First time using hearing aids… I’ve had these for about a month and while I think the aids themselves are pretty good, I’m running into some alarming issues.
For one thing, these are surprisingly hard to insert & remove. I have an experienced hearing center helping me, but I just can’t get the hang of it. It takes a lot of force to get them in, and removing them is even more difficult, as the “posts” are very hard to grasp and just don’t seem long enough to easily pull them out. Also, the domes I’m using are little round rubber things and they are uncomfortable. It takes me about 10 minutes of painful wrangling daily to get these things in or out
The other issue I’m having is that YouTube & Spotify streaming is horribly loud even with the phone’s media volume almost all the way down. On the other hand, Bluetooth phone call volume is very low and sounds awful (thin & distorted). The hearing center guy couldn’t really help with this, as he is only familiar with iPhones and doesn’t know how to adjust settings on my Pixel 7A.
The app is OK but not particularly reliable, so I have to restart the phone occasionally. Is anyone else using these with an Android phone? I would appreciate any tips!
My new devices also have the soft, rubber domes. The first ones were difficult to insert and got seemingly stuck, as you mentioned about yours. The audiologist installed a smaller size and that made a tremendous difference. They go in and out easily and I can set the comfortable depth in the ear easily. The smaller ones are quite comfortable and ambient sounds pass through easier. (Mine are RIC with a wire leading to the speaker. I don’t know if that is the same as you have.)
I also have an Android phone and, as you mentioned, the app is quite problematic.When the app loses connection to the phone (many times per day) I would have to (as you did) restart the phone just to have the app work again. The app simply does not try to re-connect & there’s no way to tell it to do so. The audiologist mentioned that Android and the app are not friends.
A quicker work-around than restarting the phone I found was to go to Settings - Apps and select the hearing aid app. I click “Force Stop” and then close Settings. Upon restarting the hearing app, the devices would re-connect.
I hope this provides an easy solution for when yours lose connection. (Side Note: The many reviews on Play Store indicate that people have had this problem for years with the Android app.)
My phone simply won’t stream sounds, music or calls to the hearing devices, so I can’t offer suggestions for the streaming volume problem you’re having.
Conversely, my MacBook Air does stream perfectly to the hearing aids. Volume can be set either by using the buttons on the hearing aids or the Mac’s Volume keys. If the app has Volume, such as many YouTube, volume can be controlled from there, too.
I hope things work out with the problems you’re experiencing. Having peaceful hearing devices is a great addition to the day!
Paul
I wear Starkey Edge AI
I have a Pixel 6a with ASHA.
I have no problems with Bluetooth.
Streaming or phone calls.
One aid will not reconnect now and again if I step away.
Example go into the backyard leaving the phone in my house.
I simply turn Bluetooth off and beck on again on my phone.
They reconnect.
Just spent 20 minutes in the backyard. Phone in the front room.
Came into the house. Aids connected to the phone without any intervention from me.
From your post, freezerman404 (and from what I’ve read elsewhere), it seems that ASHA is the key to happiness with bluetooth connectivity. I’m glad it is woking well for you!
Paul
My phone (Android Samsung A54 5G) does LE Bluetooth. The streaming is wondeful…the phone calls CAN be too quiet but only some do that. Im really not sure why but I put them on speaker when that happens. When the app looses connection; just toggle the bluetooth on the phone. The aids reconnect and the app is happy again, its quick. You can change the media output to phone as well when the calls are too quiet but that is an extra step. Ive told the other party I couldnt hear them well, let me try to fix that…sorry I cant be clearer about this as I dont know your phone workings, but you do.
Unfortunately I have bigger problems today, as I’m out of town on a train & one of these hearing aids is completely dead. The app shows that it’s charged & connected but there’s no audio. Restarting the phone does nothing and I don’t have the charger with me so I can’t reset the aid .
The “no sound” problem turned out to be a wax guard. Once I changed that, it was back to working normally . Odd that this isn’t mentioned anywhere in the printed manuals Signia provides with the aids.
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