Audie switched digital HA brand. What do you guys think?

[Guest guest]

<< The argument was

that they're smaller, and fit better. Audie said they're just as good

as the Claros. Anyone have insight? >>

no but I have my 2 cents. Prismas are 3-year old technology. Claros are state

of the art. You'll have these aids for years. I just do not understand why

these audiologists are having such a hard time fitting aids on kids. My

qirlfriend had aids on her son at eight DAYS old. It can be done - don't

settle.

If aids are falling off a four-year-old kid who has normal outer ears, the

audiologist must be doinq something wrong. Usually, they've cut the tubing

too long, have earmolds that are too loose, or have the molds at a bad angle

to the aids.

If you do try the Prismas with new molds and find that you're havinq better

results, try the Claros with those same molds. Bet they'll work fine. And

FWIW, I remember once when Teddy was 6 months old we had to send his aids out

for repair. The only loaner they had was a GIANT qrandpa-sized BTE. We cut

our earmold tubing, grabbed some toupeé tape, and he wore it for almost 2

weeks. It can be done.,

[Guest guest]

Our son, 4, got claro digital aids about three weeks ago. But they

kept falling off and whistling, and it was driving us nuts. Audie

today got us siemens prism, and we got new molds. The argument was

that they're smaller, and fit better. Audie said they're just as good

as the Claros. Anyone have insight? TC has mild loss; he can hear us

OK even without aids, although we do need to speak up a bit, and he

can't hear us if we're across the room.

Also, thanks for your input on figuring out what everything is

called, and whether I could cut anything off! I did, but it didn't

help, and that's why we switched brands. Also, new molds are the

softer, moldable type you all told us about. They do seem to fit

better, and voila, no whistling! We are thrilled about that aspect.

TC seems to be hearing just fine with these new aids, but it's just

been a few hours.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/31/01 1:36:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,

KerriAHicks@... writes:

<< Prismas are 3-year old technology. Claros are state

of the art. >>

We recently purchased Siemens Prisma aids for both of our hoh children. We

considered the Siemens Prisma and Signia, and the Phonak Claro. Our

audiologist described them as such: the Prisma and Claro are actually quite

similar, they both have 4 bands, and are programmable with digital sound.

THe Signia (the newest of the 3) is also digital and programmable, but has 8

bands. It also does alot more signal processing, which was why she steered

us away from it. She was concerned that too much of the background noise

would be processed out (like classroom noise that you would still want a

child to hear). The other features we wanted were a directional mike and O,

T, M settings that were similar to the Phonak Pico Fortes that we already

had. And, whatever we bought had to be able to be booted to an FM, which is

not as easy as it sounds. My daughter is on a Solaris FM (with wires) and is

doing great! My son, who is older, is having trouble with static on the

Microlink with these new aids. Our educational audiologist is sending it back

for a new unit on a different frequency. Whatever you do, if you want the

aids to be booted to an FM, make sure the manufacturer knows that and what

kind FM it will be (my kids aids are cased a little differently because they

are on different FMs). Also, I am glad we did this during the school year to

see if the FMs really worked in the classroom - my son's Microlink worked

fine at the audiologist's office, but the minute he put it on at school he

heard the static.

Hope this helps.

Martha