No not really, LE Audio is far superior.
Yes over the ear full cup work fantastic, you don’t even need to switch over to music program to get some good quality sounds.
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Yeah the here is no one really hears exact the same, everyone is different, so the programming will be done differently, the Intent are getting good reviews as others, so only you’ll know which works best for you, no one else can say for sure.
As DIY’er I can spend the time getting things sounding how I like them, cheers
I have trialed (all RIC top tech) the Phonak Lumity with classic BT and the Starkey Genesis and Oticon Intent which both have LE (low energy).
The signal quality isn’t even close from my experience. The Phonak were the only ones I could have my phone streaming from my pant pockets with no loss of signal. I could even go into the other room to get a cup of water. The LE will cut in an out with my phone in my pants as I go for a walk, and sometimes even if I’m holding directly in front of me line of sight. I have tried a few aids including loaner pair and trial pair (and the lumity I tried rechargeable and disposible battery) before purchasing.
I see Bluetooth as a nice to have and prefer quality headphones. I appreciate the MFI as my iPhone doesn’t prioritize the aid like it’s a headset meaning all apps, phone, etc don’t default always to them as it’s not always my preference.
Side note : All aids have rubbish microphones for phone calls if taking it anywhere that not quiet, even then it still feels distant to the other person.
Side note 2 : Software is an entirely different factor on how they connect with your phone as well as how they handle background noise (phonak let you dial noise cancelling up and down in addition to volume of stream whilst Starkey/Oticon only let you turn stream volume up or down)
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I have too, bar Starkey and Oticon, I’m very aware of the limitations of bluetooth streaming, as for signal quality I don’t have a problem with my Signia or ReSound, don’t have any issues with the signal dropping out by just having in my pocket’s, but yes can’t leave the room without it braking up, now what I was talking about was the quality of sound, MFi is BLE and most people will say it’s of a very good quality, and I totally agree that the microphone for “hands free” is totally inadequate in anything but a quiet room, it’s a silly idea really, I don’t have an issue using the phones microphone.
Now the software part, what I’m saying is for those of us that use the software we can adjust the bluetooth streaming to improve on the quality been streamed, again not to compare to quality headphones but without, so the microphone attenuation is important in this regard as you have noted,I’m still waiting for LE Audio to be the “game changer” here and hope it’s next release from the manufacturers platforms will be just that.
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I should have been more specific of course, this is my personal experience. I’m not a professional tester and I’m not familiar with doing my own programming (yet, I’ll save that for darker and colder days)
But i have had a lot of adjustments done during the test period for these aids and for streaming nothing really helps that much. Of course headphones and earbuds like airpods are much better, but the hearing aids are in my ears all the time, convenience.
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You both are incorrect to some degree. The Bluetooth version, be it Classic [Phonak] LE [ASHA, MFi] or LE Audio, won’t matter all that much for sound quality in the end, because the receivers are limited to 8kHZ output [16kHz combined, compare id to 48kHz of common earbuds].
What matters the most, as already stated, is the fit [should be more occluded], power, and the software setup.
Each of the protocols uses different codec for encoding the sound, and there’s the transcoding step which varies between manufactures and between the hardware from which the stream is coming.
So there’s a significant degree of variability. This might compound to add a bit of difference.
Since I’ve been working on and testing the software for streaming directly from Linux laptops - and I can manipulate how the sound is processed - I can tell you that it makes a huge difference. The hardware matters very little [since they all use the same very limited receivers].
To add to this, people with mild loses will understand the “sound quality” very differently from folks with severe and beyond.
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I agree. I should have used signal quality from my experience. But yes they are still tiny!
Good point overlooked, so Knowles needs some work to do!
We need xMEMS receivers. Knowles would have to license the tech. There are OTCs which already use them.
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So I guess the big 5 are gonna have to push for it!
Hopefully, somewhere before the heat death of the cosmos.
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That is my experience. I have Costco KS10s by Phonak. Music is decent and voices on podcasts sound natural. Connection and distance is solid with my Samsung S23. I am trialing the Jabra 20s by Resound and streaming is lousy regarding both quality and connection. My Costco audiologist has had no luck fixing them.
