My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

Actually you don’t need to be connected to check, you can manually enter and get this.

2 Likes

It’s all scaremongering by a poor old cartel member, did you notice the “may be counterfeit” a totally spurious claim, but gave me a good laugh anyway.

1 Like

Re mould material. Traditionally higher losses would get softer mould material to improve the seal, but with receiver ‘sleeves’ or canal moulds the amount of flexible material in the wall thickness is somewhat limited. I quite like semi-soft Acrylic as it has a bit of ‘play’, but retains a fair amount of dimensional integrity. As it warms, there’s a bit more give too, so it becomes more comfortable to wear without affecting the receiver fitting. It’s also compatible with the U.V. setting acrylic I use to plug the back of the receiver hole to give a better looking and more hygienic canal ‘look’.

3 Likes

@jim_lewis
It makes scary for sure.
But shouldn’t a company adapt to local legislation regarding warranty? And national legislation is above the producers’

Wholesale hearing states that I will have International Phonak warranty for one year and the extra years I get from them but I have to send them the HA’s…

1 Like

Humm, but what sounds do you have turned on on your phone? Android or apple? If lock/unlock screen sound is on and keyboard clicks, is it possible that when you go to look at the app the very act of doing that is flipping the hearing aid into streaming mode because your phone is making little sounds that it is trying to stream through? Some phones manage these things better than others.

3 Likes

@Neville is right. I also found that I was often affected by the muting of environmental sounds for a sort time (maybe 10-15 sec) due to the streaming notification sound. I even have to turn off the notification vibration to improve this issue.

How to improve your experience with Bluetooth (phonak.com)

How to disable Notification Sounds and System Sounds on an Android Smartphone? (phonak.com)

1 Like

Another update…

Just got back from the Audiologist with an interesting update. I’ve been having a few weird issues with my Sphere hearing aids.

The first issue is a lack of clarity when the hearing aids are in the Calm Program within Autosense. Voices sometimes sound compressed and lack clarity. This is kinda odd given the speech enhancer is supposed to fix this. My audiologist thought it was related to too much compression so he lowered the levels slightly in Target to decrease the compression (I think I described this correctly). It helped a bit but still not as good as my Lumity hearing aids. Seemed weird to me that I was having issues hearing speech in “Calm” situations. This should be easy for any hearing aid.

The second issue I was experiencing is that I am getting distortion in some programs. I notice it the most when streaming TV shows using my TV Connector 2 but it also happens when streaming work meetings on my laptop and watching videos on my iPhone. I thought it was maybe Bluetooth interference but it turns out it wasn’t.

Turns out some of the levels in a few of the programs were very close to the headroom limit (black line in Target) of the M receivers on the Sphere’s and the sound was starting to compress and distort. My audiologist thought this was weird because I’m wearing M receivers on my Lumity’s and there is much more headroom available and Music sorta sounds better wearing Lumity.

When he compared the graphs for my fittings of Sphere and Lumity hearing aids in Target, the headroom limit of the receivers on the Sphere’s (the new Phonak 6.0 receivers) was a fair bit lower than Lumity even though they were both M receivers and supposed to have the same specs. He then replaced the M receivers on the Sphere’s with P receivers and the distortion issues went away. I also noticed improved clarity in the Calm and Music programs too. I think having more maximum headspace allowed for lower compression and higher clarity.

It looks like the specs are either different or off on the new M receivers that are now standard on the new hearing aids and the distorted sound and compression may have been the hearing aids trying to fit the sound into the lower limits of the new M receivers.

Does this make sense? I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed a similar difference between the old and new receivers. At least I now know I wasn’t imagining the distortion/compression issues. Just sharing in case anyone else has this issue or can shed some light.

Jordan

11 Likes

Since I’m new, I dunno what you mean by receivers on these things :slight_smile:

Much less changing/replacing them.

Edit, Ok, I understand what the receiver component is from searching, but they are changeable?

I use iPhone. I had already turned off all sound notifications for all APPs, as every time I received a notification, the Bluetooth turned on and it was so noisy. No more sound notifications. Have also asked Audi to reduce Bluetooth mic to lowest level-6.

Thanks for the links. I just tried restarted my iPhone, and after that the hearing aid is at Automatic after recharging. Amazing! I will monitor for a few days. Hopefully it’s now fixed.

