Oticon Epoq
hophead
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this particular
product from Oticon?
I have been wearing HA for about 20 years now, and I just had an
evaluation from my audiologist. I get tested about every 5 years, and
fortunately my hearing hasn't significantly changed over the last 10
years.
however, my current hearing aids are a bit dated and I'm interested in
seeing if some of the newer technology would be of benefit. I currently
have a pair of Unitron Conversa BTE's which are approaching 5 years old.
I'm reasonably functional with them except for the usual problems of
noisy restaurants and occasionally some difficulty using the phone. Cell
phones are an absolute nightmare when I've tried to use one - but I
don't own one and these have been borrowed phones.
In any case, my audiologist has recommended I give these a try - they
are not cheap and I don't get any medical coverage for them, so I'm
hoping that they do represent a significant step up from the Unitrons.
The wireless communication seems intriguing to me, and I can envision
many situations where this would be an advantage. Still, I'm curious if
anyone here has first hand experience?
hophead
foo...@booger.net says...
First, thanks for sharing your impressions. I do appreciate that, and
I'm seeing elsewhere that some are finding the bluetooth a bit
cumbersome depending on the use.
> They are pricy. I used my medical flex account to pay for them with
> pretax dollars. Be sure your audiologist gives you a trial run with
> the right to trade in on a different aid if you don't like 'em. It is
> a lot of money to risk and they should be willing to do that.
I just checked with the audiologist on that. I'm going to have to go in
debt to do this so I want to be sure that it's going to work out. The
good news is that I've got 90 days to make up my mind, and I can go for
a full return (minus cost for the hearing check) or try out any number
of other products if this isn't satisfactory within that time frame.
So, I'll find out what I think when I get fitted next week!
Dan
I have had Oticon Epoqs for about a year and am very very pleased with
their sound quality. They are an incredible improvement over my prior
10-year-old Oticon Digifocus HAs. I strongly recommend the kind that
has the receiver in the ear (RITE as Oticon makes an acronymn for
them). Music sounds musical, voices sound clear and lose their
harshness.
Because the receiver is right inside your ear, it is exposed to
moisture and wax and those things can lower sound quality more than
with regular HAs. The implication is that we users have to be careful
to keep them clean. But that is doable.
Don
have to have bluetooth compatible equipment to be able to use it with
any other units.
I purchased a Sennheiser 820S TV hearing system and when I checked
Oticon Epoq, it states that the Streamer will transmit sound to your
hearing aids with connection to the 820S system. I don't believe that
the 820S system is a bluetooth item but I could be wrong. I just know
what the Oticon site says. That the 820S is compatible with the Streamer.
Don
foo...@booger.net wrote:
> I've had a pair for maybe 6 or 8 months now and I am very happy with
> them. They're better in noisy restaurants than my previous ITC Widex
> Divas. Open fit aids aren't so great with telephones, but as you
> mentinoed this one comes with a wireless bluetooth streamer that will
> allow you to link to your bluetooth enabled cell phone or other
> bluetooth devices.
>
> The wireless (bluetooth) link is nice, but clunky if you want to
> interface with more than one device (such as an mp3 player and a cell
> phone). I suppose it would be great with a cell phone/mp3 player but
> haven't tested it with my blackberry in music mode. It works great
> with my old verizon razr or new blackberry world edition. You have to
> wear the bluetooth "streamer" around your neck for it to work properly
> and hold it fairly close to your mouth when in cell phone mode to be
> heard clearly. It's definitely nice to have phone coming to both ears.
> And you can turn off the microphones when on the phone to cut back on
> ambient noise and be able to more clearly hear the phone. At work, I
> still use a standard wireless headset because I am not happy with the
> range and quality of bluetooth wireless headsets... and the standard
> headset works reasonably well but causes feedback sometimes (you can
> turn off the microphone on that aid temporarily if feedback is a
> problem with a headset - no need to remove the hearing aid.
>
> My loss is mainly high frequency, so I'm using an open fit. Really a
> semi-open fit. Oticon makes several different types of domes and my
> loss was too much for the most open dome (caused feedback with the
> gain set so high). I'm using the next less open dome, but I use a
> scissors to cut off some of the silicone to make it more open because
> I like the natural sound. It's just a little tricky not to cut off too
> much and cause a feedbck situation
>
> They are pricy. I used my medical flex account to pay for them with
> pretax dollars. Be sure your audiologist gives you a trial run with
> the right to trade in on a different aid if you don't like 'em. It is
> a lot of money to risk and they should be willing to do that.
>
> Let me know if you have specific questions I haven't gotten to.
hophead
foo...@booger.net says...
> Good luck, and Please let the group know what you discover on your
> trial run.
>
An early report: I've had the Epoqs for 1 week. I've got BTEs, but I
don't have the "receiver in the ear" feature.
Is that primarily used for bluetooth or is does that provide benefit for
everyday use? At this point I haven't ordered the BT receiver but I may
do so somewhere down the line.
In any case, I'm still adjusting to the hearing aids, but so far I'm
very impressed with increase in sounds that I'm hearing beyond my
Unitrons. The Epoqs are much better in just about every area, though at
this point sounds seem a little "unnatural" to me. I expect that's just
a case of my brain adapting to the new input more than anything else.
The devices themselves are tiny compared to the old unitrons, yet they
are much more powerful and sophisticated. I was a bit concerned about
the move to 312 batteries though - my past experience indicated that
they didn't last nearly as long as the 313s that my previous hearing
aids used. However, I've been using them for a week with the original
batteries and they're still going strong, so that's good.
Feedback is almost never a problem, and the auto-telecoil feature
improves my comprehension on the phone dramatically. They are less noisy
in windy conditions, and I know I've had an increase in my ability to
comprehend speech in some business meetings I've attended over the last
week.
I definitely hear more high frequency detail when listening to music,
though as I already mentioned, things don't sound completely natural to
me at this stage. I'm pretty confident that sense won't last though.
All told, I'm very happy at this stage. I'm due back for a checkup at
the audiologist in one week, so I'll see where I'm at there.
hophead
@y79g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, dlho...@gmail.com says...
> I have had Oticon Epoqs for about a year and am very very pleased with
> their sound quality. They are an incredible improvement over my prior
> 10-year-old Oticon Digifocus HAs. I strongly recommend the kind that
> has the receiver in the ear (RITE as Oticon makes an acronymn for
> them). Music sounds musical, voices sound clear and lose their
> harshness.
Thanks for that info - I will enquire about the RITE to see if that
would be a good choice for me. At this stage (1 week in) I'm quite
pleased with the Epoqs without RITE. But maybe this is the source of the
"unnaturalness" that I hear.