Bose Hearphones: Conversation-Enhancing & Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Headphones

[Alyssa]

It is the 10th week after surgery which I lost left side hearing. My right side has perfect hearing. Although I went to do comprehensive audiological evaluation for hearing aid last week, I still look for any helpful information.

I found this post from https://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=24092.0 from Margaret Briggs. Yesterday I went to local Bose store and bought one set, tested in today's dinner with my friends in restaurant. It is great, I can hear all friend's conversation in noisy environment. It is nice to have this simple solution and let me more confident in front of people.

Anybody else uses this Bose set? What is your setting? I use mute left side and balance to right 15%, group conversation mode in today's restaurant.

[notaclone13]

Thanks for posting this information. Do you have tinnitus in your non-hearing ear? Wondering if tinnitus ever goes away.

[jami]

Mine is in the mail!! I will report back

[Alyssa]

I do have tinnitus in my non-hearing ear. The tinnitus becomes louder under noisy background. If using this set with mute, it is very helpful to keep the same.

I will keep testing this set this weekend party.

[Alyssa]

Mine is in the mail!! I will report back

Wow, you are so quick. Actually ebay has better deal. But I like to have someone to help me understand the set and installation. so I went to the store and bought one. The sales Ian in store gave me many advise to understand how to set up the app.

Amazon has great resource to know the product and feedback. So many people like us have good review, yeah.

[jami]

I have been watching feedback on these for a while.  Only a few months since losing hearing in one ear (AN surgery) but ready to try non invasive methods re: hearing.

ALSO -- am being tricky - my mother is having hearing challenges, but does not want to address it. SOOOO I am ordering the BOSE Hearphones, will show them off to my mother (and test them). If she loves them, they are a present for Christmas from the kids. If not, i keep them.

Let us know how they work, Alyssa!

[Alyssa]

It is very cool if it is Christmas present for your mom.

I had party last night, 16 people with 6 kids. I can hear very well. I think my perfect right side hearing is also helpful.

I suggest you go to Bose store and try out. Let the stuff show you how to setup and adjust settings. It is tricky, I am still trying to find the best setting in different environment. Mute non hearing side is very important to reduce tinnitus and make good side work better. 

[jami]

HI

A quick follow up on the Bose Hearphones. I have been using them for a week now, both in the office as well as while traveling from Raleigh to Amsterdam, going to a funeral, and in rooms full of people. I also have a pair of the Bose Noise canceling headphones, Quiet Comfort 35, that I used before all this started for travel (I travel about 25% of the team).

About the Bose QC35 (thought i would be thorough while i am here). In general, the Bose Noise canceling headphones are great, they help me find peace when things are crazy. In addition, they work with my iPhone, so I can just answer a call on them via bluetooth. (Phone calls are frustrating post surgery, I have to hold the phone in my left hand but am left handed, so i cannot write when on the phone. Makes me feel trapped.) The negative - the Bose Noise cancelling headphones are pretty bulky, so they make me look weird in video conference calls. Nothing subtle about using them.

I also use Apple earbuds like crazy, and did before the surgery. Spending 6+ hours/day on conference calls, I have 2 sets and just swap them out when the battery dies. I only use one of the earbuds now, and gave the other half away to my brother....no idea if he was able to use them. (Its possible to set up either / both of the sides as the microphone).

2 weeks into using Bose Hearphones. My first day in the office, i asked a co-worker (half jokingly) if he was mad at me because it sounded like he was yelling.  This means they work. I can control how/where i want to listen (in front of me, all around 360 degrees, for example. I can also control the background noise, how sensitive to be. When on a plane, turned down the background noise all the way and it was the same effect as the Bose QC35. When watching tv, i set it about +10 and can hear the tv, like a real person (its amazing!).

None of the devices seem to have a 'cross over' feature (if that is real) which would take input from the right side and play it back in the left ear.  I have tried with Apple Live Listen but I have problems with it, probably due to the fact I only have 1 Apple earbud.  Also, it does not bother me to wear because I have been wearing that Apple Earbud for so long.

None of these are cheap, which is a big drawback.

Those are my thoughts.

Have a good holiday all
Jami

[Alyssa]

Seems like we have different set. This is link what I have.

https://www.amazon.com/Bose-Hearphones-Conversation-Enhancing-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B06XYPJN4G/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1546065865&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=bose+hearphones+conversation-enhancing+headphones&psc=1

[jami]

HI Alyssa,

That is what i have too!
I just threw in commentary about the Apple Earbuds as well.

Jami

[Alyssa]

Good to know, thanks.

[colin_w]

I'm two decades post-surgery and have 100% hearing loss in my left ear. I've been using the Bose Hearphones for several weeks and I highly recommend them. They are better than CROS/BiCROS hearing aids that cost ten times more. A couple of notes of caution though. They aren't specifically designed to have CROS/BiCROS but it turns out that as a side effect of the conversation enhancing signal processing they do feed sound from the left side into the right ear and vice versa, overcoming the head shadow problem. The two modes that do this are "Narrow" and "Front". (The third mode, "Everywhere" has no crossover effect as far as I can tell). The other thing is (counter intuitively) you have to leave the Balance setting on the default "Balanced" setting. If you mute the left ear, it also turns off the left mic and the crossover effect seems to disappear. The Hearphones work very well now and they might get even better. There is talk on the Bose forum that a software update is in the works that has an explicit CROS/BiCROS setting for single sided deafness.

[notaclone13]

Thanks for posting this information. I almost bought Bose Hearphones last December when you could get them for $250 at Best Buy. Unfortunately I didn’t take advantage of that special offer and doubt if they will drop down to that price again.