My aids arrived yesterday and I got fitted today. The default sound volume seemed a bit low to me initially, but the audiologist said that my brain had to adapt to the Starkey sound. When I left, in the street I could definitely hear less background noise unlike oticon which absorbs sound from all directions.
Regarding speech clarity, first impressions deserve entire chapter. With Oticon OPN, I found listening to the speech in the moving car challenging. The most challenging person to hear was my distant relative, 4 year-old girl who lives near me and our families occasionally visit each other. With Oticon OPN, she sounded mumbling and I frequently asked her parents to “translate” her speech. Today, we (me, 4 year-old girl and her dad) traveled in the same car. In the Thrive app I upped the sliders and her speech was so sweet and clear. I didn’t know she had such voice and I was amazed. Now, what does the equalizer in the Thrive app exactly do? Apply more gain?
The streaming apparently needs to be ironed out. When I play the videos on my iPhone, the volume is low and adjusting the sliders on both iPhone and in the Thrive app don’t help. Also, if the iPhone screen is off and I turn it on, evolv AI jumps to the lower volume program à la Phonak.
Right now as I am typing this post, the clicks of the keyboard sound are banging against my ears.