A week and a half ago I took delivery of a Philips HearLink 9030 from my local Costco. I have a reverse cookie bite hearing loss, and I wanted to hear my cat purr. More importantly I wanted to understand people better and hear music better. I am a retired engineer and an amateur musician–French horn and singing. I was fitted with a mold so I could hear the low frequencies. Here are my first impressions:
The Good:
I hear better; I even heard a cat in my lap purr. I hear kitchen alarms from the other room. I understand my wife. Jokes aside, this keeps the peace and improves the relationship.
Noises such as running water are not too bad. In previous aids they were overpowering.
The ability to control each aid independently from my phone helps in the orchestra and band.
The molds are comfortable and keep me from losing the aids when I pull off a mask. I usually, however, wear an N95 with behind the head loops, just to be safe.
I forget I’m wearing them–except when I chew.
The Can’t-Be-Helped Bad:
I cannot sing with molds. My occluded voice is so loud that I cannot hear the ensemble. Maybe I can program my old Bernafons for an open fit so I can hear the conductor’s instructions. Without aids I’m OK with the ensemble, but I can’t understand the conductor. Was that “Start at letter E” a “B” a “C” a “D” a “G” a “P” a “T” a “V” or an actual “E”?
When I chew, the occusion makes the chewing so loud that I can’t hear anything else.
The Bad I hope can be corrected:
While the General program is good for normal speech, Speech in Noise is useless. In fact noises are louder in that setting than in the General setting. (What’s wrong with this picture?)
The Automobile setting is no different from the General, though I have no problem in the car anyway in the General program.
Music is a disaster, and if not corrected significantly, is cause for returning them. One thing that can be corrected is the pitch wobbling. What do I need feedback correction for with the molds? Is any feedback correction necessary in any of the programs?
The highs in the Music program are screechy and the lows are rumbly without being
heard very well. I am enclosing the fitting report. I notice that the the response is very peaky. Is this necessary?
I got ASHA working on my new Android phone, but it has problems. Another deal breaker if not fixed. I can play music files on my phone into my aids as well as streaming. However, the left side is tinny, and the right side is very boomy. Is there a separate frequency correction setting for ASHA? I have found very little documentation on ASHA.
I wonder if the KS 10 would be better for me.
I have included all this so you all can help me inform the fitter what might be the problem.
Gee, I remember when TV sets bothered me with the 17,500 HZ squeal from the flyback transformer. The 3 KHz singer’s formant of a trained voice sometimes overpowered the actual singing.
Thank you,
Herb