Perhaps you have an older model. This is the one my wife got a couple of months ago (USB-C), and they probably have about 2 days charge in them
I understand that, but I’m talking about the potential bonus of having permanent in-ear transducers for music from my phone - but not as it is, lacking the bottom end!
Mine uses disposable (zinc-air) batteries. I had the option of rechargeable, but a bit bigger, plus the regimen of putting on the charger every night. I experienced the latter when I tried a more expensive pair from a private audiologist, but no benefit and if ever you change plans unexpectedly you could find yourself without the charger when you need it. But I am lucky that the NHS also supplies batteries free of charge - I get through about two per ear per week, pick up about 3 months supply at a tome and always carry a pack with me.
With the recharger box, it effectively means you have 3 days of full charge before you need to find a usb-c connection - so shouldn’t be too hard these days. There are certain benefits to batteries if you have the dexterity.
I dont know the answer to this, but I wonder how the size of a normal battery compares to the size of a rechargeable battery plus its electronics. Which keeps the device the smallest.
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The rechargeable Phonaks the NHS offered me were bigger than the non, but I can’t say by how much.
Ah I see what you mean. Yes that s true, but in some models (maybe all), the “streaming” settings can be different from the normal hearing aid settings. Depending on the manufacturer, this may be just a bass boost or it may be an entirely new setting. Not all audiologists know about this. Recently I had to show my capable and experienced audiologist where in the fitting software this option was located.
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The hearing aid manufacturers’ websites usually show the size options for each model of aid. An important reason for some people to choose rechargeable is that you need a certain dexterity to change a hearing aid battery and not all older people are lucky enough to have that.
Also aids with rechargeable batteries are probably going to have better waterproofing than ones with disposable batteries. This isn’t only an issues with things like dropping an aid into the washbasin or absentmindedly getting into the shower with them on, but also sweat can be a really big problem for some people in hot humid climates, especially as it’s not pure water and is corrosive. And people who live in wet countries like UK have to be mindful of getting caught out in the rain with no head cover!
Good hearing aids have damp proof ratings etc, but in practice these are great when the aids are new but not so good within a year or so.
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I will try also the top Starkey, specially good for music, at least from what I heard.
Tinnitus and natural music experience are my priorities, more than other aspects as a lot of programs or app possibilities. I don’t want to play with the app. Just have 2 programs, one for every day and another for recorded music at home.
Interesting thread. I am having my first ever aids fitted next week. I’m going to start off with NHS ones supplied by Specsavers. The price is right and I have nothing to lose. I am told they are now quite decent.
I have some tinnitus and high frequency loss which is common. I find I am often asking my wife to repeat things and I am struggling to hear crickets at night and some birds.
My biggest concern is how my music system will sound. I imagine a lot brighter and I currently think it sounds fine.
We will find out next Thursday.
You should definitely ask for a music setting and that can be adjusted to be less bright if you want - each setting can be set up (“fitted”) by the audiologist separately although their starting point is always to make the response similar. The other thing to know is that normally the aids have an “acclimatisation” setting where a new hearing aid user only gets part of the extra gain initially and that increases either automatically or according to a schedule set by the audiologist. Typically for the first couple of weeks you would get say half the prescribed gain and then it would increase after that.
Sadly I know much more about hearing aids and how they should be set up than I do about Naim UnitiCore oddities!
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Thank you, that is helpful.
At the age of 76 I too have only just got my hearing aids after I realised I was struggling with hearing speakers in meetings, hearing people in the car, watching TV and so on. So I had been putting off the idea for months but finally decided to visit my local Boots in Norwich for a hearing test.
I was fortunate that my audiologist is also a musician so fully understood my worries of listening to my system through digital aids.
Hearing test was done and I was given an appointment the next day for a more comprehensive test and it turned out that I have a moderate hearing loss worse than I had imagined.
The audiologist fitted a trial pair of aids and then suggested I took a walk around the store and shopping mall to see what I thought. Quite a revelation I could hear everything so much clearer.
