When my Q90’s are in the default Soundflow mode, I never seem to notice them changing from one Soundflow program to another. I have all the necessary hardware and software for self-programming. When I checked the Program Manager in the Target Software for the SoundFlow program I see that my audi has the general Soundflow program placed in the A position (I assume meaning automatic). But none of the SoundFlow sub-programs have position numbers assigned to them. Instead they have a dash beside them. Do each of the Soundflow sub-programs have to be checked in order for them to be available for SoundFlow to switch to them? Or if the general Soundflow program is set to “A” instead of a dash, does Soundflow automatically include all the sub-programs?
But if checking “A” in the general SoundFlow program automatically includes all the sub-programs, why does Target even provide an option to assign a program sequence number to each sub-program?
Also, I notice that, in the “Program Options” tab, my audi has no “Program Priorities” set, and the “Sensitivity (transition)” slider is set to 2 (moderate). Does any of this information suggest to anyone why I haven’t sensed SoundFlow transitioning among programs? Thanks.
where, and how, are you bringing up these programs. ive read that they change programs automatically depending on the surroundings. i have a com pilot that i can use yo change settings.
Hi,
from what you describe I guess that you have a different software version than my acoustician. I saw how my V90 was set up the day before yesterday, that´s what I can tell you:
- the automatic program only uses those subprograms that you have chosen. In the software I saw this was done by highlighting them. If there is only one program highlighted, the automatic mode won´t change programs
- apart from the automatic program you can add more “fixed” programs. For those an ordering makes sense, as you can iterate through those programs via program change
I can´t tell you more closely, but yes: You have to activate those programs that should be included in the automatic program (or sound flow, as you call it).
Good luck!
— Updated —
Hi,
from what you describe I guess that you have a different software version than my acoustician. I saw how my V90 was set up the day before yesterday, that´s what I can tell you:
- the automatic program only uses those subprograms that you have chosen. In the software I saw this was done by highlighting them. If there is only one program highlighted, the automatic mode won´t change programs
- apart from the automatic program you can add more “fixed” programs. For those an ordering makes sense, as you can iterate through those programs via program change
I can´t tell you more closely, but yes: You have to activate those programs that should be included in the automatic program (or sound flow, as you call it).
Good luck!
Hello Hot Rod and Musician. Thanks for your responses. I have been tweaking my Q90’s with my Phonak Target 3.3 software since my original posting. I have changed the sensitivity setting in the Soundflow program with the intent that Soundflow goes into the “Speech in Loud Noise” program at a lower level of noise. I remember that when I first got my Q90’s they seemed to change programs too often when in SoundFlow. It was jarring. I told my audi about the problem and she made some adjustment at the time that seemed to prevent SoundFlow from reacting to different environments too readily. I don’t know exactly what adjustment(s) she made at the time. I think the adjustments that I have recently made have made it so that SoundFlow changes programs more easily than before, but not as easily as when I first got the Q90’s.
Now that I am self-programming I can speak about actual adjustments in the Target 3.3 software. But I feel like a sorcerer’s apprentice!
I think any user who is really interested in optimizing his/her HA experience would benefit from at least obtaining a copy of the programming software for his/her HA and becoming familiar with what the audi is seeing on the computer screen while doing programming. If you’re spending thousands of dollars on HA’s it seems like spending $50-100 and a few hours is a relatively small investment of money and time. If you look on eBay you can often find the programming software.
Of course all of this is just my non-expert opinion.
hotrod, if your question was not answered by Musician_72’s post, then please post again and I will try to give you more specific info.
Musician_72, if you are a performing musician you are probably at the start of a long odyssey to try to get your HA’s optimized for both speech comprehension AND natural-sounding music hearing. Good luck and let me know if I can help.
Hi ziploc,
you´re absolutely right! I´m not a (regular) performer, “only” a music teacher, but on the other hand this makes speech comprehension together with natural-sounding music even more important (the performer in a string quartet could make without understanding speech while he is playing as long as he understands it afterwards). On the positive side, my loss isn´t that bad (roughly as yours, bit better at 2000 / 3000 Hz, bit worse at 6000 and onwards), on the negative I have a case of recruitment to deal with.
At the moment, mpo is set to 85 dB on the phonaks, and this doesn´t sound good, as the HA suddenly seem to turn off when things get lout. For instance, if I play the piano a bit louder, it gets dampened (whereas in reality the tone becomes more bright when playing loud). The compression should kick in more gradually and softly, I hope, this can be done. There are just too many options when setting up a high-tech aid like this (as you said).
