My audi just switched me from #3 wire length M&RIE receivers to #4’s. The #3’s didn’t have the white filters on the receiver ends as she provided them to me. My new #4’s did. I relayed what I learned about the filters from this thread and the $200 for 50 filters price officially from ReSound, but my audi showed zero interest in looking into the deal with changing filters. Perhaps that’s why it’s hard to find out about the filters and get them if other HCPs have the same enthusiasm for supporting them, i.e., an extra nuisance taking up appointment space to change out filters that could be filled with other customers…?
I have a #2 and a #3 wires on my MRIE, (my right ear needs the #3) and they don’t have white filters. (See photo).
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I thought I’d describe what can happen with DIY if you don’t know what you’re doing backward and forwards. And it might help out anyone else with M&RIE receivers out of a similar predicament.
First, with my moderately severe high-frequency loss and NAL-NL2 as my fitting algorithm, I’m near the limit of using M&RIE receivers without getting feedback. To avoid feedback, I wear occlusive molds with no vent (and I do that also for the best noise control and beam-forming in very noisy situations).
When I get fit at my audi’s I’m in a carpeted environment, probably with sound-absorbing tiles in the ceiling, etc. At home, there are lots of bare wood cabinetry, Formica countertops in the kitchen, and bare tile floors, very reflective surfaces that help cause feedback if my fit is not right.
After the latest fit by the audi, I came home and thought, “I want to save her settings and be able to check them out myself.” So, I read the Omnia 962 settings with Smart Fit. I wasn’t going to change a single thing. But I examined options in a dropdown or two, being careful to have each dropdown back on the audi’s choice. When I went to exit the program, since I thought I’d changed nothing, I didn’t think the program would overwrite the hearing aid settings. But quite possibly, fiddling with the dropdowns made Smart Fit think the fitting had been updated, and it overwrote my hearing aid settings with the program content. I remember thinking that I hadn’t run a feedback test with the HA fittings loaded into my copy of the program; I wonder if that makes a difference? I had presumed when I’d loaded data from the HA’s into Smart Fitting that feedback information from the audi’s fit had come along. (another corollary problem might be that I have no idea whether the audi and I are running the same version of Smart Fit).
Shortly after that, I began to have M&RIE feedback problems in my right ear. I’d had that previously with the first mold made for my left ear. It didn’t occur to me that my fiddling around with Smart Fit might have anything to do with my annoying problem. I thought, Dang, it’s hard to get the mold in right. Had the wife, an M.D., look into my ear canal with an otoscope (as she’s done many times before). She said the left canal was fine, but the right looked swollen, and maybe I shouldn’t wear my right HA for a few days to let the ear canal recover. That seemed to make sense. I’d been fiddling with the right mold a lot, trying to get it in just right. That had probably irritated the ear canal. The mold had fit so well before, but now I couldn’t stop the feedback.
A few days later. The right canal looked much better. Feedback was a lot less, but still there. So, then my fleeting thought as I had exited Smart Fit came back to me. Maybe the fact that I never ran the feedback management test before Smart Fit overwrote my HA settings is what did me in. Perhaps the audi’s settings weren’t imported from the HA’s for some reason, or our versions of Smart Fit were very different?
At any rate, after loading up my fit again in Smart Fit, running feedback management, and saving the settings again with only that change, no feedback in either ear, and everything sounds great (knock on wood).
For anyone like me who suddenly develops a feedback problem with the M&RIE receivers, I discovered an interim solution is simply to switch to the Front Focus program (the Ultrafocus program might do the same for ReSound One or Jabra Enhance Pro users). In the Front Focus/Ultrafocus program, the M&RIE receivers are cut out. Only the HA body mics are active, and sound leakage from your ear canals causes a lot less or no feedback. In the focused environment, what’s in front of you does sound much louder than what’s around you but at least in a quiet to moderate environment, I could hear everything quite well and had NO FEEDBACK.
