Thanks for sharing.
CORRECTION: The sound issues were due to a snow storm the day I demo’d using a cell phone. The Oticon’s were fine the next time I used them and the sound was actually quite good. Sorry about that.
Hello ajwhite,
I have been using Epog for 4 years now. It took me one year to get the right settings and get used to Oticon sound. However, I need to have different settings for different people. Make it simple. Program one (no compression at high frequecy band, there are 3 main frequency bands) for native English speaking Caucasian. Program two (with some compression at high frequency band) for Asian (with some accent).
I am trying out Quintra for almost 2 weeks now. Program one (normal plus some gains) good for native speaking Caucasian, but distorted for some Asians. Program 2 (music mode) good for Asians but not clear for women especially in noisy place. Program 3 (normal) clear but not loud enough for Caucasian.
I am going to see the technician in Costco tomorrow, can you give me some suggestion to tell the techician how to adjust the Quintra.
By the way, the technician in that Costco is weird. She does not want me to look at how she do the adjustment by using her back to block me from seeing her working. She also did not want to print the settings of the 3 programs even I requested. Any suggestions?
My suggestion is to simply ask the fitter to quit blocking your view. She is working for you and you are paying good money for her to do it. So be polite but firm. I’ve been buying HA’s for 40 years and if the fitter won’t tell me everything they are doing, I request another fitter or walk away.
I’ve given up on the Quintra’s. They simply don’t do a good enough job in noisy environments. Mind you I’m very fussy and particular. There is no reason I should have to work so hard to interpolate and extrapolate sounds in my brain to fill in the gaps left by less than capable hearing aids.
The Quintra’s are dual core (what Rexton calls 2c technology) and they are a big improvement over prior digital aids because of their additional speed and memory. However, the new Oticon Alta line is quad core and has even more speed and memory. Actually, much more. This allows for more and better manipulation of the incoming signal to recreate normal hearing. And luckily the Alta’s work very well for me. And I’m well aware not everyone can afford the latest technology. This is very sad and an artificial situation actually.
<rant>(Rant!)The crippling of hearing aids to justify selling at a lower price, is to me a major sin. There is no reason, other than marketing, that those with lower incomes should be deprived of the latest technology because of pricing formulas. Most of the actual cost of the rearing aids isn’t in the hardware. It’s in the research and the marketing and distribution. I get very angry every time I think of this. If you don’t think your aids are crippled, mosey on down to your Oticon dealer and try a pair of Alta Pros. I find them nothing less than miraculous. Unfortunately they sell for $6,000 and if you are stubborn, can get them for a bit less than $5,000. That’s still a pocketful of change compared to $2,600 for the ‘new’ Quintra’s. Worse, a huge part of those in need can’t even afford the Quintra’s. I’ve demoed 8 or 9 different aids from all the major manufacturer’s over the last several weeks, and believe me the latest technology is a real breakthrough. A sea change. A paradigm shift. Use whatever cliche you like, but for the first time ever in my life, I no longer struggle to hear. Are these aids perfect? Hell no! But they no longer incompetent. The older technology was certainly a help. But an answer? Hell no…(End Rant!)<end rant=""></end></rant>
Hello,
How big is the difference of hearing speech when using Oticon Alta vs Quintra in terms of speech recognition? Say scale 1 to 10, what is the scale of Alta and Quintra?
Thanks
remember old technology was new technology at one time. what you think is world class today will be crap compared to technology 2 years from now.
Doc Jake, yes, you are correct. But at least today’s new technology is fresh crap. 
Digitalohmygod, putting a number on that type of comparison is purely subjective and would vary from person to person. That being said, and only comparing the Quintra and Alta (not an absolute scale), I would say that the Quintra is a 6 and the Alta Pro an 8. The main difference, and it’s a big one, is speech in noise. The Alta Pro is much better at focusing on individual speakers in a car or in a noisy bar or party.
Mind you I like the Quintra’s open, spacious sound. The Alta Pro seems a little restricted in comparison. This is apparent when using the Alta Pro’s music program which is very good and sounds much richer than the speech in noise program. Of course this is inevitable because of the compression required to isolate speech frequencies from the background noise.
I’m going to try the Widex Dream 440’s this coming week as well as the Hansaton Antaro (which is a less expensive version of the Siemen’s Pure Micon 7i. I’ll update in my other thread. So many hearing aids, so little time…
Here’s my audiogram which I finally had time to do.
