I was just trying to keep us from hijacking Mark’s thread. 
BlueCrab, that’s a great idea! Ok no more thread hijacking
Been in the Evokes for three weeks now and was in the clinic today for some tweaking. Didn’t do any. I have them where I want them and they sound great. Amazing aids IMO.
First, the reproduction of music with these is simply fabulous–even when streaming. All the complaints I had three years ago when I got my first pair of aids; thin, hollow sounding, non-existent bass, lacking warmth and fullness have been erased. They sound great. I now know why Widex aids are favored by so many musicians.
Speech in noise. I use the Impact program for speech in noise and it’s excellent. See my review above from a few days ago. My aided speech in noise score with the quickSIN is in the normal range. My aided WRS is 100% @ 50dB. I can go to obnoxiously noisy restaurants again and be an active part of the group. The ambient noise level may extremely loud but they pull the speech out and put it there for me to hear.
SoundSense learn feature and the app. The app so far is without fault. I turn the aids on, open the app and it’s connected. It gives me no problems when other devices the phone is paired with are present. I can tweak and adjust the sound with the A / B choice comparison method, or I can use the equalizer and adjust low, mid and high frequencies until I find a sound that suits the particular situation I’m in and then name it and save it. I can apply a photo to it if I choose. These aids allow you to raise and lower the volume on the left and right side independently. Don’t know if other aids do this now but it is a great help to me in noise with my funky screwed up hearing on the left side.
I have one more trial visit next Thursday to let my AuD know if I intend to keep them or trial the Marvels. I already know the answer. If nothing changes between now and then I am not going to change. All we’ll do next week is fit me for molds and order the TV Play. After my first three years in aids I had some hopes that technology had improved but I had my doubts. Those doubts have all been put to rest.
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I’m jumping in here mid-way, but you could make the CROS an ITE and the hearing aid a RIC, or vice versa. If you got them from the same company, you could probably even convince the lab to stick a receiver wire into the ITE to connect to the RIC (imagine a RIC with a somewhat larger than average custom tip). That would probably necessitate phonak, though, which would mean three new hearing aids. That’s a lot.
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I’m also a huge fan of the 440s for many of the same reasons you mention, Mark. The sound quality is really excellent, especially compared to my old ReSound Linx 2 devices. I especially love the tone and timbre I get from these in nearly every situation. The sound is rich and warm vs. the harsh sharpness I never could get used to from the ReSound devices.
I also am very impressed with the Evoke 440’s performance in noise (something despite years of tweaking the ReSounds never did as well as my older Phonaks with their StereoZoom feature). Per cwningen and your advice, I added the Impact program, and it works really well in situations that Universal (the main program) can’t handle. I also took Party and modified the directionality of the mics to full forward which is now working well for one-on-one conversations at a noisy restaurant or holiday party (great to have options).
Lastly, I’m very thankful for SoundSense Learn. As an engaged user, the ability to “dial in” exactly the sound I want/need on-the-fly is a real relief. I’m never concerned that what the Audiologist has programmed won’t be good enough as I can always adjust it in the moment. This hasn’t been possible with any other hearing aid I’ve ever worn (and still isn’t for most devices out there).
Chris
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It simply allows a level of personalization that is not available with anything else. Auto simply can’t match it because there is no one size fits all.
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Neville, that’s a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Mark, so happy to hear about your great experience with the Evokes, especially since your unusual loss is similar to my unusual loss. I’m really excited about getting new HAs next year to replace my Opn’s.
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There’s a slick little mixer that you can bring up when you’re streaming the Evoke that allows you to let noise from your surroundings in or shut it out.
Agreed! I remember reading Widex docs suggesting that users shouldn’t need more than Universal and that this should cope with all situations automagically.
To a limited extent I agree things should just work transparently without interaction but we’re a long way from anything smart enough to know when, and where to change to Impact (or other programmes/settings within Universal etc) because I don’t understand what’s being said! Until then, it’s mostly manual control for me thanks!
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Right. Two people with almost identical hearing losses standing side by side would find the aids acting identically. One might be happy with the auto choice and another not so much. There are too many variables and subjective preferences for any automatic program to get things as close as the one hearing can.
Went in today and confirmed that I’m keeping the Evokes. Had impressions made for molds that will be here in about three weeks. Looked at different types and styles and going with soft silicon with the extended canal lock. Can’t imagine sticking hard acrylic in my ears. Was told that the soft silicon is more difficult to insert and there are many of us old timers whose fine motor skills are gone. The acrylic are easier to put in. When I asked about cost I was told they were part of the package.
Left mold will have the smallest vent available. (.8mm) Pressure vent she called it which we can seal up if there are feedback issues but she doesn’t expect any. That will replace the closed double dome. Right ear will have the largest vent available, 2-2.4mm, which will replace the Widex round single vent dome.