Another “solution” that I was considering if redoing feedback management hadn’t worked was switching from NAL-NL2 to ReSound’s proprietary Audiogram+ fitting algorithm based on the original NAL algorithm. Audiogram+ amplifies high frequencies much less than NAL-NL2 does, and when I was originally worried about how well my molds fit, the audi asked why I didn’t just go with Audiogram+ as ReSound had designed use of M&RIE receivers around that fit.
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My audi finally got the MRIE filters in from resound and they are black in color … when I originally called resound about getting replacement filters they advised that a professional should change and put in new filters… what a joke hardly any difference between changing these and the wax filters on the receiver tip
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over the weekend I was having a problem with 1 of my MRIE reciever wires and didn’t have a spare so I unhooked both wires and plugged in my old style reciver wires but they would not work … the HA’s just kept making a dinging sound… I picked up a new wire at my audi’s office today and everything is back to normal… I never realized that the set up program for MRIE’s must be totally separate from the basic reciever wire program??
My audi initially ignored my request for a supply of M&RIE microphone filters during the initial setup of my Omnias. I figured if she had to pay $200 for a box of 50 from ReSound (see ReSound Omnias with M&RIE Receivers - #37 by Ureout), maybe she didn’t have that many M&RIE receiver users and didn’t want to pay that kind of price for stuff she’d never make full use of.
So I called ReSound Consumer Support today and got a very helpful, knowledgeable rep on the line. He said ReSound could (now?) sell an audiologist as little as a single pack of 8 M&RIE microphone filters. He gave me a ReSound part number of 21536500. He couldn’t sell direct to me. He did an online search and found that Hearing Solutions of Altoona, PA (see Resound ONE M&RIE Small Microphone Filter Wax Guards (8/Pk) - 21536500 - Hearing Solutions at ENT Associates of Central PA (hearingsolutionsofaltoona.com)) is now selling 8 pks of these filters for $10 each, which he said is not a bad price. I ordered 2 pks for $20 and was charged $5 for shipping to San Antonio, TX. I’ll let everyone know how that works out when I get the stuff. The ReSound rep said that it takes a fair amount of dexterity to change the M&RIE microphone filters because the hole to stab with the removal tool is very small (he’s an M&RIE wearer himself and had trouble changing them out).
I mentioned the loss of Omnia Bluetooth connectivity on “iPhone separation,” and he said other users had also mentioned that to him. He said just turning BT off on your iPhone and turning it back on should cause the phone and the Omnias to reestablish connection, but, IIRC, it doesn’t work for me. I have to reboot any affected HA by opening and closing my battery doors.
Edit_Update: Just to follow up on the iPhone BT disconnect issue, a post by @david.hendon prompted me to “invent” a microwave test system to isolate my iPhone from my HA’s. Even under iOS 16.6, I still find a problem. Apple and ReSound have not fixed their MFI connectivity problem yet… Here’s hoping they get their act together in iOS 17. GN Resound Omnia Bluetooth issues - #18 by jim_lewis
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I got the M&RIE filters bought from Hearing Solutions at ENT Associates of Central PA ($10 per pack of 8 as described in my post just above). The product shipped, though, from Oaktree Products, Inc., in Chesterfield, MO, opening up the possibility that Oaktree might be a direct source of the M&RIE filters (but maybe Oaktree only sells this product to HCPs?).
At any rate, each pack of 8 was just in a small plastic envelope with a diagrammatic instruction sheet (no words). I’d recommend to anyone who wants to buy and change out the M&RIE filters themselves to watch ReSound’s YouTube video How to insert and remove M&RIE microphone filter - YouTube. The shipping container for the two packs that I ordered was just a bubble-pack envelope, which is amazing as the attachment point of the new filters on the plastic tool is incredibly fragile. While waving a tool around in my work area, I accidentally brushed the filter tip against something, and the new filter snapped off the stalk! So store any filters you buy in a place where they won’t knock up against other things in a drawer, etc.
