Hearing Aids Reviews

[SoCalAud]

Has anyone worked with patients with Oticon hearing aids? If so, did any of your patients have anything positive or negative to say about their brand?

I only ask because I have an appointment with my audiologist today and we're selecting hearing aids. I know most of you have yet to receive your Au.D and some of you have your license already and your opinions from past clinical experiences means a lot to me. I was wondering if you can share your opinions about Oticon's BTE hearing aids for those with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss. Don't hesitate to mention models with high power. I won't be offended.

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[cidanu]

not sure what your budget is but everyone that i fit with the agil LOVED it. you can get it with a power receiver, and you might want to consider a custom shell.

 

[SoCalAud]

How about the maintenance of the receiver and tubing? Is it manageable for someone to clean them without driving out to their audiologist? I'm worried about the moister inside the middle ear.

 

[Dustbug10]

+1 for the agil.. I haven't seen one fitted, but has anyone recommended you the Chili? It seems fairly small if you wanted to go the SP route..

 

[cidanu]

How about the maintenance of the receiver and tubing? Is it manageable for someone to clean them without driving out to their audiologist? I'm worried about the moister inside the middle ear.

hmm... i don't think i did enough custom shell fittings to really give you an answer. but in general i think if you're young, dexterous, and motivated, you probably won't have a problem. you can use a dri-aid kit at night too. i would definitely ask your audiologist about your specific concerns though and she knows your ears better than me! =)

 

[BigAl]

+2 on the Agil, fitted many of them without any issues. Always hear good things about them, quality is very good as well. Moisture from what exactly? Usually a dri-aid kit does the trick. If you do need power, like dusty said check out the Chili.

 

[cidanu]

what are people's experiences with the chili? i haven't had a chance to work with it, but given the size 13 battery i am hesitant to believe it's a replacement for the Sumo DM (although it might be the right range for SoCal).

 

[DrAudio]

Has anyone worked with patients with Oticon hearing aids? If so, did any of your patients have anything positive or negative to say about their brand?

I only ask because I have an appointment with my audiologist today and we're selecting hearing aids. I know most of you have yet to receive your Au.D and some of you have your license already and your opinions from past clinical experiences means a lot to me. I was wondering if you can share your opinions about Oticon's BTE hearing aids for those with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss. Don't hesitate to mention models with high power. I won't be offended.

Post your audio and then we'll know if you need to go the SP route. I worked almost exclusively with Oticon at my last clinic. Decent enough devices imo. After about 50 fittings of "high end" vs. "mid range" devices I couldn't justify the cost difference though.

Power recievers overlap somewhat the fitting range on the Super Power devices. I personally prefer fitting reciever models as they have a somewhat cleaner frequency response above 1500Hz ish and definately have smaller cases.

How about the maintenance of the receiver and tubing? Is it manageable for someone to clean them without driving out to their audiologist? I'm worried about the moister inside the middle ear.

Do you have permanent tubes or TM perfs? Unless you do you won't have any middle ear issues.

The devices are very easy to clean and maintain.

You can call me or email me any questions you have about the devices if you would like. I think you have my email but I might be thinking of someone else - pm me if you want it.

-D

 

[DrAudio]

what are people's experiences with the chili? i haven't had a chance to work with it, but given the size 13 battery i am hesitant to believe it's a replacement for the Sumo DM (although it might be the right range for SoCal).

I've had good success with it as a replacement on the 6 or so people I fit it on. They liked the connectivity that it offered with the streamer. I wouldn't justify the cost for someone fit 2 years ago with something else, but the product works pretty well.

Oh, and per 2cc analysis - those suckers move some air!

-D

 

[BigAl]

Oh, and per 2cc analysis - those suckers move some air!