The iPhone app has been flawless. If I turn on the blue tooth headphones the phone automatically switches over to them and I still maintain full control of the aids with the Widex app. No conflicts with the blue tooth in the car or with anything else paired with the phone. The old Alta2 Pro app was useless if there were any other blue tooth devices around and even when there wasn’t there were frequent disconnects. Not so now. Everything has been rock solid.
The aids are fantastic. Speech in noise is very good and music is wonderful. The SoundSense learn feature is extremely valuable to me and a treat to use. Did I mention that music is great?
The Universal program works fine and I suppose I could get along quite well if I just left it in automatic. But there is simply no such thing as a one size fits all program, I don’t care what brand of aid it is, and I can improve the sound with SoundSense by tailoring it to the environment I’m in. And I can save it for the next time I’m in a similar situation.
Don’t want to think about tweaking things and spending time on it then these may not be your best option. But if you don’t mind teaching your aids how you want to hear things these are terrific. Oh yeah, one more thing, did I say that music is awesome?
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What HAs did you previously have and how old are they? Trying to get a sense of your baseline.
I had the mind 330’s but have spent the last 2 years trying to get fitted up with the unique but lots of setting up issues as audiologists didn’t use sensogram. Now I have found a great hearing aid fitter who enabled my hearing to be excellent straight away.
At the audiologist yesterday to get the molds that were ordered just before the Holidays. During that three week period the sloppiness of the domes that occurred as the day wore on became a major PIA as feedback became a real problem. I tried domes from other manufacturers during that period but could find nothing that worked. The only one that came close was a 10mm Oticon double dome which, unfortunately, liked my ear canal so much that it stayed at home and the receiver came out without it. My wife got pretty adept and removing them.
So now the molds are in. Clear soft silicon type. And, (if the continue to work as they have so far) they’re perfect. They are comfortable, they stay put, they don’t move around or loosen up and there is absolutely no feedback. Not even a squeak when I cover them with my hand. Not to mention that the sound has been improved as well. I can see why so many folks have said that once you try molds you’ll never go back. They’re the last piece of the puzzle and Widex has made a believer out of me. The aids are fantastic.
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Are yours vented or not? I still have a bunch to learn about molds and venting. Perhaps given your hearing loss, you don’t have a vent?
Jim,
My left mold has a tiny .8mm pressure vent. The right side is larger at 1.8mm
So (in learning mode here), that’s enough to equalize pressure but not let much bass leak out, etc.? And does that give you a different sensation of your own voice, wearing them vs. not? Am asking because so many people speak highly of molds that it almost seems like an “upgrade” that I should treat myself to in due course. If it helped prevent noise leaking in through my open domes and allowed me to take better advantage of HA noise control features, that would be a plus for me, too. Thanks to you and anyone else for info - and I should go looking for other relevant posts on the forum, too.
I was wearing a closed dome on the left (well it was closed in the morning anyway) so there is not much change there. I am not occluded though there was a period of adaption when I first went to the closed dome back when I first got these aids. It took three or four days. On the right I am going through that a bit now. Even though there is a vent it is more restrictive than the double vented round Widex dome I was wearing. I am sure it will subside as it did for the left side and already I am getting used to it. You will have to re-accustom yourself to the sound of your own voice because the volume is elevated. But with the Evoke it is only a volume thing and it hasn’t changed the sound of my voice.
To that I’ll add that there is no doubt that even though they are extremely comfortable (at least this early on) there is more in my ear than just a dome.
I looked at your audiogram and I’m pretty confident that your audiologist will advise against closed domes. You have too much low and mid-range still there. My own doc told me that with my loss on the right side I might not be happy with the vented mold and if that happened she would go to an open. I think you’ll find that a closed dome might improve the bass when you’re streaming but when live or with headphones the open dome will let that bass in from the outside. You might be disappointed. You can test it by getting a set of closed domes and trying it out. You’ll have to volume down a bit though because things are louder with them. That comes from experience as I was never happy with the bass performance of the Alta2 Pro and I did all kinds of things trying to improve it.
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Thanks ever so much for the advice. If a (relatively) closed dome helped the HA’s perform better against noise, it might be worth the other drawbacks you mention, at least temporarily. Another thought occurs to me that maybe if domes did help in noisy environments but it was better not to wear them otherwise, that I could switch to them as deemed desirable for challenging environments (another trip to Chili’s or Pappasito’s!). I’m used to donning protective gear and experiencing “altered reality” so if a change helps me achieve an important primary goal, I’m used to living with side effects and shortcomings, at least for a modest amount of time. I’ll talk to my audi about it.
Everyone’s experiences may be a bit different but closed domes never altered outside noise for me. It’s not like sticking your fingers in your ears and muffling the sounds. It’s always seemed to me to be a function of the aid–what and how it chooses to mute some things and amplify others. YMMV