I have a good audiologist. I am 55 and wear the most expensive behind the ear Phonaks. While it is life changing for eating out in restaurants or watching movies, I find wearing hearing aids annoying for playing my cello. I seem to hear things I shouldnt (like extra high pitched bow noise). My wife says my intonation is better when I wear them but I cant stand the scratchy noises. I took the cello and aids back to the audiologist who made a custom program for cello playing and strings in general but its not that great. I tend to take them out when at orchestral or chamber concerts. I was thinking about trying Widex but these things are so pricey.
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Hearing and hearing aid recommendations
- Thread starter middlemarch
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audio_tony
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I am approaching my mid 60's and suffer from tinnitus and hearing loss, the loss being worst in my right ear.
One thing I will add, is that when I had a hearing test, the tinnitus made it incredibly difficult to discriminate the test tone as the frequency increased, which led to a response curve that simply did not match my actual hearing loss.
I have Siemens branded hearing aids (I'm in the UK) and these are 'open' (tinnitus sufferers are apparently given an ear pad that allows unamplified sounds to enter the ear) - however the net result is that the DSP in the hearing aids causes sound through the aids to lag behind 'normal' sounds by a fraction of a second, so for example when I'm in a car and there is a 'bong' from the dashboard warning system, I hear it twice.
My aids also have different settings for speech, music and television, however I find them utterly useless for music and TV.
At the time of getting the hearing aids, the audiologist told me I would notice a huge difference in social gatherings, and would better be able to discriminate voices.
The made no difference. It must however be said that even in my youth when my hearing was good, I struggled in noisy social situations, so I didn't really expect any change there.
I feel that once my hearing deteriorates to the point where music / TV has to be unacceptably loud, I will have to resort to wearing headphones.
On a final note - I've had the hearing aids for about 4 years now, but I very, very, rarely wear them.
One thing I will add, is that when I had a hearing test, the tinnitus made it incredibly difficult to discriminate the test tone as the frequency increased, which led to a response curve that simply did not match my actual hearing loss.
I have Siemens branded hearing aids (I'm in the UK) and these are 'open' (tinnitus sufferers are apparently given an ear pad that allows unamplified sounds to enter the ear) - however the net result is that the DSP in the hearing aids causes sound through the aids to lag behind 'normal' sounds by a fraction of a second, so for example when I'm in a car and there is a 'bong' from the dashboard warning system, I hear it twice.
My aids also have different settings for speech, music and television, however I find them utterly useless for music and TV.
At the time of getting the hearing aids, the audiologist told me I would notice a huge difference in social gatherings, and would better be able to discriminate voices.
The made no difference. It must however be said that even in my youth when my hearing was good, I struggled in noisy social situations, so I didn't really expect any change there.
I feel that once my hearing deteriorates to the point where music / TV has to be unacceptably loud, I will have to resort to wearing headphones.
On a final note - I've had the hearing aids for about 4 years now, but I very, very, rarely wear them.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #43
Just thought I would update my journey so far. I finally had my hearing test yesterday at the local university medical center. It went very well and contrary to my expectations I only have mild to moderate hearing loss, with my left being some 10 to 20dB worse than the right at the higher frequencies. I don't believe we went past around 8KHz.
After telling the audiologist what my wishes were, not just speech clarity but also improvements in listening to music, she recommended the Widex, and I selected the top of the line one (Moment?), based on the recommendations from the above commenters. I did not give her a list of preferred hearing aids, so I found it interesting, and comforting, that this recommendation was in concert with the majority of the respondents to this thread. More data points is always good, especially when they seem to align.
So, now the wait until they arrive and we get fitted and adjusted, which should occur the end of November.
After telling the audiologist what my wishes were, not just speech clarity but also improvements in listening to music, she recommended the Widex, and I selected the top of the line one (Moment?), based on the recommendations from the above commenters. I did not give her a list of preferred hearing aids, so I found it interesting, and comforting, that this recommendation was in concert with the majority of the respondents to this thread. More data points is always good, especially when they seem to align.
So, now the wait until they arrive and we get fitted and adjusted, which should occur the end of November.
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Wow - those are £1795 each or £3495 a pair here in the UK!
I hope they're good for that price!
Widex Moment 440 Hearing Aids From £1795
The Widex Moment 440 hearing aid is the top model in this line of hearing aids from the Danish manufacturer. Full 60 Day Money Back Guarantee. 5 Year Warranty.
www.hearingaid.org.uk
There are a few things to unpack here, many of which I cannot determine with certainty since I am not your hearing care provider.
But with regards to your test, if you feel your tinnitus made it difficult to obtain reliable results, make sure that your provider is using pulsed presentation tones instead of continuous tones, which are difficult to discern from the tinnitus.
The open domes on your hearing aids are used if you have normal low frequency hearing. If you do not have normal low frequency hearing, your provider can use more occluded domes on your devices to better match the gain prescribed for your specific hearing loss. A modern hearing aid should not be so delayed in response that you could hear two distinct "bong" sounds coming from a single "bong". It sounds like a fit issue either how it's physically coupled to your ear or how it's been programmed, hard to say.
The different programs in your devices like those for crowds, music, TV are based on your initial program. But if you have not been seen by your provider and tested recently, it's possible your main program is not meeting your prescription targets because your hearing may have changed or the devices are simply not working correctly. Music is tough and many patients will not be happy with the sound quality/timbre of instruments through their devices, which are prioritized for understanding speech. The best way to understand television is to connect your devices to a TV streamer that is compatible with your hearing aids. This puts the sound directly into your hearing aids similar to wearing headphones. Without a streamer, there are too many variables for the hearing aid to combat like room acoustics, the quality of sound coming from your TV speakers, poor mixing of the dialogue on a movie, etc.
