Could you please explain how it works two hearing aids vs Cros ?
I have left ear hearing lost and my audiologists was fitting with Cross .
What I was told is that the Cros is transmitting not amplify the sound from my bad ear to my god ear where is amplified.
Could you please explain?
Thanks
So in your case, I recommend you try 1 hearing aid in your Left ear first. It might not work out for you so if you don’t like it- try a CROS system. This allows you to compare.
If you had hearing loss in both ears- I would recommend trying 2 hearing aids first and then a BiCROS system.
*Edit - you can try the CROS system first too. I recommend trying both solutions to see what works for you best.
That’s all I know is what you said. Transmitting sound from bad ear to good ear. Maybe someone else can explain better here.
You’re right. The CROS system will put a microphone on your Left ear and your Right ear would have a speaker. When sound is picked up by the microphone on the Left - you will be able to hear it through the speaker in your Right ear.
If your hearing is normal on the Right ear, you normally would not get amplification on your Right ear.
Anyone wearing crossover hearing aids and has accessories with the. I have an old pair of phonak crossover hearing aids but would like something that works with a phone and allows for getting phone calls to my hearing aids.
@cjpines, I have severe hearing loss in my left ear. When I finally decided to get a hearing aid, the first audiologist I saw told me the same thing, that my only option was a CROS. I didn’t want a CROS; I wanted that ear aided. Even if it didn’t help with speech recognition, I wanted to hear environmental sounds in stereo. I was also hoping it would help with the extremely loud tinnitus in that ear. I went to a different audiologist who was willing to sell me an aid for my left ear only. It did help with tinnitus, and it didn’t help with speech recognition. In a noisy restaurant, I had to turn it off because the noise I was hearing from the aided left ear made understanding speech even harder.
Now I have Phonak Marvels for both ears, even though I don’t really need one for my right ear. The right aid picks up sound from the left one (I don’t know how to describe it in technical terms), so now I can understand speech in noisy restaurants, or my husband talking to me from my left side even when walking on the beach with the noise of the waves crashing to shore. And I hear environmental sounds in stereo better because the right aid sends sound to the left.
Hi have a phonak bicros and up until recent months was wearing all the time and found it really helped to highlight the sounds that i had been missing out on like bird song before that i had a wired cros aid but it kept falling off my ear so didn’t really get any benefit from it. In recent months i have had problems that stem from the dome of the hearing aid causing eczema like changes in my ear which it then rubs against causing ear infections but i have an ent appointment to hopefully sort out a hypoallergenic ear mould if they don’t do it then i will have to go private and get it sorted that way but overall I’ve found the bicros to be great for me
I had an 6 weeks trial of Signia Silk NX 7 BiCros system in mid 2018. I have profound deafness in right ear and severe loss in left ear. Left ear had the normal aid and right ear with the Bicros.
My experience I would say was 50/50. Everything was far too loud. Compression was kicking with the slightest loud noise. I think I had too much gain in the both low and high frequencies. My head would explode with sound as soon I came into large groups especially women voices. I know now from self programming too much gain doesn’t really help. The less the better.
Comfort wise they were awesome. I used open dome click sleeves with a vent. Very comfortable in ear and secure.
Cros/Bicros does require experience in fitting. I was given the full whack when fitted which wasn’t the right thing to do
I have no hearing in my left ear because of an Acoustic Neuroma which was discovered two years ago.
I have been using a Phonak bicros for over a year. Hearing in the better ear only about 50 percent. The bicros works well for me but noisy places are big problem.
I wanted the Phonak Marvels but the Audiologist said they do not have CROS for Marvels, so I ended up with Phonak Audeo B90 with CROS. They are only 8 months old and I’m still wondering if I should of gone somewhere else, second opinion. Now I’m stuck.
I have heard Marvels pick up sound from the left or right aid to the other. But, he wouldn’t try them.
I’m still going to try another Audiologist or Costco, what-the-heck why not. Thank you.
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I have somewhat recently started using CROS - somewhat similar journey.
