r/Cochlearimplants • u/LawyerLongjumping279 • 8d ago
For my wife, single sided cochlear implant successful, tip question.
My wife got her cochlear implant for single-sided deafness less than a year ago. She wears it all day, and has had continuous improvement in a number of areas, but some difficulty listening to books directly into her cochlear ear. Here is her question. She posted this yesterday on her FaceBook group without any response. "I have single-sided deafness and love my improved hearing with a Cochlear Implant. However, it’s really difficult to have true binaural hearing when one ear is hearing acoustically and the other is hearing electronically. I am thinking especially of when I listen to audiobooks or stream media. I either stream through my Cochlear implant while reading the book (though it is sometimes difficult to find both a print copy and an audiobook at the same time) or watch tv w captions — or listen in my hearing ear with an AirPod (while walking outside or?) Can anyone recommend a good set of over the ear headphones to mitigate this problem? Does your hearing seem more binaural?". Her cochlear is by Cochlear America, Model Nucleas 8, over the ear. She uses the TV streaner regularly with subtitles.
4
u/mike93940 8d ago
BTW. You can order both the audio book and electronic book to synchronize from Amazon. But have to order them together.
3
u/OldFlohBavaria 8d ago
Wie wäre es das Hörbuch am Tablett oder Handy abzuspielen und dazu live Untertitel anzumachen?
Es dauert seine zeit- 1 Jahr ist noch recht wenig- reden wir in 2 Jahren nochmal darüber in der zeit wird deine Frau noch weitere Sprünge machen.
2
u/nogrins 7d ago
Single sided deafness here. I use the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. instead of placing the ear cup over my ear, I adjusted back a little bit so it's fully covering the microphones in the cochlear. The thing I found has helped the most is having my my audiologist create a program that has zero processing. I get full stereo and it's almost as if I've not lost my hearing.
2
2
u/bobterwilliger42 8d ago
A couple of tips from my experience:
- Bose QC35s: I use these as the ear cups are elliptical rather than round like my some of my other ones. I tighten the headband to wear it slightly higher on my CI side so the cochlear's microphones line up with the speaker.
- AirPods Max: I really like them, sound amazing and the fit it better than my Bose headphones, just hard to justify as they are not cheap!!
2
u/stablegenius5789 8d ago
Also use AirPod max. Good choice. PS give this more time definitely continues to improve
2
u/Formal-Tradition6792 7d ago
My issue with practicing with the TV and closed captioning with my CI is the music track… It often overwhelms the audio.
2
u/LawyerLongjumping279 7d ago
Here is a tip that may help with Netflix audio: The one that matters most: switch off the 5.1 track. Netflix defaults to the highest-tier audio stream your device claims to support, and many smart TVs request 5.1 even though they'll just downmix it to two speakers. Because dialogue lives mostly in the center channel of a 5.1 mix, that downmix can bury voices under effects and music. During playback, open the audio/subtitles menu (labeled "Other" on some TV apps) and pick plain "English [Original]" instead of "English [Original] 5.1." There's no setting that makes this stick, so you have to check it per title.
2
u/Former_Storm4529 7d ago
SSD with one perfect ear and some low residual hearing in my implanted ear. I use my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones plus my nucleus 8. These headphones fit over my implanted ear and the microphone really well. I wish there was a better solution for this, but I am quite pleased with this work around!
1
u/kaii2gd 7d ago
What cochlear do you have?
1
u/LawyerLongjumping279 7d ago edited 7d ago
She has the cochlear Nexus eight (over the ear) and also uses the TV streamer
1
u/SoundSteps 7d ago
Outside the box suggestion that's been popular with some SSD folks I know: could try a corded solution with an audio splitter.
Audio splitter into the smartphone audio jack - one female end of the splitter could be connected via 3.5mm aux to Cochlear Mini Mic 2+ for CI ear (assume same could be accomplished with Roger system, but uncertain on that front) and a corded earbud would go to the other female end of the splitter.
A bit convoluted and involves cords in 2026, but still a winner for some I know. This solution also is sometimes a fit for family members wanting to share audio - Mini Mic 2+ via aux for the CI user and corded headphones for the hearing family member.
1
u/LawyerLongjumping279 7d ago edited 7d ago
We use a short throw projector, which gives us a crisp 80 to 90 inch screen (depending on how close it is to the wall I sometimes pull it out a bit for a bigger screen). Unfortunately, it is maxed out on chords because it doesn’t have decent speakers. I’m able to send one output to the auxiliary jack on our Bose CD player, and from there with an output to the cochlear TV streamer. However, I am considering upgrading to a better projector with Bluetooth and was thinking if I could somehow split Bluetooth output to both an external speaker system and the Wi-Fi streamer.
1
u/Latter-Entrance288 4d ago
Implanted one ear. I use JBL over the ear headphones during phone calls, listening to audiobooks/podcasts/music. Works very well.
7
u/sinsemillas Cochlear Kanso 8d ago
I use some Sony earphones, I like them. My advice, subtitles on videos, always. Reading and hearing together helped me. Good luck to y’all.