I’m in my first month with Trax 42 and Smart Connect. I had a somewhat better experience than CaptainTrips with the directional microphone adjustment. During my first week with them I was at a conference where folks were chatting in the line for the buffet which wrapped around behind and to the sides of me while the speaker was getting started with his presentation. Suffice it to say I could barely hear what the speaker was saying. I went into the Smart Connect app on my Android phone and used the microphone-pattern adjustment to zero in on the speaker. The improvement was dramatic. The noise from behind me virtually went away and it was like being in a relatively quiet room with the speaker. Granted this was an unusual set of circumstances, but it did provide an great first impression of the Trax 42s and Smart Connect app.
In everyday use - around the house and in the car speaking with family members - I feel like I can understand speech significantly better with the Trax 42s than my Resound Futures. What I don’t like, or haven’t adjusted to so far, is how the Smart Connect works during phone calls. I find the Futures and Phone Clip+ provide a better phone call experience for me than the Trax 42s and Smart Connect. The person on the other end of the call can understand me well with either setup, but I can hear the other person better with the Phone Clip+ than with the Smart Connect. I can’t seem to get the volume high enough with the Smart Connect. I wonder if others have experienced this issue. I make a lot of calls. I’m not in love with the around-the-neck arrangement with the Smart Connect, but could adjust to the that if the call quality were there. (I was disappointed to learn that the mini Blu and Blu RCU were not compatible with the Trax 42s, since I suspect those would have provided a phone experience closer to the Phone Clip+.)