I’ve watched Netflix for so long that I’ve forgotten about this annoyance. 
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I received my KS9 aids 8 weeks ago. The Automatic Program worked very well until about a week ago it occasionally failed to reduce background noise. Has anyone experienced this or similar behavior?
It’s possible pending on how the aids were set up initially they are ramping up gain automatically.
They could have started at lets say 80% prescription gain. Over time they will automatically increase gain to help the patient get gains up to 100%.
Have you tried lowering the volume a click or two to see if they act more like they did in the beginning?
This could be what is happening but am not sure.
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Raudrive is that a setting I can see in target?
It’s the “Auto acclimatization” item in the “GAIN LEVEL” drop-down menu on the “Global tuning” page.
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My wife just get a pair of KS 9.0, and has a Verizon Galaxy S8. We were able to pair via Bluetooth, and the Easy Line Remote App confirms connection, and can control the volume.
Looking at the Bluetooth settings in the phone, both R and L aids are shown as paired, but when they are tapped, it doesn’t even attempt to connect, as it does with other available Bluetooth devices.
At the KS User Portal, it shows the S8 as fully compatible with the KS 9.0 in terms of basic Bluetooth connectivity, so theoretically it should work.
Has anybody run into this oddity, and know if a fix?
Thanks.
I suspect her media settings on the phone are not set up to play media to the hearing aids. Check the sound settings. Assuming you have a search function under ‘settings,’ search for the term “Play media.” The search should return, “Play Media To.” Click on that and see if it provides an option to play media to the hearing aids (assuming they are paired.
If that option doesn’t appear, first open Bluetooth and tap the heading aids. They should then pair actively. Then go back to the “Play Media To” setting and select that option.
I hope this helps and doesn’t send you down a ‘rabbit hole.’
I’ve experienced similar behavior. I’ve noticed my KS9s aren’t the greatest when I’m in a crowded place with lots of people talking in the background. It seems the background noise is too loud and drowns out what I am trying to hear. I’m hoping it’s a setting that my specialist can adjust.
I don’t think it is the result of the automatic ramping up gain because:
a) it happened occasionally and
b) my Manual Programs (3 of them) are not affected.
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I appreciate the reply, ThomF.
The only Setting available along these lines has to do with sending the sound for a given app to a different audio device than the usual one. There is no “Play Media To” option, or anything close to that.
I also hadn’t mentioned that she occasionally listened to Podcasts from her phone through her prior KS 7.0 hearing aids (which required the intermediate device for Android), and this worked fine. We also use this with Android Auto in her car, and Playing Media works fine there as well.
It seems to be an odd Bluetooth-specific issue. It paired fine, and shows up in the Paired List when accessing Bluetooth settings. Connecting to any of the available, paired devices should be initiated by just tapping on the entry, and it works like this for the other available devices. There’s just no response at all when tapping on either of the Right or Left entries in the Paired List.
I wonder if there is some setting in the Hearing Aid programming which needs to be selected to activate basic bluetooth connnectivity. You wouldn’t think so, but since it’s not working as it should, something is off somewhere.
Any other ideas welcome.
It strikes me as odd that you see left and right entries in the Paired List. It should look similar to this screenshot. Only the right side connects.
jayste4:
That is interesting. We did the initial pairing via the Easy Line App, not with the usual Bluetooth pairing process. This paired properly, but we found it wouldn’t answer the phone, and realized it wasn’t properly paired and connected via the Bluetooth System.
I’ll unpair them, uninstall the Easy Line App, and see if I can pair them through the usual Bluetooth pairing process of the phone. I can then reinstall the App.
Thanks.
That did it - uninstalled Easy Line App, unpaired the R/L Hearing Aid Entries, turned off both hearing aids, turned them back on, Bluetooth identified a single KS9 hearing aid, connected for both Call and Audio, and she’s good to go.
Will probably just do without the Easy Line App - she can control volume with the hearing aid buttons anyway, will likely not want to split the volume controls, so it really doesn’t add much functionality.
My KS9 works fine with Call and Audio and the Easyline App.
