Well I am three days into my new aids. Came from Siemens Centra Actives. The Pure’s came with Charger and MiniTek. My Actives served me well but these are far and away better than the Actives.
First off, I bought these online [shutter] and the programing is near perfect. A few things like a little feedback on the “music” program.
Of the 6 programs, one is dedicated to Bluetooth and one to “TV transmitter” [haven’t tried this yet]. I have the rocker switch on the aid programed to change the channels, the notification sounds need to be increased in volume though.
In “normal” program mode, I have heard sounds like steam from the floor cleaner, the microwave from 30 feet away with a wall partially in the way. I can comfortably carry on a conversation with my wife or several people seamlessly. I no longer jump out of my skin when the dogs bark next to me. Driving in the car is now a piece of cake and realize that radio sounds pretty good. Folks at my age I don’t get excited by much, the Pure’s just have me smiling all the time.
Post sale support is ok, just. What is great is the Siemens audiologists who know where I bought these but have been nothing short of great. Because I live in the land of limited audiologists who charge a huge amount with no competition, I saved $4000 doing this online. I’ll deal with a few workarounds.
I will tell you that if you aren’t comfortable playing around with technology stick with brick and mortar. However, the manuals are straight forward and the process is fun. My hearing is just good enough that I can remember what unaided hearing should be like. I am amazed with the way these handle the the difficult situations.
That’s wonderful. I also really like the natural sound of the Them. I am waiting about a month to purchase and am wearing two aids, but they don’t work together. What a difference. Music is so much better with the Siemens. One thing they kept doing though, is beeps from microwaves didn’t sound like one beep, but more of a trill. I noticed the same thing at work using the card reader. Does that happen to you? It doesn’t happen just wearing two non-synched aids.
What else did u learn about the programs? Do u have to do something manually for speech in noise?
nice to see Siemens getting some love for a change. I’ve found the normal/auto program in slot 1 to handle all situations just fine. position 2 is reserved for a BT phone connection you can pair 2 phones and connect with either one. position 3 is generally used for the tek or minitek. position 4 I added SpeechFocus as it help with hearing folks beside or behind you particularly in a car. I just added a VoiceLink (remote wireless mic) to my minTek setup not sure why but I got one so…
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad to hear you are happy with the 5 mi. I am currently on the fence on whether to go with the 5 or 7 mi. The 7’s are 1000.00 more than the 5’s and I’m trying to decide if it is worth it to upgrade. I have mild to moderate hearing loss and have never worn HA’s before so I won’t have any reference points. 1000 seems like a lot for basically the directional speech enhancement option.
I’m curious, do you know if nonlinear frequency compression has been enabled in any of your programs? Siemens is the only manufacturer other than Phonak offering this feature across an entire platform of products.
Thanks for the interest all. I must say the most surprising thing about these aids occurred when I put them on for the first time. It was like a calming cloak of normal, at least as close as possible, happened. No sudden balloons and confetti. Just a relaxed wow. Great scientific explanation isn’t it??
xresolutionx - don’t know what that is honestly. But hopefully meeting with a Siemens rep soon to be a training guinea pig. Will ask.
Shorty - The difference was $700 in my case. What I was told by several sources. The need for large crowd hearing, ie stadium/airport/ concert , was the difference in the 5 or the 7. Since I drive a Corvette, no back seat and wife hates the car, conversations are limited to non existent.
Uncle Larry- Agree Normal in #1 does an amazing job in general. Watching movies on TV is a bit of a challenge but think the MiniTek /transmitter will fix that. Yes #2 is BT and can be replaced with a more practical program if needed. My #3 is the Noisy Environment and honestly haven’t had a chance to really check it yet. #4 is the TV Transmitter, again could be used for something else. #5 is Music and I am considering having a TV watching program in its place. #6 is outdoor Sport, ie golf.
Tisha - the sound is wonderful and not overly processed. Still trying to figure out how they deal so well with the sudden Golden of Corgi barks. Today I am pairing my Ipod to see how the music sounds in either #1 or #5.
Ahh the beeps. Asked Siemens about that as I can barely hear the darn things, the up and down scaling is worthless. I was told I can have volume increased and be just like the Centra Actives, straight line beeps . Speech in noise is #3 and it is suppose to be fantastic compared to the Actives, just haven’t had a chance to test it.
Hi. Concerning the beeps, I meant the sound of external beeps. Microwave oven when it beeps, car beep letting you know the lights aren’t off when getting out, things like that. It’s a trill, instead of one beep, like the aren’t synched together correctly.
I also had the issue with the internal beep. Could not hear it when batteries were dying. Also, I don’t like that there is not a beep when battery is first put in so we know the aid is on and working immediately. That is a con.
So, for the speech in noise…you have to turn that on by a switch on the aid? Is there some type of remote instead that can be used?
Ok external. This morning the timer on the microwave went off and I was standing 5’ from it. It surprised me since I never heard it before and this close. Not bad but definitely new. Hard to assess “trill” in this case. The car beeps are not bad but little louder than they need to be. I will bring this up in the adjustment app’t.
