No, it is not declining. Has been consistent since childhood
It’s very apparent there’s no way anyone could say one hearing aid should work for anyone person. In my experience this time around trialing numerous hearing aids, there is a significant difference in even just the phonak P30/P50/P70. Like I said the 30 was quiet, the 70 is noisy. The 50 was comfortable.
I’m sure there’s more hearing aids out there I may be more happy with, but that’s at the fault of the Audi if I’m being honest. There’s just not enough access or time in the world for me to be able to experiment. Let alone finding anyone willing to help. It was difficult enough getting a product as good as which in my opinion seems pretty silly but why wouldn’t the Audi just have prescribed me the equivalent to my old aids to begin with?
I am actually going to Dr. Cliff recommended Audi in my state today, so maybe that person can help me find something better, I’m having an audiogram done and consultation. If they can’t tell me anything I don’t already know then I may not bother, but if there’s any willingness to try something different or new I will take them up on the offer. But as of now the phonak P50-UP is as good as my last aids, which are not great but I can accept it and at least make them work. I was still hoping for something better but I have yet to find anyway to do so. It’s not like I can simply go to the store and buy hearing aids. It’s a revolving door industry. They lock you in and don’t seem to care after they get paid. You have to commit to a dealer then you are stuck with what they want/think unfortunately. Just being honest, sadly.
I’m beginning to think your aids havent been been programmed properly
Hearing aid are an aid to hearing and it is axiomatic that they only work when they are in your ears. This is the most important fact with HA.
In order to wear your aids for 15-16 hours a day they must be comfortable. That is the first essential to your wearing them. My journey to that understanding started 20 years ago. My first aids were hard acrylic molds. I am sure they delivered the best audio to my ears but they were really uncomfortable. My ears would get hot, the tubes would be blocked with wax, and i would be forever fiddling to gain comfort.
The next molds were better, they were vented and a softer material but they discoloured with wax and would become uncomfortable after a time.
Next came a double flanged unvented dome. They were much more comfortable but still caused pain after a time. One, and then the other, were resized from 5mm to 4mm and were the best compromise but with potential feedback if I had the volume too high.
Next was a complete change to Phonak Marvel and Powerdomes. These were double flanged and unvented. Brilliant hearing but again the right ear was uncomfortable after a few hours. I was given vented domes to be used in the right ear. It was so comfortable that the left ear became uncomfortable. Without consulting my audi I switched to both ears with 4.0 Vented.
The problem with these now is they are SO comfortable that I wear them 16 hours per day and can forget to take them out when I shower.
I now have hearing aids that I can wear.
Do they work as hearing aids? Yes, at the mid setting I experience no feed back unless I cup my hand over me ear. I may be missing some sounds but without the aids in I need to resort to lips reading.
So whatever the aid, it only works if its in your ear. Comfort before function every time.
I understand that the whole hearing thing can be very frustrating and I hope you get better results this time around although I don’t really care about anything Dr cliff may say or recommend. Bottom line is if you don’t like the service or the aids then don’t buy them. Since you already own aids I don’t see why you can’t try different aids. If you’re audiologist won’t allow it then find someone who will. This isn’t something you can rush into and be done with and then not be happy with the results. Hearing aids are a compromise at best. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept something you’re not happy with. Right now you sound angry and fed up. Hopefully you have a more positive experience this time. Limiting yourself to one brand may be a huge mistake. I have found that different brands can be like night and day.
The 70 have more features to make them less noisy then the 50.
50 and 70 even have to the same amount of channels.
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Do you have suggestions for programming? Other than the Audi programming them according to an audiogram and other than using Insitu programming?
Idk what to say, the P70’s are way too loud for me. They were picking up noises I did not need to hear. The P30’s weren’t picking up enough. The P50’s are comfortable. I’m not an expert but something tells me something is different in the 50’s/70’s, I’m not sure what, wish I could tell you because the data I can find doesn’t really specify much about circuitry… The 70’s are audibly louder with the same audiogram than the 50’s and such is true about the 30’s too.
