Hello all! I have worn Widex cic aids for 7 yrs. I wear them from the minute I wake up until I go to bed. I'm a kindergarten teacher. Both of the Widex aids broke so I am trying out one Oticon Alta Pro. I have to wait until October to purchase the second one because that's when my new flex med cycle starts. My insurance doesn't pay anything for aids. I don't like just trying one but I have to have something. The sound is quite different. Is this always the case from aid to aid? I love that I now have a volume control! I don't want a remote. While I can turn it up, the voices on the TV or still often to understand. Oh, I have a moderate loss in both ears with a flat slot. I tried that sharp & distinct program but found it too harsh and switched it to the soft and round. I've had lots of issues with my hair brushing up against the mics. My audi says that the cic aids are about 30% larger than my previous. If I try a cic she wants me to try Widex again since I liked my others. I am discovering noises behind me that I haven't heard in 7 yrs. I expected to just love these bte Oticon aids and am disappointed that I don't. Is Widex a good aid? Am I better off with the bte new Oticon? Any thoughts?
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Cic to bte
- Thread starter Terry
- Start date
Hello all! I have worn Widex cic aids for 7 yrs. I wear them from the minute I wake up until I go to bed. I'm a kindergarten teacher. Both of the Widex aids broke so I am trying out one Oticon Alta Pro. I have to wait until October to purchase the second one because that's when my new flex med cycle starts. My insurance doesn't pay anything for aids. I don't like just trying one but I have to have something. The sound is quite different. Is this always the case from aid to aid? I love that I now have a volume control! I don't want a remote. While I can turn it up, the voices on the TV or still often to understand. Oh, I have a moderate loss in both ears with a flat slot. I tried that sharp & distinct program but found it too harsh and switched it to the soft and round. I've had lots of issues with my hair brushing up against the mics. My audi says that the cic aids are about 30% larger than my previous. If I try a cic she wants me to try Widex again since I liked my others. I am discovering noises behind me that I haven't heard in 7 yrs. I expected to just love these bte Oticon aids and am disappointed that I don't. Is Widex a good aid? Am I better off with the bte new Oticon? Any thoughts?
Terry,
Yes, different brand hearing aids do have different sounds: I found Phonak and Rexton to have a mechanical sound, but found Oticon and Resound to have a very similar more natural sound. The hair sound may be driving you nuts right now but you will tune it out over time. With further adjustments you will probably be able to iron out all your problems you are having with the Oticons, but if you are up against a trial period ending you either have to work out a longer trial with you audi (they usually have 90 days to return the HA's to the manufacturer) or move on to something else. A friend of mine has had Widex aids for years until he was talked into trying Starkey HA's and he now wishes he had stayed with Widex.
A BTE aid will have less mechanical breakdowns than CIC aids because they aren't subjected to the constant moisture of your ear that a CIC is. I have only worn BTE HA's but friends that have worn both say that they like the BTE aids better and would never go back. CIC also are limited to mild and moderate losses, although Starkey will custom make a power CIC.
If you stay with the Oticon HA's I would give further thought to the remote. I have a Streamer with my Oticon's and love it: it makes talking on the phone a breeze as well as listening to the dialog on the TV if others are talking in the same room while you are trying to watch something. It also makes changing programs, the volume or answering the phone much easier than fiddling with the rocker on the HA's. Good luck and I hope you find something that works well for you.
More questions with Alta
Do you think that the Alta Pros are good aids? I am still having difficulty with the tv. I can hear it but the voices are not clear. I'm playing with the different programs because my audi said that some people use the music program for the tv. Will streamers work with all TVs? How much do they usually cost?
Natural sounds seem to be very good. I'm assuming that the television is harder because its chomping through speakers?? I will say that I am hearing my soft spoken kindergartners' voices better with these than the Widex.
I guess that when I hear that "technology has improved so much in the last xx years" I expected the whole listening experience to be noticeably better.....
Do you think that the Alta Pros are good aids? I am still having difficulty with the tv. I can hear it but the voices are not clear. I'm playing with the different programs because my audi said that some people use the music program for the tv. Will streamers work with all TVs? How much do they usually cost?
Natural sounds seem to be very good. I'm assuming that the television is harder because its chomping through speakers?? I will say that I am hearing my soft spoken kindergartners' voices better with these than the Widex.
I guess that when I hear that "technology has improved so much in the last xx years" I expected the whole listening experience to be noticeably better.....
Do you think that the Alta Pros are good aids? I am still having difficulty with the tv. I can hear it but the voices are not clear. I'm playing with the different programs because my audi said that some people use the music program for the tv. Will streamers work with all TVs? How much do they usually cost?
Natural sounds seem to be very good. I'm assuming that the television is harder because its chomping through speakers?? I will say that I am hearing my soft spoken kindergartners' voices better with these than the Widex.
I guess that when I hear that "technology has improved so much in the last xx years" I expected the whole listening experience to be noticeably better.....
Terry,
I think the Alta Pro's are good HA's but I don't know from personal experience. I can say that I like the Agil Pro's that preceded them which i have. The Agil Pro's are very clear sounding when listening to real live people as well as listening to the TV. Maybe you can ask your audi if you can try the Agil Pro's and see how they work if you are still into your trial period with the Alta Pro's.
If you are happy with how the aids are working for listening to people, you can keep it set up the way you have it and set up a separate program for listening to the TV and see how that works. Another option if your audi can't get the problem solved is to ask them to bring in the Oticon rep or at least get them on the phone and see if they can improve the situation.
As for the Streamer, one way or another you can get it to work with any TV. You may have to buy a infrared audio converter if your TV does the audio that way or an adapter to convert your stereo headphone jack to an RCA type jack if your TV doesn't have an audio out or you might be able to simply plug in the Oticon TV adapter to the audio out on your TV and listen through the Streamer. I also have a 12' 2.5 mm audio patch cord that I have plugged into one of my audio out jacks on my TV and use that when my wife and I are watching TV (she has Phonak HA's with an ICom) and we listen to the audio through the same cable: if you don't care that you are tethered to the TV you can use this system rather than buying a TV adapter from Oticon. If you are having problems hearing the TV this will more than likely solve the problem since you will be piping the sound directly to the HA's and into your ears.
I think that the technology is being continuously refined and improved, but what you are getting is incremental improvements on the various manufacturers hearing aids and how they process sound rather than huge leaps forward that are going to allow you to hear everything perfectly. You might have to make adjustments for different situations: you may be able to hear your kindergartners and other peoples voices better, but you may have to go to another program to be able to hear the TV.