Sue shares how upgrading to the Cochlear™ Nucleus® 7 Sound Processor with her Nucleus® 22 Implant has improved her life. She also shares three sound processor enhancements that impact her every day.
In 1984, after having suddenly lost her hearing to meningococcal meningitis, Sue put her faith in ‘groundbreaking’ new hearing technology – the Nucleus 22 Implant. In the decades that followed, Sue received a second cochlear implant on her other ear and upgraded her sound processors many times.
“I remember my very bulky body worn sound processor that had three AA batteries!” says Sue. “My experience of upgrades over this last 36 years is that it’s a step up every time. Sometimes it’s a really big step in sound quality and at other times it’s been a big step in something else, like the first time they introduced a telecoil switch for the phone, the wireless capability in the Nucleus 6 [Sound Processor] and now direct streaming in the Nucleus 7 [Sound Processor].”
Life with the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor
Now that she has access to the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor for both ears, Sue lists three notable differences from her previous devices that have made a real impact on her everyday living.
1. Easily listen to music and podcasts with audio directly streamed to your sound processor(s)
“So now I’m listening to podcasts … while I’m exercising on the rowing machine or going for a walk,” says Sue. “Direct streaming has really just made it so much easier.”
How does it work? Sound is streamed via the Nucleus Smart App1 on a compatible Apple®2 or Android™3 phone directly to your Nucleus 7 Sound Processor(s).
2. Clear phone calls and online meetings
At work and with current COVID-19 restrictions limiting access to her elderly parents in a nursing home, Sue has found herself making more phone calls and using online platforms such as FaceTime® and Zoom. With audio streamed directly to her Nucleus 7 Sound Processors, Sue no longer needs to keep her Cochlear™ Wireless Phone Clip handy and charged before she answers or makes a call.
“It’s just great to be able to, you know, talk [via] direct streaming to both ears, because I just get a much clearer sound,” says Sue. “It’s easier to understand people and takes some of the pressure off; it’s not so stressful.”
3. Improved hearing in noise using the ForwardFocus feature4
“ForwardFocus really does improve the quality of sound to enable conversation in a social situation where I might have struggled previously,” says Sue. “To have that extra noise reduction … you can relax a bit more and participate in that conversation without struggling quite so much.”
How does it work? Simply switch on ForwardFocus through the Nucleus Smart App to decrease noise coming from behind you and focus on the face-to-face conversation.5
After each new sound processor upgrade, Sue recommends wearing the device for “as many hours per day as you can. Learn all the features so you can use them and try them in all different situations”.
As for being one of Cochlear’s first recipients, Sue says, “I’m just really grateful to Cochlear that they do keep coming out with that new technology for the old implant. As I get older, my hearing is getting better. So, if you’re like me with the 22 channel implant and you’re thinking about upgrading to Nucleus 7, I would say go for it!”
Watch Sue’s full story below:
Are you interested in the Nucleus 7 Upgrade? Learn more here.
- The Cochlear Nucleus Smart App is available on App Store and Google Play. For compatibility information visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility
- The Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple, the Apple logo, FaceTime, Made for iPad logo, Made for iPhone logo, Made for iPod logo, iPhone, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
- Android is a trademark of Google LLC. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
- ForwardFocus can only be enabled by a hearing implant specialist. It should only be activated for users 12 years and older who are able to reliably provide feedback on sound quality and understand how to use the feature when moving to different or changing environments. It may be possible to have decreased speech understanding when using ForwardFocus in a quiet environment.
- Cochlear Limited. D1376556. Acceptance and Performance with the Nucleus 7 Cochlear Implant System with Adult Recipients. January 2020.
