Hearing aids

[Docbop]

So I got the latest update to my iPhone and Airpods Pro II so they have the hearing aid feature.   I also had an audiologist test about six weeks ago so I know what Dr and real testing gear results were.    The Apple test was all the software playing tones at different level and pitches and me tapping the screen when I heard them.   Apple doesn't do anything with word recognition like the Dr did.    The doctor said no need for hearing aids at this time some loss of hearing and she gave me the general range.    She said my word recognition was better than most for my age (dam I'm getting tired of hearing that phrase).     Apple test said no need for hearing aids and that it did find some area that there is some loss.   So similar results except doctor was a little more detailed explanation.   Apple software said it could adjust the sound for music if I like to help with the little bit of loss.   I selected okay and have only listened some and didn't really notice any difference, but have to do some more listening to see if I can hear a difference. 

 

 

[RABid]

54 minutes ago, Docbop said:

She said my word recognition was better than most for my age (dam I'm getting tired of hearing that phrase).

In a few years it will not be as much of an irritant because WE will start forgetting things and it will not seem to happen as often. My last "your age" comment from my doctor was about arthritis in my knees. Anyway, I planned to do the test but I keep forgetting.  My hearing has been a mess for about two months following a Sjogren's flair but I think it has finally cleared up. Once the election is over and I don't have to hear anymore adds or commentaries I will be ready to improve my hearing.

[Coker]

2 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

https://www.hear.com/d/best_hearing_aids_dis01/?act=ACT0000066975ACT&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=us_en_ce_hea_display_outbrain_hea-lightbulb-double_acq_mobile_supplytest_ACT0000066975ACT&utm_section_ID=00e17911cfc0013358186d5f4b882483f1&utm_creative_ID=00fe9574cc5c0f1108f8ef49364cdcd74a&aud_adcopy=Delaware+Audiologist%3A+"This+Is+The+Best+Hearing+Aid+In+The+US"&OutbrainClickId=v4-X8Y1onn-1131181165-0&ad_title=Delaware+Audiologist%3A+"This+Is+The+Best+Hearing+Aid+In+The+US"&ad_id=00fe9574cc5c0f1108f8ef49364cdcd74a&dicbo=v4-X8Y1onn-1131181165-0

I find it interesting, but not surprising, that hearing “speech” better is the goal of hearing aids. My Phonaks from Costco certainly did that, but I must take them off in order to hear music without distortion. 

[The Real MC]

4 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

https://www.hear.com/d/best_hearing_aids_dis01/?act=ACT0000066975ACT&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=us_en_ce_hea_display_outbrain_hea-lightbulb-double_acq_mobile_supplytest_ACT0000066975ACT&utm_section_ID=00e17911cfc0013358186d5f4b882483f1&utm_creative_ID=00fe9574cc5c0f1108f8ef49364cdcd74a&aud_adcopy=Delaware+Audiologist%3A+"This+Is+The+Best+Hearing+Aid+In+The+US"&OutbrainClickId=v4-X8Y1onn-1131181165-0&ad_title=Delaware+Audiologist%3A+"This+Is+The+Best+Hearing+Aid+In+The+US"&ad_id=00fe9574cc5c0f1108f8ef49364cdcd74a&dicbo=v4-X8Y1onn-1131181165-0

 

My scam meter was pegged when I read all the sensationalist text.

[The Real MC]

1 hour ago, Coker said:

I find it interesting, but not surprising, that hearing “speech” better is the goal of hearing aids. My Phonaks from Costco certainly did that, but I must take them off in order to hear music without distortion. 

 

Phonak was the first of four hearing aids I tried this year.  They were awful for listening to music.  To me that is a dealkiller.

[mate stubb]

Well I took the plunge on the mid level Phonaks and am a few days into my 60 day trial with them.

 

I'm currently acclimating to them and taking baby steps adjusting things on the app. Mostly I am turning the level down from where they are programmed, as my footsteps sound like gunshots and the TV is quite loud at times. Funny that my wife is suddenly the one with the worst hearing in the house.

 

I don't have noise cancellation dialed in - I'd like road noise in my car to be reduced more. And the streaming audio mode has an obnoxious midrange boost which needs to be killed. That needs to happen at the audiologist as I don't have access from the app.

 

I'd like better control of when the software switches to different hearing modes. When I play a game on my phone, the streaming mode is activated and blares ads at me. I think I'll end up having very similar EQ curves applied to a lot of the modes so switching is not so jarring.

 

I've made a no compression version of the music mode but it still lacks bass response. The mids and treble don't have noticeable honks or peaks so are OK. The audiologist may switch me to bigger earpieces next time to try and improve that.

 

I've achieved my wife's dream and can now understand her from several rooms away, and can hold conversations with my soft spoken daughters, so it's hard to put a price on that. We will keep working on the music mode.

[mcgoo]

1 hour ago, mate stubb said:

Well I took the plunge on the mid level Phonaks and am a few days into my 60 day trial with them.

 

I'm currently acclimating to them and taking baby steps adjusting things on the app. Mostly I am turning the level down from where they are programmed, as my footsteps sound like gunshots and the TV is quite loud at times. Funny that my wife is suddenly the one with the worst hearing in the house.

 

I don't have noise cancellation dialed in - I'd like road noise in my car to be reduced more. And the streaming audio mode has an obnoxious midrange boost which needs to be killed. That needs to happen at the audiologist as I don't have access from the app.

 

I'd like better control of when the software switches to different hearing modes. When I play a game on my phone, the streaming mode is activated and blares ads at me. I think I'll end up having very similar EQ curves applied to a lot of the modes so switching is not so jarring.

