Headphone Hunting

At first, I am adamant at having a headphone as I do not like the designs that I look almost like a construction worker or eskimos.. Hehe sounds vain... And it's hard to carry around. I change my mind after I want to spend with my family to avoid feeling lonely but I am unable to listen to my favorite songs of The Piano Guys from my laptop because their TV is too loud for me to hear from my Apple Earphones.

So I decided to invest for a headphone, though, I am not in a hurry to get one. Yesterday, I went home very weary and fatigue. I didn't realize that I had almost  20 units of headphones of sound testing in a day. Definitely, my ears were too tired to hear. 

It's funny thing that almost all sales staffs were trying to pitch me their promising headphones quality. Everyone looked at me with their raising eyebrows and found me eccentric and weirdo. They made me feel like I was from other planets because I couldn't stop tapping my ears from switching listening memories of Qleaf Pro. Haha!

I knew that Bose has the best sound quality of all their technologies but I want to check out other brands' sound quality. I never thought that there are huge demands of headphones with tons of brands selection to choose. The price range for headphones is Php1300- Php30k.

So, out of 20 units I tried, only Bose OE2 headphone with a price of Php8,900 ($212) has the best clarity sound so far and yes, it's a pricey for my leisure needs. The closer I can see so far is Audio-Technica WS55 with a price of Php 3,799 ($92). I haven't tried the other budget-friendly headphones like Superlux... I'll check out next time. 

Hoping I could get one with a budget-friendly type with superior clarity sound quality. :)

*Crossed my fingers*

Where Am I?

Honestly, I don't know where I am.. hehe.

Last week, I had an accident at the gym that hit my own head. I had a big bump at the back of my head both internally and externally. Worse, I forgot my location of my locker and the direction of my home. Since I was alone at that time, I had to rest and think harder on what to do. You know what, I slept inside the locker room for few minutes due to my dizziness. Lolx! But don't worry, I was able to go home safely.

I spent the whole week to rest and not to think much as I wanted to heal my head faster with less stress.  I was getting bored of being a bummer so I decided to listen to an instrumental music. I usually hated instrumental mainly because I was extremely depressed about the horrible sound perhaps partly because of my old hearing aids, sound energies disharmony between me and my hearing aids, extremely comprehension/speech development problems, and so on.

That's why, I removed the listening memory program of my new Qleaf Pro for the classical and instrumental type of songs like orchestras.  But after listening the Beethoven's 5 Secrets by Piano Guys at youtube, it blew my mind and eased my head pain. I almost cry when I heard this song, the sounds are pretty harmonized with my QLeaf Pro. I feel so bliss!

 This is the kind of songs that I wanted to manifest in reality since childhood that kept humming in my own mind for many years though I failed to do it. Since there was no internet at my time, no network connections, and with not-so-good hearing aids, there was limited access of information that I wanted to learn. I never regret it as I know I have a higher purpose on my mission.

It's amazing that Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids can perceive the accurate natural sounds for the instrumental type of songs in a different type of listening memory programs with no orchestra finetuning type. Though I do get a whistle feedback upon hearing it ocassionally usually in high frequency tone and I also hear some missing low bass frequency perhaps because of high noise reduction. Maybe, if I pursue to listen to instrumental alot, I may decide to add the listening program of my Qleaf Pro for the instrumental songs. Still thinking though...

Here is the video I am listening to my favorite song from The Piano Guys,

XOXO

Exsilent QLeaf Pro Hearing Aids Review

Note:  I spent my whole one year to experiment and experience my new Exsilent hearing aids. And I just finished all my experiment testings after few times of finetuning adjustments. And I say that I am extremely satisfied with these sound results and these are what I am looking for years!  

It is my 1 year and 2 months anniversary of wearing Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids as of this date.

Here is my review:

 Brand

I like its brand name - EXSILENT.  Very simple word but has a very powerful message. It taught all hearing impaired and hard of hearing people to stop being quiet and to stop complaining about not hearing anymore with the help of Exsilent's promising hearing aids products with superb natural sound quality.  Exsilent is able to breakthrough all limited sound technology barriers from all digital hearing aids industry. I expand the details later.

