Question is: Would any of these three models below perform just about the same considering that the speech in noise type functionalities are only effective with binaural fittings and not unilateral?
For context, I’ve got moderate to severe unilateral hearing loss due to Ménière’s disease and most important factor in HAs is to be able to understand voices better in noisy environments (e.g., restaurants, conferences).
Currently considering the Phonak Sphere Infinio with custom SlimTip earmold (and either with or without the Active Vent- can trial both) at L90 tech level even though “Speech in Loud Noise” and “SpeechSensor” are NOT compatible with unilateral fittings but the “Speech Enhancer” is (which is the difference with L70). This is my understanding based on feedback from my own audiologist and well-known audiologists YouTubers (from their comments section).
That said, the Sphere is certainly a bigger aid than the Starkey Genesis AI or Edge AI which is why I’m hesitating.
So for unilateral fittings, has anyone experienced better results in noisy environments with the “latest and greatest” tech, particularly comparing the Phonak Sphere Infinio L90, Starkey Genesis or Edge AI 24 hearing aids, or would I achieve about the same results irrespective of the brand/model? Basically is it worth paying premium for the latest and greatest tech if it’s for one HA?
Thanks all, much appreciated!
Note: Cost, ability to stream, take calls, colors, etc… are not important factors. Only ability to hear better in noisy environments and somewhat its size/comfort level are my priorities.
Sphere program doesn’t depend on a second aid. You can probably get by with 70 level if you get a manual program to go into sphere. 70 won’t go into spherical mode automatically.
The efficacy of the ‘Spheric function’ may entirely depend on Binaural use though. So, yes it’ll happily sit there ‘burning cycles’ for degrees of an effect that you can’t experience without both ears in play…
This really needs someone to go back to the Madaffari paper and look at whether the parameters of one aid vs two have altered under new processing ability in different environmental situations.
There’s also the situation of one ear normal/aided and one ear dead/aided. I don’t believe there’s a CROS option in play here.
You meant the individual auditory tract and brain processing?
For what I know, in binaural use case, HA in Spheric Speech Programme isn’t cooperating with the AI in the HA in the second ear sith the same program in the way as in traditional beamforming like in StereoZoom 1.0/2.0?
Effectively providing sound to each side of your head for your brain to do the determination/directionality stuff. They might not be actively forming an array for the Spheric function, but the effect of both aids giving their best SNR in parallel in the same phase might be critical.
This could be why they don’t work so well when combined with a ‘live’ signal. So good ear/aided ear combo: struggling. Aided ear/dead ear great as monaural on the good side provided they are sufficiently occluded in the canal.
It’s not necessarily going to be obvious how each case would find them.