I'm sorry you haven't felt enough benefit with your hearing devices to want to wear them regularly.
A hearing aid is only as good as how it's been fit. Make sure that whoever is fitting your devices is following best practices. If you want to learn more about that, there is an audiologist on YouTube named Dr. Cliff Olson who describes best practices. If you are wanting more out of your hearing care experience, make sure they follow these practices. Unfortunately not everyone licensed to fit hearing aids does.
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Thank you for this - that's some very useful information.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #47
Interesting hearing someone from the UK say they have more loss in the right ear. My audiologist told me one of the main reasons folks in the US have more loss in the left ear comes from driving with the car window down in the pre Aircon era. Especially prominent in long distance truck drivers. It would be very interesting if the same occurs in the right ear in folks who drive on the other side of the road. And here I was blaming it all on my headphone listening...
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I grew up in South Africa, where I was a TV serviceman on the road for several years. No in car air conditioning led to me having to drive with the window down for most of the time, with the consequent buffering to my right ear.
I am convinced this is largely responsible for my hearing loss in that ear. The hearing loss in my left ear is just all part of ageing.
I am a very infrequent user of headphones, and always have been, apart from a few years in my teens - and even then, I was acutely aware of hearing damage so the volume was always kept low.
I have used one of the off-the-shelf Etymotic models to good effect. I think it was their ER-43. This is not a prescription model and is billed as a personal amplification device, not a hearing aid, likely done to prevent legal issues.
August West
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I have been using Widex Moment 220's for about a week now. They are really good. The setting for music really works.
When you mentioned the “music” setting in the other thread, are you referencing the PureSound mode? Mine doesn’t show a specific music mode, although I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with different EQ settings in the PureSound mode and finally bailed on it.
Mine is a Widex Moment 440.
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I bought the 312 battery version of the 440...
Currently in the shakedown period, working with the audiologist to get it right. I think it's about 90% there, so far.
I found that for music [the main reason I picked Widex] that Puresound, with the buttons one or two clicks down, sounds great to me. I've been listening to a lot of music and quite happy with the sound.
I gave up on the phone app, never was able to get anywhere with it. I much prefer just using the buttons.
The Music program just didn't sound right, so I had the audiologist delete it. So now I have just 3 programs,
Universal, Puresound, and Impact.
But, overall, pretty pleased with Widex and IMHO worth the money.
PS to groovy- Your audiologist can put in Music, if you want .
The 440 only has one button on it, which cycles through the modes installed by the audiologist. Because of this, I have to use the phone app, which has worked fine for me. Maybe I’ll give PureSound another shot now that I’ve had some time on the Universal setting (with some adjustments). I’ll chat with the audiologist about adding Music to check it out.
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I have the Widex literature for the Moment 440. It shows 11 available sound classes, none of which is universal or PureSound. It does show that the music class differentiates between classical and contemporary music.
What is PureSound? Universal? The hearing damaged like me want to know. TIA.
Here’s a pic of the iPhone app showing Universal and PureSound modes - there are others if I scroll to the right. PureSound is the mode with the least DSP processing and lowest latency, which is why many folks prefer it for music listening. In the upper left of the screenshot you’ll see “PureV3” - this is a mode I created using the PureSound mode as the basis, but reducing the volume from the default of 5 to 3. Sounds pretty decent.
Universal is the default program that can be used for most situations for speech understanding (one-on-one conversation, a couple people in a room, etc.).
PureSound is similar to Universal for situations that I described above, but is a Widex proprietary setting with the purpose of making sound as natural as possible.
Often times hearing aid users complain they sound artificial due to how they process sound for best speech understanding. PureSound has less digital processing and a shorter latency so it results in a more natural sound.
Your hearing care provider can add other programs like "Party" for a crowded room situation, "Music", etc.
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Thank you very, very much, Groovybassist and Ninjastar. Your clarifications are helpful in the extreme.
May I ask two further questions? First, decrepit hearing like mine has lost some dynamic range, as a paper from Widex technical states. Is there some dynamic expansion (like the playback of Dolby encoding) in the PureSound mode, and possibly audiologist or user controllable?
Second, my current 7-yearold Widex have quite noticeable distortion or noise in one unit, particularly in tenor voices, choral works, and the background sound of televised sports events. Even at moderate levels in the 70s. Can your 440s play cleanly very loud passages such as in Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony or a Bruckner climax?
Many thanks in advance.
1. No expansion that I know of. Widex is pretty vague about what the different modes do, but essentially (I believe) the PureSound is just that - a mode with minimal or no enhancements or processing (which IMHO is most desirable for music). They also talk about their "revolutionary" low latency in that mode, but I've never noticed any latency issues with this or my previous HA (Phoneak Audeo).
For me, PureSound is the cleanest for music, so that's what I'm using. The music mode just didn't sound right.
2. I like my music loud too, and I've not noticed so far any distortion or breakup in these HAs.
I'm also a classical listener, and the climaxes (Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, etc) shake the floor, but sound clean.
I use an 80Watt RMS per channel amp, with very efficient speakers. So it can be plenty loud, lol.
I have a hard time getting into Shostakovich, some parts of his symphonies are impressive, but not easy to like the works over all.
Not familiar with Bruckner, but he's on my to do list.
Hope this helps, good luck...
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I don’t believe PureSound has any form of dynamic expansion. Having said that, the audiologist can do lots of things and has much finer adjustments available than we users get with the app. Of course it might take 30 visits with an audiologist to get exactly what you want. I’ve chosen to keep things simple and avoid that rabbit hole if possible.
In terms of distortion, I’ve listened pretty loud as well and haven’t noticed any distortion in my hearing aid.
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