I went from the Phonak Marvel 50 to the Paradise 50, so I wasn’t expecting a huge difference. My insurance covered them with no out-of-pocket copay, so I thought I’d try them before potentially upgrading to the Paradise 70 or 90.
I haven’t seen this anywhere, but the Paradise aids are about 1/16 inch taller, and slightly thicker.
The Marvel aids crackled during many cell phone calls, and some Zoom sessions. A lot! I called Phonak Tech Support a number of times, and had the innards replaced once, but still they were never fixed. Phonak blamed Apple’s iPhone, and Apple blamed Phonak. It was never resolved. The Paradise aids don’t crackle, and the sound is very clear in all situations.
I use Bluetooth extensively for hooking up to two devices: My iPhone 12 Pro and my MacBook Air, primarily for phone calls, Zoom sessions, audiobooks, Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify. With the Marvels I had to turn off the Bluetooth on one device before I could connect to the other. The Paradise aids connect to my two devices at the same time, HOWEVER I noticed that if MacBook Air is not connected, it takes maybe 30 seconds before it makes the connection. This time lapse had me doing what I used to do with the Marvel aids (turning off Bluetooth so I could connect the Mac), until I realized it simply took a bit of time.
They charge quickly, and I have had no problem with them holding the charge for a long day with extensive streaming use.
These are my major takeaways thus far. I go into my provider in two days and I don’t think they’ll have anything to do while I’m there. Given the added expense for the Paradise 50 and 90 for me, I won’t be upgrading.
Are any of you noticing anything else about your Paradise aids?
So I bought the P90 from a vendor for about 1250€ and chose the P90 because it has a “double tap” feature with which I can turn the stream on and off. This is important to me when watching TV, because I can then mute the commercials or the TV when I want to talk to my wife. This is faster and better than via the APP.
I have the Bluetooth streaming installed as a 2nd program on the hearing aid and when I need the Bluetooth connection can activate this manually via the button on the HA. However, it can take 30 seconds until it is active.
Unfortunately, I often have short Bluetooth dropouts especially with movements. No idea what this is
One annoying point is the poor contact in the charging cradle. It is not ensured that the HAs are charged. They have also activated themselves and the next morning the battery was deeply discharged. I therefore always leave the charging tray open to check the LED.
I will be getting P90 rechargeables shortly from the VA. I selected the 312’s as it is easier to carry a couple of extra batteries fore instantaneous power rather than a bulky charger or having to wait for it to charge. I don’t think I wanted the tap feature as I wear glasses and was concerned with unintended activation/deactivation. I believe in addition to the app I can use the toggle on the HA. Is that not correct? I will miss the motion sensing which enhances the ultra zoom feature as the 312 don’t have that, But zoom is also controlled by environment sensing as well as motion. But again if that is not adequate I believe I can control that with the app. I will almost always have my phone with me.
I first had the P312 but there is no way to mute the TV.
Unfortunately, the APP (Android) is quite poor and it takes forever to connect.
I have therefore switched to the P90-R version because only this offers the double tap function.
Except for the poor charging cradle, I am quite satisfied.
The automatic program works so well for me that I don’t have to adjust anything manually.
Only now and then the volume or the mute function
You can disable the double-tap feature and choose what sensitivity you want. I don’t find that my glasses activate the double-tap, but I do sometimes increase the volume accidentally when I “reseat” my glasses.
The volume change has nothing to do with the tap feature, of course, but I sometimes hit the button by accident.
The 312 P90’s do not have the tap system at all, nor motion sensing, but this was a trade off I was willing to make to get non-rechargeables. But I am sort of happy to hear the tap feature can cause the suspected problems I thought they would. Due to progressing cataracts I have to take my glasses off fairly frequently and I use cable temples. And due to 6 co-morbitities I still voluntarily wear my N95 (the only mask that works)_ So BTE’s are always a problem. So another trade off. I do not think the Starky ITE’s are as good as the P90’s, So another trade off (thank goodness for the 3 year loss warranty). Besides the Starky’s are rechargeables too which I do not want.
