Tevc32: I sympathize with your vent, and if its any comfort, I can’t understand my grandchildren either.
My research indicates (and at least one audi agrees) that all the new and supposedly sophisticated speech recognition algorithms help folks with moderate loss but aren’t much help for folks with moderate-severe or severe (or, obviously, profound) loss… particularly if they have poor discrimination too. I think pretty much the same is true of supposedly sophisticated directionality algorithms and capabilities.
Also, while this is of course anecdotal, I’ve found that my tests at about the same time by different audis produce similar loss curves but quite different discrimination scores. (I would will be alert for ant audi’s explanation or comment on this.)
I’m currently trying Phonak Audeo S Smart RITEs and recently trialed Oticon Agil Pro RITEs. My conclusion is that neither are that much better than my old Oticon Syncro BTEs, and both Audeo and Agil directionality and speech recognition advertisements are borderline BS (i.e., same category as weight-loss pill ads).
Hz) L(dB) R(dB)
250 40 50
500 55 65
1K 55 60
2K 60 60
4K 70 70
8K 90 100
L: 88% SD@80dB
R: 64% SD@85dB
L&R stapedectomy <!-- / message -->