I have an ongoing problem with my new Rexton Bicore R Li hearing aids bought at Costco. When there is a sudden sound, the volume of mid-to-high frequencies drop and then slowly return over a second or so. This can be caused by a spoon clinking on a dish, the chopping of an onion, placing a cereal box on the counter, my own voice when I raise it to speak to someone across the room. Essentially, almost anything with a sudden sound - not necessarily loud. It is particularly noticeable when music is playing in the background - the volume of mid-to-high frequencies will go up and down with other sounds I make while preparing dinner, say. It does not depend on the settings through the app on my phone (i.e. it happens for automatic, three different music settings, a noise setting etc.).
I have gone back to have the hearing aids refitted several times over several months, I have had the pair replaced with a pair of new ones with different serial numbers and slightly updated firmware (20.19.818.2 to 20.19.852.2). The same problem occurs. I can’t imagine that this is normal. I have worn Trax 42’s for over 8 years.
Some history to help diagnose the problem, which I believe must be a software issue.
- My Costco hearing instrument specialist (HIS) is one I’ve worked with for over 8 years, and she seems keen to do whatever she can to improve the fit.
- in the summer, I had a new hearing test and updated the fitting on my Trax 42’s.
- in the fall I decided to switch out my Trax 42’s as one was opening, and a new outer shell could not be found
- I originally got the BiCore R312’s and went through some adjustments - different domes and settings - over 3 or so visits and was fairly happy with the fit and very happy with the bluetooth. There was no sudden sound artifact like the one I described above.
- I decided to exchange the R 312’s for the R Li’s as the use of bluetooth made the battery changing of the R 312’s very irregular.
- The R Li’s were fit on Dec 29 and immediately I noticed the drop in volume with the sudden sound artifact.
- I went back on Jan 2 to get an adjustment and my Costco HIS decided to just put the settings image from the last fitting of my R 312’s onto my R Li’s. This sounded very different from my R 312s when I last had them. The R Li’s with apparently the same settings as the R 312’s seemed much more muted. In any event, the sudden sound artifact was still present.
- on Jan 11 the HIS checked what I was hearing with the R 312 settings and said that it did not look right. She said it was possibly some issue with a configuration difference on the R Li’s with what was on the R 312’s. She decided to do another fitting with a more linear compression algorithm to see if that did anything to the artifact. It did not. The fit was not good either - echoey.
- on Feb 5 the audiologist tried another fitting but the sudden sound problem remained
- on Feb 8 the audiologist talked with a Rep on my visit, and they decided that a good test would be to put the image from my trax 42 fitting on the BiCore R Li’s to help eliminate any settings issue causing the sudden sound problem. The sudden sound artifact remained.
- On a Feb 11 visit, my HIS decided that it must be a hardware problem and put in for a swap for a new pair. She said once they arrived she would put the Trax 42 image on them for me and I could just pick them up to test.
- on Feb 27 I picked the new BiCore R Li’s and there was still the same sudden sound problem as I mentioned at the beginning.
I really like the R Li hearing aids. Aside from the very irritating sudden sound problem, they are a big improvement over the Trax 42’s. To me, it must now be a firmware issue or a settings issue. I have the latest firmware, and it is different on this new set, so I am thinking that it must be a settings issue of some sort. It is not clear to me that just putting a settings image from a previous fitting wipes out all the settings. For example, with apparently the same settings, the R Li’s sounded much more muted than the R 312’s, which were quite harsh. Perhaps there are hardware differences between the Li’s and 312’s?
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions as to what I could get my HIS to try at my next visit, I would be very grateful.
Thanks