Right now I am trying out a pair of Widex Moment 330 RIC and I have been to my AO four times within a week trying to get them to sound good for music and to make along story short,I am using the vented domes and I can listen to my headphones,which I am doing while I type,zero feedback,plus I can listen to my main speaker/subwoofer system on the 'music' program and it sounds not bad.
These HA's I am trying are one down from the TOTL,but I have on order to try the Phonak Audeo Paradise RIC,so once I get these Widex dialed in,I think it will easier to get the Phonak's up and running with just a few tweaks here and there.
I may even go back to the Widex,but maybe go up to the TOTL 440's..I dunno ,we will see what the Phonaks can do or not do.Thanks,Huck
I know a few months have passed, so I can imagine that you've settled on a solution by now. For everyone else's edification, I can attest to my experience with the Widex Moment 440 sRIC. The Massdrop HD 6XX work pretty well for me with RIC hearing aids. They've never sounded better, even with all of the EQ I could muster.
I don't agree with Adam Curry's opinion in the referenced JRS video about headphones, though when he says ITE, that could mean the entire unit is in-the-ear, unlike RIC (receiver in canal), so my experience could be different. Still, I don't know how his headphones would sound better or more accurate without his hearing aids. Perhaps he does have RICs and the headphone cups are resting right against and blocking the microphones behind his ear. I have relatively large ears, but don't have that problem with the HD 6XX.
Also, cranking up headphones that haven't been compensated for his hearing loss isn't a good thing - that means he's likely overamplifying sound where his loss is less, and thus potentially creating more loss there.
I too have the Widex Compass GPS software and a Noahlink Wireless adapter ($55 on eBay). I haven't tweaked fine-tuning yet, but I'm only one month in, and don't have the expertise or REM verification equipment. Check out the DIY category on the hearingtracker forum, if you're interested in the "hacking" that Adam is talking about.
Note that the only significant SQ difference for music between the 330 and 440 (which is $1800 more from my provider at Kaiser) is "High-Frequency Boost" and 15 vs. 12 fine-tuning channels. The latter probably won't make much perceptible difference. Most audiograms are more linear than that. The whole line has a dedicated "Music" program that seems to work pretty well.
The Widex secret sauce is their <0.5 ms processing delay, which is at least 4.5 ms less than the other major brands. This is important if you have an open dome fitting that allows outside sound in; the amplified sound mixes with that, and the phase difference can be apparent. Try it sometime in Audacity - mix a song with a copy delayed by 5 ms or more (and perhaps equalized with an upsloping frequency response) and see what you think.
By the way, there are now headphones and earphones coming out that have provisions for integrated audiometric compensation. Look up Mimi Sound Personalization.
This might even help users without hearing loss alleviate their b-stock-churning Goldilocks Syndrome pertaining to issues with stock earphone tunings.
