Thank you for this thread. I have had this issue for many months and wondered if other people who wear Marvel hearing aids do as well. I purchased the Marvel hearing aids M90s a few years ago. I had an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 8 for work. Both had no issue with Marvel’s bluetooth streaming. During spring 2020, I upgraded from the iPhone 6 to iPhone SE 2020. I noticed the same crackling/static other people have described. It only occurs on phone calls, voicemail messages, and I think once possibly on FaceTime. It seems to only happen when the other person is talking, and I’ve heard the other caller can hear it as well, but only when I’m talking. The crackling is not consistently bad, as some calls are nearly perfect, others have mild static, and some are so static-filled that continuing on Bluetooth is nearly impossible.
I do find that sometimes restarting my phone and/or re-pairing the devices helps for a time, but it never resolves the issue. The MyPhonak app doesn’t seem to help. I’ve tried the adaptive vs. fixed bandwith. Apple’s Bluetooth settings, such as mono audio and the hearing aid button don’t help me either.
I have worked with Apple support for months, eventually being transferred to a senior adviser who is supposedly in close communication with their engineering team to resolve the issue. No Apple software update has resolved the issue for me. I borrowed some other iPhones in my family over the summer to test out the Bluetooth, and all of the following iPhones have the same issue: iPhone XR, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max. I have not had a chance to try an iPhone 12 series phone yet.
I also had my audiologist download a Phonak firmware update in October 2020, but that did not help either. My audiologist is reaching out to Phonak for a resolution, but they claim its just the phone that is an issue. I’m not sure I agree, given that they release firmware updates after major iPhone releases.
The only workarounds I know of are to use my Phonak Roger pen as a headphone or to stream the call from my iPhone SE to the old iPhone 6, which I can do when the phones are near each other and signed into my Apple ID. When I stream to call to my old iPhone 6, I hear absolutely no static, but that only works if someone calls me, as the old iPhone 6 does not have cellular service anymore.
I also have Verizon on the personl phones but the work phone is AT&T. I wonder if there is some sort of signal issue, but I doubt it. I would be curious if other people who have had this issue have AT&T?
My guess at this point is that there is something about the newer iPhones and possibly the Marvel hearing aids as well that are not working well together with the Bluetooth. It would be nice if a combination of Apple software updates and Marvel Phonak updates could resolve the issue, but like some other people who have posted here, I am not convinced that will happen. Will keep trying.