Hearing Aids and Riding Care to Share your experience?

[p6x]

4 minutes ago, audiomick said:

A very common problem amongst older people is not being able follow conversations in noisy crowded rooms very easily. The brain needs the signals from both ears to filter out the garbage, and if the ears don't work equally well, it starts to have problems. There is a long article here explaing how it works, if anyone is interested:

I was aware of the difficulty after having trouble to understand phone conversations. Typically, we used to listen with a single ear at the time.

For some reasons, I have the lower frequency spectrum damaged.

35 years in the oilfield, with a good 15 spent on rigs, before ear protection was enforced; it has taken a toll on me...

now I am only able to tell if the Guzzi engine is on based on the vibrations.

[audiomick]

1 minute ago, p6x said:

35 years in the oilfield, with a good 15 spent on rigs, before ear protection was enforced; it has taken a toll on me...

now I am only able to tell if the Guzzi engine is on based on the vibrations.

Ouch, that is hard.

[p6x]

3 minutes ago, audiomick said:

Ouch, that is hard.

Not that bad, but I can tell I have lost acuity. I started to suspect something was off when I had trouble to understand the Mobil (before Exxon bought Mobil) company man from Louisiana yelling at me because the logging tool failed.... lol

Nothing like an irate company man to test your hearing...

[audiomick]

1 minute ago, p6x said:

... Mobil (before Exxon bought Mobil) ..

Nothing at all to do with the topic, but do you still work for them? A mate of mine works for them on the rigs in the Bass Strait (or at least he still did last time I spoke to him...).

[p6x]

6 minutes ago, audiomick said:

Nothing at all to do with the topic, but do you still work for them? A mate of mine works for them on the rigs in the Bass Strait (or at least he still did last time I spoke to him...).

I never directly worked for them. I worked for a well known service company.

But my first ever job, in Cameroon was on a jackup rig, named "Texas Star", drilling for Mobil. At the time, I would have never suspected that one day....

[cowtownchemist]

I wear these earplugs which are great for reducing wind noise and other high pitched sounds.  Its nice with the little keychain case so I always have a place to put them when I take them out.

https://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Protection-Motorsports-Parachuting-Open-Topped/dp/B08FDH1XKL/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=motorcycle+ear+plugs&qid=1689253641&sr=8-3

I have a Cardo Freedom 4x with the upgraded JBL speakers in my helmet.  I really like it.  The sound for music is much better than the Sena one I have for my second helmet.  The Cardo also integrates with Siri on my iphone.  So I leave the phone in my jacket pocket and have complete voice control over music, phone calls, text messages, and GPS directions.  Also the Cardo has a build in FM radio which is nice sometimes, but the antenna is so small that I only pick up the strongest radio stations.

[p6x]

On 7/13/2023 at 8:12 AM, cowtownchemist said:

I wear these earplugs which are great for reducing wind noise and other high pitched sounds.  Its nice with the little keychain case so I always have a place to put them when I take them out.

https://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Protection-Motorsports-Parachuting-Open-Topped/dp/B08FDH1XKL/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=motorcycle+ear+plugs&qid=1689253641&sr=8-3

I have a Cardo Freedom 4x with the upgraded JBL speakers in my helmet.  I really like it.  The sound for music is much better than the Sena one I have for my second helmet.  The Cardo also integrates with Siri on my iphone.  So I leave the phone in my jacket pocket and have complete voice control over music, phone calls, text messages, and GPS directions.  Also the Cardo has a build in FM radio which is nice sometimes, but the antenna is so small that I only pick up the strongest radio stations.

Thank you for providing another option.

How easy are the removal of the earplugs after a long ride? one of the issue that does not get much discussed is extraction. My Alpine Motosafe are very effective for noise attenuation, however they are terrible for retrieval. At least in a difficult environment when you have perspiration making everything slippery.

I wear a full face helmet, which may contribute to sweat a lot.

The reason why I picked the "Shark Tooth" is because it has been designed to perfectly integrate with my Shark helmet. The battery pack fits in a special indentation inside the helmet, leaving the external pod size affixed on the side of the helmet really small, unlike all other communication systems.

The drawback is that Shark is a helmet specialist, so their communication system does not work as well as the one you describe in your post. Especially volume wise.

[cowtownchemist]

I also wear full face helmets.  I have not had any issues removing the ear plugs, they have a little tab that sticks out to grab them by.  Can't do it with gloves on though.

One note specific to my situation is that the bigger JBL speakers on the Cardo though don't fit completely into the pre-made speaker indentations in my helmet (HJC i10) which causes them to protrude a bit and rub on my ears when putting the helmet on.  When this happens, the earplugs sometimes get dislodged while putting the helmet on and I need to  get my fingers in there and re-secure them.  This caused me to one time push the ear plug in too far and sideways which was not a good situation.  I did have a little difficulty that one time getting it back out.  But I blame this on user error and my specific helmet set up.  When I use my other helmet (Sena Outrush R), without the big speakers I have no issues at all with the earplugs when putting the helmet on and off.

There is a huge improvement of the Cardo Freecom 4x vs the built in Sena on the Outrush R helmet.  Volume, sound quality, voice communication with Siri, voice communication with the Cardo system are all far better features that the Sena does not have.

[audiomick]

8 hours ago, p6x said:

How easy are the removal of the earplugs

Once again, I heartily recommend spending the money to get custom moulded earplugs.

Mine look much like these (one of the current models from the manufacturer of mine, which are about 15 years old)

They are made of a fairly solid silicon compound, and are actually easier to get out than to put in.

[KINDOY2]

9 hours ago, cowtownchemist said:

I also wear full face helmets.  I have not had any issues removing the ear plugs, they have a little tab that sticks out to grab them by.  Can't do it with gloves on though.

