Based on years of amplified guitars, distortion from a speaker system can be the result of putting “too much” signal into the speaker system. It could be that your profile just needs some careful adjustment.
EXCELLENT news on all fronts, fbacher1!!! Yes, I saw your “wind noise reduction” invention, and that is very clever! You mentioned the EarGear sox, and I also have a pair that I faithfully put on for trips to the salon - I use them to keep the hair dye off my BTEs. They’re not perfect tho. Yesterday I got a small schmear of brown dye on my silver-tone Marvel aids (my older, backup pair). Also, when the EarGear sox are on, there’s no way to change program or volume for me cuz I never downloaded the Phonak phone app. DOH.
Keep us posted after your visit to the new audi. You are gonna get these aids doing what you want 'em to, you BETCHA! 
Thanks but I can’t take credit for that idea. A company in the Netherlands makes a softer, fuzzy version of what I did that is probably more comfortable but about the same size. I’m probably going to look for something a little bit softer but closed cell foam. It’s amazing how well this works and I position it right in front of the leading edge of the HA. I’ve tired it on two pairs of very different glasses and no extra wind noise from the HA at even 30 mph. They do make other things that will also protect ears from wind noise which can damage hearing if loud enough but this is all I needed. Yeah too bad my EarGear micro didn’t fit without removing the domes.
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Yes long time guitarist here too and tube amp owner so I too know distortion, lol. Just don’t want it in my HA, lol. After lots of reading it could be defective HA, just the design with too much gain at certain frequencies. I guess the trick is to just reduce the offending frequencies or range enough without impacting the amplification too much…I need a clean channel with a lot of clean headroom like two stage guitar amps, lol.
As your loss isn’t too bad, a stronger receiver could help with distortion as well as sound isn’t so compressed within the weaker receiver.
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That is TRUE, but hey, if the domes are not custom molds with the speaker/receiver embedded INTO it, it’s a piece of cake! I remove my domes every 5 weeks to slip on a pair of the EarGear sox for the salon. Takes 2 seconds!
BUT! While the audi had initially recommended silicone custom molds for my Life aids, I mentioned that I’d never be able to remove those molds to get the EarGear sox on the receiver/speaker. BONER. My aids are with her right now having the old fashioned flexi domes swapped in for those custom molds.
Glad to see you back posting @Blacky…. I have missed your witty comments, and your knowledgeable posts. Cheers Kev 
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I’m wondering if you might have some kind of recruitment or hyperacusis going on.
WH
Our home has the items you described as muting sound but both of us are against any floor covering. We spent a bloody fortune on interior design when we remodeled our house and we don’t want to muck it up to just muffle the sound of cracking floor boards. I hope when I start to DIY that I will find a solution or shall I say, a compromise with some tradeoffs I am willing to live with. My partner is a very loving and caring person who understands what I am trying to achieve. It is my decision not to use floor covering. To me aesthetics of my living environment are important but I understand what you are trying to emphasize. What is the old saw, “Man does not live by bread alone.”
I had everything on this list done by my ENT so there was little need to discuss any of these elements with my audiologist.
I thank you for your other observations and suggestions.
You should receive the Noahlink wireless soon.
For me, the first steps were the most difficult, I was afraid to do something wrong. First time connecting, what if I do something wrong, saving the original settings etc…
If you want I can help you with that and we can go through it step by step.
Unfortunately, I live a little too far away from you. But we could also do this via phone.
Let me know if you like that idea and I will PM my contact info.
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That would be great. I’m still going through the step by step manual and am feeling a bit intimidated. I should receive the Noah on Tuesday evening.
Possible. I know with hearing loss loud noises can hurt a bit more but I don’t ordinary noises bother me. Now going to concert is another story, lol. They often exceed 100 dB. I forgot I had a dB meter on my phone and would have checked the last one I went to where even my hifi ear plugs didn’t help. Only my Airpod pros with max noise reduction on and transparency off did the trick. I know that one was over 100 dB.