1 Like

@JordanK, I’m not entirely sure, an expert would have to comment, but it sounds like a peak clipping phenomenon:


EDIT:

I don’t see much difference in the datasheets. Maybe the distinctions are in the slightly changed earmolds and therefore remained free ear canal?


Another issue for my new Sphere hearing aids is having feedbacks when Bluetooth streaming is on like using social media and TV connector. I had feedback test and REM when I got the new aids, not sure why there are still feedbacks? It’s worse on left ear(main for Bluetooth).

I also noticed last week that the program was at Speech In Car, but I was sitting in my quiet office not moving, no car around. There were some air vent noises. I am not sure what criteria makes the hearing aids switching to Speech In Car, basing on noise levels or motion?

For Speech in Car, I used to be able to hear the music and radio in my car better using Lumity, but with new Sphere, both music and radio are very muffled. I could hear the person next to me in the car talking. Maybe AI treated music and radio as background noise?

1 Like

You are not the only person that has had their HCP install a higher power receiver and said the sound issues where much better.

1 Like

Yes, they can be changed for the RIE (receiver in the ear) type of hearing aid for sure.

1 Like

That is exactly what my audiologist said. He checked the performance specs of the M receivers for both Lumity and Sphere and then said they are identical. Yet when you look in Target at the fitting range for both Lumity and Sphere with M receivers installed (with identical double domes), there was definitely a difference. It’s definitely the peak clipping you described which I think includes both distortion and compression.

Jordan

2 Likes

Do you eat during streaming? Maybe jaw movement causes unsealing the earmolds. Put off HAs and put in fingers in ear canal 1 cm deep. Open mouth an close.

Speech in a car is for steady-state noise. So then the air ventilator is exactly the source of that.

AI kicks in only in Spheric Speech in Noise. I don’t see your audiogram which may help. Compare medium and high pitches in Sphere vs. Lumity, probably there is a difference.

Glad to hear. I thought it would require modification in Target software.

1 Like

It would be interesting to see your fitting curves. The amount of venting (and occlusion) can make a big difference.

Here’s my prospective fit for my right ear in Target given cShells with a large 3.1 to 4.5 mm vent with M-power receivers:
image

If I switch to a completely occluded fit with cShells, I have lots of headroom.
image

Don’t know if the amount of headroom needed with a Phonak aid is much different than a ReSound aid, but given my (limited) experience with ReSound, I think I should be fine as far as any clipping goes if I go with an occluded fit as I plan to for noise reduction purposes. I’m using Phonak’s APD 3.0 fitting algorithm.

No I don’t eat while streaming. Once I push the ear mold in, feedbacks are gone, but these are similar mold as previous, not sure why has feedbacks while streaming with new aids.

I have been with same Audiologist for over 10 years and was never provided a copy of audiogram. Since I joined this forum last year, I realized that I can ask for a copy. But since I just started trying the new hearing aids, I may wait till later. I don’t want her to feel that I have intention to leave. I will ask my Audiologist to compare the settings of Lumity and Sphere in speech in Car. Thanks.

1 Like

This is exactly what I was seeing with the Sphere’s using M receivers except the red line was touching the black one from 250 to 500. With Lumity, it looked more like the second diagram. Changing over to P receivers raised that black line.

Jordan

1 Like

That’s really interesting as I have really struggled to get clarity from my Paradise or Sphere hearing aids. I am currently trialling the spheres and below is my gain curve from Target for my right ear with cshell with 1mm vent and UP receivers.

So I dont get the gain I should get above 4KHz. I have overtuned the right HA to give me some more headroom so as to get some more gain for soft sounds above 4KHz.

I don’t know if there is any other way to help here. Maybe I need to go fully occluded in that ear? I will ask the audiologist at my next appointment.

@DaveUK. If you’re using Target, you could always make the fit fully occluded and see what it does for you. It helps others understand and compare if you also mention what fitting algorithm you’re using. Your fit doesn’t seem to fall off at the high frequencies as much as the Phonak APD 3.0 algorithm I used for the graphs I posted. When I tried NAL-NL2, which I like, my fit maintained more high frequency amplification than APD 3.0.