Are you sure that you aren’t confusing ReSound M&RIE receivers with Phonak ActiveVent receivers? I’ve never read anything that says M&RIE receivers have to be replaced any faster than regular receivers. The mics on the receivers are probably in a cleaner, safer environment that the HA body mics. On my molds, the surface of the mold extends out beyond the end of the receiver and actually wraps around the surface of the receiver containing the M&RIE mic so that the mic is quite shielded, cupped by the mold opening. When I get my own M&RIE receivers, I’ll try to take hi-res pictures of the receivers in the molds to illustrate what I mean. The molds grip the receivers so tightly that I wonder about pulling on the wires to extricate the receivers to change the Cerustop wax guards once a month or so without breaking the receiver wires by tugging on them.
You may be correct. Sorry
Here’s a picture of my right ear wearing the ReSound M&RIE receiver in a custom mold made for my right ear. The mic on the M&RIE receiver can be seen on the receiver just below where the wire enters the receiver and the mic is surrounded on all sides by the lip on the mold opening and recessed a few mm into that opening. The molds are actually very translucent silicone. The dark appearance is from the relative darkness of my interior ear canal. (Click on image to enlarge).
Hey Jim, this is a great thread, and thanks for sharing your “journey” to the perfect M&RIE receiver. I must live in a cave, cuz I’d never heard of them till yesterday. I surfed up to the 'net to find a really basic description of them, which you’ve brought to life with your own, living experience.
Wow, it sure sounds intriguing! I am (oddly) allergic to any kind of clear acrylic or even clear silicone mold in my ear, so I doubt I’d be able to be fit with these M&RIEs. Luckily, I have no issues with the looser-fitting, double-stacked power dome in smoke-color silicone.
I totally empathize with your issue about the ear wires. I don’t think much can be done about their shape. No matter what tool or technique I used to try and reshape mine, they’d BOUNCE happily right back to their original shape. However, I was lucky in that switching from a LONG earwire to a MEDIUM one did the trick. It just puts my BTE “bean” up higher, so the mic is now rustling in my hair more.
Keep us posted on your outcome.
below is how I bend my receiver wires to keep them close to my ear… when bending make sure the bend is as close to mold as you can get
Did you use any heater to soften the plastic? My audi says she has a heater for doing that (but never uses it!). That’s exactly what I’d like her to do for me (bend the wires). There are quite a few pictures of receiver wires on Hearing Tracker but the one I attempted to show the audi is that of @TraderGary’s posted a while back. I’m a little concerned about heating the wires so close to the receiver end. Any tips from anyone on what’s best to do would be appreciated!
Jim, no I do not use a heater… I pull the wire out of mold a little to get as low as I can get and then i bend and pinch the wire holding it in a pinched position for about 15 seconds then release it and do it again a couple more times until wire stays curled… when I make the curl and pinch I have mold facing in front of me as though it was in my ear and make the curl toward my body
This is interesting reading. When I tested Omnia I wasn’t able to use the M&RIE receivers. My audiologist said I was outside the range for M&RIE as it is intended for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.
Jordan
I recall TraderGary’s photo - in fact, I took it to my previous audi - FOR NAUGHT. He insisted I needed a size LONG wire, and that just stuck out from my ear like a cowlick getting caught on comb, fingers and face mask loops.
I have a pretty perfect fit with the size MED wire now, but as mentioned, the BTE bean sits higher up. No matter WHAT size wire is used, (and even when I had the translucent custom molds I was allergic to) those speaker tips work their way out of my ear. So I’m resigned to pushing in my aids all day long.
OK I’m relieved! Cuz they sound very cool with the mic in the ear, but thank heavens for my cinderblock ears! I’m no candidate for them.
Blue jay… I do wear a 4 length in wires because I like HA’s down a little lower behind the ears
Here’s the fitting range for the M&RIE receivers. My audi also told me when they first came out for the Ones that they wouldn’t work for me. When I asked about trialing the Omnias with M&RIE receivers, she said, No problem! I think since then by making bigger molds such as the ones that I’ve got, they’ve been able to suppress feedback at higher amplifications. My molds unlike the nice compact ones that Ureout has for regular receivers will take some getting used to on my part and they will certainly be a lot more visible in my ears, like I have a chunk of gum or something plastered into each ear canal.