Hello ajwhite,
I want to make sure that you are using Alta Pro, not Alta. What is the difference between the two Altas? I know there is a price differnce of almost $1K.
For me, if the big difference between Alta Pro and Quintra is hearing speech in noise, then I think this not the biggest issue for me since I use hearing aids mostly at work, a quiet place. So, if hearing at noise is not a concern, do you think Quintra is good enough for speech recognition in quiet place?
Oh, I need to update my last visit to Costco. The woman still not printed the settings for me upon my requests. Also, she just told me she increased some high frequency in the music mode and added some lower frequency in the normal plus mode.
After I went to my office and spoke to some people, I found the normal plus mode was not as clear as before for talking to white people, but a little bit better for asian (still not great). The music mode was a little bit better for everybody but still not good. Hell, she did not know what she was doing and kept blocking me by using her back. I know a new manager is coming from coming Monday and I will definitely ask to see the manager instead of her. She is making my life miserable.
Also, I am not 100% agree that today’s technology is better than before. What I think the better part of today’s technology is blue tooth and some other features, like feedback blah blah. The most important thing is sound quality of hearing clear speech. I don’t mean hearing birds singing or extra clear music, just speech. The new technology creates sound that is sharp, sometimes too harsh to hear the words clearly. Another thing is the digital sound is weaker than analog, yes analog, the ancient technology, in terms of power. Therefore, the digital hearing aids need power receiver in order to compensate for the lower power disadvantage and sometimes it create very harsh sound, like piercing my eardrum, damn it!! Also, the new digital hearing aid is good damn more expensive than programmable analog hearing aid (like a hybrid, the power of analog and the flexibility of digital). Anyway, the whole world has gone to digital and will not go back. Maybe I have gone too far. Now back to Quintra, I will go back to Costco next week to see the new manager and ask for fine tuning.
Definitely the Alta Pro’s. The big difference between the two is the binaural processing and spatial noise management as well as an automatic learning mode. There is more info here:Hearing aids, information on hearing loss and tinnitus | Oticon
I found the Quintra’s very good with the standard calculated setting without any tweaking. Where it fell down for me, as I’ve said, is with speech in noise.
I disagree strongly with you about analogue being better. The analogue sound may be a bit smoother, but there was no way to manipulate the incoming sounds to eliminate unwanted background noise. Your brain had to do it all. Nothing wrong with that. If you prefer analogue sound maybe that’s what you should look into. I think there are threads here dealing with analogue hearing aids exclusively. You might want to read through them. Certainly a basic analogue HA would be much cheaper.
oticon and widex seems to share some fm accessories. this tells me that they may share a whole lot more than that. imo if you want to have a more relevant comparison with the oticon aids, then compare it with a phonak. if speech in noise is your main issue, then you should look into phonak’s gaming changing binaural stereozoom technology. seeing that you need a power aid, the nadia q is probably the way you want to go. but you need a high end version of the aid to get that stereozoom feature.
I’ve tried Phonak. Their implementation sucks. At least for my ears. Plus they are expensive and I had nothing but trouble with their reliability. Just my experience for my ears. Others like them.
For me, I found their algorithm for switching between situations (quiet, noise, etc) could never make up its mind. Worse, would get stuck in the wrong one and would have to be rebooted and reprogrammed. Maybe the new ones are better, but that experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Never again.<shrugs></shrugs>
You describe the issue that many on this board had with phonak aids. I actually gave up on the audeo smart aid (pre-spice aid) for this exact reason. I actually gave up on a savia aid a while back too, which could have been soundflow related. Stereozoom brought about a lot of new users and finally an audi on the board determined that the soundflow issue was actually that those programming the aids were not running the feedback manager program. I am still not sure if it has to be run before or after programming the aid but I think people indicated that it’s the first thing that has to be run each and every time the aid is programmed. imo to play it safe it should run before and after programming the aid. All it is a target icon on the default programming screen that needs to be clicked on. I had so much trouble convincing new users to tell their audi to do this. So in the future when I decide to try out a new phonak I will be sure to ask my audi to run the feedback manager before and after programming. Not 100% sure if this will work but I remember trialing the audeo smart and there were times when that aid performed magic that no other aids could do.