In my own personal experience, this brand name represents who I am. It's my lifelong dream of not wanting to be silent as the grave and not a "yes-woman" since my childhood. It forces me to speak up assertively and confidently even if I am not good at speaking. It teaches me to familiarize all kinds of sounds through listening involvement. It also teaches me to open up myself to others; therefore, it transforms my life forever.

Having a good brand name is a huge advantage as it instills my mind to change forcibly from silent to assert talker, from lazy listener to compassionate listener, and do something that I never tried before when it comes to sound topics such as movies, social gatherings, consulting, phone calls, nature trips, and so on.

Exsilent QLeaf Pro Set

Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids are the first stylish standard design & smallest fully digital instant- fit CIC hearing aids in the world. This model is under invincible product series.

I bought two Exsilent hearing aids last year (June 2012). By the way, I am severe sensorineural hearing loss for both of my ears. 

Here are my sets I received.

My Exsilent QLeaf Pro Set

Items:

- Two Silver Hearing Aids Carrying Cases (size of engagement ring box)

- Spare"Open" Soft tips (Small Size) which I called as "jacket"

- Hearing aids Zinc Air Batteries (Size 10) 

- User Manual with CD and black box

- Battery Removal Tool

- red/blue stickers for identification (left or right ear) 

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION

Here are the parts of Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids from my user manual.

Parts of Exsilent Qleaf Pro From my User Manual

 SIZE

The standard size of Exsilent QLeaf Pro is very tiny. As you can see in the picture,the 10 cents coin fits perfectly with Exsilent QLeaf Pro than the one peso coin. So, brandishing out your 10 cents coin and you can visualize the size -that is without the jacket yet. (Note: On the left picture, I need to blur my serial number for personal privacy, hope you understand.)

The sticker is used for identification whether that hearing aids are for left ear or right ear. The tip is RED = Right (Same letter R) for easy memory. You can decide to put only one sticker, it's your choice.

COMPARISON OF PESO COINS & EXSILENT QLEAF PRO

JACKET

These soft tips serves as a jacket that fits into your ear canal. Its texture is much like surgical gloves. (I love playing around with it coz it is so cute, hehe!) This is also an hypoallergenic so it is safe for your ear canals. 

It is also served as dirt/ear fluids magnets. All your dirts/dirt/ear fluids will stick to the soft tips. These soft tips will protect the parts of hearing aids from passing through the dirt that can damage the hearing aids due to clogging and staining.  

It is also served to reduce any occlusion; I still hear some minor occlusion but barely noticeable with the right adjustments. Feedback/Whistling sound is highly improvement in these Exsilent hearing aids. In other digital hearing aids brands, if the molding is not right fitting, the feedback is very disturbing especially wrong finetuning adjustments.

If you are using your hearing aids everyday, it is better to change your soft tips regularly in an average of 1-3 months to avoid infection from dirt or you can opted to wash the soft tips and let it dry.  For me, I prefer to dispose it and get a new soft tip to avoid water gets into the hearing aids. I really do not have time to wash it because of my busy schedule.hehe  

They are 3 sizes - S, M, L depends on the size of your ear canal. In my case, I got the SMALL size. 

 

EXSILENT QLEAF PRO SOFT TIPS "Jacket"

They have 2 types of soft tips- OPEN and CLOSE which give different sound outputs. They depend on your preferred sounds frequencies coming from your hearing loss decibels. This is also related to the occlusion-related situations. (In tagalog, "ngo ngo". In other English word, nasal-like sound)

 I got the OPEN soft tips which give me more crispier, clearer and breather sounds, that are based from my decibels. 

You can see in the picture I cut the excess tail to avoid showing the extension of protruding tail outside my ear. This tail serves as pulling out the hearing aids.

