My Phonak Sphere vs Virto, Paradise and Marvel

I’d thought the app was updated recently. Did you delete and reinstall?

@Bimodal_user
The dark hard one is an original Phonak and the silicone one is an original custom made Pluggerz for noise blocking which fits a lot deeper into my earcanal.
The Pluggerz do not have any venting as they are made for noise blocking but the Phonak has.
Difference in noise blocking between the two is big as the Pluggerz realy block, not only because of the venting (which you can block by a plug of chewing gum for instance.
The Pluggerz has a more or les open canal (for the filter which I took out) in which I could press my receiver in really thight.

There is of course some more occlusion. But in my Spheres the effect is less prominent then in my other HA collection. Must also say that one gets used to a bit blocking over time. This effect of imbalance between bone conduction and air conduction is not disturbing me anymore. Therefor I am happy with the results with my Spheres.

I have M receivers by the way.


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@Neville
As soon as new firmware or software comes out I mostly immediately install it. (This isn’t always wise as I learned in the past, but never mind).
Are you asking because of the BT reach of my Virto? Those CIC aids are known for much lesser BT strenght. Same problem I had with my CIC Starkey Livio Edge AI 2400. The RIC’s are much better for BT. The antenna in the bony ear will be the cause of that.

Or are you pointing to my EDITED: “SPHERES BT” connection problem. That was most probably because of faulty installation. I was confused while there are differences in the sequence of connecting the HA’s in IOS and Android and before or after connecting the apps on the phone. (As also each brand has its own way of installing and sequences of connecting BT for Widex, Amplifon, Phonak, Resound, Starkey etc.).

I thought you were having trouble connecting y the spheres to the app.

You’re totally right. Don’t know why I wrote the Roger On, but I’m meaning the Spheres. And the story as I wrote is about the connection with the Spheres! Sorry about that. I don’t hope dementia is getting me because I made a post before in which I accidentally exchanged things. I edited my post above. Please don’t beat me…

I have very similar Phonak canal cShell.
About Pluggerz - very interesting. So finally, it is possible to make something similar to cShell with the possibility to change the receiver on your own (probably only M to M not M to P, but still, this is progress).

The only drawback is the possibility of dampening sound on the short section between the Cerustop and the Pluggerz tip, but it probably is overcome by proper fitting.

I think it is probably due to a similar phenomenon as is described in the quote below. The signal from the receiver overcomes the bone-conducted sound a bit. Someone, please correct me if I am wrong. I wonder if your lower pitches gain is the same in Sphere as in your previous aids with poorer occlusion.

Glad to read it.

With a deeper earmold, there is less need for stronger amplification due to the lower remaining ear canal volume. Good, you have a wider bandwidth compared to the P receiver.

I have ear moulds that sit further then the second bend. The sound is so much better with the longer ear moulds.

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@Zebras, yes, the red silicone ones (semi shell?) with 0,8mm vents. I liked them very much. I even saved it to show it to my HCP. Consider titanium option also.

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They are carved full shell with a 0.8mm vent.

:slight_smile:

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I have never had an earmold fitted deeply.

They were painful at first but then the skin further then the second bend toughen up and it stopped being painful.

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I think in the same way about skin sensitivity :slight_smile:

What I also consider to make new mold:

  1. EasyView Otoblock

  2. titanium FitGuide?

  3. more viscosity silicone for impression

  4. silicone filling with my jaw open (my EVERY earmolds in my life was maked with closed jaw)

  5. I have almost no problem with occlusion, even when I harder pressing my tragus (light pressing produces strong occlusion, harder pressing diminishes it to zero) when I not wear the HA, so consided no vent or <1mm diameter vent.

I wanted it also because in my city there are many cars with modified, uhmm, “silencers” which produces even 120 dB… I am scared by them.

My last impression didn’t event has second bend. At that point, I knew nothing about the standards for making earmolds.

@Bimodal_user
I also tried some experimenting with earmoulds and domes. Of course you’ll have to change and experiment settings afterwards also in the software.
Nowedays I got used to daily clean my ears in showering and afterwards drying (with the small blowing balloon for cleaning my tubes). So my canals are clean and free from smear etc. In former years I had some annoying wax problems which I tried to get rid of andsolve. This seemed to be for me the best solution. (Of course don’t try this out if you have perforated eardrums or infections)
To insert my soft silicone moulds I put a little bit of vaseline on them for easy and painless insertion which also works great for me.
You’ll have to find a cooperative HCP if you want to play with the custom moulds as f.i. the https://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/en/documents/evidence/poster_otoblock_crowhen.pdf Not many of them will be cooperative in what I also see as experiments.
And not every ear anatomically will allow all the many different possibilities you can think of or which are available.