 

I've made a no compression version of the music mode but it still lacks bass response. The mids and treble don't have noticeable honks or peaks so are OK. The audiologist may switch me to bigger earpieces next time to try and improve that.

 

I've achieved my wife's dream and can now understand her from several rooms away, and can hold conversations with my soft spoken daughters, so it's hard to put a price on that. We will keep working on the music mode.

 

Congrats and welcome to the club! 

 

It's a journey, for sure. I think the lack of low end response (at least in my case) is likely due to the tips not being sealed. I was in a restaurant tonight that was especially loud and never could dial in the sound enough to hear one of the soft spoken ladies at our table. Sometimes they're awesome, sometimes not. Most of the time I'm really thankful to have them. 

[The Real MC]

I've been wearing hearing aids for almost 60 years, since I was three years old.  Hearing aids today have gotten really really good, but the one nut no one has cracked is speech clarity in a crowded loud restaurant or bar or party.  No one has figured that out.  I actually had to stop eating at some restaurants because the reflections off of hard surfaces on both floors and walls were so bad.

I had recently done some DIY test tones to analyze the new hearing aid, and realized I wasn't hearing any bass.  I thought what's wrong with this thing.  Then I put the old hearing aid back in, and I didn't hear bass in that either!  Now I have 60% loss in both ears, but the frequency losses are different in each ear.  I wear one hearing aid in the ear with the worse loss in speech zone, and the other ear is unaided.  I worked like that from day one.  While doing the test tones I cupped the unaided ear so I could hear only the hearing aid.  It dawned on me that my unaided ear was picking up bass, and bass frequencies are largely non-directional.  The bass frequencies were propagating to my other ear through bone conduction.  For decades I never realized that.

[The Real MC]

2 hours ago, mate stubb said:

Well I took the plunge on the mid level Phonaks and am a few days into my 60 day trial with them.

 

I'm currently acclimating to them and taking baby steps adjusting things on the app. Mostly I am turning the level down from where they are programmed, as my footsteps sound like gunshots and the TV is quite loud at times. Funny that my wife is suddenly the one with the worst hearing in the house.

 

I don't have noise cancellation dialed in - I'd like road noise in my car to be reduced more. And the streaming audio mode has an obnoxious midrange boost which needs to be killed. That needs to happen at the audiologist as I don't have access from the app.

 

I'd like better control of when the software switches to different hearing modes. When I play a game on my phone, the streaming mode is activated and blares ads at me. I think I'll end up having very similar EQ curves applied to a lot of the modes so switching is not so jarring.

 

I've made a no compression version of the music mode but it still lacks bass response. The mids and treble don't have noticeable honks or peaks so are OK. The audiologist may switch me to bigger earpieces next time to try and improve that.

 

I've achieved my wife's dream and can now understand her from several rooms away, and can hold conversations with my soft spoken daughters, so it's hard to put a price on that. We will keep working on the music mode.

 

My new ReSound had some really weird unpredictable compression artifacts that actually interfered with work at the office.  So two weeks ago I asked the audiologist to disable the post-processing.

 

Huge step forward.  With that single change it got really close to my old ReSound.  Music sounded much better, problems at the office went away.  I am using Dire Straits "On Every Street" as my music test, which has very dynamic levels and timbres all over the CD.  Some sounds were soft enough that I could not hear them & I could hear image shift between the two ears (too much/too little gain), so there is still some adjustments to make.

 

I had been wanting to run some test tones in my studio to fine tune the gain and level changes, and with post-processing disabled that removed a significant variable in my analysis.  The ReSound has eight frequency bands, each with three zones loud/normal/soft, each with independent gain/level settings.  That was how my old aid worked, and I wanted to duplicate that response because it was so perfect for speech and music.

 

I know the center frequencies of each of the bands, so I dialed up a sine wave test tone generator on my digital synth (Kurzweil 1000PX).  Wikipedia has a nice article of piano key frequencies so I could identify keys that were close to the center frequencies.  I configured the test tone where my foot would press the MIDI CC sostenuto pedal and changed the test tone from loud to soft (about a 12dB difference), so one hand was free to play the test tone on the MIDI controller while the other was free to block my other ear.  Then I layered the test tone with white noise, 9dB below the loud level.  The human ear can discriminate a steady state signal in white noise; too low and the white noise masks the signal.

 

The loud levels told me whether they were too loud or too soft.  The soft levels are harder to determine volume level over the ranges.  What the white noise did was two things 1) when I listened at soft level and the white noise was masking it enough that the test tone could not be heard in the white noise then the gain was too high and/or level was too low and 2) if there were any compression action I would hear the white noise level change, which was an unwanted variable in my tests.  I did catch #2 at the 500hz band.  So I switched to the music program of the hearing aid; when I repeated the test, I heard no change in white noise level at 500hz.  That told me there was some other processing going on.

 

The big problem I wanted to resolve was the sibilance.  "S" sounds with speech were loud enough that speech quality suffered, and snare/cymbal sounds were pretty hot.  I couldn't discriminate which frequency(s) were the offensive ones, hence the test tone analysis.

 

So today I presented my results to the audiologist and he made my requested adjustments.  The music test is much better, not quite perfect yet.  I had a quiet day working from home so the next few days we'll see how well the speech clarity works.

The post-processing stays off until the gain/levels are perfected, at which point I'll experiment with post processing turned back on but with less extreme settings.  The post processing is out of the chain when using the music program.

If you have a digital synth I highly recommend that you use it as a test tone generator like I did.  Just be sure the monitors are flat response.