On another note I am really liking the changes that my fitter made a couple of days ago. It really allowed me to see more of the potential of HA in general. Solved my itch issue too with “ear comfort”, no wind noise with my glasses mod and only some occasional distortion (rare) with some high pitched voices so maybe one more reduction in high freq. gain might do it. I still want to have these HA checked to make sure there isn’t a hardware issue with distortion and maybe talk about using a more powerful receiver…I have the M-Receiver and maybe the P one would give me more “headroom”? The M one looks to be adequate for my hearing loss though.
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I can relate to your problem. By story is that I’m 84 but have had hearing aids for only the past 14 years. I began with top of the line Siemans Pures purchased through HearX. My hearing was and is Servere to Profound. When I got the aids they were WAY TO LOUD and had my Audi lower the volume to a level that I was comfortable with. While my aids helped they didn’t solve my understandability problem, I still needed closed captions on the TV to understand the dialog. Years went by, then a couple of years ago I decided to top buying premium HAs since they didn’t seem to help that much and purchased aids from Costco. With the Aids came a new Audi who did a REM. I went back to him claiming they were set to loud and I was hearing all of this unwanted and abnormal noise.
His response was that I had become accustomed to a different level of sound. He had set the aids to the level that should be hearing and that if I perservered, the sound level and understandability would begin to come back at least to some degree. I too would hear the floor squeaking and all sorts of bangs and clangs and whistlles. HE WAS CORRECT. Before he did his bit I could not hear the clicking of the turn signal on my car. I could not hear the beep of the little alarms on my instant pot. I could not hear almost any alarms and alerts. I could not hear some of the songbirds in my garden. I couldn’t hear crickets in the evening. Thanks to the volume setting by my Audi I can hear all of these valuable and wonderful sounds and I can again understand my wife and the TV without closed captions. While still don’t like some of the sounds that I hear, but they are sounds from my environment. If I shut those out I lose important information.
I sometimes do hear distorted sound, but that’s because my hearing is very bad -120 db at 6k. That’s about the limit that my HAs can handle.
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I think my main issue is still some distortion with some sounds (some female voices, etc). I’ve come to accept that I’ll get some artifact noise from my ears moving relative to the side of my head/hair. There is a lot less now but they did turn down the high frequency to get to that point and so maybe not understanding as well as I could be but so much better this week. Going to see another fitter that sounded very promising when I spoke to her and see if how much more that can be done. I even forget I have them in at times which is a good step right, lol?
My wind solution didn’t work today. And I’m finding that hearing aids and my mtn bike glasses are causing some blistering at the top of my ears too. I have some additional tubing coming and might try it on the leading edge of the strap instead because moving that close to my face mutes the wind noise too.
I’m already getting a very deep groove in both ears from the wires. It looks bad when I take them out at night but things spring back by morning but worried the wires might be too tight and the groove will eventually become permanent. Will ask my new fitter if the wire is too short and tight.
It would be nice if someone designs helmets to have more open space for the hearing aids and make it less wind noise.
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Helmets are designed to be tight in order to protect you. Some have a small cut out region for speakers to go in. That is about the best you can do. If it is too loose, you risk concussion in a fall. You want it tight. As far as wind noise, I agree. They go up in cost a lot to get the quieter models. It is hard to find a helmet that is quiet from wind, fits your melon and has room for a HA. I take mine out, put in fancy custom plugs, and go without hearing until I can take the helmet off. Other bikes are too loud. My bikes (both stock Hondas) are too loud. My Apple Watch consistently gives me warnings that the sound is well over 90db, at 40-45 MPH. Between the engine noise and the wind, I just don’t need it.
WH
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Yes motorcycles have to be even tougher even with full coverage helmets. I am trying another approach soon with something on the helmet strap.
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It is why l look at the mirrors every minute because l can’t hear the fire truck or ambulance until they get close.
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Ow. I felt a pang of utter comisseration with you!!! I did OKAY with a helmet the years I rode my bike, and only got wind noise on the downhills… But I had a HELLA time with winter hats and earflaps to keep my hearing-aided ears warm. AUGH.
Now I live in a new location surrounded by palm trees and WATER! No more winter hat. Instead, I’ve got the new Phonak Life aids to get IN that water wearing! I plan to hop in the pool later today and swim with these aids IN. Custom silicone molded tips have been swapped for the traditional, double-domes, so I’m curious to see if the aids are STILL “waterproof”. Will post results, you betcha.
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