EXSILENT QLEAF PRO "Open" SOFT TIPS FITTING

My Exsilent QLeaf Pro at my Fingertip

FITTING

The only hearing aids that have unique instant fitting where you can try and fit on the spot if you like the sounds or not. (See the picture below, you will have that kind of fitting on your first appointment, Pretty amazing, isn't it?) These will help to decide whether you can buy now and if you are satisfy with the sound quality. So this is a great advantage. 

There will be no more molding that most digital hearing aids industry are using. The only problem with the molding is that you have to buy the hearing aids first, have your molding ear canal measurement, wait for at least a month to get your hearing aids before you can try the hearing aids. One good example of this is the Starkey Otolens hearing aids, the only competitor of Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids.(I will have an in-depth comparison in my next post.)

So, I opted to choose to this unique instant hearing aids fitting than the molding type of digital hearing aids which I used for 18 years.

 Here is the fitting of my Exsilent hearing aids- this is my own ear! Taking this picture using Iphone 4 in my first month use. 

My own EXSILENT QLeaf Pro

When I tried using for the first time last June 2012, It's pretty a little pain due to the tightness which gives friction from the rectangular shape of the hearing aids into the round curve of ear canal. The only solution was to put petroleum jelly in order to expand the ear canal as well as soothe the pain. Since, I wanted more deep insertion for more invisibility, the more pain was added. The pain would last for 3 months with more deeper insertion- that is for my own ear canal. Some of my acquaintances didn't have any pain at all. So it depends on the hearing aids user.

AIR TAPPING FEATURE

The beauty of these Exsilent hearing aids is that it has a tapping feature where there will be no more remote control nor no longer rely on telephones/Iphones for switching listening programs that fits on your listening environment. It's hands free. What's the unique feature of Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids for tapping? Air Tapping!

From Exsilent.com

 Air Tapping means to pat on your ear for close air pressure and it automatically switch the program. The only disadvantage of this air tapping is that it switches on different programs on its own from slamming the door/car door, too much R&B or metal music, or any sound air pressure. The solution is to have it finetuning adjustments if you listen frequently to these kinds of songs or going to bar a lot.

 Since I don't listen to these kinds of songs, so there will be no problem for me except the unavoidable slamming of car door/ sliding drawers. I am practicing on using my index finger( also known as pointing finger) as tapping for switching program, pretending to itch my ear canal. hehehe It can be working too aside from patting your ear.

Exsilent Air Tapping Feature Taken from my User Manual

LISTENING PROGRAMS

These Exsilent QLEAF PRO hearing aids have four listening programs to choose from. You can decide to limit to two programs. These listening programs will be adjusted by the hearing aids specialist/audiologist through the finetuning adjustments.

The advantages of having these listening programs are to reduce the amount of battery usage and to have full access of sound frequencies and usability based on the current listening environment you are in. The example of listening environments such as music, theater, construction, bars/karaoke, noisy environment (horning cars, jeepneys, buses), movies, office, sports,  and so on.

Here is the example of my current listening programs: (the tone sound upon tapping is one beep for first program, two beeps for 2nd program, three beeps for 3rd program, and four beeps for 4th program).

Listening Memory  Program 1: For Quiet room -best for one-on-one talking.
Listening Memory Program 2 : For noisy environment- best for driving, crowd from closed environment (office/meeting)
Listening Memory Program 3: For difficulty noisy environment but focus on the speech - coffee shops, social parties
Listening Memory Program 4:  For TV, laptop speakers , cinemas, music, all kinds of speakers and mobile phones!

So, you can choose your own listening program based on your own listening lifestyles/environments.


FINETUNING ADJUSTMENTS

The finetuning adjustments of the sounds would be solely dependent on your hearing aids specialist/ audiologist. So, you have to go to the clinic to have it finetuning. That is the only thing that I hate the most because of my busy schedule and hassle time.

Having the right hearing aids specialist/audiologist who can synchronize the finetuning for your listening needs is extremely mandatory to the Exsilent users. Because it is very useless to have the best hearing aids without knowing how to finetuning it. The hearing aids user will end up frustrated and dissatisfied.  That is my problematic with my past audiologists who are pretty greenhorn in technologies even if they have the best hearing aids.

