Allan,
So far I am in the opposite camp.
Numbers of people have suggested the most important thing when selecting hearing Aids is the competence of your Audiologist, you won’t get anything worthwhile if your Audiologist isn’t up to the job.
Remembering that in Australia Oticon markets their Hearing Aids via a subsidiary, Phonak supplies Independent Audiologists. And the Oticon subsidiary has been convicted under Australian Trade Practices legislation. And my experience with Oticon is that their products do not meet written specifications (that’s consistent with the TP conviction), and you encounter a brick wall when you seek redress from Oticon’s marketing arm.
I still have to see how good Phonak’s Support is, but 1st indication is that it is better, maybe not wonderful.
I have good experience with Bluetooth streaming, but some problems with the App. A suggestion is that a more popular brand of phone than Nokia might cure that, but I am still waiting for advice from Phonak as to whether that is the problem. I an my very tech-savvy son are both welded-on Android users, but he has reluctantly suggested an iPhone might be the answer.
That is recognising a hearing aid is more expensive than a phone, so get the best hearing aid, then a phone to match.
I am an Android user and found the Phonaks excellent for Bluetooth.
I could answer phone calls with a tap on the aids, pause streaming the same way and hold hands free conversations with the phone still in my pocket.
My S10 is running Android 12.
I do think that the Phonaks should be ok with Android, maybe it is the brand of phone you have. I’m sure an upgrade to a more popular brand would do the trick. I just bought a Pixel phone for my wife and it’s very good
Ack! I’d go NUTS with that kind of unreliability! With my Phonak Marvel aids, I can literally answer a call and NO drop-off at all when I’m upstairs and the phone is downstairs - I kid you not! And I live in a concrete bunker that’s built like a commercial office structure it’s so solid. Phonak is phenomenal for Bluetooth on Android.
I guess you have to prioritize. I’m on the phone a LOT. I simply can’t have unreliable or subpar connection for critical communications.
However. Phonak Marvel in a noisy place?!?!?! Puleeeeeeze. It is so lame I can’t even tell what program I’m in. I’ve had a noisy place program all set up, and it DOES mute down a lot of sound all over - including that of anyone speaking right at my face! But again, it’s about priorities. I don’t go out to noisy places as much as I’m on the phone. If I go out at all I try to sit outside (as long as there isn’t crazy traffic noise).
It’s just a far far FAR from perfect world for anyone who wears aids and the day-to-day lives we need to live. No idea why this is in 2022. It’s like the HA makers have their own agenda. Add a generous dollop of marketing BS and they think their job is done.
Geez Zebras! I’m INTRIGUED about this! I’ve never heard of DSL v5 adult!!! If this program is available for Marvels, I should DEAF-initely look into it.
You’re right: my dear ol’ audi is 3,000 mi away, and I need to get out and find a new one, which I’ve been dragging my feet on doing. This may be the incentive I need to make the first move in that direction! What I don’t want is an audi that pushes a different brand or is not very knowledgeable with the Phonak programs, options and software.
Ever so grateful for your tip here! 
Along those lines, I switched from Samsung Galaxy to One+ 9Pro phone, and I actually do think the Bluetooth seems more robust on this phone for whatever reason.
It’s a fitting formula rather then a program.
For me, It works very well.
Depending on each one’s hearing loss, a different fitting formula might be better. Unless changed, the default fitting formula is APD.
AH! Will keep that in mind if I can find a new audi in my new location.
What is APD?
And what are other fitting formulas?
Aren’t HA’s first just matched to the complete audiogram, or just match the available channals to frequency spectrum portion of it and disregard the speech in noise part of a hearing test. Don’t most HA’s have programs the focus the mics to either the front or front and sides? How is DSL v5 adult!!! different than that?
Do the new smartphone apps for Oticon and Phonak allow the user to change this fitting formulas?
Basically, fitting formulas are different methods the hearing aids can use to process sound. There are a few that are standard across manufacturers (NAL, DSL for example), but then companies have their own proprietary fitting formulas. Each just produces sound differently. I work with kids, so they always get DSL-child. Then, when they are adults, they are used to that sound so usually prefer to keep that fitting formula, because that is what their brain is familiar with. Someone who has had normal hearing for a long time and then develops hearing loss might prefer a less aggressive proprietary formula.
APD is I believe, Auditory Processing Disorder @TambourineMan…. We are all different, I now prefer NAL-NL2 fitting formula, I find it sharper and clearer, as opposed to DSL v5 Adult, others might disagree…. Cheers Kev 
Kevin,
In this instance, APD is Adaptive Phonak (Digital). Read more here:
WH
Thank You for that correction WH…. It’s not often that I am right, but I’m wrong again 
I think it is good when we give and accept correction without drama. Get to the bottom of the truth. I try to leave my heart to the sides of the stories where we need to support each other, away from the technical details. If I am corrected, at least I know better. As a beginner, I am learning all the time. (I’m good at google, maybe?
All the best to you for your great help in general!
WH
For me WH, it is always nice to be nice, civility costs you nothing, and I always try to appreciate when I am corrected, and if we all never made any mistakes, we might have a perfect world…… Unfortunately, like us, this world is full of imperfections, we can only strive to make perfect, although I don’t believe that job has ever been done, yet? Thank you…. Cheers Kev
I’ll be JIGGERED but I just quizzed my new audi on that very topic yesterday, as I’d made a note of your suggestion here. Now maybe I didn’t say it right, but her reply was that all makers of hearing aids have their own algorithm for making the aids adjust to ambient sound and hopefully improving its quality. “DSL v5 adult” would be an example of such an algorithm, so my aids should already be doing this. Ahem.
On top of which there are the dedicated programs to FORCE one’s aid to do JUST THAT. Speech in Loud Noise is an example.
Well suffice it to say it ain’t perfect, cuz I’m still having trouble discerning what’s being said in NOISY places! I made a couple changes at my app’t tho: I added Comfort in Echo - which I think makes a BIG improvement in my being able to hear better in my super echo-y new house, and I put Speech in Loud Noise in to see if that works in a noisy place. I may have had Comfort in Noise the way that program was working for me - making everything muted down INCLUDING the person I’m talking to in a noisy place.
It’s trial and error followed by more trial and error - never ending for us folks who seek perfection with our hearing devices.
The default fitting formula for Phonak Marvel is actually APD 2.0 so no, your Aids won’t be working with the DSL v5 adult settings.
LOL! You are like a Wizard! I don’t think my new audi is as conversant as you in these algorithms. But I’m grateful to have met her and gotten Comfort in Echo set up as Pgm #1 in my Marvels! YAY!
It is indeed a good program. My Audiologist gave me one for when I was first struggling with the HAs in church. I made a custom off of it to use until I got the Roger On. Now I use an FM receiver from the sound guys and cable that into the Roger. Like being jacked into the sound board!
WH
I’m enjoying the Comfort in Echo … BUT (you knew there’d be one!) it does seem to cut off the crisper high frequencies for a person with my highly-compressed programmed aids. I guess that is the reality - tradeoff.
So while I still wake up and put the aids into Comfort in Echo at home, that doesn’t mean I’m comprehending every single word said to me. Words get clipped, and I have to fill in the blank with my own mind.
Ah well. Without this program, my kitchen alone was making me DEAFER every single day. I guess the lesson here is: if you’re in the market to buy a house, be sure the acoustics are something you can live with.
I state the obvious … which I didn’t even do myself.