Source: Datasheet link for M&RIE receivers on following web page: Hearing aids ReSound - ReSound OMNIA support
None of the Audis I’ve had in the last ten years offered to bend the wires. Had coworkers that had them like TraderGary picture. Thought it was the size or shape of my ears. I’ll ask when I go back this week.
The M&RIE receivers are working great for me, identifying where sounds are coming from and better sound quality and understanding speech better which is my primary need. I don’t even have to use my TV streamer with the Omnias and have turned of the CC. My Audi also used the NAL-NL2 as my fitting algorithm but as a first time user and 100% gain, need to ask her why since I have used hearing aids for the past 10 yrs. My problem on getting used to the occlusion from the power dome on my left side maybe that the righ ear feels very natural with the closed dome, even though is the first time using a closed dome feels a bit unbalanced, all my previous HA I’ve used open domes.
There could be a relation in size/shape of ears and the fit of ear wires. But I think it’s useful to try out the various sizes of WIRES. Insist upon it! My audi said the sound quality would be different if I went from L to M wire length, and IF that was the case, it was nuanced, and I got used to it asap.
I took and labeled some pictures of my right ReSound Omnia M&RIE MP receiver mold vs. the original ReSound Quattro mold made for regular MP receivers. Unfortunately, the original mold has yellowed and lost transparency a bit with age, so it’s hard to see the receiver and vent tube channels inside the mold.
Two distinct differences between the molds. The M&RIE receiver vent tube in the ear canal is nowhere near the opening for the receiver in the ear canal. In the Quattro mold for a standard MP receiver, the receiver and vent openings are right next to each other. The second thing is the M&RIE receiver is considerably bigger and longer than the standard MP Quattro receiver so the mold is correspondingly more massive, and the outside end of the receiver almost sticks out to the end of the tragus for each ear to accommodate the length of the straight receiver within the bending shape of the ear canal. For the M&RIE receiver, the length of the run between the “speaker” end of the receiver and the opening of the receiver tube in the ear canal is quite a bit longer, but in spite of that, the sound is great. Not sure if the sound for the M&RIE receiver is being delivered closer to my eardrum. Too bad one doesn’t get a 3D view from the mold design and original impression of exactly how the receiver for each type of mold is positioned in the ear canal relative to the eardrum and the walls of the canal, etc.
Click on each picture to get a larger, easier-to-read, more detailed view.
Looks Great! What size vent did you end with?
My Audi changed my power dome to a large closed dome which has a small amount of vent, and I don’t feel the terrible occlusion that I had. Now I have to get used to my voice again using closed domes. The Omnias are definitely a great improvement over my previous HA’s. I can heard lots of sounds that I was missing and the speech in noise understanding is great. This morning I could easily understand my wife talking to my while she was in the shower.
I think it’s about 1 mm vent size. AFAIK, they don’t label the bore sizes on the supplied plugs and it’s a little bit hairy trying to measure the actual opening size of the ven.
IIRC, I decided to use a vent originally for pressure equalization when descending or ascending while flying. My molds fit that well.
Today was the first time I received a cellphone call on my vehicle with the Resound Omnias and the iPhone using CarPlay. What was different is that it used the vehicle microphone, but the audio instead of using the car speakers came through the Resound Omnias. Don’t know if this is normal or was it a change on the new iOS 16.3. The bad thing about is that the car radio can still be heard.
Under Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices, what do you have for the Audio Routing options?
I have “Always Hearing Devices” for Calls but “Automatic” for Media. What’s happened with these settings is that when I go to play a podcast using the Automatic setting, the audio output always goes to my iPhone speakers, even when my Omnias are connected to my iPhone. Maybe for the microphone in CarPlay, there is a similar routing choice and rather than leaving it on an “Automatic” setting (if there is one?), you need to pick a settings choice that force the microphone to be on the Omnias (or perhaps CarPlay just treats hearing aids as a listening headset, not allowing for them to have input microphones?). I would think that your car microphone would be a better bet as that ought to be directly in front of you whereas the HA mics are on the side of your head. Perhaps the audio pickup depends on the beamforming capability of each type of microphone.