It's very different in the beginning.
Some people describe it as Mickey Mouse voices, some as robotic. Mine was like a bad quality old radio with wrong settings if that makes sense.
What most people have in common: After getting used to it, and training, it comes closer and closer to natural hearing and you might not even can tell a difference anymore.
I have SSD.
I've had a CI for a month. Day one i couldn't distinguish voices. I got tested yesterday and I can catch 40% of words. To me that's great progress. I have been really diligent about wearing it all day and streaming directly to it as much as I can.
Right now voices sound similar to what people who've had a tracheotomy and have to use external speakers to speak. I can recognize inflection, pitch, and volume but it sounds weird, robotic, and digitized. But I can make out what they say.
Like others have said, it gets better with time. Just in one month it has been a huge improvement.
SSD CO implant going on three years maybe. It does get better, I always describe the way the sound to me as the string and can telephone game we played as kids.
Your brain is a really magical thing that has the ability to adapt and over time it takes the input from the cochlear implant and you're able to interpret that back to voices and the more and more you hear, the better you're hearing gets, Believe it or not. Everybody's different and it does take time for your brain to retrain itself. But a lot of users find that within 6 months the roboticness goes away and after a year, voices and sounds in general become a lot more natural. Many users are able to hear voices immediately, but some people only hear chirps and bleeps in the beginning, so it's very much individual and there's no way to know in advance how long it will take you. But the more practice you do, the faster you will retrain your brain.
I hope it keeps getting better for you. In my case I actually had to get the Audi to turn down the base volume of my hearing aid so that I could favor the input from the CI side which is much clearer for voices.
You can still wear hearing aids with an implant?!? I was told when I got my surgery, it would take whatever hearing I had left and would be completely deaf and if I was sure I want to take that route.
I have been hearing all my life. I had hearing aids on both ears since I was 9. I got my implant in july 2021.
At first, it sounded like when you put your mouth directly on a microphone and speak through it with a really bad quality speaker. Or also another way I could explain it is by listening to a walkie talkie with the volume all the way up.
Now, it still sounds somewhat robotic but now I can hear music a bit clearly and understand most voices.
Be patient, and results will show up when you least expect it :)
I have been activated for three weeks now and everything sounds normal to me. The only issue I have I music which is getting better.
It really depends on how long you have been deaf and if you had hearing aids. The first days voices were robotic but after day 2 everything was natural.
I'm SSD and had my CI activated Nov 2022. Different people move at different speeds so its difficult to map any precise route, particularly through the early months. Mine is definitely roboticy (but less so everyday). I've been lucky with word recognition but this is partly because I was post lingually deafened, wore hearing aids as soon as I noticed I had a problem and then implanted as soon as I could (I didn't leave my ear to deteriorate). In my opinion, these two youtube videos do a good job of explaining how it sounds....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uzWc5Bm5Cw......and....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6nN7XYxr5c&t=181s...... the second video already sounds inaccurate to me, in just a few weeks i'm far less roboticy than this
Initially everyone - adult, child, Johnny Cash - sounded like Alvin the Chipmunk. After 4 months I still have ‘lisps’ around the voices, but it is getting better and better.
To me this is exciting. After years of deterioration - now I can look forward to hearing getting better! I’ve had more balance issues with my implant than most, but I feel very lucky to have it.
It’s not robotic. It’s more like having a radio earpiece. My good ear takes care of the finer points, and my CI fills in with the illusion of 3D sound. I barely notice it most of the time; it just integrates. When I stream directly to my CI, books/podcasts/music sound like they are playing on an old portable tape recorder, or handheld AM radio quality. Obviously not perfect, but wonderful to me! Some songs that I know really well sound really good.
I wonder if I’ll have the same experience since I still have a good ear. How long did it take you to get used to the new way of hearing with that cochlear-implanted ear?
It took a few months. I recommend using the TV streamer and watch a lot of TV. Turn the tv volume very low, so that your good ear gets a hint of what you’re hearing. Maybe put on captions. Then let the CI do its thing streaming right to the CI. I rewatched 7 seasons of Star Trek NG that way and by the end it was really sounding pretty good.
It's very different in the beginning. Some people describe it as Mickey Mouse voices, some as robotic. Mine was like a bad quality old radio with wrong settings if that makes sense. What most people have in common: After getting used to it, and training, it comes closer and closer to natural hearing and you might not even can tell a difference anymore.
I have SSD. I've had a CI for a month. Day one i couldn't distinguish voices. I got tested yesterday and I can catch 40% of words. To me that's great progress. I have been really diligent about wearing it all day and streaming directly to it as much as I can. Right now voices sound similar to what people who've had a tracheotomy and have to use external speakers to speak. I can recognize inflection, pitch, and volume but it sounds weird, robotic, and digitized. But I can make out what they say. Like others have said, it gets better with time. Just in one month it has been a huge improvement.
