My Phonak Sphere vs Virto, Paradise and Marvel

I replied in another space I guess. But thank you again for your reviews and clarification.

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You know, you and others here posting about being able to hear - pretty effortlessly! - while wearing the Phonak Sphere is REALLY fabulous.

I can’t help but think ALL of you enjoying this new ability to comprehend speech better than ever before are going to see some improvement in word comprehension if you get tested at a later date. My word comprehension score was bumped up after wearing Phonak’s Lumity Life aids for about 1.5 yrs (they replaced the Marvels).

It’s reassuring and gives credibility to the claims. Plus it’s just incredibly EMPOWERING to be able to take part in conversations without anxiety, effort or insecurity! LOVE IT.

Here’s to that BRAIN + EAR connection!

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@1Bluejay
Unfortunately I am not in the situation that I could have my word recognition tested at the moment. I would really like to see what the difference would be!
The only thing I can do now is guess, but I’m pretty sure it’s much better than it was with my Virto P90… And I hope that some of us could get their word recognition tested to prove this.

Today in the afternoon I went to a social salsa event were I normally have to turn of my P90’s as the music is too loud to survive without ear protection. Then my custom moulds do their work as protectors. Problem is that I can’t hear if people want to talk to me.
This time I went there with my Spheres to test the functionality. The music/ noise was demped pretty good by my Speres and my same custom moulds, but this time not turned off. And next to that I could still understand people talking to me and others next to me. Surprising.
Unfortunately also here I could not see in my app if the automatic program did choose for the loud noise suppression. Can’t imagine on the other hand that the Phonak didn’t choose for loud noise and the Sphere program.
After about two and about 2,5 hours for a short moment the music came true very loud, there must have been an automatic program chance. These moments were very short, one second or less. But there was no chance in the continuty of playing loud music. So I’m not sure why this was and what happend. In Target settings my Sphere function is allowed for above the 3 hours limit.
Also streamed some music from my phone today which was good.
I took with me my Roger On but didn’t got it connected. Don’t know why, as my Roger On In is connecting without any problem. But left that at home so have to repeat that experiment another time. Or maybe one of the other Sphere users does this to inform us.
Connection with my Roger On by BT fails with the not connected sign on the Roger, also here I don’t know the cause of that.

Hm. Just a thought, but could someone have sent you a text when your Spheres went LOUD at the salsa class? I ask, cuz if I’m in streaming mode with my Lumity Life aids, they will revert to the default program (i.e., take me OUT of streaming TV) if I get a phone call or text message. They immediately go back into streaming if I either do NOT answer the call or do not open my text app to see who’s BUGGIN’ me now.

As for the Roger connection issues. Another mystery! Try to re-connect by holding the Roger mic right close to your aids and then press that small “infinity” sign button on the back of the Roger mic. (It’s HARD to even see this button, cuz it is black on a black background, but you should see the number 8 on its side = infinity!)

I sometimes have to re-connect my Roger mic with my rechargeables cuz I wear ONE pair on odd days and the OTHER pair on even days. If my Roger mic isn’t streaming for me, I just hit that connect button on the mic and get the tone that confirms it has connected to my aids.

Give it a try! Report back! Enjoy SALSA!

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@1Bluejay
Thanks for your thoughts and help.

Of course that must have been the cause, what else. Didn’t came up in me at that time, as this was the first time using the Spheres. But that’s what happens if I just stream normally also.

Probably now found the cause of this error also this morning. The Roger must have been connected to another device already when I tried to connect as I also use 4 pairs of Phonak HA’s. (EDIT: @WhiteHat corrected me in a later post about this wrong assumption)

Must say that apart of the not functioning myPhonak app usually everything I did and tried is working smooth and easy with the Phonak equipment. Only the costs hurt.

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Roger mics can connect to MANY hearing aids at once. It isn’t bluetooth, no 1:1 connection.

WH

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Thanks @WhiteHat
You’re fully right WhiteHat. That’s what I thought also. And to prove it I just tested it out with more than one HA model on at the same time. (Normally I just use only one pair at once :wink: )

So I still don’t know what caused the connection problem to one of my Roger ON’s with my new Spheres at the moment. But I’m glad it works now at the end. And thank you for your appreciated thoughts and help WhiteHat.

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Confusing! In myRoger app, it seems that I’d have to select the mic I wanted to use with my aids. Due to my clusterpuck of TWO pairs of rechageables and TWO Roger ON iN V2 mics all cross-licensed and able to work in any combination, I seem to recall that if I wanted to switch the V2 I was using for TV streaming I’d have to first select that mic manually in myRoger.

If this makes your head explode, just ignore. I no longer have myRoger on my phone.

If you were at a school or business with roger mics in the classrooms/meeting rooms, you could have a mic the room and have a hundred people connect to it if they were close enough. They can network to make the crowd even bigger.

WH

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Still very content with my Spheres which are working very well. Visited another social dancing event. Music was around 85dB measured on my phone app. So the HA were in loud noise mode. And I can hear people talking, hear what they say. I feel like a spy.

Another very positive thing is the long lasting battery as I only charge the aids once in about two days.
Also very happy still with the perfect streaming. My Virto P90 are sometimes already loosing signal if I have my phone in my pocket when streaming. Never noticed this with the Spheres. I can even at home stay in contact about one room further away as I was used to.

Also used my Roger On when walking on a very loud busy street. Gave me better understanding in the small group I walked with. But actually did not check if the loud noise was activated at that moment. Still will do some more experimenting because the question is if I can do without Roger On’s now I use the Sphere. At the moment I think they are still an additional tool for me.

And I really don’t think they are very big either, but that’s personal.

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You have very interesting earmolds - sound canal quite as in the earmolds for BTE style. I think about deep earmold going past second bemd of ear canal.

I also consider without vent to make me safer considering traffic with many cars with illegally modified “silencers” (not funny) which can make even 120 dB of any kind (!). It is outraging!

@emile.heilbron, could you post photos with your deep earmolds? Do you have a P receiver? How do you deal with occlusion?

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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