Phonak Smart V onset hiss

Hi all,
Just got my first aids two weeks ago (Phonak Audéo S SMART V) and am having some issues getting them adjusted correctly. I wonder whether any of you with more experience could give me some suggestions on what to tell the audiologist when I go in next week to have them reprogrammed.

My hearing loss is the following:

—250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000
L… 40…45…40…45…45…50
R… 50…50…55…60…75…75

When I first got the hearing aids I was going crazy with the “deafening” (ha ha) crackling noises everywhere-- paper bags crackling, plastic bags rustling, plates and glasses clanking when I put them on the counter, etc. I kept turning the HAs down so that I didn’t jump out of my skin every time someone banged into something or walked on the creaky hardwood floor.

So, back I went and asked the audi to cut down some of the highest frequencies so that I could stand to put things in and out of bags again.

I tried it out for a week and I found it much easier to take than before-- bag noises were at acceptable levels :slight_smile: However, my speech comprehension did go down. Kept hearing 'd’s as 'n’s etc, suggesting that too many of those higher frequencies had been damped down and I was not getting the cues for the higher frequency consonants.

So, back again. This time she upped the strength of the higher frequencies again and raised the gain.

And it’s back to square one, going crazy with all the white noise. This time it is not so much the bag-rustling as a burst of hissing at the onset of every sound. Almost as if it were a voice-activated mike (which, come to think of it, it probably is) and was audibly clicking on every time it sensed a noise. This is very annoying and I’m exhausted at the end of the day.

From reading other posts I have the impression that I should ask the audi to increase the Threshold Kneepoint-- is this correct? Is this something that can be changed in increments or is it a all or nothing type of setting?

Any advice on what I should ask the audi to try will be gratefully received. I really want this to work…

Hi all,
Thanks to some help in private messages on the forum and extensive reading on how these hearing aids actually work, I am now a happy camper :slight_smile: For me, the solution was simply to turn the SoundRecover function OFF.

SoundRecover is meant for people who really don’t hear anything in the higher frequencies, no matter how high the volume is cranked up. It compresses the sound in the high frequency areas and then LOWERS it, so that it is in a frequency that can be heard. This is a help if you really wouldn’t get anything otherwise, although I’m sure it takes some re-learning to interpret something that one would normally be at, say, 6000Hz, and has been lowered to 3000Hz. This is basically the difference between /s/ and /sh/. No wonder I was hearing so many “hushing” noises! Everything in the high frequencies was getting funneled down there.

To me, that was not acceptable-- I’m picky about keeping the distinctions between the consonants in the way I have always learned to hear them. Luckily for me, I can still hear those higher frequency fricatives and stop bursts if I have enough amplification.

So, for those of you with a similar problem, it can’t hurt to experiment with turning off SoundRecover to see if it helps. Otherwise, I find the Phonaks to be very comfortable and easy to clean and take on and off. I’m happy now :slight_smile:

Hope this helps someone!

Sarah