Sorry, I’m a bit confused by this. Assuming you are talking about the sound frequencies output by the devices, most speech occurs way lower than 8-12 kHz, and there are few musical instruments other than cymbals that sound much above 8 kHz (there will be overtones above that, but there’s basically nothing above 20 Khz and most people with normal hearing have difficulty hearing anything that high). 48 kHz is the sampling frequency of various digital audio formats, but this doesn’t mean that earbuds can reproduce 48kHz sound frequencies - I doubt that any can, and again, there’s no musical content up there for them to reproduce anyway.
Or are you saying that hearing aids process sound at a lower sampling rate than many streaming audio formats (I think it’s typically between 20kHz and 33kzh for hearing aids), and that this is compromising their ability to stream music?
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This is what I did with my Jabras and S23:
Connections:
Search for ‘Never Auto Sleeping Apps’ in settings. Add the EnhancePro app to there. This stops random hearing aid disconnects from the EnhancePro app.
Turn off LE Audio. I do not think it is ready for prine time yet. A number of fixes for LE Audio and Dual Mode are going into Android 15. So I am waiting for One UI 7 to get this update. It really has bad connectivity for me.
The default ASHA protocol works well for me. On occasion I have to turn Bluetooth off and on again and/or disconnect and reconnect in the Bluetooth HAs settings.
This takes care of any issues for me.
Streaming:
Increase Streaming Bass Boost under accessories in the fitting software. Got the music program, Increase the gain in the music program between 125hz and 750hz, get closed domes. Open domes leak most of the bass out through the holes. These combined got me what sounds like very nice streaming to me.
I later switched to the M&RIE Receivers and power domes but I think my first changes helped a lot.
I do not know what your hearing loss is. But with mine I stream a lot and really enjoy my Jabras.
I wish you the best in your quest 
.
That’s not really true, Genesis is using BTE LE but Intent is using LE Audio. The connectivity with Intent is good but it depends if your phone is LE Audio able or not otherwise it will only use BTE LE.
That’s why I prefered Intent for new aids because I don’t want to buy an aid that is “outdated”. Don’t know if Genesis will ever get LE Audio, but I think no.
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There’s more to it, you assume that the 8kHz-12kHz that receivers do they do well across the spectrum, but that’s not the case. The frequency response slowly deteriorates past 3-4kHz, then sharply falls past 7-8. There’s just no legroom.
The new generation of xmems receivers don’t have such issues, flat response across and they actually can reproduce very high frequencies.
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I have recently purchased Starkey aids. The audiologist swore blind that they would reduce peripheral noise in crowds and restaurants etc… just what I wanted but total lies. They make little if any difference. I suspect that this applies to ALL hearing aids. I understand you are not using Starkey but try and make sure you can have your new ones on trial or return. In my case I have read that Starkey are the best things since sliced bread. Just pure lies and sales blurb. I would recommend to everyone DO NOT BUY Starkey. Far too complicated and forever going wrong and freezing and needing to reboot or reinstall. Hope the ones you do get work OK.
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Need to chime in here… Have tried 4 audi’s and 5 brands (Philips, Resound and Jabra and Oticon), currently Phonak Lumity Audeo L30’s for the second time.
They all sound terrible (previously described elsewhere on this site) for both conversation (no backkground noise) and TV. The streaming however, for all brands, was/is first class with fidelity equal to my infrared headphones.
Was told that the music setting on the Phonak’s is pure and unmodified but that’s not my experience and is not even close to good fidelity.
Would love to find an amplifier that has good fidelity (read that as no need for a hearing test, just louder and clear) or an audi that is perfectly suited to advise under my circumstances.
If all these hearing aids stream well (for me anyway), why is it I can’t find one that just amplifies? Also have tried 2 different amplifiers.
I wish I had the time back that I have lost trying to make this work.
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Were they all fitted using the same rationale, and if so presumably NAL-NL2?
How would I know? When I read about NAL-NL2 the word “prescription” comes up. Kind of thought that the result of ones hearing test was the basis for a prescription, but don’t the factors that are levied by the audi based on the hearing test results become a prescription??? I guess…
So wouldn’t one need to ask each audi what rationale was utilized?
My perception of the answer to the original question is that they all must be using the same basis for creating their “prescription”, otherwise I might have found one that actually provided acceptable sound.
Have tried with some success to remove the left ear and to adjust the aids, the L30’s don’t provide for independent frequency control. The results of that are “kind of better”, for the lack of a more appropriate way of saying it. Still not good fidelity for all voices.
TIA, Nick