For the audiophile, hearing aids often fall short of expectations for reproducing music. Audiologists fitting musicians or music-lovers need to understand the tools available to limit any negative impact on the musical signal. In this way the highest fidelity reproduction of sound quality can be achieved.
ReSound’s Tamara Stender, Au.D. and Steve Hallenbeck, Au.D. discussed at the 2013 AudiologyNOW! conference the inherent issues for hearing-aid processed music and how advanced signal processing can improve the listening experience.
Why is it difficult to fit music lovers?
First of all, music does NOT equal speech. Most hearing instruments today treat music the same as speech but differences abound. For example, on the frequency spectrum speech is controlled but music is highly variable. In terms of intensity dynamics, speech has a small range while music has a more variable range and higher intensities. Music also presents tonal qualities where speech does not.
Music often contains pure-tone-like input signals, such as flute or piano notes. Traditional feedback systems identify pure tones as feedback and try to cancel them. This erroneous feedback cancellation introduces a disturbing tonal sound artifact. But even with turning the feedback management “off” for music programs, it can still lead to feedback. For example, more hearing loss equals higher gain prescription as well as high levels of high-frequency gain without feedback management often leads to feedback.
Enter the ReSound DFS Ultra II Music Mode which is designed specifically to preserve music’s sound quality while eliminating feedback. Below is a comparison of the sound quality gained through the ReSound DFS Ultra II Music Mode versus competitors.
How is the ReSound DFS Ultra II Music Mode different?
- Improves DFS Ultra with better precision and scaling to more accurately cancel feedback.
- Includes a new Music Mode setting.
- Designed exclusively for feedback and artifact-free music listening.
- Analyzes the input sound over a longer period of time.
- Provides a built-in mild level of Whistle Control.
Counseling Tips
Counseling still plays an important role in the fitting of hearing instruments for musicians and audiophiles. Here are some tips:
- During the initial fitting play musical sound files or clips through PC speakers to enhance the patient’s understanding of the listening situations he or she will encounter.
- Encourage performance musicians to play their instruments while wearing their hearing instrument to gain experiential learning.
- Provide patients with volume control instructions for adjustments with high level music.
6 thoughts on “Making the Most of Music with ReSound DFS Ultra Music Mode”
Would the Music Mode feature be available for more than 1 channel? Eg: if there were 4 programmable channels could we have 1 for normal environment and 2 or 3 for music etc?
yes, you can have Music Mode in any program you desire, as long as you calibrate the DFS Ultra II system.
Hello! I am a user, not a hearing aid provider/fitter. I just bought a pair of ReSound Verso 5 in November 2013, and we are still struggling to get them to work well with music. When I play or listen, even with the “Music” program selected, they will distort some notes; it sounds like feedback, but perhaps I should be calling it something else. It isn’t continuous; just some random notes provoke the aids into responding strongly.
The fitter claims that in the music program all features (noise cancelling, feedback suppression, etc) are turned off, so what could be causing this distortion? I hope someone will please respond; at present the aids are unusable in a music setting!
Hello! I am a user, not a hearing aid provider/fitter. I just bought a pair of ReSound Verso 5 in November 2013, and we are still struggling to get them to work well with music. When I play or listen, even with the “Music” program selected, they will distort some notes; it sounds like feedback, but perhaps I should be calling it something else. It isn’t continuous; just some random notes provoke the aids into responding strongly.
The fitter claims that in the music program all features (noise cancelling, feedback suppression, etc) are turned off, so what could be causing this distortion? I hope someone will please respond; at present the aids are unusable in a music setting!
Feedback suppression is indeed active in the Music program. The default setting, called “Music mode” is generally less likely to cause the sort of issues you describe with music as it operates more slowly than the default feedback suppression. However, individuals may have better results using DFS Ultra II. The audiologist can switch to this in the software, and will also be able to increase the “strength” of the setting to help alleviate the problem. Another possibility to deal with this issue is by adjusting the gains for the Music program. Generally speaking, it can help if the audiologist makes a reduction in the high frequency gain for the soft sounds and increases the high frequency gain for the loud sounds by just a few decibels.
I had the same complaint with Linx2 962 RIE–sounded just like feedback but only on certain tones or frequencies or notes while listening to my car radio…was driving me and the Audi crazy. I kept complaining about it, and, seems the issue was not having to use the Music mode, but, making sure that the DFS calibration was done right, and resetting the instrument back to factory defaults. I think one or more of the Audis had made so many and so different changes, that it was just plain not set right, but, biggest issue was the DFS calibration–there was a huge difference in the graphic after resetting, and the music is clear again.