Hi, can I get some help from this great community? I am coming from KS9’s with an open dome I am struggling with my Reach BTE/RIC to the point that I am wearing my 9’s again and waiting for my appt with the Costco Audi.
Initial fitting was with a vented closed dome. Occlusion was terrible (really terrible) and that along with the switch from the opens made it a non-starter so I went back a few days later and went to open domes which the fitter agreed to do (she felt it would be “ok”) . Visit 3 to reduce sharpness resulted in fitter changing software from “Costco” to “Rexton. Proprietary”- whatever that means. Made things worse all around unfortunately (sharpness/edge, phone volume for calls, etc). Additionally, I do get feedback somewhat frequently - primarily the right ear (chirp) and then I get periods where one ear feels “clogged” (right more frequently) which I think is reduced HA input?
I want to see what the Audi recommends based on all this and am willing to try one more time with the Reaches or change to another Costco HA. Does anyone have any thoughts or feedback? I am really a set it and forget it HA user (I thought about getting the programmer but after adjustments, I would likely not use it again….).
It’s not surprising you are getting feedback. I’m on the ragged edge of open dome feedback with my open domes. So far I only experience it with my Philips 9040 aids when getting my hand to close to my ear or wearing a hooded raincoat.
Did you hearing aid fitter make sure you where actually experiencing occlusion and it wasn’t just an amplification issue by having you speak with the hearing aid turned off?
I wonder if the clogged issue is the feedback manager trying to control the feedback you are experiencing by lowering the gain. If so, then it would seem your theory is probably correct.
There are several fitting rationals. Basically, they provide preset gain settings based on your audiogram. Each rational has different preset gain settings.
I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t put you into another Phoank sub-brand, Sennheiser, that they sell. Perhaps that hearing aid wasn’t available at the time you got the Rexton.
It seems like feedback is going to be an ongoing issue for you with open domes. As such, I would try either sticking with the Phonak sub-brand or the Philips 9050.
The Philips 9050 uses a slightly different open dome, called the open bass dome. So it’s possible that their style of open dome might work out for you.
Note, you can certainly try to make modifications to a closed dome to vent it more. That might give you some idea if a vented mold could work for you.
Since you are not big on self programming. If you own a smart phone, I would down load a frequency analyzer app to your phone like Spectroid.
Then I would go to an AI voice generated web site like Typecast and see if you can identify any frequencies and volume levels that are giving you problems.
With that information, you can bring it to your Costco fitter to make adjustments to those frequencies.
Yeah this is a fitting issue, not the HAs, go back with what you’ve discussed here, correctly vented molds is the obvious choice, but also ask about the “click sleeves” type of domes,
This means the fitter is talking nonsense to you! But it’s possible they ment changed the fitting formula, but even so that’s not the correct way to deal with the “sharpness” which is the high frequency response been set too high, pretty easy for the fitter to see your old KS9 set up in target to see how you prefer to hear things, I’d bet those higher frequencies are set a lot less.
I went from KS 10’s to the Rexton Reach and am very pleased. The vented closed domes are very comfortable and no Occlusion. I am going the DIY route but the Costco tech was very close. The Rexton app has a very powerful assist that can help with some problems and the changes assuming you approve them in the app are permanent, So go back to Costco and get them closer to your liking then tweak them with the app. Or go the Dyi path.
It depends what you want from your hearing aids. Do you want comfort or maximum benefit and clarity? Why did you get new hearing aids in the first place? Did you get them to hear better?
With your hearing loss you will not get the most benefit and clarity with open domes, you just won’t. Just because that’s what you’re used to does not mean that’s what’s “best”
The reason your hearing aids sound sharp is the dispenser is attempting to get you more high frequency gain, but you are not getting enough gain in the low and mid frequencies to offset the highs; this is because you have open domes.
The only thing left is to nerf your high frequencies and reduce the benefit you are getting to stop the feedback and make them comfortable for you. IF however you can get over the occlusion then you will be in a better place overall.
I will tell you something that I have found to be true in close to 100% of the fittings I have done: if you were a new first time hearing aid user you would acclimate to more occluding domes without an issue, but since you are used to your current under-amplified hearing aids with open domes you are less willing to get used to what will help you the most because you prefer the comfort of what you had and want this new pair of hearings to “feel” the same but work better. Which will never happen.
Protip with Rexton, they should always run REM and most likely need will find they need boost 800hz-2k by about 5-8db. Also, running “MyVoice” helps tremendously with own voice issues.
The myVoice feature in Rexton does help a lot , I agree.
It’s possible that, with the Phonaks , he was set with SoundRecover2 ( frequency shifting). When I entered my audiogram in phonak’s target , the software enabled the Soundrecover feature by default (and that’s what my audiologist used, I got rid of it , music sounded horrible). The Connexx software never recommended the frequency shifting . Maybe this difference is what is causing the issues. If I have extra time tomorrow, I’ll enter his audiogram in both softwares , I’m curious about this. I’ll let you guys know .
I’m one of those that fought against using closed domes, I just detest the occlusion plus I miss the low frequency natural sounds. I found the perfect balance with Oticon’s OpenBass domes with my Phonak. They are a fantastic piece of engineering.
I’m such a nerd , I’m not sleepy and decided to run this little experiment. It took me less than 5 min .
As I predicted , target recommends frequency shifting by default, Connexx does not.
I’m not saying this is the cause of the difference but it’s interesting to see the difference in the approach . With frequency shifting, the feedback issue “maybe” can avoided. I’m not saying this is a good solution, it’s just a different explanation.
See pictures below for a graphical view of the recommended targets
Again , this is just a theory
Thank you all for the awesome responses!! Collectively, I will take this to the Audi and see what I should do. I decided it was time for a new pair for 2 reasons - 1 sane and 1 not so sane. The sane one is both of the KS9’s went through recent repair service so they are fairly “new” and will be a good long term backup (I am really attached to my HA’s) , and then I am concerned with the rising costs of products due to the tariffs. Thank you again! Very much appreciated. if anyone else has any input, I will take that along for the ride to the Audi. Will post what I decided to do in the end in case anyone is interested.