I still prefer to have a self-tuning as I want to adjust it on my own for minor reason - volume adjustment, tweaking of minor sound frequencies or replace the listening program for temporary such as going to theater and revert to original program after the event.  Hopefully, they will avail it in the near future. That is also part of my dream but for my current listening program, it satisfies for my current listening lifestyle.

SOUND QUALITY

This is my favorite part to talk about. EXSILENT QLeaf Pro is indeed deliver its promise when they stated on their vision at their website:

First, it doesn't look like a hearing aid. It is pretty hidden inside the ear canal. 

Second, Exsilent QLeaf Pro is compatible to all kinds of mobile phones. You can use any kinds of mobile phones all you want with these Exsilent hearing aids. You no longer need to look for mobile phones that have great hearing aids compatibility feature. See, the message said, it doesn't look like a hearing aid. It truly walks its talks. that's what I love Exsilent more!  

Third, I can join in the normal hearing people society as I no longer rely to people on what others are saying like watching movies, group meetings, social gatherings, for example, or on phone calls. That is a huge success for Exsilent QLeaf Pro. I always have a feeling of not wearing hearing aids, I act so normal like everybody else. 

Fourth, the sound quality of these EXSILENT QLEAF PRO is beyond my sound expectation. Pretty superb natural sound quality closer to our physical ear sounds. It is very rare to have sound technologies that can perceive the natural sounds.  -kinda obsolete of robotic and artificial sounds! So, these hearing aids have the ability to understand the speech even in the difficult noisy situation -less hearing mumbling sounds and starts to comprehend words from thick foreign accents. It may not be 100% perfect but it is super helpful for solving extreme complicated noise situations. It also solved any difficult occlusion (In tagalog, "ngo ngo". In other English word, nasal-like sound)  that is most problematic of all molding type of digital hearing aids as it has only one closure with no releasing of air sound(something related to physics which I am not really good to explain. hehe).

I remembered for the first time when I wear in these Exsilent QLeaf Pro hearing aids, I felt like a 5 year old kid because it is my first time to hear everything I never heard before such as the sounds of cricket at night during nature trip, the lively sound of refrigerator, footsteps at the stairs, the teardrops of rain and faucets, the whispers of people, the different beeping and horning sounds of cars and other engines, the clear sounds of deep baritone and other deep male voices, the engine sounds of passing cars, jeepneys, etc, and many more. These are my first time to hear those things in my entire life correctly and perfectly! (Too bad, I'm too late to hear those sounds! I feel like I'm a toddler even if my age is adult.haha!)

Another Great News: When I went to the bar for the first time at the DRAFT Bonifacio Taguig. The music is too loud for the people in which the background noise consists lots of R&B and metal songs but I was amazed of the sound quality of Exsilent QLeaf Pro because I could hear my friends' conversations very clearly but they couldn't hear me.  Exsilent QLEAF PRO is the only thing that is able to achieve in this kind of difficult noisy environment.

Also, Exsilent QLeaf Pro doesn't hurt me that much from the sounds of dot matrix printers and crumpled papers.What amazed me is that I discovered that different kinds of papers produce different sounds; same with the dot matrix printers.


BATTERY LIFE

The battery life of Exsilent QLeafPro is very excellent because of the availability of listening programs which help to prolong the battery.  Choosing the right hearing aids battery is the mandatory to avoid the damage of the hearing aids.

My Everyday Use

In my own case, the battery will last for 9-10 days using the noisy environment listening program in an average of 8am-10pm. I usually spend 8-10 batteries per month.  I used Siemens brand. 

In my previous hearing aids brands, I spent at least 20-24 batteries in a month. That is OUCH!

The battery size is always 10 and must buy a zinc air battery type. My favorites are Siemens and Duracell hearing aids batteries. I will have hearing aids battery reviews for succeeding posts. 

