Rexton Cobalt - Retuned, WOW
I went in today for a followup tuning of my new hearing aids. My main issues that I needed addressed:
1) There was heavy distortion on the main programs in loud environments, making speech very difficult to interpret
2) Certain types of loud sounds were overwhelming me in my normal programs
3) We forgot to add the programs for Bluetooth phone and Direct audio connections during the first fitting
We took out most of the compression in the main program, removing all traces of distortion, but that still left the overwhelming sounds. We walked through various frequencies over the speakers and found that I had a huge peak at about 1000Hz, right in the middle of the speech range, so we knocked the gain down at that frequency and everything was PERFECT. My main program is really great now.
Took a couple times to get the Bluetooth and Direct audio programs to sound right, and I think I will still need one more visit to get these a little better, but overall they sound pretty good. Hooked my iPod to my bluetooth unit and even though music sounds a little on the tinny side, everything is very clear, which makes me happy. For those of you that don't know, listening to music from speakers or televisions normally sounds bad with hearing aids. There is something about electronic sources going through another electronic circuit (the hearing aid) that kills quality. So the direct audio program bypasses the microphones and passes music directly from a TV or iPod to your hearing aid speakers--WONDERFUL!
Overall, I am pretty happy now. I will probably go back in for another retune in a couple months and see if we can get music to sound a little more natural.
1) There was heavy distortion on the main programs in loud environments, making speech very difficult to interpret
2) Certain types of loud sounds were overwhelming me in my normal programs
3) We forgot to add the programs for Bluetooth phone and Direct audio connections during the first fitting
We took out most of the compression in the main program, removing all traces of distortion, but that still left the overwhelming sounds. We walked through various frequencies over the speakers and found that I had a huge peak at about 1000Hz, right in the middle of the speech range, so we knocked the gain down at that frequency and everything was PERFECT. My main program is really great now.
Took a couple times to get the Bluetooth and Direct audio programs to sound right, and I think I will still need one more visit to get these a little better, but overall they sound pretty good. Hooked my iPod to my bluetooth unit and even though music sounds a little on the tinny side, everything is very clear, which makes me happy. For those of you that don't know, listening to music from speakers or televisions normally sounds bad with hearing aids. There is something about electronic sources going through another electronic circuit (the hearing aid) that kills quality. So the direct audio program bypasses the microphones and passes music directly from a TV or iPod to your hearing aid speakers--WONDERFUL!
Overall, I am pretty happy now. I will probably go back in for another retune in a couple months and see if we can get music to sound a little more natural.
Comments
I just got new aids.
I also had a progressive hearing loss, I know that is difficult.
My wife and I are not too far from Philadelphia!
Definitely post back when you get them.
Anyone know how to turn off the aids without remote or taking out battery? The two second thing in the book does not work.
Anyone had bluetooth lockups on the RCU with a Blackberry?
So far all my problems are tolerable.
Good place to buy domes? perfecthearing.com is all I see on-line.
I was just told I have grown out of being able to wear CIC and it's messing with my head as I now have to move to a RIE with custom mold. So, you'd say this is a great style and circuitry for the price?
Thank you for having this blog!
seriously, I know it's hard sometimes, but get over the vain aspect of it. I often wish mine were flourescent orange that way people would KNOW immediately why I am having a hard time understanding them.
I find the Cobalts to be nearly invisible, even though with the custom mold they are more noticeable than the dome kind.
I cannot stress enough, don't be vain about this stuff. we are hard-of-hearing, it is no different than people wearing glasses. there are power in numbers, be proud!
I have the power head and the micro mold and get basically zero feedback, even if I bump my volume all the way up. The micro custom molds are about the same size as a small CIC aid--very very small. I have had the receiver pop out of the mold a couple times, and it is impossible to get the mold out of the canal without tweezers. hahaha
Thanks again for the words of encouragement.
Anonymous - I'm happy for you! Go get them! You'll love hearing and won't care who sees them. In fact, I'm with Aaron on this one too... I would rather people saw them than not so they understood my limitations. :) Good luck to you!
My current problem with these, though they are great, is that everything is compressed, I mean everything. I clap my hands and can't hear it properly, everything sounds so dampened. This can be fixed, correct? As of now I had to resort back to my old Starkey CIC's since I'm not able to comprehend anything sounding so compressed.
The compression problem I am so excited to hear the little things I've been missing for so long now. These little things are incredible!
I find that the compression made things VERY distorted.
Currently my programs are:
1. auto
2. bluetooth (gonna remove next time since I dont use it)
3. speech in quiet (very little compression)
4. audio input (I use this a ton for hooking TV to my remote)
5. outdoors, great for noisy places
So it's been almost a week now and I'm having soreness in my right canal that makes it hard to wear. Just getting used to the custom mold I guess.
I do have a hell of a time talking on the phone as I have to hold it at the top of my ear, close the to microphone, to even remotely hear anything. Unfortunately my office phones aren't bluetooth compatible. How did you manage to get around this? Can I set a "phone mode" in one of my programs?
Also, when I am on my bluetooth program, my mics are basically turned off, meaning I can't hear people around me. This may be tunable, but I could see that being a bad thing in your profession.