As for hearing when in noisy environments, it depends on the type of "noise". In general, no I don't have too much trouble. I have been to several basketball games and I caught most of the annoucers said and I can talk easily enough with people around me. I use a "loud noise" setting for these situations and it works well for me. For lessor loud environments, I use my normal setting and do pretty well. Not everybody has good noise discrimination for speech. When they tested me they couldn't figure out why I did so well with noise in the background compared to without. Just fortunate...I guess.
I have a single CI and it works fine for me. Yes, one is enough to function properly. Two is a nice thing (sound directionality) but not absolutely necessary.
I can't answer about the Med-el brand as I use the Cochlear Freedom and I absolutely love it.
