Understanding Fitting Range Graph

Could someone explain to me the utility and difference in these two graph fitting ranges, especially the Red and Blue zones?
Red Phonak Naida Paradise UP
Blue Oticon Xceed UP
Thank you

The area that you indicated is outside the fitting range of the aids, the shaded area is the fitting range of the aids.

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Are you saying that there would be no amplification within those zones?

Your hearing loss is severe to profound, you would not be able to hear anything in the area. Also with your hearing loss you will have a more narrow range of sound you can hear comfortably. I am not able explain it probably but hopefully someone will explain it better

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The way I see it is that those areas are not absolute. People who have hearing loss the ranges from mild to profound have to strike a compromise. If one has a mild hearing loss at low frequencies and wants a dome/mold that is open fit (large vents), one is not going to get the gain necessary in the profound areas of their loss. If they’re willing to tolerate a closed fit and tolerate the occlusion, then they might be able to get the gain needed at the more profound areas of their loss. If one has a very steep loss, one is not trying to get audibility out to 8khz. The idea is get the .5-3 khz range as well as possible. Caveat: I’m not a professional–just my take from hanging around here a few years.

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I’ve been confused on that too. Does it amplify at all the red area?

These ranges are for the ultra power receivers. So my understanding is that the lowest power setting on these is the top of the shaded region. It can’t go quieter than that. I may be wrong. Given that these are higher power. So mine are lower power receivers and the range starts at about 15-20db.

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I got in touch with Phonak Tech support, and from the discussion, my understanding is this:
-The shaded areas are where the HA are suitables, meaning that your audiogram should be within those shaded areas to fully take advantage of the HA.
-The Zones in Blue or Red (depending on manufacturers and HA types), are technically covered by the these HA, but not suitable if your audiogram fits within those zones (Blue or Red), meaning that if your audiogram is within those zones (Blue or Red) then you better have a less powerful HA.

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Yes.

Ultra power hearing aids make more low-level noise than lower powered hearing aids. It doesn’t matter for people in the fitting range because they won’t hear it. That gap at the bottom isn’t saying that the hearing aids don’t amplify soft sounds, it is saying that the hearing aid isn’t recommended for people with mild loss. They’re just more likely to hear the noise.

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Thank you Neville. I was upped to UP receivers a week ago, and go back tomorrow for a follow-up. I have the Phonak Paradise P90 13T. Any thoughts as to why they’re sounding staticky with anyone speaking? It’s better through the Roger On, but not much. Still rough. Music is impossible. I can’t even tell what the song is. Any thoughts I might share with my audiologist, if needed?

No, that’s a hard one to troubleshoot over the internet, I’d really need you and the hearing aids in front of me to know. But to help your clinician narrow it down, try to figure out whether it is one or both ears, whether it occurs on specific speech sounds, whether it gets better or worse with volume changes. For people with more moderate hearing loss static might only be a few things, but for people with more severe/profound hearing loss you start running into places where the cochlea is damaged pretty significantly and can result in weird sound perception, so sometimes after ruling out hearing aid malfunctions or programming errors you have to be a bit of a detective.

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Many thanks Neville. I’ll let you know what happens later today.

Gayle

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I’m glad I found this post, I’m confuse on this too! I’m tying to see if I’m a good candidate for the Signia Active Pro but some of my audio gram curve its outside the upper fitting range? I’m attaching image:

The shaded areas are where the hearing aid receiver has a recommended fit for. If you look at your right (red) side, you’ll see that between the 750 to the 2.3kish range, you’re actually out of fitting range. On your left (blue) side, you’re just inside. In most cases, audiologists have to determine and weigh whether or not you should get both closed domes, or both vented domes, but with a different receiver.

I can’t answer anything specifically about that, but it looks like you may need a different receiver, or a different hearing aid entirely.

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Its just recommended. Not mean its not amplify it or do anything about it.

The red line “out of the fitting range” means one thing in this case: your hearing in that range is normal.

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This is interesting and I have the same problem to understand that red/blue uncovered by the HA.
So, what does it mean? That the HA will not cover/amplify the sounds from that zone so I can hear?

@Liviu My understanding is that in the graph below, the green top profile means a minimum audible sounds the HA can deliver; And the yellow bottom profile means the maximum audible sounds that the HA can output.

Maybe it is related to the HA microphone, or both, microphone and receiver.

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No, the chart just indicates the ideal range of hearing losses that the hearing aid is designed/can be used for.

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I have Lumity UP and part of my hearing is in the white area and they work fine for me. I dont hear any noise so the noise “floor” must be above my loss.

BTW, once adjusted, these are the best ive had. I almost feel normal. :laughing:

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