Oticon More 1

I've had the Oticon More 1 for about 180 days now, and this post is a personal and detailed recording of my experiences, processes, and settings with the Oticon More 1.

This isn't a general product review. There are countless hearing aid (HA) review sites that can give a fair review.

The process to set up a new pair of hearing aids takes a ton of time and effort, and will need to happen no matter what brand/model of hearing aid.

I recommend finding an audiologist who can perform hearing tests and can communicate well and start from there. There is a trial period for hearing aids so make sure to test well within the time period.

This post is super long and detailed, so I think many people would be bored. I had fun writing this though!

Which hearing aid did I have before and which new one did I get?

Starting from July 2016, I used a pair of Oticon Alta2 Pro designRITE  (receiver in the ear) 80 hearing aids.

The new hearing aids I am using, starting from October 22, 2022, are the Oticon More 1 miniRITE R 85:

Oticon - staying with the same large Danish hearing aid company.

More - Since the Alta2, there were OPN, OPN-S, and then More, so this is 3 generations newer than my original hearing aids.

"1" - The More product line uses 1, 2, 3 for each of the levels with "1" being their premium/most expensive tier. 2 is a mid tier, and 3 is a budget line (which is probably still quite expensive).

miniRITE - This style is larger than my previous set, but still has the same general shape. Oticon discontinued the designRITE style that I had previously, because it didn't suite the older users who have dexterity issues. This current pair are larger and heavier, but have control buttons on the units themselves.

R - rechargeable. With this model, the lithium-ion rechargeable battery can be replaced at the audiologist's clinic without sending the whole unit to the manufacturer. There was an option to use batteries, but I went for the rechargeable.

85 - the power range of this particular model comes in a range of 60, 85, 100, 105, with each level being able to provide increasing amounts of hearing amplification/correction depending on the needs of a person's audiogram. I seem to be in the lower-middle range of this product line.

Each speaker element has a dome, like an earbud. I'm using on the Left side: 8mm single-vent bass dome, and on the Right side: 8mm double-vent bass dome. I'll mention the reasoning for the different domes later on. The venting refers to the holes (1 or 2) that are in the dome itself, which allows air and sound to move from outside of the ear, pass through the speaker element, to reach the eardrum, so there is not a complete seal. This allows for a mix of external and internal sound and the ability to wear the devices without feeling tired or stuffy.

I have the SmartCharger, which is both a case and a battery for portable charging. The More needs to be charged daily, and the SmartCharger has enough battery for 3 days. I also got the Connect Clip which is an optional controller/microphone.

PS. I've lost the Connect Clip while travelling in Toronto :( but I decided not to re-buy it because I never used it. The phone app is entirely sufficient and works quite well.

Linked are the datasheet and manual.

Setup & Programming

I have 4 Programs available on the Oticon More.

1. Standard Oticon More 1 program with all features enabled. Originally intended by Oticon for general purpose use, optimized for voice/speech understanding. I use this about 30% of the time.
2. Noisy environment. I use this in environments where I know there is a lot of crosstalk and extraneous sounds, usually at meal times and at stores/shopping. I use this around 5% of the time.
3. Music Program. Extensively modified for my own purpose from Oticon's original Music program. Most features & feedback control are turned off, and I want to turn off even more functions/features. I have major critique about the defaults of this mode that I will go into. I use this mode around 60% of the time.
4. "Lecture" Program. This is the fallback program when all else fails. My audiologist discovered a fourth program in my Alta2 Pro's and copied over the original programming. It tries to prioritize sounds from the direction where I point my head (which is one of the ways the old Alta2's worked). I rarely use this mode, but when I do pick this program, absolutely nothing else will do. It excels in turning noise into something I can work with. I use this program about 5% of the time, but it's a critical option for me. I use it in busy restaurants, bars, at airports & train stations (to listen for gate changes and delay announcements, for example).

My tuning preference is to try to make the programs different for specific purposes. I tuned each of the programs to cover some aspect of hearing, so that they become unsuitable entirely for other cases (and if I want to do that other particular kind of hearing, I switch programs).

This style is not for everyone. My hearing aids are constantly changing in terms of program mode selection, volume, and mute, and that is how I use my hearing aids. I'm sure for some people, managing modes like this would be exhausting, but it works for me.

Now I'll dig into the specifics!

Before I start this section, I want to mention that I made all of the programming changes together with my audiologist. I'll go into this partnership in my Fitting Experience section.