I have an acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma more precise) on my left side… right side is normal. My hearing tests showed some promise on the bad side so I wanted to try a regular hearing aid to see if it could be salvaged so I bought a costco membership and had them put me through tests and do a trial walking around the store - in my case the aid didn’t really help at all. I’m now on CROS with the Oticon OPN S and Oticon CROS. Initially my audiologist recommended the Phonak Audeo B CROS solution, but I went with the Oticon for better connectivity with my phone (which I never use it turns out). Overall, the experience has been OK. I find they only help sometimes, but that is often enough for me to keep with them. Taking them out at the end of the day is like ultimate relief. I don’t know how many skiiers we have on this forum, but taking out my aids is a relief similar to taking off ski boots at the end of a day on the mountain.
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Is anyone pleased with the bicross solution?
I have hearing loss in my left ear and have profound loss in my right ear. I am considering a bicross solution, but I am not very confident that it is worth the money and adjustment.
I do have terrible issues in conversations, stores forget it
Try it, it might work out well and it might not.
Just verify what the trial / return period is, and walk away if it is not acceptable.
My ‘story’ is posted above (Jan '20) so I will not go on and on, but just say I’ve had one excellent experience with a BICROS rig and one wretched one (my fault for persevering and not just rejecting it).
But if they will let you bring it back if it does not work for you, go for it. It is a shame COSTCO does not do BICROS, their return period is 6 months. Ask the dispenser what their policy is.
The possible upside is hearing people and environmental sounds on your right side. The downside risk is you get stuck with something that does not work - but only if you allow it to happen.
Hang in there, best of luck.
I have loss of high frequency in my left ear and profound in my right. I have worn a CROS for years and it has work really well for me. I have asked to try a hearing aid in my left ear, but the audiologist said they do not recommend it for my loss and won’t even try it. Costco said they won’t try a hearing aid either.
But, give it a try if you can return for a trial.
I have the Signia CROS 312 paired with a Signia Pure 312 7X. So far I have been fine with them. Obviously no directionality (I have total hearing loss in my left ear in any event.). However, the Signia has low energy bluetooth, which allows me to have the CROS function, and to have streaming from the iphone and the television (with a streamer.) I have had other CROS aids in the past (audabel) and the Signias are far superior.
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Great post.
I will be seeing a, audiologist from my group Kaiser Permanente. They don’t make commissions, to go over my options.
- Cost is a big issue of course, no insurance to cover. By federal law, 45 day return.
My concern is spending lots of money and time for a option(bicross) that won’t help my difficulties with understanding speech and direction confusion. I only recently had a audiologist explain why my current situation with 2 hearing aids is frustrating for me. She was aghast that I would have been sold two aids for mild to middle hearing loss. - I find it difficult to get solid information from the web as sooooo much of it turns out to be marketing, posing as objective advice. I truthfully don’t trust the commission based audiologists at brick and mortar stores. I keep looking for feedback from people who actually use bicross.
- I agree about Costco, they just came out with their new Kirkland 10.0 , wireless charging, Bluetooth aids for 1,399 , made by from Sonova, the manufacturer behind brands like Phonak, Unitron, and Hansaton.
Thank you for the post.
On a recent year, I understood only 2 % of words via my right ear, but “heard” the words.
Have loss in my left ear, the type of loss that mild to mid hearing aids would help.
They have mentioned as an option, getting a better aid in my left ear and nothing in my right ear. Don’t see that working well.
Jon
I’m curious what you are using now?
I have just been recommended for BiCros aids. I have been using a single Brio in the left ear which has about 50% loss. My right ear has deteriorated to 90% loss.
Any recent (2023) information on current brands. I know Costco doesn’t offer any BiCros aids
I have trialed the Phonak lumia and the resound nexia in a bi-cros. I think I like the phonak sound better. But the nexia is smaller and more comfortable. And the cros process chews up the battery on the Phonak to about 12-13 hours. Maybe not a huge problem but irritating. Also the nexia has a case with an embedded battery—sweet. In the end both are acceptable. Both apps are good. Phonak can connect to multiple devices but that has been cumbersome to actually do. Nexia uses low energy Bluetooth which makes for longer battery life.
I am also trialing a nexia 2 hearing aid solution with a closed dome in my bad ear and also what the audiologist called frequency trans-something or the other that tries to reproduce sound I cannot process in the uppermost frequencies down to what I can.
Really to me both approaches seem to work reasonably well except the 2-ear solution would cost an extra grand. 🥹