I show 3 items in the Bluetooth
The Bluetooth connection for the phone shows R-KS9.0 Connected
The Bluetooth conn for the Easyline shows two L-KS9.0 and R-KS9.0 not connected but in the app does the pairing it works as intended.
Both work simultaneously.
Thanks wanless761.
Out of curiosity, how often do you find yourself using the EasyLine App, and for what purposes? It seems that since she can more easily adjust volume from the hearing aids, and at least at this point has only the ‘automatic’ self-switching programming, the App seems somewhat superfluous.
Thanks again.
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I always have my phone with me and find it easier to use the app rather than fumble behind my ear to access the buttons. I have hair that covers the HA. Also that scratching sound from my hair accessing the buttons. With the phone I have a visual of the volume level and how the HA respond at what volume level. I had the fitter include the Noise manual program. I have the Target software and the Noahlink which I will use to add the additional manual programs. My fitter is from the old school and refers to the HA buttons rather than using the app.
Everyone’s different, but I bet I don’t look at the Easy Line app once a week. For volume control it means pulling the phone out of a pocket, waking the phone, going to the app, waiting while the app “finds” each aid, and then finally being able to adjust volume. I think I tried once to see if there was some way to get around the time spent finding each aid and couldn’t do it.
The only negative to using the buttons for me is worrying I’ll wear them out turning volume down for tv commercials and up again when the program resumes. If it happens, hope it’s during warranty period.
I have been wearing my KS9s since early November (2019). For the most part I am pleased with the aids and have found the bluetooth streaming and telephone capabilities to be more than adequate for my needs. The one thing I AM having an issue with, is when I am scrolling through “news” things on my phone (ie, Twitter feed, news feeds etc) I get a very annoying “hissing” noise as I scroll through things like advertisements or video that I am skipping over. I have mentioned this to my Costco fitter and he tweaked my settings which didn’t help at all. I have talked to my husband about this (former engineer and audiophile) and he said that it is probably the gain is set too high. I can’t duplicate the problem at Costco due to the way the fitting booths are set up to be noise free. I did NOT have this problem with my old KS4s that I wore for 5 years. To me the hissing sound is like I am getting feedback from my phone to the HAs. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you address it and get if resolved. Right now I pretty much either have to put up with the noise (irritating) or turn the HA volume basically off in the media setting. BTW I am using a Samsung S10e if that makes any difference. Thanks
I have the KS9s as loaners while I wait for the Phonak Brio IICs.
Overall I like the sound from the KS9s. I find there is greater speech clarity than with my KS7s. It took a day or two to get settled with the new way of connecting to my iPhone (vs the “made for iPhone” method from Resound). Now I am streaming calls and podcasts like a pro. However, there seems to be more propensity for broken up connections after I have been streaming for say 15 minutes. The sound would break up for a few seconds and then reconnect. Not sure how to fix it properly (I just reboot the phone right now)
I like my KS9s except for the so-called “Easy Line Remote” which I find to be very inconvenient to use. I do a lot of things on my Moto X4 during the day but find that picking up my phone, fingerprinting in to get past the dark screen, then locating and pulling up the Remote app is a big time waster and highly inefficient. I frankly miss the little handheld volume and program switcher I had with my KS5s.
I realize that I can use the buttons on the HAs to change volume and I do that, but I also feel a need to check the Remote app when switching between listening to the TV, my laptop, Automatic and the other Programs. It is a big, slow-reacting time-waster.
In addition, I especially dislike the fact that when I am on TV Connector or Bluetooth Streaming, the HAs do not automatically seem to switch back to Automatic when someone starts speaking to me. I end up puzzled that their voice is muffled until it dawns on me to pick up my phone and go through the steps necessary to switch back to Automatic. This seems dumb - shouldn’t the program in the app be smarter enough to switch back when a voice is heard near me? It is also counter-intuitive because it is natural to automatically want to turn to face the person you sense is speaking to you, not to put my head down and start fiddling with my cell phone.
Does anyone know of a dedicated little pocket remote I could get similar in concept to the one I got with my KS5s? I do not think that my phone is the problem. Every other app I use on my phone comes up fast and reacts fast to my entries. Just not this so-called "“Easy Line Remote.”