Cochlear and bimodal hearing aid

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sappstter

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Anyone have experience with a bimodal hearing aid and cochlear that "work" together?

I'm looking at the Cochlear/Resound and AB/Phonak combos. If it does nothing else it seems at least they cycle between programs and volume together, is that really the benefit or do you hear better with them working together. I know these are fairly new...

I don't currently have a cochlear, I'm approved so I'm looking at manufacturers. I'm getting a cochlear in my deaf ear and looking to whether it is worth getting a new hearing aid for the other. I have both a Phonak Naida (with a bicross) and a resound linx, I know these aren't directly compatible and I'd have to buy the specific HA. I really like the wireless capability of the resound over the phonak. I hate the compilot, its bulky and inconvenient.
 
sappstter said:
Anyone have experience with a bimodal hearing aid and cochlear that "work" together?

I'm looking at the Cochlear/Resound and AB/Phonak combos. If it does nothing else it seems at least they cycle between programs and volume together, is that really the benefit or do you hear better with them working together. I know these are fairly new...

I don't currently have a cochlear, I'm approved so I'm looking at manufacturers. I'm getting a cochlear in my deaf ear and looking to whether it is worth getting a new hearing aid for the other. I have both a Phonak Naida (with a bicross) and a resound linx, I know these aren't directly compatible and I'd have to buy the specific HA. I really like the wireless capability of the resound over the phonak. I hate the compilot, its bulky and inconvenient.
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If you haven't already I'd suggest you join their forums and/or FB groups. I know some AB members are posting about the Link.
Since I've been wearing Naidas for 6 years I'm getting an AB CI in Jan will ask my Audi if she thinks I should get the Link.
The Link is one of the kits that you can choose from that comes with the CI. Since my insurance has good coverage for HAs I'm hoping I can pick a different kit and have the Link paid as an HA.
 
LoveBlue said:
If you haven't already I'd suggest you join their forums and/or FB groups. I know some AB members are posting about the Link.
Since I've been wearing Naidas for 6 years I'm getting an AB CI in Jan will ask my Audi if she thinks I should get the Link.
The Link is one of the kits that you can choose from that comes with the CI. Since my insurance has good coverage for HAs I'm hoping I can pick a different kit and have the Link paid as an HA.
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I check out the Cochlear forums it doesn't seem like there is much there. I also signed the AB forum (hearing journey) but I can't figure out how to navigate it! It seems like a mess, I don't see any sub-forums just a bunch of posts with no reply's. How do you post on that forum?

edit: Please disregard this, apparently my email wasn't activated. Interesting that it didn't tell me until I tried a link from facebook to hearing journey.... I remember clicking on the activation email initially I guess it just didn't take, forums seem much better now!
 
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sappstter said:
I check out the Cochlear forums it doesn't seem like there is much there. I also signed the AB forum (hearing journey) but I can't figure out how to navigate it! It seems like a mess, I don't see any sub-forums just a bunch of posts with no reply's. How do you post on that forum?

edit: Please disregard this, apparently my email wasn't activated. Interesting that it didn't tell me until I tried a link from facebook to hearing journey.... I remember clicking on the activation email initially I guess it just didn't take, forums seem much better now!
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Yeah, the Cochlear America forum isn't very good. That's one of the several reasons I've decided to go with AB for my CI.
 
LoveBlue said:
Yeah, the Cochlear America forum isn't very good. That's one of the several reasons I've decided to go with AB for my CI.
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Do you use the t-mic? It looks like it would bounce around. I'm really torn between AB and Cochlear, I like Kanso and AB doesn't have an offering yet that is similar. I also don't like the compilot, I had one for my Phonaks. I'd prefer a direct wireless connection. I'm really drawn to the Phonak HA link though.
 
sappstter said:
Do you use the t-mic? It looks like it would bounce around. I'm really torn between AB and Cochlear, I like Kanso and AB doesn't have an offering yet that is similar. I also don't like the compilot, I had one for my Phonaks. I'd prefer a direct wireless connection. I'm really drawn to the Phonak HA link though.
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I haven't gotten my CI yet (surgery is in Jan, activation in Feb).
 
sappstter said:
Do you use the t-mic? It looks like it would bounce around. I'm really torn between AB and Cochlear, I like Kanso and AB doesn't have an offering yet that is similar. I also don't like the compilot, I had one for my Phonaks. I'd prefer a direct wireless connection. I'm really drawn to the Phonak HA link though.
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The Tmic does not bounce around at all. It enables you to use any type of headset like a normal person as well as benefitting from natural sound collection. Cochlear does not have this and the Kanso is like having an ear canal on the side of your head without the pinna for natural sound collection.

Wireless accessories are nice, but you shouldn't be dependent on them. AB / Phonak are going full wireless with the next generation.
 
BleedingPurist said:
Cochlear does not have this and the Kanso is like having an ear canal on the side of your head without the pinna for natural sound collection.
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I don't have any experience with Tmic since Cochlear doesn't have it, but regarding the Kanso placement - I was actually surprised that the sound is same as with BTE processor. They found some way to compensate the "weird" placement and it works pretty well. So it actually doesn't matter that much if you have microphones right above your ear with BTE processor or somewhere else with Kanso.
Can't argue about the Tmic though - I'd very much like to try it so that I would have some idea if it's really that good as everyone with AB says :)
 
I have a friend of mine who has a little boy with AB and the Naida Link, he's doing great though! :D
 
I've been happy with my AB Naida CIs. I did do bi-modal for a couple of years but that was before the AB Naida came out; I used AB's Harmony or Neptune processor on my left ear and a Phonak Naida HA on my right ear. I don't know too much about Cochlear's options, but I do know Sonova (the company that owns both AB and Phonak) has been working hard to make a AB CI and Phonak HA option work together for those who want to go the bi-modal route.

I personally don't care for the ComPilot myself, it's annoying, always cuts out on me if I'm moving around, etc. I prefer to use over the ear headphones, that works well enough for me for music listening, etc.
 
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