I’m currently trialing the Audéo Spheres and gave them what I consider to be the ultimate test, for me at least. I play fiddle and attend a couple of Irish music session in loud bars every week. The bars and music are loud (~85 dB which is probably why I need HA’s in the first place) and I was curious as to how the Spheres would handle that. I’m fairly certain that Irish music sessions were not included in the 22 million training samples.
I used the AUTOMATIC mode and periodically monitored which program was being used. I was worried that with all the loud background bar din, the HA’s would jump to speech in noise mode and stay there, but to my surprise the HA went to the music program while we were playing and shifted to speech in noise when not. Between tunes the HA’s allowed me to hear others talk despite the 80 dB din while it seemed most of the other musicians had great difficulty hearing each other.
I’ve also worn Widex Moment 400’s in a similar situation and judge that the sound of the music was superior to the Spheres, but they did little to help with understanding speech.
Tonight, I’m going to a symphony concert and am looking forward to hearing how it sounds.
@Yosh, thank you for your review. A couple of questions from a fellow music performer: Did the music sound artificial or unnatural to you while you were playing? Do you know if the Spheres went into Spheric mode while you were trying to converse with your band mates between songs? Do you know if they ever went into Spheric mode while you were playing?
@ziploc This was a particularly loud session and it was difficult to hear other musicians, even myself at times, so it’s hard to say the sound was unnatural or not. However, I’ve found when I play by myself, or in a quiet environment, the HA’s add a richness that is missing when I turn them off. I tried the Jabra from Costco and the Oticon Intents from an audiologist and found they distorted the sound of my own playing, but I think that’s something that could have been fixed with adjustments. The Widex Moments really sounded good, right out of the box, and if music were my only consideration I’d go with them, but they did little to help with speech in noise. The Phonak Spheres also sounded very good when I play fiddle myself or at sessions but without being able to swap them in and out with the Widex I can’t say one or the other is better, but the Spheres sound good to me. The ability of the Spheres to make speech clearer in loud environments is much better than any other HA I’ve tried. During the music session, they went in to music mode while we were playing and then shifted to speech in noise when we stopped between tunes. I was using the MyPhonak app to monitor what they were doing, but I could also hear the differences. I didn’t notice that it ever went into Spheric mode while we were playing, but if it did, I didn’t notice it in the way things sounded.
The only thing I don’t like about the Spheres is their size, but I don’t see that as a deal breaker.
BTW, I went to a chamber orchestra performance last night and toggled back and forth with the HA’s mute button. The music was a lot nicer with the HA’s than without.
Lastly, the Spheres are the best I’ve seen for music streaming and phone calls from my iPhone. I can see where they could become a very multifunctional device in my life.
No, it is a program, which I marked in yellow below. It uses spatial beamforming (StereoZoom 2.0), Dynamic Noise Cancellation, etc., but no AI and DEEPSONIC chip.
When “Spheric Speech in Loud Noise” kicks in, exactly that name appears in myPhonak app, and that moment is quite clearly heard as a suddenly strange, muted noise.
I thought it was spheric speech in noise, but I’m not positive about it. I won’t be in a similar situation until the end of the week and will look more carefully.