One note specific to my situation is that the bigger JBL speakers on the Cardo though don't fit completely into the pre-made speaker indentations in my helmet (HJC i10) which causes them to protrude a bit and rub on my ears when putting the helmet on.  When this happens, the earplugs sometimes get dislodged while putting the helmet on and I need to  get my fingers in there and re-secure them.  This caused me to one time push the ear plug in too far and sideways which was not a good situation.  I did have a little difficulty that one time getting it back out.  But I blame this on user error and my specific helmet set up.  When I use my other helmet (Sena Outrush R), without the big speakers I have no issues at all with the earplugs when putting the helmet on and off.

There is a huge improvement of the Cardo Freecom 4x vs the built in Sena on the Outrush R helmet.  Volume, sound quality, voice communication with Siri, voice communication with the Cardo system are all far better features that the Sena does not have.

You could use what I see Jack Miller use on MotoGP..

[p6x]

15 hours ago, audiomick said:

Once again, I heartily recommend spending the money to get custom moulded earplugs.

Mine look much like these (one of the current models from the manufacturer of mine, which are about 15 years old)

They are made of a fairly solid silicon compound, and are actually easier to get out than to put in.

I will certainly try your solution as well. This is the only way.

I have not even tried my Quies just yet. My next run will be to Dallas and back.

[p6x]

12 hours ago, KINDOY2 said:

You could use what I see Jack Miller use on MotoGP..

You know, great minds think alike.... I thought about carrying one with me for that purpose. It means that Jack experienced that issue too.

The Quies extraction tabs are flat and they should work better than the Alpine which are cylindrical. They are slippery and not practical at all.

Probably easier to manufacture.

[p6x]

@audiomick

Do you think "Der HS B+S Monitor" could be worn underneath a helmet?

They say they can form fit the monitors according to your hear duct; do you do a mold and send it to them?

I am interested to those because they can probably attenuate the wind noise, and at the same time, transmit the directions. I can connect them directly to my Bluetooth unit.

Or were you referring to the MEP 2G? this one seems to be a good solution with the possibility to choose the attenuation level.

 

[audiomick]

Hi.

I haven't seen the B + S Monitor, but going by the photo I found, yes, I reckon they would fit under a helmet.

Having said that, their site says that the B+S is an end-of-life product. The new one is B+S Monitor II

As far as the mould goes, I got mine done at a Fachkongress of the Verband Deutsche Tonmeister, i.e. something like a trade fair. I also organised the possibilty to have moulds made at a hearing aid shop in relation to a job I did some time ago. The point is, the mould is taken by a professional. I expect that these days practically any hearing-aid specialist shop could do it. You'd have to go asking in your area.

 

My plugs look like these ones:

They do fit under the helmet with the noise filters in (like the one on the left in the picture), but don't with the in-ear monitor drivers in (like the one on the right...). I couldn't use mine to listen to the navigation device or anything like that.

As far as the different levels of damping goes, that works with mine. The circular white bit in the one on the left is the filter. The ones in mine are Elacin filters, and I believe Hear Safe still uses them. Look at this:

https://elacin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/elacin-b2b-de-productsheet-05-er.pdf

as you can deduce from that, Hear Safe is not the only manufacturer offering moulded ear plugs. In fact, they are just making the moulds and using filters that someone else (Elacin) has developed. I'm very sure that Hear Safe is not the only one on the market (by a very long stretch...) that is doing exactly that. The Elacin filters seem to be in fairly common use as far as I can tell, but I expect there are others with a similar product out there.

I would suggest going to a couple of hearing-aid shops in your area and questioning them a bit. Do some research, whatever way. There is likely to be a supplier closer to you than Germany. Having said that, the German stuff is, of course, very good. It just might be complicated getting the taking of a mould co-ordinated.

[p6x]

On 8/8/2023 at 5:21 PM, audiomick said:

Hi.

I haven't seen the B + S Monitor, but going by the photo I found, yes, I reckon they would fit under a helmet.

Having said that, their site says that the B+S is an end-of-life product. The new one is B+S Monitor II

As far as the mould goes, I got mine done at a Fachkongress of the Verband Deutsche Tonmeister, i.e. something like a trade fair. I also organised the possibilty to have moulds made at a hearing aid shop in relation to a job I did some time ago. The point is, the mould is taken by a professional. I expect that these days practically any hearing-aid specialist shop could do it. You'd have to go asking in your area.

 

My plugs look like these ones:

They do fit under the helmet with the noise filters in (like the one on the left in the picture), but don't with the in-ear monitor drivers in (like the one on the right...). I couldn't use mine to listen to the navigation device or anything like that.

As far as the different levels of damping goes, that works with mine. The circular white bit in the one on the left is the filter. The ones in mine are Elacin filters, and I believe Hear Safe still uses them. Look at this:

https://elacin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/elacin-b2b-de-productsheet-05-er.pdf

as you can deduce from that, Hear Safe is not the only manufacturer offering moulded ear plugs. In fact, they are just making the moulds and using filters that someone else (Elacin) has developed. I'm very sure that Hear Safe is not the only one on the market (by a very long stretch...) that is doing exactly that. The Elacin filters seem to be in fairly common use as far as I can tell, but I expect there are others with a similar product out there.

I would suggest going to a couple of hearing-aid shops in your area and questioning them a bit. Do some research, whatever way. There is likely to be a supplier closer to you than Germany. Having said that, the German stuff is, of course, very good. It just might be complicated getting the taking of a mould co-ordinated.

Sorry for my delayed acknowledgment of your post. I should have set "follow-up".

Thanks for taking the time to answer;

They did not answer my query. They may have not seen it, or, as I found out, a lot of European based companies don't want to deal with USA based customers.

I have not completely made up my mind on the best course of action for sound attenuation. I am still coalescing.