My PhonaK app hits new low!

Hearing Aids
#42

Actually I don’t, but I see this every now and then both here and on other forums.

If I may, most of us were aware of your degree of loss, however I was pointing out your incorrect assumption, it’s not correct that Costco are unable to fit HAs for severe/profound losses,or for people to wait months for adjustments if they use Costco.

Again you are making an incorrect assumption, Costco has just as good or bad an audiology service as any other,they also do work with severe profound losses just like yours, as well as mild to moderate, now if your talking about CI evaluations, tinnitus treatment,ADHD etc, then yes one would need to see the correct profession, which most definitely wouldn’t be Costco.

Sure,I totally understand what your saying… but you could just as easily say that about some private clinics!
So I’m sorry that you’ve taken my reply to you in the wrong way, we’re all here to try and help, offer tips, ideas to make things better/easier to understand how some of these things work in the world of “hearing care”

1 Like
#43

In all truth @tenkan & @dieslgrl, I see both sides of any argument or contentious points about severe/profound hearing care, Boots Hearing Care, are similar to Costco, with volume sales being their forte, they want to shift as many aids as theoretically possible, in a short time frame, and profound loss, means or can mean, a lot of fitting, this in turn, eats into their profits, so I can see why diesigrl wants a more tailored hearing care service, akin to her needs, if you can afford it, then why not…. There is room for both types of service. Cheers Kev :wink:

2 Likes
#44

OK - this is an EASY one! In short: the backup aids don’t sound at all like my regular aids. They lack programs, frequencies, sound quality and streaming ability.

I’ve had to dig out an old pair of Phonak Audeo B-Direct aids to wear as a backup for the past 3 weeks. My newer, and FAR better Phonak Marvel aids are due back to me TODAY. I can hardly wait.

While both of these aids are from the same maker (Phonak), and the B-Directs are only one generation older than the Marvels, there is quite a difference in their performance, and my comfort wearing each pair - you BETCHA!

The Audeo B-Directs don’t have the same program functions as the Marvels. So the so-called Acoustic Phone on them simply does not work at all. In the Marvels, this program lets me use anyone’s phone in any country, anywhere, and have the sound transmitted to both ears better than speakerphone. It is NOT a streamed call, but actually works better than the B-Direct streaming to just ONE EAR (not stereo!). Pity it doesn’t work on the B-Directs.

Also, the frequency ranges were tuned far better on the Marvels. Either there were more frequencies to tweak, or the outcome was dramatically better than anything my audi did to the older B-Direct aids.

The richness of sound and clarity is an order of magnitude better with my Marvels. On top of which, the Marvels stream calls to BOTH EARS. That makes it super easy to understand anyone with any kind of accent and almost any kind of connection, whether in a noisy place (airport, car, restaurant, etc.,) or not.

On the plus side, both the B-Direct and Marvel aids stream in stereo when using the Phonak TV Connector. Why the B-Direct aids only stream phone calls to ONE EAR is my face-palm frustration.

Fingers crossed, I get the Marvels back TODAY. Cuz I’ve literally been putting some calls on hold waiting for them to come back.

2 Likes
#45

@1Bluejay

If your B-Direct Aids are the B90, then they’ll have the same amount of frequencies to adjust as your M90.

Even tho the B-Direct Aids are Phonak and the same as your M90, they won’t be exact in settings as they are different technology.

When I’ve wanted two sets of Phonak’s to sound the same, I actually have to manually raise or lower each amount of gain (known as the G numbers) so they are the same. It takes hours to do but is worth it.

1 Like
#46

You just nailed it, exactly and precisely! It is the different technologies employed in the older Audeo B-Direct and the newer Marvels that accounts for that VERY different audio experience that I am still living with today … even as my Marvels were supposed to be delivered here one hour ago.

You have a LOT of patience and perseverence to make those fine adjustments and get the two sets of aids sounding identical. That is exactly what I’d love to do next pair I buy: get TWO identical pairs, get them tuned IDENTICALLY in programs and gains.

It’s pretty amazing how our brains adjust to sound quality when it is so starkly different. I’m limping along hearing the world thru Audeo B-Directs when my brain is screaming: “What did you do with the Marvels?!”

Fingers crossed Fed-X will come through for me today. :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
#47

1Bluejay your post is really helpful. Thanks

DaveL
Toronto

#48

They are the same sword chip/processor, Marvel are based on B-Direct, I think the B - Belong are the different technologies, so that would make a difference. Possibly your experience could have a bit to do with how they were set up, obviously you won’t get them exactly the same, but similar in sound for sure.
The acoustic phone program is available in B-Direct, so quite possibly a programming issue there as well, but the streaming to both ears is called DuoPhone which as you say, is a much better experience on the phone from the Marvel HAs and not available on B-Direct, i also can’t understand why the B-Direct would only stream to one ear on Bluetooth calls, stupid really, but they never kept the B-Direct for long anyway, it was quickly replaced by the Marvel platform and now Paradise, it will be interesting to see what Phonak release later this year!