So after that I decided to take the plunge and bought Phonak Audeo Lumina 90 aids top of the range which are waterproof and rechargeable and have plenty of channels via the Phonak app. Luckily the store has these in stock and I was able to have them there and then. I have to go back next week for the aids to be fully switched on and tweaked a little maybe.
It was quite a shock to the system at home for the first few days, lots of rustling sounds and very artificial sounding but I am now on my eighth day and things are much better as my brain is slowly adapting.
For general everyday use they are brilliant, the only downside I have found when listening to my 500 series kit through Kudos 808’s is that on long sustained notes from strings for example I am getting a warbling effect.
I haven’t experimented too much with the app as yet as the aids do a pretty good job in automatic mode. I will mention this when I see the audiologist next week, I am sure it can be fixed. For other genres of music I am really enjoying hearing those higher tones once again.
So I am very glad to have joined the many on the forum who wear aids, in particular thanks to @Canaryfan and @davidhendon for their threads which I found most helpful before making that first step.
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I find that with my Oticon more rechargeable aids I can manage more than a day without recharging.Depends if they are having to work hard like listening to music.
In fact they managed a 24 hour flight from New Zealand to Heathrow and train home to Sheffield without dying. We’re down to single figure % though.
If you go on cruises, tours etc where the guide uses a microphone and you get an earpiece there are usually induction loop ones available so you can use your own hearing aid to hear the guide.
That warbling sound is because the hearing aid thinks it is hearing feedback and tries to cancel it out with another tone, warbling it to try to get the exact opposite. Of course that can’t work because it’s not feedback. You will probably find that this doesn’t happen if you select the music program in the app, because the hearing aid is much more subtle in handling feedback in music mode, as so much music could sound like feedback.
In Widex aids, even in music mode, you can get an effect where the aid seems to sing along with a tone that continues after the musical note that triggers it has stopped. This effect is known as entrainment and again not all audiologists have come across it. (If you look up entrainment you will see that traditionally this is where a structure, for example a bridge, oscillates in sympathy with the troops marching across it.) I could never get on with Widex although I have owned two pairs and tried their latest premium aid a few years ago.
I use GN Resound aids (known as Jabra when sold by Costco in the US incidentally). Resound has a specific music feedback control mode which is inaudible to me, so I approve of it! I don’t know how it is with Phonak or Oticon, but I guess all the top brands have their pros and cons.
There are other reasons to use the music setting when you listen to music. If the program been set up properly then any high frequency frequency shifting should be turned off, also noise suppression should be off, the sound level should be a bit lower to give more headroom for loud music and the directionality should be set to give omnidirectional pickup. Also the time constant on the compression will probably be a bit slower than for speech where you want it to respond syllabically.
One other thing the audiologist needs to consider is whether the maximum power output (MPO) is set high enough. With normal life it doesn’t matter if the aid clips at the loudest sounds, but for music that’s a killer.
Maybe you can tell me about what happened during my listening session.
On one track, the only track among many I heard since, the dome of the hearing aid was like moving. Only on one specific track. ( Erik Truffaz/ Red cloud).
Strange. Maybe too much high frequencies ?
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Domes do move around and maybe you need one that is larger so it’s tighter. It’s not very scientific, you get small, medium and large.
But if it was moving with the music then it will be the low frequencies moving it, not high frequencies. Think of the very small movement of a tweeter cone compared to a bass woofer.
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Glad your hearing aid experience has started well for you.
I think that you are being sensible in not playing with the app until your ears adjust to the aids and you have seen the audiologist for initial adjustments.
The Phonak app was not very good when I got my aids in January '21 but it has improved enormously since then & I find that fine tuning is easily audible & if you get into a mess, returning to default settings is easy.
Hope everything continues well for you.
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Low frequency, not high. Ok.
So the dome may sometimes move and it’s not a problem, right ?
I have a semi open one that fits well in my ear. The larger, an open circular one, tends to irritate a bit my ears.
I don’t think it matters if it moves, but be careful that it doesn’t fall out and the whole hearing aid vanish without trace!
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Odd. This is exactly the USB rechargable case I had that does not charge my aids; they are just over a year old - Phonak Audéo L90 RT. Phonak themselves confirmed my aids have to be charged via the USB plug-in case.