I did not have the remote control device. I guess really impatient. Really didn't understand when the hearing aids weren't better as such thing as filtering rain. This is a completely different frequency than standard speech. I even call the manufacturer. It really sounded like they needed one setting for speech and another for concerts since the frequency range for music is much larger than speech. Frustrating. Maybe I should have spent more time but for the money, my requirements were basic.
My first month (4 years ago) with my hearing aids was a disaster. The button on the right hearing aid raised the volume, the button on the left hearing aid lowered the volume. I was constantly lifting my arms up and down like playing Simon Says. Drove me nuts. I had trouble understanding a person sitting 3 feet away.
Then I found out about the remote control on Phonak's website and had my audiologist order me one. I also learned about programing. I had it programed for different scenarios: Automatic, Speech in Noise, Comfort in Noise, Music, and a Custom Program that attempted to reduce the frequencies of ambient noise. Not perfect but a hell of an improvement. I had the flexibility of changing programs on the fly, going from one to another without looking at the names, but just until the hearing environment was more comfortable. The Music setting worked well at concerts.
Last year the CROS II came out with a bunch of improvements. I found that the automatic setting handled noisy environments a little better and was more directional at picking up speech of a companion sitting across a table in a noisy restaurant. I also found that I could pick up conversation 20' away like in a waiting room where there wasn't a lot of background noise. I got a new remote control with it and my old programs were duplicated in it in a addition to the upgraded automatic features.
For a long time I had trouble understand dialog on TV with all the background music and street noise. My audiologist suggested the TV Link which sends the audio directly from the inner workings of the TV to the hearing aid and bypasses the usually lousy TV speakers. While the background music is still annoying, the dialog comes through quite a bit better with the TV Link.
I think you should have given your hearing aids more of a chance for you and them to adapt to each other and I recommend that anybody with a CROS system get the remote control.
