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Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

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Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#81

Post by nickf »

dmcc7897 wrote: post #76

I’ve worn hearing aids since I was a few years old, and I’m currently trialling the Oticon Zeal ones. I tried the Starkey ITC ones a couple of weeks ago, but found the performance in noisy environments to be sub-par. The Oticon Zeals seem good so far, but it has only been a few days. One thing they seem very strong at is the Bluetooth connectivity. Thanks to recent iOS changes, I can use the mic in the Oticons or the…

How are you finding the Zeal's charger? As I said in another comment - I'm baffled Oticon can't make a charging case the size of the AirPods Pro or similar. The Zeal charger doesn't seem exactly...pocketable!

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#82

Post by 7839284023 »

Barbing wrote: post #68
mustntmumble wrote: post #26

I'll tell you what is NOT hot! I have Phonak Audeos paired over bluetooth with my iPhone. A few years prior, I used to have Oticon, also paired with my iPhone. With the Oticon, if I made a cellphone call, the iPhone would use the default iPhone microphone while the audio would stream to my hearing aids. It was good that way because in a noisy environment I could hold the iphone right up to my mouth and the other part…

iOS 26 finally enabled custom mic selection! Settings > Sound & Haptics > Input > change from "Automatic: ..." to "iPhone Microphone"

Which sadly does not work very reliably. At least on my end the selection changes back to default every few days. I reported this issue over the Apple Feedback app already…

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#83

Post by dmcc7897 »

jitl wrote: post #71

Has anyone tried AirPods Pro as hearing aides? I remember Apple talking big game about getting them certified or something

I tried them and I have moderate to severe hearing loss.

Interestingly, they work well for the realtime audio adjustments for music - but sadly not well enough for external speech.

I will keep trying them with every new software and hardware release though!

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#84

Post by dmcc7897 »

furyofantares wrote: post #40

There's something I think must be possible and wonder if it would be useful: using noise cancelling earphones to mimic someone else's hearing loss. The idea is if you live with someone with hearing loss, you could enter the frequencies they can't hear, and cancel only those. Then you could spend a day with these in to try to get a more direct understanding of which noises they can hear and which they can't.

Whilst I have no idea how well this would work, I would definitely appreciate something like this.

Rather than noise cancelling headphones, I’d be happy with an audio recording that has my loss applied to it. Anything to demonstrate what it’s like would help awareness and understanding.

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#87

Post by dmcc7897 »

nickf wrote: post #78

Weird - in an incredibly similar situation and my RICs are overdue an upgrade (Oticon Opn 3). I've been keeping an eye on developments for some time, and I've been looking for something ideally CIC, though I do like the RIC Opns. However, nothing has had the feature set I wanted - bluetooth, auracast, Apple MFI and being CIC. Oticon just announced/released their 'Zeal' product - a non-custom CIC, with seemingly all t…

I’m trialling the Oticon Zeal right now.

I also travel a lot with work. So far, the estimate of 20 hours battery seems genuine - but you’re right, the charger is not small. What I didn’t know though, is that the charger holds three full charges worth of capacity. Meaning it doesn’t need to be plugged in for three nights in a row.

Due to my level of loss (80db), I need the custom mold option. This seems to be primarily to reduce feedback. I’m swapping between the custom mold and the standard tip to see which is best for my use case.

So far though, I’m impressed.

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#88

Post by stunthamsterio »

I've got moderate to severe SSHL and use an Oticon intent 1 miniRite. For my use it's been very good - long last battery, relatively robust. It also has excellent bluetooth connectivity, so I often use it to stream audiobooks in tedious meetings.

In terms of hearing quality, for me, it's been solid, with the caveat that it took a while to get the fitting right. I think my audiologist was a bit old school, and was sticking to settings he'd known to be good in the past rather than fitting for what the aid is capable of. I've recently had its prescription type updated to the native Oticon one, and it's been a revelation in terms of clarity.

My hearing loss is relatively recent (About four years now) so I will caveat this that I've only used Oticons, so can't really compare to anything else.

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#89

Post by SapporoChris »

stunthamsterio wrote: post #88

I've got moderate to severe SSHL and use an Oticon intent 1 miniRite. For my use it's been very good - long last battery, relatively robust. It also has excellent bluetooth connectivity, so I often use it to stream audiobooks in tedious meetings. In terms of hearing quality, for me, it's been solid, with the caveat that it took a while to get the fitting right. I think my audiologist was a bit old school, and was sti…

Thank you for the new acronym. Sudden sensorineural (“inner ear”) hearing loss (SSHL), commonly known as sudden deafness, is an unexplained, rapid loss of hearing either all at once or over a few days. SSHL happens because there is something wrong with the sensory organs of the inner ear. Sudden deafness frequently affects only one ear. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/sudden-deafness To save some people time if they were wondering.

Re: Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

#90

Post by dmcc7897 »

nickf wrote: post #81
dmcc7897 wrote: post #76

I’ve worn hearing aids since I was a few years old, and I’m currently trialling the Oticon Zeal ones. I tried the Starkey ITC ones a couple of weeks ago, but found the performance in noisy environments to be sub-par. The Oticon Zeals seem good so far, but it has only been a few days. One thing they seem very strong at is the Bluetooth connectivity. Thanks to recent iOS changes, I can use the mic in the Oticons or the…

How are you finding the Zeal's charger? As I said in another comment - I'm baffled Oticon can't make a charging case the size of the AirPods Pro or similar. The Zeal charger doesn't seem exactly...pocketable!

In terms of capacity, it’s excellent.

In terms of size - I don’t know what they were thinking. I’m considering doing a 3D scan of the charger shape and trying to make my own. I’m sure every customer will compare it to the AirPod case. It’s small enough to throw in my laptop bag, but I won’t be keeping it in my jeans pocket anytime soon.

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