Program Adjustments

• Linked setting: Bass Lift across all programs - from the standard fitting for my audiogram, we lifted the bass frequencies significantly - this is to counteract the loss in bass from my preference for open domes. If I used an earmould we could seal in the bass tones, but because I prefer open domes, the bass frequencies will leak right out from the holes in the dome. The bass tones are lifted to compensate.
• Program 1: On the Comfort vs Detail slider, adjust 1 notch toward Comfort. My audiologist said that the adjustment changes the curve to decrease top end and low end frequencies. The best way to describe this is when there is more detail, I can hear the pistons moving in a nearby idling truck. While that level of detail is great, it gets annoying hearing all of that all the time. The "comfort" level slider control decreases the high and low frequencies and makes sounds blur more into each other - at the expense of audibility. One notch is fine since I use program 1 on the street just walking around when I don't want to "hear that much."
• Program 3: decrease amplification by about 3-5 "clicks" of adjustment - this allows me to use the music program in high ambient volume environments. My main usage of the music program is performing music. This means that I'm often in the middle of sound sources that can exceed 90db. This change in amplification level allows me to decrease the volume of the HA to a much lower level so it's not over-amplifying sounds that are already extremely loud at the source (ie from the bass soloist standing right next to me/violin at my shoulder/other instruments within an orchestra, brass, drums). This also stops the speaker driver units from distorting because of over-amplification.
• Program 3: REMOVED feedback suppression system - the reason is the feedback system by default treats musical signals as noise, so it was trying to cancel out my violin when I played pure tones. The more "in tune" I played on the violin, the more the feedback suppression program wanted to cancel out the sound. This manifests in a warbling/fluttering tone. Obviously this is not correct. However, once the feedback suppression system is removed, the HA's would start feeding back based on the level of amplification vs ambient sound level. My left ear is closer to the violin in normal playing position, so I changed the left to a single vent dome in order to minimize the chances of feedback. My right ear is farther away from the violin/sources of sound, so I left it as a double vent dome. If things change, and I start singing in a choir again, I will need to adjust the use of domes since there would be source sounds coming from both sides which could feed back into the amplified sounds. I don't want to use an ear-mould since I rely on ambient sound for adjustments in tuning/intonation during playing the violin. I'm also listening for ringing tones (sympathetic vibrations when notes are played in tune) so I need the actual sound of the violin and not just the reproduction from the HA speakers. I am extremely grateful for the forum post that describes the feedback suppression system and the instructions for disabling it.

I left program 2 and 4 alone as is, since they work quite well.

Fitting Experience and Process of Tuning

When I first approached my current audiologist about getting new hearing aids, I explained to him that I am a practising musician, and that I use my HA in a specific certain way. I explained that I especially need a working and functional Music Program for my HA fitting, and that the Music Program is the thing that would decide whether these new HA's are acceptable. HA's are extremely expensive and we came to an understanding that my purchase is contingent on whether the music program worked or not.

We went through the hearing test, which discovered a significant decline in the high frequencies and low frequencies, and in the right ear a significant 10db drop from my last test from before covid times.

During the testing and initial ordering of the Oticon More, my audiologist connected my Alta2's to his computer, and saved and took screenshots of all the settings. We intended to use these old settings as a baseline/template to program the new hearing aids.

It took about a week for the new hearing aids to be ready for pickup and for the initial fitting. At the fitting, we did a Real-Ear Measurement. This involved wearing the HA, and having tubular microphones inserted into the ear canal together with the HA's - and then the audiologist plays a set of sounds through a speaker in front of me. The sounds were spoken phrases in different languages. The idea is to play set of sounds that have a known profile, and for the HA to amplify them, and for the tube mics to record the amplified sounds from the ear canal, in order to see if the amplification and the prescription match up. It was a good experience since I haven't done this before. I actually messed up the measurement the first time cause I started talking while the speaker was playing sounds, and my audiologist had to do it again, this time with me being quiet :D

The first adjustment we did (after applying my initial prescription) was to lift the bass volume. He also told me about the "4th program" that he found in the Alta2 Pro which he copied over - to me, it sounded the most like how my old hearing aids sounded so I use it as a "fall back" - for when I really want that old sound back.

I had weekly appointments with him to fine tune the HA's. I had to try out the hearing aids in all kinds of different environments/usages.

The things that I did in the first few weeks: went to a restaurant with my family, went to a concert at the Vancouver Symphony, talked to my friend's toddler (she is brilliant!), went to a planetarium show and to a tour at the local telescope (which was one of the most challenging hearing environments because it's basically a metal tube), watched a movie in my brother's home theatre, had an online violin lesson, went shopping for records and re-listened to a lot of my music collection, listened to music in my car, put on the radio.

From all of that it was a roller-coster of a ride. I was really having a difficult time adjusting in the first couple of weeks before we turned off the feedback suppression system. It was extremely warbly and the sound was breaking up, sometimes distorting, other times changing pitch. Feedback suppression should never have been on in the music program and I find that default very frustrating. A lot of people must have encountered the defective defaults and just stopped trying to change it thinking that warbly music was just the way it is.

Throughout the process, I brought my violin into the audiologist's office and played it while having him modify the programming so that I can hear what was going on. The resulting final music program is very different from the default. It is much much better and had I not adjusted the music program, I would have returned them to get my money back.

