a more silent world

So I've worn my new hearing aids a few full days now. They are nice, but they definitely need a re-tuning badly. I am going back in a week from today. Biggest complaints so far: -Music sounds like total crap while I'm driving. Maybe it's all the compression, but it just sounds like it runs through a tiny AM radio first and then through my speakers. The "Music" program makes things sound better, but road noise is unbearable. I didn't really have this problem with my old ears, but then my gain wasn't as high. -Voices also tend to sound really distorted in loud environments--again I think this is the huge amount of compression we put on. I want clear sound in all environments, but I want my aids to supress sounds that are too loud. -The remote is very nice, if not a tad heavy. Funny, people wants phones heavy like the iphone because that makes them feel "substantial". This remote definitely doesn't fall into that category--I want it LIGHT...

I ordered my new Rexton hearing aids in silver and also ordered a an optional kit to convert them to blue. I wanted half and half, so I exchanged a couple of the silver parts out with blue parts. Here is what they look like now (dime shows just how tiny these things are):

I picked up my new hearing aids today and thought I would post my initial thoughts. First, let's take a little journey back in time to understand some of my history. I got my first set of ears 10 years ago. They were the Senso+ model in the CIC (completely-in-the-canal) size, made by Widex. They were almost invisible and functioned fairly well, but after four years they were no longer powerful enough to keep up with my progressive loss, so I got a new set. The new set were Phonak Claro ITE (in-the-ear) models, and were far more technologically advanced, and also far larger and more noticeable. I was able to control the volume and choose programs using my Phonak wristwatch. I have worn these for about five years now, but again my hearing loss has outgrown the volume possible with these models. Fast forward to present day. I recently bought a pair of Rexton Cobalt 16 (same as Siemens Pure 700) and a bluetooth remote control that Rexton calls an RCU (same as the Siemens Tek). The...