Time for first impressions...
I picked up my hearing aids (Resound Preza’s) at Costco a week ago Thursday, and had my one week followup yesterday. Quite pleased overall.
Not what I expected. I envisioned that with my 40% hearing loss, hearing aids would just make everything 40% louder. That’s not how it works. Most of my loss was mid to high frequencies. My domes - the little rubber tips that go in the ear canal - are highly vented, so most sounds reach my ears unmodified. What gets amplified is the mid to high frequencies. The overall effect is that everything sounds a bit more “brittle”, and I hear stuff I was otherwise missing - my feet shuffling on a tile floor, the sharp “click” of my iPad’s home button, that sort of thing. While I could barely hear my turn signals, I now pick up nuances in the clicking I never knew were there. On the down side, I’m also hearing little squeaks and rattles in my cars and trucks I also didn’t know were there.
I occasionally wonder how effective the hearing aids are when watching TV, let’s say, and I use the iPhone app to mute them. Immediately the sound turns “muddy”, and the difference is quite noticeable. The app lets me set up different “profiles” for different environments and gets the job done.
One disappointment is the sound quality of Bluetooth input, best described a “tinny”. Podcasts are tolerable, music is not. Apparently that’s due to the venting of the domes - to get better sound quality may mean smaller vents, which can lead to other annoyances, mainly what’s described as a “stuffy” feeling that one does not get used to. Eventually I may experiment, including custom molds, but the audiologist suggests the open venting is appropriate to my level of loss. As an aside, the domes get a bit “itchy” from all-day wear. I got some drops at Costco that are supposed to help, but have not tried them yet.
Anyway, that’s my impression after just one week. Will update as I adapt. Curious as to how this compares/contrasts with other’s experiences.