Can’t hear the internal program notifications unless it is dead quite and it makes no difference freshly charged or otherwise. The Micons are on when you take them out of the charger, no need to turn them on. This is new for me coming from Actives. Take them out and go. The only issue is it appears to still be in the last used program.
Again, not sure re “speech in noise” specifically. I think its in the "noisy " program is as just a component of the Conexx program. I think. Interesting just tried the Noisy program while typing and listening to the TV. Dogs movements and breathing stopped and I was aware of just the dialogue on the TV.
jrr, once you try the miniTek and TV combo you won’t go back. I like it set with mic’s off so you only hear the TV. I rarely use a phone these days but hearing the phone in both ears makes a huge difference at least in my case.
Tisha, the external beep problem can be fixed in the programming. the volume of the internal beep can be adjusted. be sure the advance/extended (forget what’s it called) notification are on. ask to have the power-on delay set, I have mine at 15 sec’s. this gives you 15 seconds to get them in before the start screaming but during the delay they play a string on beeps. there are assorted ‘remote’ options the miniTek is the way to go. (pumps BT phone, TVLink, PC/TAB/Whatever that has BT outpput directly into both ears in stereo.
imo, get the rocker switch on one aid setup to change volumne the the other to change programs.
Larry great suggestions. Great idea re the rockers, seemed dumb that both are set to just change the program. I and the wife look forward to the TV hook up. These aids are allowing me to set the TV 4-5 dbs lower than the Actives and about 15db lower than nothing.
Larry maybe you know why I am getting a intermittent high frequency beep in one of the aids. Its very subtle and only in the normal setting. Its also not feedback because I can hold my hand over the ear and get no feedback. Putting it in the Noisy Program and there is no beep.
My dilemma - self inflicted I’m sure - is that while I’m very fortunate to be able to use my states voc-rehab to leverage very good discount pricing. But with no subsides other than the discounted pricing my cost is 2200 for a pair of 5mi vs 3200 for 7mi. It seems to me that the 5mi is crazy low and the 7mi, while still a very good price, is disproportionately higher. It’s probably me just over thinking the situation and I should just be thankful and leave it at that.
I wish I could it get for that! The difference for me is $1400 between the 5 mi and the 7 mi, and yes…they are gouging us for those 2 littles extra features (automatic Speech in Noise and Speech Quiet) vs having to do in manually.
I guess you just have to decide your lifestyle and that makes the decision. I’m still fairly active in that I’m in and out of noisy environments. I still have teenagers at home and have a busy social life, in restaurants, parties, etc. I really don’t want to have to be fooling around with my HA manually all the time. Plus, another thing is that I have long hair. So, I’d be having to fool with that trying to reach for the HA, and with long hair sometimes it tends to pull on the HA and they get tangled in my hair, and…just ugh.
My difference would have been $700 give or take a few. But with the MiniTek and charger our prices are about the same for the 5micon.
Again unless you are exposed to the larger environments you should be ok in restaurant noise with 5 micon. Tisha is correct, for those two features we are being gouged. I will bet you even money that they exist in both 5 and 7 mechanically but the software to activate is the difference.
Tisha
Wish I had the hair problem but just bald. Why not just a simple pro pocket or e-pen remote? I think the pro pocket is retail around $135, I tired the e-pen and no way that would work with my eyes and fingers.
See mid way down. I have used the Actives’ version of e pocket and its a neat little device. Keep in mind that over time the aids will learn and the need for the remote would go down a bit.
Tisha, those are just remotes with some extra features, so instead of fulling around with rocker switches, you push buttons on remote. I too wish I had long hair… or more hair for that matter. lol.
Glad to read a nice and positive review of the new Micons, I’ll be getting Pure 7mi soon and my audiogram isn’t very different from the OPs’.
Thanks to jrr and Tisha for the advice on options and the reason for the choices. I’ve decided to go with the 7’s because I do want the automatic features. I don’t want to be “fiddling” with them and given my history a remote device would probably be lost in short order. I’ll check back here and update/review my impressions on the HA’s.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to be paying $5,800 for the 7 mis and and extra $500 for the minitek. Looking forward to hearing your impressions.
Tisha/Shorty Best of luck and all I can say is at this point I am very happy. I will also pass along a comment from Siemens. Since you are going the traditional way of using a local audiologist, there is a 60 day trial.
Tisha are you in the US and if so what generic area?
Jrr, I am in the US and live in Indiana, lots of Audis in my town.
The reason I’m going the traditional route is due to my asymetrical hearing loss, and the Audi I go to is in the office with my neurotologist ( I have an acoustic neuroma, a benign intracranial tumor). Their office is 3 minutes from my house and she’s a friend/neighbor.
Takes care of me best she can, but since it’s not her business I get no price breaks. She’s as sweet as pumpkin pie and I go in whenever I want.
Good luck with you, also. I really think these are superior products, but I’m glad I have that 60 day trial period!