Oticon Real malfunction - high noise, low gain

Hearing Aids
#1

I have Oticon Real, less than 1 year old. Recently, one unit malfunctioned. The noise level increased and the gain decreased approx. 2dB. Also, the noise seems to be intermittent, as if the outside sound level affects the noise level. I’ve tried replacing the wax guards and domes, and have rebooted a few times. The problem is still there. Fortunately, the other ear still works and the bad ear is still better than unaided.

I have an appointment with my audiologist in a few weeks and will bring it up then. But in the meanwhile:

  1. Have you ever experienced this failure mode?
  2. Does this seem like software or hardware?
  3. Is there anything else I can try to correct it on my own?
  4. Any thoughts on the cause?

Thank you.

#2

Take them back to your audiologist and more than likely get them repaired or replaced.

#3

There’s a good possibility it’s just the receiver that has gone bad. That likelihood is higher than the actual hearing aid going bad, but you never know.

I’ve had receivers go bad on me before, and usually I hear either more noise level when there’s sound, and a saturation kind of amplification (along with distortion) on the amplified sounds. Receivers are wear and tear items, so it’s entirely possible that they can go bad within a year, depending on how much use you put on it everyday.

If it’s indeed a bad receiver, most HCPs keep them in stock, so as long as they have them in stock with the right wirelength that you need, they can probably replace it right on the spot for you to get you back up and running right away.

#4

Thank you for the thoughts. If “receiver” means the speaker at the end of the wire that goes into the ear canal, I’m having a hard time understanding how that could cause excessive noise. I could imagine a bad microphone, bad electronics, bad software, or bad configuration, but not bad speaker.

After a large investment, I’m concerned that this precision piece of leading-edge technology might turn out to be flaky. But that’s all speculation.

I’ll let you know what the audiologist finds and does.

#5

Yes, the receiver is what the hearing aid world calls the speaker. Don’t ask me why, I would have preferred that it be called speaker myself.

The main clue that caused me to guess that it’s a bad receiver is because you said that it’s as if the outside sound level affects the noise level, which implies that what you hear from the mics (the outside sound), and its input volume (the level) affects the noise level. So if the receiver goes bad, whenever the hearing aid attempts to amplify and drive the receiver with the incoming sound from the mics, the receiver cannot reproduce this amplification because it’s already been damaged, and therefore might reproduce a saturated response of some sort that seems like it’s noise.

Of course the actual hearing aid might be bad as well and not the receiver, but the likelihood of the receiver going bad before the actual hearing aid going bad is simply higher and more plausible, that’s all.

As for why a precision piece of leading-edge technology might turn out to be so flaky after only 1 year of use, usually they last much longer than 1 year. Most have a 3 year warranty and people wear them up to 16 or 20 hours a day easily, day in day out. But the leading edge technology is mostly inside the hearing aids. Receivers (with the exception of the ActiveVent type released by Phonak, or the new self-calibrated type recently released by Oticon for the Intent), are mostly balanced armature driver type receivers. They’re the work horse that convert the analog signal driven by the hearing aid back to actual sound-in-the-air, and this technology has been around for quite some time. But there’s not much leading edge technology in them because they’re like a commodity item that are used in many audio driven devices like hearing aids and earbuds. So they’re a physically reactive device that don’t have a lot of smart in them per se, at least not like what’s inside the hearing aids.

#6

Anything electronic can have malfunctions, it happens regardless of how many checks are made. Odds are that there will be faulty parts it is just a part of the process and Anything new his even higher possibility of failures until the whole process is ironed out. And yes those little speakers do go bad at times. And the receivers for the INTENT is a brand new design so that makes it even more of a possibility until the processes are ironed out.

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#7

Thank you again. That’s great information.

For a typical Oticon audiologist, what tools do they have available to test an aid? For example, do they have a chamber with a speaker to stimulate the microphone? Do they connect to the receiver cable to see the electrical output or put a microphone on the receiver end? What self-tests does the aid run and how are these results reported? Is there an electrical debug port like JTAG for testing?

#8

I don’t know what is available to all audiologist clinics, but my VA clinic has a diagnosis system that is used to check my aids for general functionality of the aids. And also the hearing tech. does a cleaning of the aids, and ear molds and replaces thecwax guards. This has been a recent change at the clinic in the last couple of years. I am sure it is way to expensive for small clinics to have.

#9

All receivers can suffer from drive rod weld failure - the fine bit of copper wire that fixes the ‘reed’ to the diaphragm via a spit weld between the two.

These bounce up and down up to 10,000 times a second 10-16 hours a day for their life. It’s entirely conceivable that they should break.

When they ‘go’, the diaphragm is free to move further, as it’s not fixed to the mechanism any more, but they ‘chatter’ as the diaphragm motion collides with the motion of the reed.

You might want to regard the life of these like you would the tyres on your car.

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#10

There are standard hearing aid boxes that every hearing aid dispenser is supposed to have. New-out-of-the-box aids should be tested for basic audiological function, and patients’ aids can be tested even if a malfunction isn’t suspected.

#11

I took the aid to the audiologist today. The audiologist brushed off the aid, vacuumed out the holes, and ran it through a dryer. It works correctly now.

The audiologist wasn’t sure what fixed it, but speculates that one or more of the microphone holes was clogged, so the processor was getting incomplete audio input.

I’m going to try an experiment where I cover one port at a time and see if I can reproduce the symptom (high noise).

#12

By the way, the audiologist didn’t use any fancy test equipment. All they did was couple the aid to their ear with a plastic tube and said “yes, I hear the noise” and “it seems to be gone now”.

#13

They used the fancy equipment on their head. :rabbit: :grin:

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