There is a removal battery tool to remove the battery of the hearing aids. When I go out, I used the ballpen or my earrings to remove the battery. Hehe Speaking of being resourceful. :P 

There is no power button- just insert the battery and it will activate the power. To turn off, just remove the battery. Simple as that!

PRICING AND WARRANTY

The warranty of Exsilent QLeaf Pro in the Philippines is 3 YEARS. This is a great advantage since we are living in a very humid environment.  And a lot of my previous hearing aids brands, it only survived for average of  1-2 years (The longest one is 6 years from analog hearing aids). Either the hearing aids create choppy sound waves or malfunction due to the receiver problem and other stained wires coming from a humid weather or ear fluids.

The good news is that if your Exsilent hearing aids have technical problems, they will replace it for a new one and no waiting period.

About the price, please inquire at the hearing aids center for better discussion. Frankly speaking, Exsilent hearing aids are very expensive and that is my complaint. I hope they will lower the price in the near future since the obsolete of cleaning maintenance and replacement parts. Few finetuning adjustments visitations needed for your listening needs. I am pretty sure if they lower the price, Exsilent will dominate the other digital hearing aids market since it is the only hearing aids that are simple, very durable, natural dynamic sound quality, and less maintenance.

CONCLUSION

Exsilent QLeaf Pro walks its talk and delivers its promises for the natural dynamic sound quality that is hailed by all hearing-impaired and hard of hearing people. It works well with any gadgets such as mobile phones, headphones, and speakers.  It enables to correct the speech clarity sounds even in difficult noisy situations. It can benefit without relying much on lipreading.

So, that's why, I love Exsilent QLeaf Pro so much. It helps me in many ways and even saves my life from troubled/narcissistic people. The only drawback is no self-tuning but I am very satisfied with this excellent hearing aids product and the natural sound quality.  It's my first time to be happy and to move forward with my life. Thank you, Exsilent, for your innovations!

If only Exsilent hearing aids exist 19 years ago, then I will achieve more than half of what I am doing now. Maybe it has a reason for me to stay in this difficult journey of complicated hearing situations.

My last hope is that my Exsilent hearing aids will outlast for more than 5 years. hehe. I haven't achieved these in my previous hearing aids brand. But by that time,  I am pretty sure Exsilent hearing aids will have more better enhancements and features.

Special thanks to Exsilent Representative Carol Huang from Netherlands and my Hearing Aids Specialist Ruby Mejares for their great honesty, service, and assistance. I am happy that they understand my complex listening needs and sound sensitivity perfectly.

PROS:

- ready to fit hearing aids with adjustments on the spot
- 3 years warranty!
- instant hearing aids - no more waiting period
- excellent battery life performance
- availability of different listening programs for your listening lifestyles
- superb natural sound quality
- minimal occlusion and feedback which lessens the effect of muffled, mumbled, and indistinctive sounds
- durable hearing aid carrying case
- disposable soft tips
- no more cleaning maintenance!
- the sound quality remain the same after prolong use for more than a year.

CONS:
- no self-tuning (hassle to go to clinic for finetuning if you plan to change due to new listening lifestyle)
- not availability of water-resistant for sweaty and unforeseen water-related events
- for small ear canals, some will experienced pain for insertion due to tightness
- takes time to insert and remove soft tips/ battery and keep into the hearing aids compartment
- very expensive



 Exsilent QLeafPro is available at: 

Ruby Mejares
Exsilent Expert
EAR DIAGNOSTICS INC.
Rm. 505 Don Santiago Bldg.
1344 Taft Avenue Corner Padre Faura St, Ermita Metro Manila
Tel. Nos: (02) 536 - 7772; 567-1105

or

Dorothy Pastranas
Exsilent Expert
EAR DIAGNOSTICS INC.
Rm 703 A Golden Peak Tower Gorordo Avenue Cor. Escario St. Cebu City
Tel. Nos: (032) 233-4388; 412-5305


Hope it helps! :P

I love to hear from you. Let's connect by posting your comments below and share your own hearing aids experiences.

You may also reach me at hearingjoy(at)gmail(dot)com

Thank you so much for reading. xoxo.