New aids x Old aids

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Luna_

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Hey! I've just discovered this forum, and have already read a lot of posts here. I loved it here!

Anyway, I'd like to copy a thread I posted in another forum, cause I really want to know what do you have to say. If anyone has any thoughts, please share!

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Hi, everyone!

So, as I wrote in another thread, I've been using Widex Senso for 10 years or more. In my search for new aids, I'm kind of in doubt when it comes to the real beneftis of the new technologies for me.
I use aids since I was only 1 year old. I've developed very well my understanding of speech, and I really don't find it hard to listen and talk to people, even in noisy enviroments, like the mall, the college etc. This, of course, with my aids on.

I enjoy listening to enviroment's sounds, I think because I just learned to listen that way. I like to hear the wind, sounds from another rooms, clicks, distant music etc, even if these sounds may not be "useful".

And one thing that bothers me in all these new aids is that they're all about focusing on speech. The rest is silence.

I know everything's improved, but I really don't know how much all this new tech could help me.
Also, in Siemens they advised me to try Centra, and in Widex, the Flash. Both BTE (I'm not interested in any other type). The Widex audi said I'd like better one with less channels (the Flash has 5). The Centra has 15 or 16 channels, I can't remember. I'm using Centra right now and I feel in some kind of quiet 2001: A Space Odissey scene.

Sorry for the long text, but what experts here have to say about it?
__________________
My Audiogram:

Hz...250..500..1K..2K..3K...4K..8K
Right.50...55..70...70..65...60..50
Left...50...60..70..70..65...60..55

Rec. Speech (unaided):
85db: 92% (right) and 96% (left)
 
Why did the audi say you would like the one with fewer channels, did she say?

I do not think it is true at all that the new aids are focused on speech only, and the rest is silence. I certainlly hear most environmental sounds also with my aids (Phonak Sevia Arts). Some high-pitched sounds I don't hear (like birds' songs) but that's because of me, not the aids.

There is one program called "speech-in-noise" that attempts to block out environmental noise in a situation like a mall or noisy restaurant to focus on speech, but ordinarily all sounds will come through.
 
Hi, Beach Girl, thanks for the feedback!
The audi said it was because people like me prefer quantity of sound, and less channels would give me that, rather than 16 channels. She said that since I'm not interested in too much noise reduction, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the features of high-ends aids.

About the silence, that's my experience, of course, and I'm still in this transitional period. With the Centra, my audi cut off all the compression, and it still feels way too "numb", I guess. And I really can't see why I'd spend so much money on aids with 16 channels if I'm going to be willing to disable all the compression.
But I don't know what to trust: my "hearing" or what everybody says about how better new ais should be for me.
 
Honestly the only way you can really tell is take 'em for a trial ride. You should have 30 to 60 days trial period. Personally I think 30 days is way too short and you should try for 60, and further, that if you have to have frequent adjustments during that trial period, that trial period should be lengthened accordingly.

Would your audi be cooperative in being willing to order something for you on that basis, that you will give what she recommends a try but if it doesn't work out, you want to be able to return it before the end of the trial period?

Does your audi do a "Real Ear Measurement" (REM) with new aids before you leave the office? She should.
 
I have Siemens aids and although the directional microphone programme does cut out most background noise and focuses on the speech of the person immediately in front of you, the omni-directional microphone programme, which I use most of the time, picks up plenty of environmental noise. If you explain your needs and preferences to your audiologist, and he/she is good at their job, he/she should be able to programme your aids accordingly.

I changed to digitals three years ago, after 37 years of using analogues, and although the digitals did seem really quiet at first and I wasn't sure I was going to like them, now that I am used to them I wouldn't change back.

Ask for a decent length trial, if that's possible, and give some new digital aids a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.
 
Hey! So today I went to pick up the Widex Flash.
The Flash family is nothing like the high-ends aids, it's supposed to have a better price and all, but I'm not trialing it because of the price, anyway...

So far, I think it's being far more comfortable than trialing the Siemens Centra. Flash, as I said, has only 5 channels, so is not all that silence and all compared to Centra.

My audi disabled almost all the compression features in this aid. I don't know, I just feel that everything is in a kind of blur when everything is quiet.

The sound is feeling more natural with Widex, compared to Siemens.

I know i'm seeming totally freaked out with this "silence" thing, but it's actually the first time that I change my aids on my own. The last time I still was a child, with less than 9 years old, and had all decisions made for me. So I didn't quite participate in the process. So this is new for me, even though I wear aids since I was 1.
 
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