Good look,
musician
Hi, Musician,
The first thing I would recommend to you is to ask your audi to set up a custom program for music where “WhistleBlock” is totally turned off or at least set to a low level. WhistleBlock is Phonak’s name for their anti-feedback feature. WhistleBlock produced a “trill”-like effect when I sang and it made me sing out of tune. IMO music sounds much more natural without WhistleBlock. However, with WhistleBlock defeated or minimized, your HA’s are much more susceptible to embarrassing feedback. If you have the same issue I did, that’s where to start. Maybe the V90’s are so improved from the Q90’s that you could get away with just having a music program added to Soundflow. But in my experience, my Q90’s were not nearly good enough at distinguishing music from other sources of sound/noise.
You might benefit from searching this forum for all my posts and also the posts of member azureblue. He was very helpful to me in providing ideas to share with my audi. Good luck.
I use Q90’s as well. For the longest time I was not all that happy with how music sounded, but when I recently got some adjustments made, i must say their performance in music improved quite a bit. I basically got rid of the distortion and whistling produced by high notes. Here is what I learned
There is a music “program” that is part of soundflow, but as you know soundflow is an automatic program, which means that it - and not you - decides if you are listening to music. And if something changes in the surrounding noicescape it may snap out of the program altogether. BUT to my surprise - and I think this is new (at least at my audiologist) - it is now possible to also choose “music” as a manual program that stays put until you change out of it. The settings in both music programs will be the same, but you can adjust it to have little or no whistleblock and a number of other things that help when listening to music.
Hi,
yes, I have a dedicated music program in addition to the soundflow program. Sounds quite good so far, I´ll have some adjustments done today and I´ll get a remote control, too. I´ll keep you posted.
There is no whistle block on the music program, as far as I know there is none on the soundflow program, too. I had that issue with the siemens I tested before, the feedback killer gave strange warbling artifacts to many noises, especially music, of course. Luckily, as I don´t have feedback-problems, I need no feedback-killer.
Regards,
Musician
Hi, Musician,
I saw in the Siemens section that you trialed the new Siemens HA’s before deciding to get the Phonak Audeo V90’s and that you were also intending to try the Widex Dreams. I guess you finally decided on the Phonaks, but I would be interested to hear what you thought of the other HA’s you tried. I can get new HA’s next year per my insurance and I was thinking of switching to Siemens since there seem to be many good reviews on the new Siemens.
What were your impressions? My current thinking is that being able to hear conversations in a crowded room is, by far, my top priority. I’ll gladly sacrifice optimal music quality to improve my speech recognition in noisy bar/restaurant settings. Did you find the Siemens or the Phonaks or the Widex superior for speech comprehension in loud environments?
Has anyone else tried more than one brand recently? I’d be very interested in anyone else’s impressions, too. Thank you.
Hi ziploc,
I´ve not yet decided on the Phonak´s, I´m still testing.
In my opinion, the Siemens are really that good in crowded rooms. I was in a restaurant and had less problems in understanding other people than my wife, and she has excellent hearing.
The only real drawback for me with Siemens was distortion with live (!) Music. I didn´t have problems with them when listening to the stereo. Sound´s excellent here, too.
Minor drawback: The feedback killer produces artifacts, but you can turn it off, Siemens doesn´t give much feedback anyway (at least if you´re using behind the ears with receiver in channel).
Even more minor drawback: The siemens produces some artifacts, some “phasing”, even with feedback killer turned off. Especially for your own voice. But this is a mild drawback, quite tolerable.
The widex was a disappointment for me. I didn´t like the sound at all. Maybe it was setup wrong (the auto fit by widex was used as a base, some adjustments were made). As I didn´t like the overall sound, I cannot judge on other aspects, it was stressing for me all the time.
The V90 gives no artifacts, no distortion (maybe a bit when playing piano, but difficult to hear anyway), the overall sound is very much like the Siemen´s , the understanding in noisy environments is very good, but not as excellent as with the siemens (though I would have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure about that).
So if you say that understanding in noisy environment is your top priority, you will certainly have to give the siemens a try! Good luck! But also try the other brands. You have a bit of a dent in your curve, whereas my curve goes steadily downwards, so the extra mids the widex gives might be a killer feature for you, where it was annoying for me!
Best regards,
Musician_72
Thanks for the input, Musician. A question though: With the Siemens, can you describe the distortion you heard with live music? Was it that overdrive, overloading, electronic clipping kind of distortion? Or was it distortion in the sense of the musical notes being played not being reproduced accurately by the HA’s? Thanks.
it was the electronic clipping kind of distortion, which came especially with high female voices, but on other occasions (piano, for instance), too. Very annoying.
Thanks for your very helpful posts!