As a follow up, the clarity continues with my NAIDA Q50. Day in and day out. Absolutely no changes. Echoey environments are perfect. I can hear my voice very clearly and perfectly in addition to all other noise, exactly how it should be. It doesn’t matter where.
I will be testing this against my NAIDA B90 + CROS B when I receive it back from warranty repair to see what else needs to be changed.
With my NAIDA Q50: Vowels are clear. Consonants are clear. Zoom calls are perfect and clear. Everything’s clear. I can hear every single part of a sound regardless of its frequency. From the bottom part, the middle part, and the top part (I’m sorry I just don’t know the technical audiology terms for this…maybe peaks and valleys?). When I was at the store I could hear all across the store. The beep of the forklift (which was blocked by my NAIDA B90). Being able to distinguish between loud and soft sounds is about 10 times easier.
With my NAIDA B90 + CROS B: Vowels were muffled especially when coming from my own voice, but consonants were clear. Zoom calls were always muffled and I never had a single Zoom call that was clear with my NAIDA B90 + CROS B and had to turn my computer speakers’ volume up to 80 to get any usable benefit when on a Zoom call. I could only get the “middle” part of the sound. Sounds just sound flat, dull, and lifeless. Voices were just voices, without the rich texture of voices. The music sound was just the “sound” without the texture of the sound. And I could only hear about 15-20 feet in front of me, and not across the store. I am not sure how much of this is due to the degradation of my hearing instruments over a 3-4 year period.
I hope my explanation makes sense. My audiology term vocabulary is limited.
Hope this helps…your old hearing aids are capable because they are setup properly. Your new hearing aids need to be setup and programmed properly.
It’s taken a while for me to get my new hearing aids in the acceptable range. They weren’t before. It’s taken multiple visits to a very helpful audiologist. I prepare a list. When I have a problem, I add to the list. Then I send the list to the audiologist in an email. I get helpful criticism at home…“your hearing aids don’t work…” First thing I do is add to the list. Second…I change the wax guard in my hearing aids, and change the dome. Clean the microphone ports on the shell of the hearing aids. And check the charge on my battery.
I go through the same process. But have been doing so for the past 3 years that I’ve owned these pieces of junk. I’ve never been happy with them. Maybe it’s time to work with the software myself.
Please do, it’ll be the best chance of getting your HAs sounding how you like them to sound.
Just ask if you want the software, plenty of people from right here on hearingtracker to help you along.
Thanks, Zebras! I got both icube II and Noahlink anyway. I am pretty close to an upgrade so I will get good use out of both of them during my hearing aid transition as I upgrade to the Paradise. With my severe/profound loss, I can’t go without my hearing aid for an extended period.
What is a good place to trial hearing aids online? And which brands can I trial now that I have a Noahlink on the way? The one thing that I have always been unhappy about my audiologist about (they have generally always been a great audiologist for 20+ years otherwise, don’t get me wrong) is that the only thing I could ever try was Phonak, especially considering they are well-known for their muffled sound.
You wouldn’t buy a car after trying out one car right? The same principle should apply to hearing aids. Not everything works for everyone.
Zebras - Thanks!! I am going to really test and see what happens when I get my B90 + CROS back from warranty repair. Just putting on my old Q50 (no CROS) has been a real shocker in terms of assessing just how horrible the B90 + CROS quality had degraded over time. But, even when new I still had issues with some muffled sound. It just did not become more apparent until I really paid more attention and noticed what it was doing. Then it stuck out like a sore thumb every single day.
I still don’t know at this point how much of that was due to instrument degradation and just the overall age of the instruments. But I think the fact that I had muffled sound from the beginning is a red flag. Who knows? Maybe the delivery person was not very gentle with the package when delivering it. Because it is supposed to have been a brand-new set of hearing aids.
