Need to Decide Cochlear or Med El

[MikeH]

Surgeon offers Cochlear and Med El.  See him Tues. Not sure if I have to make a decision then or not. But trying to get all the information I can.

Audiologist recommending Med El mainly because of wires or probes or whatever they're called are better ?

Using Signia Aids now that stream to both sides with iPhone. Calls good. Music good. Without any intermediate accessory. Very simple.

Also have a Mic that picks up voices and helps when needed with mask situations.

Can the audiostream stay on the Sonnet 2 all the time ?

Willing to change to Android if that would help ?

Have some more questions but this may be to many for one post ? Hope not.

Thank you

 

[Mary Beth]

@MikeH

welcome to HearPeers and wishing you the best on your CI journey.

The internal components are the most important with respect to sound quality.  Your audiologist may be referring to Med-El’s electrode arrays.  That is why I chose Med-El too.  I am so thankful for this wonderful hearing and the return of beautiful sounding music to my life.

Feel free to ask as many questions as you wish.  No limit.  We are a friendly group.

Yes AudioStream can stay on your Sonnet2 always.  In my opinion,  that’s the most convenient way to use it.

Some android phones offer dual BT streaming to different types of BT devices which works with some hearing aid brands and specific models.

[Andrew42]

I went through your soul searching a few months ago and come down on the side of Medel for the following reasons:

1. I had detailed one on one discussions with representatives of Medel and Cochlear and came away more impreseed by the Medel Electrode arrays.

I also researched the usage in the hospital I would be using, (Inselspital in Bern, Switzerland). Their ratio is abour 66:34 Medel-Cochlear. Across the country in Zurich it is the other way round. I tend to go with the majority in the hospital I'm using.

Post implant, my experience with Medel has been mainly good. I think I may have a technical issue with my external processor and if that proves out I will simply have then give me a new processor.

I have a Rondo 3 procesor. I wear glasses, have one ear physically smaller than the other following melanoma surgery years ago. Coupling that with Covid Masks I elected to go off ear and I knew going in that that had a few drawbacks in using certain accessoires.

I am not a great fan of Medel accessories: AudioKey 2, Audio2Ear . They work, after a fashion but they are clunky and need reconfiguring

Forget about streaming to both ears with Medel, it cannot be done with Apple IOS unless you have two implants. This doesn't concern me too much at the moment becasue my hearing of music is distinctly limited and I have a blind faith the the mobile phohe companies will sort this out fairly soon.

In Summary:

My hosptal told me there are no bad choices if you stick to Medel and Cochlear

Do your home work and speak to the local reps: not the girls and guys in your centre but the local represenataives of the brands you are researching

We have limited offers here in Switzerland but I got an agreement from Medel that I could switch from Rondo to Sonnet if I was uncomfortable with the Rondo. So far I'm not tempted becasue I think the distortion issue I am having would occur with either processor.

Good luck and feel free to ask me specific questions if you feel inclined. If I have an oppinion I'll share it with you. If your question is "above my pay grade" I'll tell you and I promise you there is a lot I don't know.

[Jason77]

I just recently went through this as well. Was implanted a few weeks ago but not activated yet. I chose to go with Med El. I did waiver back and forth some. Cochlear definitely has some better options for direct streaming especially to the off the ear implant however the processors are being updated and changing every few years and I expect in the future Med El will have better options there. The implant electrode is what eventually sold me on Med El. Thats the most important part as you are stuck with that pretty much for life. Backward compatibility as well as implant failure are other things to consider. The problem with choosing is there are really no good 3rd party evaluations of the implants and how well they perform. And its variable from person to person. One of the last things my surgeon told me before I was wheeled to the OR was that the surgery is the surgery. What really matters is how your brain adapts to the implant. I felt Med El gave me the best chance at adapting as the electrode covers more of the cochlea.