Day 1
As I mentioned in the original post, I’ve been wearing Oticon More 1 for the past 2 years. My comments are going to be relative to my experience with them.
Charger:
I am trialing the Phonak Lumity L90 version Life. It comes with the Phonak Charger Case Go™, which charges the HA up to three times on a single charge and can also be used as a case/dehumidifier. The charger/case is more convenient than the wall charger that comes with the other Lumity versions. I have the Oticon version of this charger/case for my More. They both look and work similarly, so there are no differences here.
Battery life:
As often discussed on this forum, the battery life of the Lumity isn’t great. It depletes faster than my Mores with 2-year-old batteries. It looks like streaming from my iPhone accelerates battery depletion on the Lumity, whereas I never noticed this pattern with the More. That makes sense, as the Bluetooth implementation on them is different: 4.2 Dual-Mode/BLE on the Lumity, made for iPhone (MFi) on the More. I have also noticed that the battery in my iPhone seems to be going down faster with the Lumity connected. Will see… Numbers: after 8 hours of use, the battery on the right HA is down to 35%.
Edit: 12 hours of use and the battery is down to 10% on the right HA and 15% on the left one. I don’t want it to get below that, so that’s it for today.
Connectivity:
No issues pairing the Lumity to my iPhone. I noticed that the myPhonak app acts up similarly to the Oticon Companion app, losing the connection with the hearing aids from time to time, usually when I move away from my iPhone. However, the Lumity can pair with pretty much anything that supports Bluetooth, while the More will only pair with MFi (Apple) and ASHA (Android) enabled devices.
App:
The myPhonak app provides the user with a lot of control over the HAs and their programs. I appreciate the ability to tweak the programs on the go and save any adjustments I think worth keeping. The only aspect where the Oticon Companion app has an edge over the myPhonak app is the ability to EQ streamed music (perhaps that is also possible on the myPhonak app, but I couldn’t work that out). That aside, Phonak has developed a much better app than Oticon.
Streaming:
As mentioned in the original post, I use custom molds with my More, while I wear the Lumity with domes. Moreover, I’ve been fine-tuning the music program on my More since the very beginning. Therefore, it might not be a fair comparison: I find streamed music more enjoyable, dynamic, and fun with the dedicated music program in my More. Not that the Lumity isn’t good; it’s just that, given the opportunity to A/B test, I notice a difference between them. Since I don’t really have an absolute reference for music, without the More around, I’d probably get used to the Lumity and be pretty happy with it. Another difference: I can stream to any of the 4 programs in my More. When streaming, the Lumity switches to the “Blueetooth streaming + mic” program. I’m not sure I like that. I would prefer to have the option to stream on other programs as well to get a feel for what is good and what might be missing, etc.
Music program:
Here is the biggest bummer so far: my classical guitar sounds distinctively processed with the Lumity. The HCP crafted a dedicated music program with minimal compression and limited digital features for the Lumity. Not good, not good at all. I could not ignore the tonal gap between the Lumity and the More.
Since he was available, we tweaked and improved that music program in a following session. It’s still not good enough. With the Lumity, I’m aware that the microphone picks up the sound from the guitar, then the hearing aids process and amplify it, and then that sound is delivered to my brain. It sounds odd. My More does a better job tricking me, resulting in a more natural experience. It is like comparing the sound of a pickup/preamp (Lumity) with the unplugged sound of a fine guitar (More). The frequencies are all there, they just sound a bit different. Anyway, with my More, my guitar resonates right. As mentioned, I’ve spent countless hours tweaking the music program on my More. Maybe not a fair comparison either. I will report back if I am able to improve the music program on the Lumity.
Speech:
We decided to have the automatic programs in the Lumity set up with all the bells and whistles, leaving each feature at the levels suggested by the software. That would offer a good contrast with my More, as each would be properly programmed to showcase their strengths (speech-centered vs open). AutoSense 5.0 is smooth enough. It is not driving me crazy, as I anticipated! The human voice sounds crisper and perhaps more articulated with the Lumity. However, I still don’t have a firm opinion on this topic, as I haven’t put the Lumity to a thorough test yet. In the not-so-loud spots I’ve been to so far, I did not notice any significant improvement over my More. I will report back.
Edit: I spent one hour at the gym. Music there is very loud but I was able to communicate with people and understand the instructor. The left hearing aid would go silent from time to time and that always got me distracted. I guess a filter kicks in triggered by some random loud noise in the background. That does not happen with my More, as I have them more ‘stable’. Anyways, I did not have a “wow” moment with the Lumity there, just about the same I am used to with my More (apart from that frequent attenuation I mentioned).