Hearing loss

[Steeldrifter 0]

12 minutes ago, DFoster said:

11 hours ago, cphubert said:

 

I'll be glad to- as you can probably gather from my rantings this has been a frustrating journey for me,

I honestly have a new found empathy for those such as yourself that are suffering with hearing issues DFoster. With the tinnitus and ear issues I went through for the past 3 months (I'm almost fully better now thankfully, feel 90-95% normal now ) but with what I dealt with during those months with the constant ringing, the hyperacusis, and just overall frustration of my hearing not being "normal" it really gave me a very great appreciation for the basic things we take for granted, such as just hearing all the sounds of the world in a normal manner.  I truly hope the new ones give you back some sense of normality to your hearing. Hope to see you come back with a great report on how they are working out for you!

[DFoster 0]

25 minutes ago, Steeldrifter said:

I honestly have a new found empathy for those such as yourself that are suffering with hearing issues DFoster. With the tinnitus and ear issues I went through for the past 3 months (I'm almost fully better now thankfully, feel 90-95% normal now ) but with what I dealt with during those months with the constant ringing, the hyperacusis, and just overall frustration of my hearing not being "normal" it really gave me a very great appreciation for the basic things we take for granted, such as just hearing all the sounds of the world in a normal manner.  I truly hope the new ones give you back some sense of normality to your hearing. Hope to see you come back with a great report on how they are working out for you!

Kind words- Thank you Steve.  Let your Mom know that hearing aids can change her life.  It's just a matter of being careful to select what will work for her.  Tinnitus is part of my loss as well, I'm glad to hear your recovering well!

[skeet3t 0]

 

Quote

A simple volume control would have made things so much better. 

For me, volume just makes it worse. I'm supposed to get a hearing test and new hearing aids June 11th. However, my beef is if the new ones won't block out background noise, I might as well keep my old ones.

Story- When we moved to our new church 10 years ago, someone decided to pump up the volume. During the music, I had to wear ear plugs. I was told by a reputable person that an audiologist visited one Sunday morning. The next Sunday, she brought a meter to test volume which proved to be waaaay too loud. A letter was sent and ignored.

[DFoster 0]

16 minutes ago, skeet3t said:

Story- When we moved to our new church 10 years ago, someone decided to pump up the volume. During the music, I had to wear ear plugs. I was told by a reputable person that an audiologist visited one Sunday morning. The next Sunday, she brought a meter to test volume which proved to be waaaay too loud. A letter was sent and ignored.

 I'm told that creating a hearing aid that can overcome the natural reverb of big voluminous rooms like churches, gymnasiums, town halls is the Mount Everest of the hearing aid world.  I have to use head phones to be able hear our pastor, without them he might as well be preaching in Swahili.

[skeet3t 0]

We don't have earphones available. Tried to get them in my church in KY but no go, too expensive.

Another story- Fellow did audio-visual installations in south Florida. He did the A/V system for his home church. One little old lady said the sound was too loud. Another little old lady said the sound wasn't loud enough. After checking where they sat, he found they were good friends and sat together in church!

[DFoster 0]

My new Bose hearing aids arrived from UPS late yesterday.  Because it was late and downloading a phone App was involved I decided to wait until this morning at my office to get started.  When it comes to apps and my limited tech skills there's always potential for disaster.    I've only been using them for 3 hours so obviously this is just a first impressions report.

First after opening the box every thing seems to be of equal quality to the multi thousand dollar units I'm used to.  The box contained the instruments, 3 sizes of replacement ear tips, a cleaning brush, a pack of batteries, the owners manual and a really nice storage case. 

The Phone App-

The app down load process was super simple and fast.  There was a "start here" note along next to the link and once it was open it could not have been easier.  (Not always the case with some apps).  Anyway as promised the app allows the wearer to control the volume and the equalization of the aids via blue tooth and again its super simple.  A screen tap switches the amplification between 360 to in front only.  There is also a left to right balance control.  Once you have them tuned to a setting you like you can save it.  There is an option to save up to 10 specific settings which you can label - "conversation", "Outdoors", "Television" etc.  A tap is all it takes to get from your normal setting to one you like for the restaurant.  The app connects to the devices almost immediately.   The hearing aids will go to the most recent setting if you power them up when your phone is not nearby.   There is also a mute button.  In short the app functions exactly like a car stereo but these are Bose so that would make sense.  Genius marketing really since pretty much everyone on the planet knows how to use a car stereo.