Just to report on my Rexton Quintra 2c experience – I have been testing top of the line HAs over the last 6 months - Widex Dream 440, Siemens Micon Pure 7, Phonak Audeo Q90. I was unimpressed with the Widex, the other two were decent – better than what I have now (Phonak Audeo Smart IX) but not sure if the upgrade is worth $5,000. I too think that the Phonak software has hard time to decide which program to choose.
After reading many posts on this forum, I decided to try Costco’s Rexton Quintra 2c, picked them up last week. 90 days return policy, whats not to like. I have to say that so far they seem to be equivalent to the Siemens and the Phonak, not better but not worse either, and they cost half of the price of the other three. I still need to stress-test them in noisy environments but if I had to choose today, I would go with the Quintra. I am also going to test Phonak Naida + Roger pen (that may help in restaurants), will report on them in a week or two.
Well I’ve had my Quintra aids for about 6 weeks now. I have yet to get them dialed in well. Every time I go in the specialist seems to fumble with the software. For some reason she is unable to make small changes without completely resetting the aids, and she invariably can’t get things set the way they were before. Every time I go in it’s like I’m starting over from day one. Once she even managed to turn OFF the noise reduction feature.
My most recent tweaking has resulted in very tinny sounds and frequent feedback in my left ear. On two separate occasions she has actually had to call her support office to answer questions about features I noticed in the software that she didn’t know about. And she is the SENIOR Specialist at this location. The others have only been at it a short time and appear to have been trained by her (one was training with her when she did my initial fitting.)
Guess it’s time to go to another Costco. Do other stores have access to my records or do I have to request they be transferred? I’ll hate giving up the convenience (it’s only 5 minutes to my closest store but about 45 to the nearest other store) but at this point I’ve pretty much lost confidence in the local store.
BakaNeko
| 500 | 1K | 2K | 3K | 4K | 6K | |
| L | 40 | 60 | 65 | 65 | 70 | 70 |
| R | 20 | 25 | 35 | 35 | 50 | 65 |
Apart from the programming problems in my previous post, I also have a very hard time keeping the receivers in my ears, particularly my right ear. I apparently have large ear canals. She’s tried several types of “domes” and my right one still keeps popping out. My right ear is currently a single vented dome and my left is a closed double dome. Is it common to have different domes in each ear?
Would this problem go away if I went the custom molds route? Or wouldn’t that make a difference? Also, do custom molds completely close the ear canal or do they get vented somehow? I tried “in the canal” aids several years ago and hated how they completely plugged up the ear.
Thanks.
BakaNeko
| 500 | 1K | 2K | 3K | 4K | 6K | |
| L | 40 | 60 | 65 | 65 | 70 | 70 |
| R | 20 | 25 | 35 | 35 | 50 | 65 |
I think going to the other Costco store is the right thing to do. Start with a new hearing test and then get a new fitting. Regarding the domes, it’s not uncommon to have different types on each side. It all depends on the loss in each ear. The open domes are available in three sizes: 4, 8, and 10mm. The double domes are available in two sizes: 8/10 and 10/12mm. If these sizes don’t fit, then you have to get custom molds with appropriate vents. And make sure the cable length is correct; it should be flush against your ear when the receiver is inserted.
Thanks for the response. I have one more fitting with my local Costco on Tuesday. Depending on my results I’ll most likely go to another store. Do I need to request my records be transferred or will they have access to them in their computer?
As far as the domes are concerned what is the deciding factor between getting the open domes and the closed double domes? I would prefer open domes so i don’t get that “plugged up” feeling but obviously I’ll get what I need. I imagine i would eventually get used to it but for now i don’t care for it.
Thanks again.
They save to a server so if you are in the same area they should be able to get to it. But, they can get the current setup from your hearing aids anyway.
Depending on the brand (not sure who has what) there is a dome called a tulip dome. It has two flaps that overlap slightly. It is a little bigger than a regular dome and conforms to the size of your canal. I had that and loved it. It has better feedback control but is not occluding, and they are very comfortable. I couldn’t tell I was wearing anything.
I have heard the limit for open fit was around 25 to 40 loss at 500 Hz, and it depends on how much amplification you need in the high tones. I used the tulips with my hearing test results below. My hearing is a little worse now so I’ve gone to a custom mold. It is comfortable also (but the tulips are better) and the mold has a select-a-vent thing where it is vented with a large hole and they give you inserts that fit in the big hole and have different size holes. I tried the different inserts until I found the largest one that would not give me too much feedback.
So BakaNedo…in what “general area” are your Costcos located? I’m looking for the best fitter in So. Cal.