Do you hear well with your HAs on (or with CIs on) in the noisy background?

yagazn

yagazn

New Member
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
2,949
Reaction score
7
Let's say 3 or 4 people talking to you right, so can you hear what they said even in the noisy background?

I'm hoh which I do talk or hear but I'm not 100 percent like a hearie person that can hear everything.
Hearie people thinks that hoh can hear everything because of wearing HAs on or CIs that helped you know. Well, what do you think?

Anyone experience like that with people talking to you in the noisy background like at restaurant?

Peace
 
Last edited:
No, I can't hear someone speaking to me if there is background noise. The only people I understand is close friends and family since I'm used to their voice and read their lips very well. So I dont know if its because I read their lips or a combination of both sound and lips. A concert? Forget trying to talk to someone, I just try to enjoy the music, that's what we're there for anyway right?

Depends on the restaurant but its not too bad sometimes. I can hear most of the things you listed but for example on the phone, I can hear them speaking but I dont know what they're saying, if that makes sense. I only understand immediate family on the phone, but sometimes there are words where I'm like huh? and dont understand them.
 
If the background noise is faint, I can still pick out some words. In loud background noise, forget it. Even hearing people can't hear, I know this because when I talk to them they go "huh?" then say "there's too much noise, I can't hear you"
 
Digitals have changed the game

I could not hear anything in noisy situation with my old analogs but with my new digital much improved.
 
With my CI, I can hear pretty decently in noisy environments. Just depends on the ambient noise levels. It has to be fairly loud to start bothering me. Also, it depends on the type of background noise. Certain kinds can be problematic. An example is the exhaust vent of a kitchen oven. That can mess me up. It has that intensity which makes it difficult to hear over.

While it is true the hearing hear so much more, they still have their limits. It is a function either of their attention span (if they aren't paying attention...) or the environmental noise levels get too noisy. Still for all that, I have seen them too many times listen on a cell phone with lots of background noise and carry on a conversation that I have no hope of doing myself (and I'm no slouch on a phone with my CI and I can use a cell while driving and windows down).
 
I can't hear in noisy restaurants. Most of the restaurants seem to be noisy.
 
Background noise depends on the background noise. Some, I can manage if I can hear and read their lips. Lots of background noise, not really, I only read lips at that stage. As for what I hear, if it's lots of background noise, I just hear noise. If it's not too much background noise, I end up hearing people behind me better than in front of me.

In terms of explaining it to hearing people, I just say "imagine you're on a conference call with everyone in the room, each having their own line into the conference call, doing their own thing as they are right now. It is chaos, and difficult to discern what one person is saying out of the noise of the rest."

Oddly enough, I've noticed that after I have a drink or two, people become much easier to understand, even in the noisiest of environments. Maybe I'm listening too hard.
 
no, but I can hear them talking fine but I just dont know how to pick words out of background noise if that mean anything.
 
I can hear people better with the CI than HA's depending on type of background noise.

Many Hearing people do have problem hearing with background noise... they lean over to me to listen which is my pet peeve!!
 
Nope...I just hear several voices going on at the same time.
 
Yes......virtually everyone with HA/CI has difficulty heairng in noise. That's just THE universal problem that everyone who's dhh deal with. Even unilateral dhh folks deal with great difficulty in noise.
 
Watermelon said:
...

Oddly enough, I've noticed that after I have a drink or two, people become much easier to understand, even in the noisiest of environments. Maybe I'm listening too hard.
Click to expand...

Funny, you should mention that...

I think you hit a truth about listening too hard. I had to learn to simply to "listen" in a passive mode and accept the input as is. When I finally did that in a natural way, my listening ability took off. This is exactly how the hearing listen. I seldom need a repeat if somebody starts speaking to me unexpectantly as I will sort of "rewind" the tape to catch up. It is the oddest but most important thing I learned about my CI in terms of listening in general. One still can concentrate on something important to make sure one gets it all. But one has the luxury not concentrating on listening and just let the brain listen to pickup a thread if it sounds promising. Trust me, I do it all the time now and it is wonderful!

The big thing of course is being able to hear enough to do that. With my HA, it wasn't really possible whereas my CI provides me enough to do that.
 
Back
Top