The commissioning and first 6 hours with my first ever hearing aids (Jabra Enhance Pro 20) from Costco

[jim_lewis]

@Neville

I just don’t know if you can get a M&RIE with a mold. You couldn’t when it came out, but maybe there has been a change.

Not sure where the idea that molds could not be worn with ReSound’s M&RIE receivers got started. It’s an urban legend or perhaps otherwise a regional availability issue from LONG AGO.

Below is a quote from my summary of an Audiology Online course by Laura Christensen from back in August 2020 when the ReSound One first came out with M&RIE receivers. Christensen, in the Q&A, specifically said custom molds would work with M&RIE receivers and if you look at ReSound fitting documentation for accommodation to hearing loss from around 2020, either power domes or custom molds are specifically called for to use M&RIE receivers for patients having moderately severe hearing loss to avoid feedback issues.

@jim_lewis

At the end, she came around to questions of feedback. Said that up to a 75 db loss can be fit at 2, 4, or 6K while still keeping feedback in bounds for most. She said that if feedback were an issue, one could move up to tulip or power domes if necessary but they had a new dome intermediate between tulip and open available to help. No problem with wearing custom molds, if one wanted (I imagine if one wanted very occluding molds, one might just be putting oneself in the position of ITE wearers with little venting). Someone asked her about wax in the microphones. She said a trial with 156 participants found very little problem. Only a few had problems with wax in the microphone and for almost all, wax in the receiver is still the only real issue.

The main impediment to wearing custom molds is the extra length of the M&RIE receiver vs. the depth and bore size of a user’s ear canal. If one has a very small diameter ear canal that only runs a relatively short distance before it takes a sharp turn, it can be hard to fit a M&RIE receiver into a sufficiently thick mold that can be inserted deep enough into the ear canal. My left ear canal is problematic, and I can’t quite insert the M&RIE receiver far enough that the M&RIE mic is in the ear canal itself, where it’s supposed to be as for an ITC device. My left and right ears seem balanced in sound perception, I still get decent sound localization (better if receivers could be further inserted?) and very good wind noise reduction in moderate breezes as advertised for M&RIE receivers on my Omnias.