It took about a month for me to finally get used to the More. And while in the beginning, I kept wanting to test against my old hearing aids, I've come to a place where I like the sound of the Oticon More over the Alta2 Pros, and even if I wanted the old sound back, I would use Program 4.

Program 1 in particular can become robotic sometimes (like Cher), but I've come to actually like the robotic sound, because it results in higher speech comprehension. I also like the little warbles from the feedback disruption system - I know that when it happens, I won't get feedback, which is always great.

I'm always trying to see if Program 3 is still good. One of the issues with my Alta2 Pro's was that I had problems recognizing my own volume level (whether I was playing loudly or quietly) - this made dynamics in music really hard to control.

I now know that this was the result of compression and limiting in the Alta2 Pro's. In Music mode, the More seems to have a lower compression ratio (a good thing for music), allowing for a higher dynamic range. This means sounds can be quieter, and they can become louder and I can control the difference in my playing - when I play violin, pianissimo (pp) now sounds different from when I play mezzo-piano (mp), forte (f), or fortissimo (ff). Dynamics with these HA are still new to me so I have a lot to learn.

The More also seems to have better latency (lower delay). I used to have a problem with clapping because my claps and the sound of the clap have a very very slight delay. Imagine clapping out the rhythm of a tune when the clapping sounds are something like a 128th or 256th note off. I've learned to anticipate it and get around the issue, but it's still something that I had to put a band-aid on. I haven't done much rhythmic clapping in time with the More, but it seems to be better in terms of a lower delay.

Since I wrote the first draft of this story, I've had a lot of difficulty "unlearning" the timing of my previous hearing aids. The timing of the More is different and I'm having to relearn how to stay on rhythm. Not bad. Just different. I do think the delay is much less though, and so I'm just un-learning and re-learning timing properly.

I still maintain the Alta2 Pro's by keeping batteries on hand and keeping the controller charged, but they will be for backup usage. One good thing is that domes and wax filters fit both sets so I could keep using all the spare parts I have.

Postlude

I travelled to Toronto to play in the Christmas Fiddle Party with my fiddle teacher Ajineen Sagal and my great fiddle partner Anne. I that found on stage, I was able to hear everyone's instruments in addition to my own, and the experience was exiting! I could focus on several aspects of my own sound, and it went pretty well. Afterwards, I went to my fiddle partner's home and we played some duets and learned a few tunes from each other. At my fiddle partner's home, the HA's became unnoticeable and transparent like they weren't there and that's the highest complement I could give any HA.

I consider the fiddle party performance and reading duets to be the "final exam" for the Oticon More 1's and they passed. I will keep these after all.

I did have a scare when my SmartCharger conked out when I had damaged the charging cable (my laptop fell on top of the usb-c cable, crushing the connector ... oops). When I tried plugging in a different cable, the charger didn't seem to turn on. This caused quite a fluster as I started calling around all of hearing clinics in Toronto hoping I could buy a new charger. I found one clinic out of 10 that had a charger in stock (so it's very rare!) and was going to bus there when suddenly the charger came back to life with my replacement cable.

As I got on the train to Quebec City to continue on my travels, I emailed my audiologist asking them to order another charger for me so I can have 2 just in case.

At Quebec City, I experienced a new sound that I hadn't heard before: the ringing of the cathedral bells.

As I go into the new year, the process continues to learn how these hearing aids work in my life and in different hearing situations, and hopefully they will continue to work according to my needs.

Postscript 2

Since I wrote this, I've come to appreciate more benefits and drawbacks of the Oticon More.

In particular, I've had a hell of a time getting used to timing again. I am now able to clap a rhythm. However, the time delay is quite different from the Alta2 Pro's so I'm having to to re-learn how to count time.

I realise that I never was that great at counting time or listening to a metronome. I've gotten a vibration wrist watch metronome (the Soundbrenner Core) to see if that can help the process. I'm still adjusting to all this.

Hope things turn out! But this is more of a note to say: this is a multi-year journey and I hope each day brings something new!

Postscript 3

Re the battery vs rechargeable debate: I'm very satisfied with the rechargeable battery. I have to charge the HA every night, and thus far, I have not drained the battery all the way on the HA's themselves. However, the charging connection between the HA and the charging case is inductive (no wires) and extremely proprietary, which means that if the charger breaks I'm out of luck.

In order to be successful with using rechargeable HA's, I absolutely recommend having at least 2, if not 3 charger cases/docks, just to keep them on hand. For me, I have two and alternate between them every week to make sure the battery in the dock doesn't get overused.

The charging cases themselves use USB-C which is great because all my charging cables work. I also use a portal battery pack for charging in the car or when I'm out of the house.

I am very glad not to handle batteries or deal with battery disposal anymore, so the decision for rechargeable is 100% recommended, with the caveat of getting multiple chargers right from the beginning.