I’m curious about your preferred avoidance of rechargeables. As I mentioned in #4 in the original post here, I have no problem getting a very full day out of mine. When I had replaceable batteries I never knew when they’d go dead, and often I’d be in the middle of somewhere where I couldn’t easily change them. Anyway, it sounds like we’re all getting what we want, which is a good thing!
One is none, 2 is 1. Rechargeables would mean I needed to get a 2nd charger (or more) @ $150 a pop. having to charge my Galaxy Watch 3 is PITA enough… Many time I forget to put it back on my wrist after charging and believe it or not I would do that with my HA’s. I routinely leave them on the bathroom window sill after taking a shower. I have 3 chargers for the watch but they are small I can carry one in my pocket. Worse comes to worse it can be charged by my phone (which has an extended battery. The P90 chargers are too bulky (probably needlessly so). If less bulky I would have gone with them despite the cost of additional chargers.
If you are “somewhere” where it would be inconvenient to swap out the batteries, how inconvenient is that going to be to wait a few hours while the HA’s charge up?
I did consider that I could keep my old HA’s with me as a spare to tide me over until the P90’s recharged.
I am not getting what I want, but what I want is not available yet. Maybe someday, new ears?
Not much to offer here except with the rechargeable you can see the battery level in the app or on the HA itself (at startup). If you know you are getting low you’ll know to throw them quickly on charge.
You can turn the feature off where they turn on automatically when they lose power in the charger. I did that. You have to hold the button manually to turn them on. No big deal to me. But if they charge up in the night and then lose power they haven’t been on for 6 hours in the case.
Maybe I’m underestimating my streaming usage, but in the three years I used my M50s, I never ran out of juice, and never carried the charger with me, except if I was traveling and used it for overnight charging. I’m hoping the slightly larger P50s will do as well. So far so good. I’ve given in to routines that work for me, so I keep my charger next to my morning and evening meds, and remember them that way. A couple of times I left the house without them I noticed the lack of sound right away and went back to get them. Unlike my cell phone.
I recently get P90s 312 over P90R.
My reason for that is - i dont trust rechargeable battery.
They are purposely made to be non user replaceable. Like in phones. And like in phones their capacity will gradualy become lower. So, sooner or later they will fail, or will have to charge mid day and i am sure sending it to phonak to replace battery wont come cheap. Maybe even same as cost of replaceable batteries over that time. But downtime is what really worrying me.
Right, if i have money to buy new set around 5 year mark, and have audi in town, sure, i would consider it (if i dont find them too big, because 312 size are just right). But audi in our country charge 85% more than i got mine pair.
I admit, i would like double tap feature, but it not crucial.
My last phonaks Spice IX last 10 years… Had only to replace receivers because wires fail now and than.
Re: 312’s v. rechargeables. MY P90’s may come today per UPS. I will be curious to learn how long the 312’s last. and interested in hearing more about how long the rechargables really last in actual use. I get my batteries for free from the VA and I would expect even the rechargable battery would be replaced before the recharable battery’s health dropped significantly (as do all lithium batteries). I hate phones with non-replaceable batteries but good such ones are no longer made, but at least I can still add extended batteries. The last set of HA batteries I got from the VA were RayOVacs. Getting the sticker off the back of those to activate the battery is a PITA. The PowerOnes I used to receive were much easier but the RayOVacs may be better suited to carry as spares as it will be much more difficult for the sticker to come off accidentally and activate the battery;.
My (new) P90-Rs last as long as I need 99% of the time since we reconfigured in December. When I was first fit in September, the BT master was on the Rt, my bad ear’s side. So it was using juice for BT and also for more amplification. In December we switched it when we did the firmware upgrade and since then I haven’t had problems. Before, I was hearing the warning tones the last hour or two of the day and it quit in the rt ear about once a month before I was done. Now I have only had the tones twice since the change, and it quit one of those times just as I was about to take them out.
The VA will certainly make it right for you if you run into trouble later. Almost anything I’ve asked for has been granted. She told me that the plan was to send them in for new batteries just before the warranty expired, and then they would be good backups for me after I get new HAs.
