Hear Again,
Thanks. One of the problems being in the study is that they won't say much about any of the different settings they set you with. They really want you to experience everything. This is not to say you can't figure out these things on your own but sometimes it would be nice to get the "dirt" on it. Now, when the study is done, I can get everything I want to know and of course set it up exactly the way I want it. I already know what I want by now though...{big grin}
I think the "ADRO" setting you are talking about is the one where it reduces the "noise" and focuses on the softer stuff like speech or music. I found that to be good in very few settings (for me). I prefer it as an option only in the few instances that it might be useful and instead use the normal setting the rest of the time. I seemed to do extremely well even there is "noise" in the background. I may be a natural in filtering noise so it really doesn't bother me much. It might work much better for you.
Personally, I can't say if the software is that good where quite a few do extremely well right off the bat (I don't have anyway to make any judgement on this as I had not used the prior model). I do know that I did do that well right of the bat.
Just from the way I took off with it (and reading about the struggles of others before the Freedom) makes me think your statement as being very true. The very day I got it, I could understand my wife easily enough and I understood her while we were driving (I was driving and not looking at her ) to a restaurant and she was on the cell phone talking to various family members on what was happening. Now, it wasn't perfect as I had trouble understanding my daughter (who wasn't quite five yet at the time). That took about three days to get her pegged down and I think it was much higher pitched voice. My son (7 1/2) I got on the first day too. I will say that I got the speech part down right away with some obvious adjustments over time. Now, the environmental sounds were a whole another thing. I had a terrible time at first as 1) every was so loud! 2) I was hearing additional sounds/information I normal didn't hear from those very sounds 3) there were too many coming at me at once. Soooo, my brain was trying it's best to get the "hang" of this quickly. Things settled down in the fourth or fifth day with most typical sounds in my normal environments like home and work. Some sounds like cars and trucks were a real challenge for a couple of weeks as they were so blasted loud to me and the noises they make is so "rich". The only sound that doesn't sound normal to this day is thunder. With my HA I never quite heard it like this as with the CI. The CI brings out so much out of it and it is wonderful.
My hookup occurred about 2 1/2 weeks after my surgery. They really want you to heal properly before using it. I was fine with that but I will say that after about two weeks of being truely deaf
, I was going crazy as I have never been without some form of hearing that long before. You might recall in prior emails from me that I'm one of those very oral ones (I a hearing person who happens to be deaf types
). I personally think that people should heal some before being activated as it got to hurt some as I can recall how I felt afterwards.
I will tell you having four setting to call upon is a fantastic thing. You can just shift to the program you want without all the hassles about adjusting volume and sensitivity all the time. In fact, I just get them to what I consider the most optimal settings for each program and I leave them alone! I just don't bother changing the settings period. For example, the Freedom provides up to 20 levels of sensitivity and I just set it to a 10 for each program as it appears to be what I like best. The volume is depended upon the range is set by the CI audi. I prefer to have the audi set the upper limit several notches higher to give me spare capacity for volume if I need it. So far, I never needed it but it is nice to know it is there. Typically I set to a 7 (range is 1 to 9). Currently during this period in the study, I have just two programs as I'm supposed to tell them which I liked better. The one I really like has been set so high that I set the volume to a 3 and that is plently loud enough.
Sorry for rambling too long but I just love the Freedom and what it has done for me. Feel free to ask any time.
Same to you on your CI
I know several people who were implanted with the Freedom and love it! (I was 3 months shy of being implanted with the Freedom.) All of the comments I've read so far have been positive. Some of the features I'm particularly interested in are the BEAM directional microphones, ADRO setting and 4 program slots. 
). My CI audi thought it would be easier if my Freedom processors matched my 3Gs, so I picked black. I originally chose silver for my 3G, but changed my mind after reading reports from some CI users about the coating chipping off (this was corrected in later models of the 3G). If I had my pick, I'd LOVE to have neon colored processors with blinking lights. LOL! Speaking of blinking lights, my Freedom processors have blinking lights that can be set to blink while the processor is being used. If it weren't for my long hair, I'd ask my audi to activate them!