I have been using bass double-vent domes with my Oticon More 1 HAs. Even with the More Sound Booster engaged, or using the speech-in-noise program, I still seem to get too much background speech noise in a crowded place.
I wonder if using power domes would help. What would likely be the perceived difference in my hearing experience with power domes vs. bass double-vents? Should I ask the audi to reprogram the HAs if I want to switch to power domes?
While playing TV speakers or some other continuous source of audio, stick your fingers in your ears to provide more occlusion and see if it changes the sound. You can do it one-ear-at-a-time or both ears simultaneously.
It’s not a very scientific test
But it may give you hints about how much Bass you want to hear.
I was going to suggest the same as @pvc did → stick your fingers in your ears to simulate the effect of the power dome somewhat. But without the reprogramming of your More 1, it may give you a different feel than actually wearing the power domes.
I would guess that with the bass double vents, because of some venting available, you may have slightly more amplification to compensate for some of the leak through the vents. So if you manually plug your ears to try to simulate the power dome effect, you may get a little more amplification than if you have had it reprogrammed for the power dome specifically.
I would try the manual finger plug in noisy places to see if it helps any little bit as a first quick dirty test. If it does and you don’t want to involve your audi yet, but if you do have access to a pair of power domes, then try those out next without programming. If you like them, then try to add the reprogramming finally to see if you like that even more or not. I think you have nothing to lose to give it a try. Of course, also try the power domes simulation with Default then add the Booster, and with Speech in Noise sans Booster as well for a complete test. If you’re a DIY, then it’d be easier to switch back and forth to see how you like the different combinations.
What you may find more important in the switch is whether you’re going to be willing to trade off between the added occlusion all the times in order to be able to hear with less noise in noisy places or not.
You do have another option of compromise to just plug up one of the 2 vents with something removable first and see if this may still give you better noise isolation but with less occlusion than with the power domes. I currently use the old bass dome with a single vent and I like it better than the original bass dome with the double vent that my HCP fitted me with. I’m not sure if they still make the bass dome with single vent on the More anymore, but you probably can find them on eBay, or just plug up one of your 2 vents to get that effect.