For me I get the best impressions made if I relax my jaws a bit and open and close the space between my teeth for about one or two millimeters. But that will also have to do with your personal anatomy of your bordering tempero mandibular joint and TMJ- discus movement. I’ve untill now never tried to let them make with use of 3D scanning by the way is it was not available at most of the HAP’s I contacted.

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I received Noahlink Wireless 2 two days ago and begin to make small step-by-step adjustments :slight_smile:

Fortunately, I have never had any problems with excessive wax. Of course, I wash the outer part of my ear during my daily shower.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I regret that in 2011-12, I did not make a copy of my head CT and MRI (1.5T) during CI evaluation. Probably, it is possible to make a 3D reconstruction of the whole ear canal from these scans. However, they do not take into account ear tissue dynamics and the ability to stretch, especially e.g. during jaw movement. This can probably only be assessed by the titanium FitGuide and traditional silicone impression (more silicone viscosity helps in that assessment).

I don’t know how reliable Otoscan is in taking into account soft tissue dynamics. However, I know that the device is terribly expensive (reportedly costing about the same as a car?) and therefore it doesn’t provide a quick return on that serious investment, especially in smaller practices.

I asses that just now by sticking my finger into my ear canal, just medially to tragus for sensing the caput of TMJ and found that 1-2mm between teeth didn’t make much difference in caput movement. However during making e.g “a”, “o” vowels, the movement is significant, it break the seal made by my finger.

Still content with my Spheres 90. Hearing in difficult conditions, noise around, is for me the best until now. Hearing voices as speech in populated area’s. Interesting.

And the streaming is also superb, fast and reliable. It may even be better then the reach of my Sony and Bose over the ears headphones, only the technique of noise reduction as used in headphones isn’t comparable.

I’dd maybe rather had the upcoming Virto as for sports a CIC is better to handle than a RIC. But as my Paradise 90 BTE in comparance to my Virto P90 the BT in the ear will be worse, because of the localization of the antenna.

Next to that I seem to like my soft moulds better than the hard ones you’ll get in the Virto CIC. So maybe you should have both which of course is ridiculous.

And probably the Virto Spheres will come short before the next generation as it also happened with the Virto P90. They first came short before the Lumity’s and I wasn’t happy to see them so short after my Virto’s.

Now I’m playing a bit with the receiver and moulds. So I tried to get out the SDS6. After a first try because they must be removable without a pin I had to take a rest. I didn’t got them out although pulling hard. And on the internet aside of one just has to pull them out no further information.

So I’ll post here the comparison of the 3 pins and the new 8 pins 6.0 to show the difference. Bought some new spare receivers in case these would break at the end and to get informed and have a look at how they can be installed that theight. They came in today. But I don’t see any reason at the collar why the receiver can’t come out. Their is a nice small rubber as it seems at the collar I assume for the waterproof rating.
So next todo I’ll pull harder and will see what happens.

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Where would we be without hearing aid geeks? :grin:

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@d_Wooluf haha
Someone here on the forum who can make a 3 to 8 pins transition connector so I still could use my old receivers?

So I tried removing the receivers today. Before that I inspected the two holes nearby. No pin visible but something what could be filter for the microphones.

So I tried to hold the receiver at the HA insertion with my nails to pull it out. Didn’t succeed!
Pulled harder, didn’t succeed, nail broke.

So I tried using a sharp thin knife instead of my nail and that initially did not succeed either. Wasn’t sure about cutting some thin wires in this way so stopped that.

Than I tried to pull the wire instead. My experience now don’t do that either. In my case the wire’s life ended. Something I felt broke.

So again with the knife. And this time I was lucky, could wring the receiver out.

So I wonder Phonak why was the pin version to remove the receiver not good enough. I don’t understand. But maybe the wire has to break as why else would you try to remove the receiver if it still functions?
Well in my case I wanted to try out different moulds… and I could change those things with the pin in my other Phonak HA’s ver easy all the time.

Anyhow at the cost of a few $ it seems possible to get the receivers out. The other side I could manage with the learned knife trick. Didn’t got it out by pulling either. To me it seems as if the black ring, probably for tight fitting, makes the exchange dificult. And that’s why the pins in the previous versions weren’t good enough anymore.

Maybe one of the pro’ s can give better advice how to change the receiver SDS6 in an easy way.

Picture of the inside connection on the HA and one of the thinned unlucky SDS connection.


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For Spheres users some nice YouTube vlogs with some usable practical tips by this Guy https://youtube.com/@hearingcare-channel?si=qs_ORKCw7GZ1PW6o

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