Hifi and hearing aids
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Connoisseur
Hifi and hearing aids Mar 31, 2022 19:51:30 GMT 12
- Edited Mar 31, 2022 19:52:13 GMT 12 by cooksferry
Post by cooksferry on Mar 31, 2022 19:51:30 GMT 12
Had a set of the active vent receivers fitted today as part of my 60 day trial.
There's a few extra costs involved for anyone going down that path. Warranty on the vents is 6 months as opposed to three years for standard receivers. Phonak recommend replacing the active vents every six months. Being mechanical they will wear. Cost would be around $220 per pair. The custom titanium ear molds that are recommended are around another $100 per side but these should last a long time. I think if I was to go with them I'd use the first set as long as possible just to see what sort of life I could get out of them. During the trial period I have silicone molds that are quite comfortable but like any IEM need careful placement for the best seal and sound. The custom mold would be an improvement there. This is the first set of the active vents that my audiologist had fitted so she is quite keen to get feedback. Initial trials at blue tooth streaming from my phone to hearing aids has had some improvements but sound still lags quite a distance behind my Grado GR8s which are in ear so the closest comparison I have. I'm also beginning to feel that my phone and it's dac(or whatever they use) may be the biggest impediment to getting decent sound. I'd love to be able to trial this Phonak system using a top of the line phone to test this theory. Beginning to feel that seeking a sound quality that is acceptable to me using blue tooth streaming to my hearing aids may be out of reach for now. Also had a brief listen via speaker setup and not overly impressed. Vocals sounded a bit mechanical but there's a few settings to play with that may improve things. TV sounds about the same as the first set of receivers. This has been the most noticeable thing so far, the huge gains listening to TV. Trying without the aids in place turns much into an unintelligible mumble. I do have a couple of weeks to play around with this setup and can change back to the standard receiver if I desire. There are different tips that can be fitted to those that could help with audio but each time they're changed requires the audiologist to make changes to match my hearing. Besides the audio quality I'm interested to test the active vents in a driving situation to see if they improve in car conversation and radio. Since I'm away shortly on a road trip to Auckland there's going to be ample opportunity to have a good play there.
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Connoisseur
Hifi and hearing aids Apr 22, 2022 10:17:59 GMT 12
- Edited Apr 22, 2022 10:19:01 GMT 12 by cooksferry
Post by cooksferry on Apr 22, 2022 10:17:59 GMT 12
I've had the Active Vents for a reasonable trial period now. An improvement in some areas and things still aren't how I'd hoped in others. Had a two week road trip to Auckland so plenty of time to test in car hearing.
The good bits. TV still very good as it was with the standard vents but voices do sound more natural to me and I put some of that down to the in ear silicone molds as well as the AV system. I've found this setup more comfortable that the original smaller tips. In car talk better, less road noise and better able to pick up conversations. Music via speakers. Taking some getting used to but when I remove the AVs the music sounds muddy and less detail. Streaming from my phone via Blue Tooth is better than with the standard receivers especially in the mids and upper bass. If I further plug my ears with my thumbs the improvement is very noticeable on instruments like a double bass and drums. I think part of this is down to the current silicone molds being a generic style and a compromise test trial fit. With that in mind I've decided to go to the next step and have ordered some custom Titanium in ear molds which I hope will be the final step. These are 3D printed and take two to three weeks . Of course there'll be more tweaking by the audiologist once they're fitted.Cost is $130 per side but hopefully they'll have a long life. I've also found that my Tinnitus is much less noticeable with the aids in place and with them out at night it does take some minutes for things to settle down. The not so good bits. The Active Vents being mechanical do make a distinct noise when they switch from open to closed. It doesn't bother me but I can see it could be a problem for some. In a small restaurant with 13 others the hearing aids were hopeless. After playing with various settings on the app I just took them out as the noise in the confined space was overwhelming. My audiologist has said she can work with me to establish a better program so we'll see. Usually I have the hearing aids in Auto setting but have found occasionally when watching TV they will switch between open and closed for a few seconds when responding to louder sounds. If I switch to the TV program on the app this isn't a problem. I can see why so many music lovers struggle with hearing aids. There's a whole world of sounds that suddenly we're hearing and it all seems unnatural . I'm sure the only way forward is to persevere with their use and don't be backward in explaining what you what to your hearing provider. Now waiting rather impatiently for my Titanium molds.
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Connoisseur
Hifi and hearing aids May 14, 2022 21:04:13 GMT 12
- Edited May 14, 2022 21:19:27 GMT 12 by cooksferry
Post by cooksferry on May 14, 2022 21:04:13 GMT 12
Further update on hearing aids. I had the custom Titanium molds fitted to the active vent receivers on Thursday and a few more tweaks by the audiologist.