-D

 

[chicoborja]

Oticon aids are good in some areas (e.g., sound quality) but terrible where it counts the most----providing adequate high-frequency gain without feedback. If the loss is mild or if you do not attempt to reach a generic prescriptive target then you may not experience this issue. If you happen to use DSL 5 and verify your output has met your REAG targets then you will likely know what I am talking about. I find it ironic that Oticon advocates extended bandwidth over frequency lowering technology even when their aids cannot step up to the plate. If audibility cannot be achieved then the value of all the other features in the aid becomes debatable. My experience has been that the current line of Phonak and Siemens aids do a far better job at providing the additional stable gain before feedback. Moreover, theses companies actually allow the user the opportunity to obtain greater SNR improvements provided they are capable of toggling programs (e.g., StereoZoom and Zoom Control in Phonak; SpeechFocus in Siemens).

The new Intiga does look pretty though

 

[Kitska]

Oticon aids are good in some areas (e.g., sound quality) but terrible where it counts the most----providing adequate high-frequency gain without feedback. If the loss is mild or if you do not attempt to reach a generic prescriptive target then you may not experience this issue. If you happen to use DSL 5 and verify your output has met your REAG targets then you will likely know what I am talking about.

Really? Because the Oticon Safari series has been very successful for many children with moderate-severe hearing losses. These are DSL fittings. I am not sure what you are talking about. This is a very broad generalization, and if it were true, Oticon would not be in business or as successful as it is. In the hospitals where I am doing my training (major metropolitan area, top otolaryngology and audiology clinics), Oticon and Phonak are considered the two top brands and even the only ones they will use.

As to the question of servicing the HA yourself, I think as an audiologist-to-be, you will be able to do it almost no matter which brand or model you choose. I think there might be a couple of traditional BTE models where the earhook has to be replaced by the manufacturer, but most are not like this.

If you are getting a RITE/RIC type of aid, it is very easy to change out the receiver. However, the receivers are more expensive than just tubing. Maybe since you are an audiology student, your audiologist would give you a pair of spare receivers to take home with you for troubleshooting. If you are getting a slim tube instead of a receiver-in-the-canal, you can take off the tubing and clean it yourself with a thin plastic wire.

Also, Do you have a Dry&Store? They are great for daily hearing aid maintenance -- dry out your aids nicely every night.

 

[SoCalAud]

First week of the Amigo FM R12 (T30) system:

Just got the Oticon Amigo FM system and let me first tell you all that the sound quality of this device is very poor. It sounds as if the speaker is inside a cardboard box. Obviously, the background noise is not important, but the mic sure picks up a lot of the little things like a pencil drop that was about 15 feet behind the speaker. I'm not annoyed by it, but ask me again in a few weeks.

The "out of range" sign on the device drives me nuts. I have to take the hearing aids off to "activate" it before even using it. But there were times where I forgot I had to do that and my hearing aids automatically switched to the FM system channel without taking them off. That only happened a few times so far.


How it sounds: very echo-y. The fact that I can only use it for one ear just baffles me. I have the control to select which ear to hear out of, but that is nothing "amazing"! I rather hear out of two ears than out of my "good" ear.

The screen is a little difficult to see. It has no light up like the iPod does.

To get to the program menu is very easy.

If you all know how to use this better than I do, please feel free to tell me how to use it. I had to learn to use this device on my own since one of my audiologists didn't know how to use it when I came to pick it up.


Also, any comments about Phonak's FM systems? I heard the SmartLink+ is amazing.

 

[TheEarDoc]

First week of the Amigo FM R12 (T30) system:

Just got the Oticon Amigo FM system and let me first tell you all that the sound quality of this device is very poor. It sounds as if the speaker is inside a cardboard box. Obviously, the background noise is not important, but the mic sure picks up a lot of the little things like a pencil drop that was about 15 feet behind the speaker. I'm not annoyed by it, but ask me again in a few weeks.

The "out of range" sign on the device drives me nuts. I have to take the hearing aids off to "activate" it before even using it. But there were times where I forgot I had to do that and my hearing aids automatically switched to the FM system channel without taking them off. That only happened a few times so far.


How it sounds: very echo-y. The fact that I can only use it for one ear just baffles me. I have the control to select which ear to hear out of, but that is nothing "amazing"! I rather hear out of two ears than out of my "good" ear.

The screen is a little difficult to see. It has no light up like the iPod does.