There are people on this forum who do their own program and I’m sure would be willing to give advise. I suggest that you start a new thread since this particular thread is old and a lot of people are no longer visiting it. Personally self programming is something I never considered but like I said there are some people here who swear by it. Good luck.
If the 50s work then that is good.
I’ve got the 70s and have most of the features turned off anyway.
Having the features turned on, makes me feel less able to hear.
Well the Audi has done his own program, which is done using an audiogram and he did his own REM additionally, so there’s his prescription. Then I’ve done my own Insitu programming trying all formulas available on target, the APD 2.0 or DSL are the only 2 I like but I favor the APD 2.0 with Auto sense turned off. Additionally I imported the settings from my old hearing aids, and that seems to be the best thus far out of all the other programming I tried. I was just updating the people that provided any help to begin with, sorry
I’m just curious that if the Audi just put in his settings, if I have that right, why are you in such a rush to change it or tweak them I usually give my Audis settings a couple of weeks before I want to start messing with them. I just think I would have brought my concerns with the Audi settings regarding my complaints
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You found the P50 UP better and less pressure than the P70 UP aids. I was wondering, suppose your audiologist programmed the P70 UP aid to be similar to the P50 UP aid, disabling the extra technologies that the P70 UP offer over the P50 UP aid and would the pressure be the same or worse than the P50 UP aids?
Well honestly my Audi’s programing hasnt been great on any of the aids. Like I said, my personal Insitu programming has served better than the Audis programming. But even better than that, I was able to just import my gains from the Q50’s right into any of the phonak products. I had to manually go in and change the program settings according to my old aids yes, I defeatured them. I defeatured the P70’s, the M70’s, the P30’s but the P50’s performed comparable to my Q50’s. The P70’s we’re very noisy. The P30’s we’re too quiet. Like I said, when I imported into the P70’s the gains were really high. When I imported to the P30’s the gains were real low. When I imported to the P50’s everything was equal to the Q50’s. The P50’s perfom like my old Q50’s. Seems pretty simple to me 
Yes this is what most DIY people find out, that they can actually do a better fit, but this is only because we know what we hear and how we like to hear, no guesswork needed, which no audiologist/test equipment could possibly know.
I did go see a Dr. Cliff recommended Audi in Painesville, OH. After extensive testing she said the air-bone gap is so significant in low frequencies which would explain the dissatisfaction with digital aids. She seems to think I would be better suited with a BAHA implant or even a stapedectomy if I am eligible which would reduce the size of hearing aid needed, it would close the air-bone gap, require less power and the quality of aids would increase. So I’m gonna do research. I’ve never heard of a BAHA implant or knew what the stapes was before.
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Do yourself a favor and get a second opinion
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Hass5744 is correct. Get another opinion whether BAHA will help you.
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Yeah I’m not really interested in the BAHA, but if what I understand about the stapedectomy is true I’d be interested in that. I like being able to take my hearing aids out at night when I want to, I sleep great. It would be nice to be able to wear a smaller aid, they are much cheaper too. But I guess what it comes down to is if insurance will cover it, how invasive such a procedure is, and how long it would put me out of work, etc. I did make an appointment with an ENT to see what they say. My current audi wasn’t thrilled about the idea of surgery. I did see an ENT in 2018, Lippy Group in Warren, OH, and they wanted to do exploratory surgery. They said they could reconstruct my middle ear, but were unsure what exactly was going on with inner ear and couldn’t tell with an MRI so the exploratory surgery would need done.
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Stapedectomies can be very successful, but it depends on the state of the inner ear and until they open things up it can be difficult to know–they may have to back out without completing the stapedectomy if things aren’t as manageable as they had hoped. Surgeon will tell you pros and cons and risks.
It would be interesting to see your audiogram.