’t need to be blowing a gale, even just a mild breeze from the right angle can drown out the converstaion, i can assure you that its not “minor wind disturbance” because it all depends on ones level of hearing loss just how the HAs preform outside.
Well pretty easy really, you use them in these situations and you see the very real limitations with most brands, Oticon seems to be having a lot of success with their latest models, so this is something to take in to consideration (for some,not you of course)
What a load of nonsense, sorry but this is just a ridiculous statement, honestly i don’t know why you are so persistent on this one matter, we should move on to better things.
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You have the option to ignore my previous post rgilbert. Or you can write a book on HA’s and wind interference. Just saying “in the big picture” most HA users and all HA manufacturers don’t seem to have an issue with HA’s and wind, Its a rather low level concern versus other more important things like sound clarity, word recognition, speech in noise, aids and music, etc.
Just because someone with aid(s) riding a bike gets some wind interference, doesn’t mean a hell of a lot. You can turn aids down or possibly off if wind noise becomes irritable. In the big picture your Audi is going to be more concerned about your hearing level during conversation in various environments. Be it at work, at home, inside or outside. Unfortunately a hearing aid can’t be all things to all people. I’ve read where someone complains when they roll down their car window when driving, wind noise interferes with their hearing aid. Well then turn down aid volume, or close the window or turn off your aid. But no Audi is going to tell someone who wears HA’s that such and such aids perform better when driving in a convertible or while riding a bike, etc. The game doesn’t work that way.
Can I ask please if the programming was copied across exactly or did you have a new test and programming off that or what exactly what done?
Just to help put your perceptions into context.
Thanks.
I did have a new test to setup the new Oticon Real for the trial. It was suggested I use the new Companion app on my iPhone. When I put them on in the morning the new Companion app has to be paired again. When I go to accessibility both aids show paired. My only fix has been delete Oticon Companion and install it again to pair the app with the Real hearing aids. I reinstalled the app Oticon On and it seems to work perfectly. Will check with my audiologist this week to see if other users are having issues with Real and the Oticon Companion app.
Thanks for that. I’m really pleased you’ve seen a better result but we now have the added impact of revised programming in the mix too.
I walk in the wild a lot and the wind noise improvements intrigue me. That’s pretty much the only area the More 1 gives me issues. I ‘fix’ it by slightly turning my head mostly so it’s not worth the cost of a new pair for that.
I have recently (last 2 months) switched from Oticon OPNs to Reals. It has not been an easy switch. I rely very heavily on my connect clip, (to connect my HA to my computer) which the Reals were supposed to be compatible with. Turns out, Oticon finally admitted they’re not, and won’t be until some sort of upgrade in the fall. Meanwhile, they have offered me an Edu/Mic which has solved the problem of connecting my hearing aids directly to my computer.
Otherwise, I had some initial problems with echoing, which have been resolved in my right ear. I also had difficulty with the custom tip in my left ear continually sliding out. I now have my 3rd custom tip, which has resolved the sliding out issue, but now I have echoing in my left ear. I think I may need yet another change to the custom tip.
As to hearing in a noisy environment - frankly, I don’t think they are much better than the OPNs. While they do make the person with whom I am speaking more audible, they similarly raise the noise level around me as well. My audi, working with the Oticon rep, has made several adustments and thinks they have got it as good as it’s going to get. It could be that my expectations are unrealistic.
All in all, I will likely stick with Oticon, (I’ve worn many other ‘brands’ over the years).
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