@Ureout thought changing out the filters required not much more dexterity than changing wax guards on the receivers, but I must be less coordinated in my old age than he is. The ReSound video I linked shows using the tool to remove the old filter with the slightly convex (curved outward) side of the tool up (notched fork closer to you). It seemed easier to me to use the tool with the slightly convex side down instead and to try to get one fork under one side of the filter first to make it easier to pry the filter up a bit to start.
When inserting the new filter, I used a hands-free magnifying glass stand to see what I was doing. Even so, the hole to insert the clasps of the new filter in the receiver body is VERY small. Dexterity required. Unlike Cerustop/ReSound wax guards, you don’t just pull the insertion tool out. The instruction diagram shows about a 270 degree rotation of the tool is required to snap off the filter from the stem of the tool (see YouTube video, too). Once the connection is broken, you then pull the tool away.
As shown in the picture below comparing the original white old filter with the darker new one that I accidentally broke off its insertion tool, it’s hard to tell what’s solid plastic and what’s the sound-permeable filter. I thought I was going to end up with plugged M&RIE microphone inlets from not properly breaking off the filters after insertion into my receivers. The sound of feedback on my right hearing aid from not having my Select-A-Vent plug properly inserted in my mold assured me that the new filter wasn’t plugged and was letting sound through to the M&RIE microphone! 
Anyway, try changing your M&RIE filters at your own risk. YMMV, but it seems to have worked for me. I plan on doing it once every six months to a year.
The photo below compares an old M&RIE filter that came with my Omnia receivers
to a new M&RIE filter bought through Hearing Solutions, ENT Associates of Central PA. Each filter is gripped in the removal part of a filter tool.
Click on the image to see a full-resolution version of the photo.
P.S. The packing list describes the product as “ReSound ONE M&RIE Small Microphone Filter Wax Guard,” and each product package was dated 1/31/2023. Don’t know if the date is just for purposes of identifying the product lot or whether the date implies the product ages sitting around unused.
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I think what’s going on with these filters is that there is NO hole in the top of the filter. Anything that looks like a hole is just a depression caused by breaking off the stem of the tool.
My guess as to the way the filter works is that it’s like a toadstool. The stem part of the filter base inserted in the microphone opening has open vertical slits around the stem. My bet is that the stem supports the top of the filter a sufficient distance above the surface of the receiver for sound to come in under the filter cap and enter the M&RIE microphone opening through the slits in the side of the stem.
If that’s the way it works, I don’t know why they don’t provide a similar filter for the microphone openings on the hearing aid body. Perhaps the exact way each filter is inserted with willy-nilly orientation of the stem slits in the microphone openings would interfere with the beam-forming operations that the body microphones are supposed to provide. The M&RIE receiver microphones are basically used in all-around mode with any directionality provided by the ear pinnas, IIRC.
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Thank-you, Jim Lewis! Your persistence on getting this information and describing the best techniques to use, are going to be invaluable to other M&RIE users!
Jim G
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My local audiologist using Omnia 9 discouraged me to use the expensive M&RIE receiver, even when she did not match my severe high frequencies loss audiogram (left he sound area below my audiogram high frequencies curve, instead to bring her fitting above), using small power domes only. The question remains if audi uses M&RIE receiver whether will match my high frequency zone of my audiogram?
Can you post your audiogram, as the M&RIE are not for everyone, they have a fitting limit .
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I know that when the audiogram slopes steep M&RIE is not a fit, I think this is not my case, but do not know how to post the audiogram as part of my iPad photo library?
No that’s the standard receiver, it should say M&RIE
Opinions about M&RIE for me given my audiogram? I have a steep slope but loss is less than the -80db threshold I saw in one graph. I am in day 5 of trial period of Jabra EP20 (ReSound Omnia) with M&RIE. I still need some adjustment reducing some shrillness, though some of the initial shrillness diminished. I wonder if aids need a bit of break-in time as audiophiles will argue (right or not) that audio electronics do.
M&RIE is a receiver not a model type tho.
my selection is ok, based on this:
I know, I just didnt know what model has it
No it’s actually your “brain” that needs a bit of “break-in time” you’ll get used to these new sounds over time, it seems it’s already started as you stated it’s not as bad as it was.