One positive, the new molds cost me nothing as they and the active vents are regarded as part of the 60 day trial. The style is called a slim tip and are reasonably discreet when fitted. They do feel quite different to the default silicone molds they replaced. Those never felt fully secure and I was always playing with the fit in my ear. These new one being a custom mold are a much better fit and should retain their shape. Speech recognition is as before. Voices I'm used to still sound the same but if I have the volume lifted a bit my own voice starts to sound a bit hollow. I have another appointment in two weeks and that's one issue to work through. The important bit is of course the music. Bluetooth streaming is another step forward and starting to sound pretty good. I'd really like to try it from another source besides my android phone at some stage just to see how good it can be. I spent a few hours on Thursday trying to tune the hearing aids in with my speaker system. At first I was using the Phonak default music program and I wasn't terribly happy with that. Switching around programs via the app I found the standard automatic program much better so saved a copy of that as a custom program and started doing a few tweaks. It didn't take too much work to find a sweet spot. I spent much of the time listening to my original NZ copy of Neil Young's On The Beach, music I've known for decades and am totally familiar with. My main focus was getting Young's voice to where I thought it should be. Much as I was hearing without the aids but with added nuance . Once I had the vocals dialed in the rest seemed to fall into place. I then created another custom program tweaked very slightly from the first which gives me a couple of options to easily trial but I feel at this stage I could live with either. I played some Richard Thompson(Rumor and Sigh) this afternoon and one thing that did stand out was the attack and crisp sound on some of the drum tracks. Further good points are I finally seemed to have lost the right side bias I've lived with for years. My left ear is moderate loss while my right is mild and I've lived with a lop sided sound stage for years, sometimes blaming it on the room acoustics rather that a hearing fault. Now I have a centralized sound stage with both speakers playing a part. Bloody marvelous. I'm also starting to pick up differences in impedance settings on my phono stage much more readily . The Hana ML was starting to sing this afternoon and may be edging ahead of the Dyna XX2. These are all things I had a lot of trouble even beginning to notice before. Rather strangely I can now crank the volume up more than before without hitting previous distortion which I'd always put down to my small music room. Tinnitus is still almost gone from my hearing range with the aids fitted but does return with them out. Did a short run using the LCD3 headphones with the hearing aids in place and that seems to work just fine. The Audeze have a large open ear space and room for the mics on the aids to do their thing. There's a bit more playing around with headphones to do but I have a few pair that may well work like that, although at night I still go au naturel with the smaller phones. One downside, picking up that some lps that I could have sworn had a dead quiet background actually do have a little surface noise. Can't win them all. All in all I'm satisfied with how things are turning out and find the music via my current setup to be ahead of the original open vent receivers I had. The active vents do have a couple of small downsides but nothing I can't live with. Being retired and at home alone much of the time I don't need to wear hearing aids on an hourly/daily basis but even If I'm only using them for TV and music the improvements are more than enough to make the costs worth while. I look on it as adding a new item to my hifi setup that makes improvements in several areas. ps. The audiologist has set up a new speech focused program for restaurants etc but it could be some time before I get a chance to try that but hopefully a good road trip in the car soon to see if there's any improvement in that area.
2,423 posts |
Global Moderator
Post by Citroen on Oct 27, 2022 4:51:36 GMT 12
"Sony releases its first over-the-counter hearing aids.
Developed in partnership with WS Audiology ("WSA") the US$1,000 CRE-C10 and $1,300 CRE-E10 Mild to moderate hearing loss and provide a simple, app-enabled, do-it-yourself solution that can allow for a better hearing experience." Sony says they're one of the smallest OTC hearing aids on the market www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-electronics-launches-its-first-over-the-counter-hearing-aids-in-the-us-and-makes-hearing-and-improved-accessibility-options-for-consumers-a-reality-301647538.html "Last year, Bose and Lexie unveiled their own OTC hearing aids with the SoundControl lineup, and launched the first B1 model for $900 a couple of days ago. Companies like Jabra have also leaped in. And last year, Sennheiser sold its consumer audio business to the hearing aid specialist Sonova. While the prices are still not what you'd call cheap, they're far less than prescription hearing aids that can run $1,000-$4,000 per ear, according to Consumer Reports." www.engadget.com/sony-unveils-1000-over-the-counter-hearing-aids-131152865.html
Cliff
5,478 posts |
Post by cooksferry on Dec 12, 2022 15:44:43 GMT 12
Back to the audiologist on Wednesday for a check. Still in two minds wether to continue with the active vent setup.
My dreams of streaming good quality music from my phone haven't worked that well although there is a noticeable improvement but I wouldn't call it audiophile quality. Day to day I only wear the aids in the evening for tv etc. Not much use during the day when I'm solo ninety percent of the time. I have used them to stream music on a road trip and while doing some painting and the sound is ok for that. I have four custom programs setup that I use with the stereo. There are only minor changes between each but all do offer improvement over not wearing the aids. Biggest advance is a lack of distortion at higher volumes and a more even soundstage. Unfortunately there is still a feeling that the sound is unnatural as I've become so used to my increasing loss over the years that getting something back doesn't gel. The way around this would be to actually spend some time with the speaker system which for various reasons isn't happening.
2,423 posts |
Connoisseur
Hifi and hearing aids Jun 26, 2023 11:21:47 GMT 12
harvey and bruise like this
Post by cooksferry on Jun 26, 2023 11:21:47 GMT 12
Quick update. Went back to the audiologist a couple of weeks ago to have some changes made to the Active Vents and that took a step back. Made a decision last week to give up on those and go back to a standard receiver. The AV had started doing random changes going from open to closed and back for no reason and I got heartily sick of the continuing click clunk in my ear while that was happening. Also become less comfortable with the custom titanium ear molds.
Wasted much time playing around with custom setting to no positive reward. Today back again to have regular IER fitted with a medium silicon mold. Comfort immediately felt better with less of a blocked up feel in my ear. Played some music when I got home and again noticed an immediate uptick in sound quality with voices especially sounding human again, loosing the mechanical sheen that the AV imparted. My dreams of audiophile blue tooth streaming via the Active Vents hasn't eventuated but I can live with that as just another of my impulse enthusiasms that have been well documented here. Happy man going to enjoy some sun and play some more music .
2,423 posts |