Old thread, sorry! Yes, my Phonak Naidas ruined music through the pitch-shifting - so I had that turned off and endured occasional whistling. Phonak told me in an email that my obsolete NHS aid had all or nothing feedback rejection, but implied that later instruments offered a separate option on Music. However they also babbled on about improved processing speed etc etc, so I wonder if the issue was ever fully addressed.
Currently fitted with Signia Motion 13. Better sound, no whistle, no detune - but tremolo over everything!
I have commented more on that elsewhere on this thread.
Old thread, I know - but it’s still relevant today. Is turning off WhistleBlock still our only option these days? Is there a particular frequency range in which we can reduce gain instead? Something else?
I’m wearing a Phonak Naida Paradise.
I am also working through this issue wit phonak audeo paradise 90s. I am pleased to find this thread too. Have yet to try to reduce or switch off Whistlestop but will try that next week with my Audi.
I found that 440hz (concert A from my acoustic guitar) reliably causes the tremolo effect. A single note from an acoustic instrument is complex with a fundamental frequency and many higher frequency overtones, so unsurprisingly it also happens at all the multiples of 440 I.e. at each higher octave. We fairly crudely reduced the frequency response of the aids in turn at 440, then 880, 1760 etc. At 3520hz the tremolo effect had disappeared. Of course this has made the music lose it’s sparkle… but as I said we did this quite crudely at present. I hope to improve this on my next visit and to try reducing or removing Whistlestop on my Acoustic Guitar program.
FYI I had a similar problem with Oticon More 1 except it happened around 880hz and sounded quite different … not a tremolo warble but more of a lower after-tone.
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This is great, detailed info - keep us updated! I would love to be able to fix or reduce this effect without disabling Whistleblock.
I’ve heard the tremolo you are talking about describe as “singing into a fan.”. I struggle d with this when I had my Phonak aids. My audi turned off the feedback manager ( Phase invertor?) and that helped but still some feedback problems as you can imagine. So upon demoing several various manufacturers I found the Widex aids to be better than Oticon, Starkey, or Phonak with regard to sound quality. No adjustments were needed for the tremolo. It wasn’t there.
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Hello Jazz Pete - and Hooby and pheno.menon. This early thread does merit revival, I think, as hearing instruments are getting ‘smarter’ and may do even more to the signal. Great for voice, bad for music!
First, thanks for the tips about makes: it does seem Widex get praise for musical capability. They seem to blurb about it more than other makers. What we all need is more detailed specifications - such as we see when we buy hi-fi, or even a bottle of multi-vitamins!
We should keep the topic upfront as there is still limited music awareness, among manufacturers and even the people who train UK audiologists, so forgive me please for repeating my enthusiasm here for the work of Dr Alinka Greasley at Leeds University: great research among musicians using assisted hearing.
Those dreaded artefacts: my Phonak (old Naidas) warbled the pitch of notes around D7 (2,349 Hz) by a semitone up and down - so piano practice was an even greater torture than normal. Audiology - after I went back twice - turned that off. Music acceptable, conversation sometimes whistly.
Currently trialling more recent Signia Motion 13: much superior on speech with or without noise, generally cleaner sound, but a quite deep phase tremolo across most of the range. Cars sounded like steam trains.
Audiologist (new and very keen) was astonished, contacted Signia, looked into her incredibly clunky interface, and managed to disable the effect in a Music option. So, some whistles again. I can live with those, but the auto-volume levelling is entirely unsuited to music: too syllabic, with clicky overshoots. Turns my lovely Yamaha acoustic into a honky tonk! Chopin/Chopsticks.
When it’s safe to go back, I shall have to see if Widex can be offered by our local section of the NHS. Thank you each again for insight.
I posted a couple years ago about this. The information is still valid and covers the functionality of the Costco KS9 as well as the Phonak Marvel:
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