#49

It remains to be seen whether a new platform will be released at all this year.
The lack of chips has disrupted production, there are not enough chargers for everyone. And maybe more problems in other areas of development. I must mention that the long-awaited Phonak Brio 5 has not arrived yet, Why ??? What’s the problem ???

There is also a problem with the new bluetooth LC3 due to insufficient support. Will Phonak keep the bluetooth classic on the new model or go for the LC3 which is not yet fully supported on smartphones.

I have a hunch that it will be delayed because I can still sell the Phonak Paradise platform. Maybe Virto Paradise is just coming this year ?? because some have been waiting for it for a long time.

#50

Curious! I’d never even heard of the Phonak Belong aids … till I surfed up to the net and seen this list of aids. I wonder if outside the US the nomenclature is different for Phonak? I didn’t see Marvels or Paradise on this list either, but perhaps they’re called something else outside the US.

I USED to have Acoustic Phone on my B-Direct aids … (the program shows up as available here) but it seems that a few years ago it just stopped working. My audi was already servicing the Marvels and even told me the B-Directs were no longer under warranty. So I gave up getting the Acoustic Phone working or the rest of the frequencies tuned better.

That was a mistake! Cuz no matter how good an aid is to begin with, at some point it’s going to have to go in for service, repair or parts replacement. When that happened recently with my Marvels, it was THREE long weeks till they came back. So I felt my entire hearing experience was like greatly diminished with the B-Directs as a backup pair. One-ear phone streaming (DOH!), having to cycle through all programs to get the TV Connector to stream (groan), and the frequencies being SO tinny and shallow compared to my Marvel aids.

If I graduate from Marvels, I’d still like a size 13-battery model! I don’t want the hassles of rechargeables, which appear to be multi-factorial compared to just having a few spare batteries in my purse in case one goes dead on me. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#51

Yes, you could well be right here as it’s not just HA manufacturers having issues getting their goods out into the open market.

As for Bluetooth, I’ve been following a couple of posts on this, it’s really hard to be sure of anything at the moment, but my guess is the support is there, just not widely advertised, I mean no manufacturer is going to want to be left behind on this, obviously the phone and TV/headphone manufacturers will be in first, the rest will follow like the pied piper.

#52

The belong is more a platform of HAs, which includes the B-Direct, they still have the different models, Audéo, Bolero etc.
I don’t think they are called anything else in most parts of the world.
Yeah definitely having to wait 3 weeks is unacceptable, hard to understand how they couldn’t get things done quicker.
Yes I agree it certainly wasn’t a good experience with those B-Direct’s, at least if you look into getting the latest models, you’ll have the Marvel’s as backups.

Yes most definitely, DIY is really the way here, having done this myself, I can’t imagine any of the audiology clinics having to spend many hours on doing it, but I won’t say identical, similar is a word I’d use, as for two identical models with the same audiogram, yes no problem.

Again I agree the size 13 battery is the way to go, but the manufacturers are pushing hard on rechargeable technology, so unfortunately I see a time when disposable will be unavailable across all platforms.

#53

Rechargeable hearing aids are the most sold, due to tap-control. Available only on rechargeable hearing aids. It was written here that tap-control, that is, the motion sensor, requires stronger current, which is not possible with classic batteries.

#54

There is some Tap-control in the Naída Paradise P70/P90, including those with 675 batteries (My HA’s are the P90’s with 675s)

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Thinking about getting Phonak Paradise P90
#55

Yeah those big 675’s pack a bit juice for long term use for sure, if only they could pack these down to a size 13, that would be fantastic.

#56

l have the P70 UP aids and the 675 battery lasts 14 days. l hear mostly on streaming TV. I wished Phonak comes out with the Virto B90 Titanium like aid with the Naida Paradise PRISM platform. l have the Naida V90 SP aids that take the 13 battery and lasts a week.

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#57

Yeah that’s pretty good endurance, now all they need to work out is, how to get the same from the that size 13 you have that lasts 7 days.

That would be great also… but the manufacturers don’t “listen” to what the consumer actually wants, so for those of us who have plenty of experience with HAs are not “heard”

#58

I’m lucky if my P90-UP’s last 7 days (if you look at my audiogram, you will see why)

#59

@BrBarry Your loss is basically identical to @Terost loss.

#60

Mines about another 5db worse.

#61

Does ks10 have complete Hands free capability?