The Hearing Aids-

The Bose units are minimally larger than the Bel Tones I had but the Bose are more comfortable for me personally to wear.  Everyone is different so your results may vary.  That said they do offer longer and shorter cables from the unit to the ear tip domes of which you have 3 sizes to choose from.  A perfect fit should be possible for almost everyone.  They are powered by standard 312 batteries.  After I turned my set on all I did was boost the volume from the preset 20% up to 40% and I was immediately impressed with how clear, good and normal the world sounded.  Literally 5 minutes after I turned them on a coworker arrived who is a notorious low talker.  I was actually able to hear him explain how is debit card was hit with fraud last night.  Yesterday the choice would have been to ask him to repeat most of what he was saying or just nod politely.   My hearing loss is borderline severe especially in the high frequencies.  Within minutes I had them at a serviceable tuning and so far this morning here at the office I can hear as good or better than I could with my super expensive Bel Tones.  I also zeroed the EQ and cranked up the volume to test it out.  I'm pretty deaf and all I can say is you would need to be extremely deaf for these not to help.  I'm sure there are more powerful aids in the world but keep in mind these list for $849.00/pair not $8,459.00/pair.  So far I'm super impressed with these.   The one negative I've found in the short time I've had them is that they are more prone to squealing/feed back than my Bel Tones if you get your hands near them.  My wide brim fishing hat will probably cause some squealing too but I can tune that out when needed via the volume/EQ controls. In the coming weeks I'll be tuning them to work in various locations.  I'm sure I'll find weaknesses and limitations but at this price I they are exceeding all expectations.

I can't speak to the reliability/longevity yet other than they seem to be as well made as my Bel Tones and Bose usually makes solid products. 

I hope this is helpful to anyone out there that is looking for a first pair or to replace their current hearing aids.

 

 

 

[Steeldrifter 0]

That is great to hear they seem to be working as well/better than your others, even if it's only been a few hours. Hopefully they continue to improve your life by leaps and bounds! Let us know how they do on your first fishing trip with them

[DFoster 0]

17 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

That is great to hear they seem to be working as well/better than your others, even if it's only been a few hours. Hopefully they continue to improve your life by leaps and bounds! Let us know how they do on your first fishing trip with them

Thank you Steve.  After a day they are performing as well as my previous set which is all I was asking for.  As I dial them in to specific situations they should perform better.   Beltone's new top of the line models would do better but these are 1/6 the cost so overall I'm extremely pleased.   

The type of fishing (streams) I do was a challenge for my previous hearing aids, much like restaurants because they want to over amplify the ambient sounds like moving water.   Because I can adjust these while at the river I will be able to find a best results setting for fishing and that was next to impossible while sitting inside an audiologist office.   Still nothing beats the factory equipment. 

[Steeldrifter 0]

6 minutes ago, DFoster said:

but these are 1/6 the cost so overall I'm extremely pleased.

That's what has me very interested in them. Not for me, but for my Mom. Her hearing has been getting worst the past 5 yrs, and just this year it seems really even worse than it has been. I honestly have to repeat probably 75% of what I say to her even if I'm right next to her. I know it's not her fault, but it's exhausting for me to have to constantly repeat myself 2-3 times all the time, and I know it has to make her feel bad as well even though she would never admit it. 

The thing that has kept her from getting hearing aids are the cost. With insurance not covering much if any of it I know she doesn't have $4000-$8000 to drop on them. So if these BOSE ones for under $900 keep woking good for you I'm hoping I just might be able to maybe have her let me go halfsie with her to get her a pair sometime.

[chugbug27 0]

Forgive me if everyone's seen this already. (I don't have commercial / cable tv)

 

[DFoster 0]

10 minutes ago, chugbug27 said:

Forgive me if everyone's seen this already. (I don't have commercial / cable tv)

 

Chug we cut the cable cord this year so I haven't see that.  Great commercial!

[Steeldrifter 0]

Just saw it for the first time yesterday and made me laugh. Usually commercials are just stupid, but that one is a funny one for sure.

[chugbug27 0]

Laughter's good medicine sometimes. Glad you're feeling better.

[vicrider 0]

Thanks a whole bunch DF. You got me hooked. Just raced to the site to order my pair. Guess what? Only available in 5 states and OK isn't one of them. TX is and we have friends in TX so I'll probably order a set through them since it seems like everything is doable on your own anyway. Years of shooting, motorcycles, and running heavy equipment before we realized the benefits of ear plugs has taken it's toll on my hearing. Like you said about music volume years ago back in the 60's and 70's a bar band was not loud enough unless you could feel the bass vibrate in you diaphragm, something I had back then.

Thanks for the report and since I have no insurance help for aids (hearing that is) I am happy to see a company with Bose reputation challenge the ridiculous hearing aid prices out there.

[DFoster 0]

3 hours ago, vicrider said:

Thanks a whole bunch DF. You got me hooked. Just raced to the site to order my pair. Guess what? Only available in 5 states and OK isn't one of them. TX is and we have friends in TX so I'll probably order a set through them since it seems like everything is doable on your own anyway. Years of shooting, motorcycles, and running heavy equipment before we realized the benefits of ear plugs has taken it's toll on my hearing. Like you said about music volume years ago back in the 60's and 70's a bar band was not loud enough unless you could feel the bass vibrate in you diaphragm, something I had back then.

Thanks for the report and since I have no insurance help for aids (hearing that is) I am happy to see a company with Bose reputation challenge the ridiculous hearing aid prices out there.

I've had my pair since may and no problems to report.  While nothing beats the original God provided equipment the Bose set works very well for me.  I certainly hope you have positive results with your set.  You could have them sent to your friend in TX and ask them to ship them to you.  Please let me know your feed back.