To get to the program menu is very easy.

If you all know how to use this better than I do, please feel free to tell me how to use it. I had to learn to use this device on my own since one of my audiologists didn't know how to use it when I came to pick it up.


Also, any comments about Phonak's FM systems? I heard the SmartLink+ is amazing.

Sound quality wise your audiologist can work with your FM settings in your hearing aids to remove the cardboard box sounds. Odds are you may need the gain at 6-8kHz cut down some and 1-4kHz increase in that program to cut down the echo you hear and bring some richness to the sound.

As for oticon hearing aids, I've always liked them. I've had some issues with feedback though on patients. I think resound hearing aids have one of the best feedback systems on the market (they were one of the first good open fit companies). Sound quality wise I love the live series for resound and I've had good success with patients with acto pro and agil pro. If you don't like your amigo transmitter why don't you see if you audiologist can let you demo a connect line microphone for your classroom if the above mentioned fm system programming settings in your hearing aid don't work?

Hearing aids are an art form. Yes as someone mentioned, real war verification is important, but often times real ear targets does not equal pt comfort. I always run real eat speech mapping to see how close I am to targets and try to bring patients as close to target as I can, but I'm still a firm believer in the fact that it has to sound good too. There is a fine balance there and I've reached it with most of my patients.

If you've had hearing loss for a long time then you're probably a power junkie and your audiOlogist is going to need to supply you with more gain in the 1-4 kHz range to give you that sense of richness that hearing aid users who used to wear analogs love.

As for phonak fm systems. I've always liked them and the dynamic fm stuff is very nice. You do know you can use a phonak fm system with your oticon hearing aids, you just need the proper boots.

Good luck!

 

[SoCalAud]

Sound quality wise your audiologist can work with your FM settings in your hearing aids to remove the cardboard box sounds. Odds are you may need the gain at 6-8kHz cut down some and 1-4kHz increase in that program to cut down the echo you hear and bring some richness to the sound.

As for oticon hearing aids, I've always liked them. I've had some issues with feedback though on patients. I think resound hearing aids have one of the best feedback systems on the market (they were one of the first good open fit companies). Sound quality wise I love the live series for resound and I've had good success with patients with acto pro and agil pro. If you don't like your amigo transmitter why don't you see if you audiologist can let you demo a connect line microphone for your classroom if the above mentioned fm system programming settings in your hearing aid don't work?

Hearing aids are an art form. Yes as someone mentioned, real war verification is important, but often times real ear targets does not equal pt comfort. I always run real eat speech mapping to see how close I am to targets and try to bring patients as close to target as I can, but I'm still a firm believer in the fact that it has to sound good too. There is a fine balance there and I've reached it with most of my patients.

If you've had hearing loss for a long time then you're probably a power junkie and your audiOlogist is going to need to supply you with more gain in the 1-4 kHz range to give you that sense of richness that hearing aid users who used to wear analogs love.

As for phonak fm systems. I've always liked them and the dynamic fm stuff is very nice. You do know you can use a phonak fm system with your oticon hearing aids, you just need the proper boots.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your feedback, EarDoc.

Yes, I heard you can connect the Phonak FM system to your Oticon hearing aids. But I'm not certain if I will be wearing these new hearing aids much longer. I've only had it for a month and my right hearing aid is already got issues. batteries were checked and changed - still didn't work, left the battery door open for the whole night and it still didn't work. Oh well, I'm taking it in and hopefully we don't have to send in to the manufacturer.

 

[TheEarDoc]

Thank you so much for your feedback, EarDoc.

Yes, I heard you can connect the Phonak FM system to your Oticon hearing aids. But I'm not certain if I will be wearing these new hearing aids much longer. I've only had it for a month and my right hearing aid is already got issues. batteries were checked and changed - still didn't work, left the battery door open for the whole night and it still didn't work. Oh well, I'm taking it in and hopefully we don't have to send in to the manufacturer.

What hearing aids are you wearing right now? Give me some things you like about them and some things you don't and it might give us a jumping off point to point you into the direction of something you might like.