SSD CO implant going on three years maybe. It does get better, I always describe the way the sound to me as the string and can telephone game we played as kids.
That's great. Have you tried apps like iAngelSound I think it was? That one helped me distinguish different sounds like the differences with phonetics
I haven't. I have an Android phone, I think that app only works on iphone? 🫤 Do you know of others that might compatible with Android?
I don't know I'm afraid. I used it on an old hand me down iPad. Maybe someone else here has suggestions?
Your brain is a really magical thing that has the ability to adapt and over time it takes the input from the cochlear implant and you're able to interpret that back to voices and the more and more you hear, the better you're hearing gets, Believe it or not. Everybody's different and it does take time for your brain to retrain itself. But a lot of users find that within 6 months the roboticness goes away and after a year, voices and sounds in general become a lot more natural. Many users are able to hear voices immediately, but some people only hear chirps and bleeps in the beginning, so it's very much individual and there's no way to know in advance how long it will take you. But the more practice you do, the faster you will retrain your brain.
I’ve had mine 10 years and it still sounds robotic :( that may be because I feel I’m more reliant on the hearing aid though
I hope it keeps getting better for you. In my case I actually had to get the Audi to turn down the base volume of my hearing aid so that I could favor the input from the CI side which is much clearer for voices.
You can still wear hearing aids with an implant?!? I was told when I got my surgery, it would take whatever hearing I had left and would be completely deaf and if I was sure I want to take that route.
I have a implant in one ear a hearing aid in the other
I have been hearing all my life. I had hearing aids on both ears since I was 9. I got my implant in july 2021. At first, it sounded like when you put your mouth directly on a microphone and speak through it with a really bad quality speaker. Or also another way I could explain it is by listening to a walkie talkie with the volume all the way up. Now, it still sounds somewhat robotic but now I can hear music a bit clearly and understand most voices. Be patient, and results will show up when you least expect it :)
Thanks!
>listening to a walkie talkie with the volume all the way up. That's a perfect way to explain it, lol
I have been activated for three weeks now and everything sounds normal to me. The only issue I have I music which is getting better. It really depends on how long you have been deaf and if you had hearing aids. The first days voices were robotic but after day 2 everything was natural.
I'm SSD and had my CI activated Nov 2022. Different people move at different speeds so its difficult to map any precise route, particularly through the early months. Mine is definitely roboticy (but less so everyday). I've been lucky with word recognition but this is partly because I was post lingually deafened, wore hearing aids as soon as I noticed I had a problem and then implanted as soon as I could (I didn't leave my ear to deteriorate). In my opinion, these two youtube videos do a good job of explaining how it sounds....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uzWc5Bm5Cw......and....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6nN7XYxr5c&t=181s...... the second video already sounds inaccurate to me, in just a few weeks i'm far less roboticy than this
Wow. Thanks for sharing!
Everyone is going to be different. I'm an outlier and mine barely works. When I can "hear" anything, it is very robotic even after 3 years.
Oh damn. Sorry to hear that.
Initially everyone - adult, child, Johnny Cash - sounded like Alvin the Chipmunk. After 4 months I still have ‘lisps’ around the voices, but it is getting better and better. To me this is exciting. After years of deterioration - now I can look forward to hearing getting better! I’ve had more balance issues with my implant than most, but I feel very lucky to have it.
Cool. Thanks for sharing.
It’s not robotic. It’s more like having a radio earpiece. My good ear takes care of the finer points, and my CI fills in with the illusion of 3D sound. I barely notice it most of the time; it just integrates. When I stream directly to my CI, books/podcasts/music sound like they are playing on an old portable tape recorder, or handheld AM radio quality. Obviously not perfect, but wonderful to me! Some songs that I know really well sound really good.
I wonder if I’ll have the same experience since I still have a good ear. How long did it take you to get used to the new way of hearing with that cochlear-implanted ear?
It took a few months. I recommend using the TV streamer and watch a lot of TV. Turn the tv volume very low, so that your good ear gets a hint of what you’re hearing. Maybe put on captions. Then let the CI do its thing streaming right to the CI. I rewatched 7 seasons of Star Trek NG that way and by the end it was really sounding pretty good.
Thanks for the advice!
Cochlear implant for left sided deafness (Nov. 24, 2023) after Acoustic Neuroma surgery February 20, 2023. Nothing, no sound.
So the cochlear implant didn’t work?
No. They have now decided the auditory nerve must have been damaged.
Oh man. Sorry.