Does anybody know if the 9040s allow you to seamlessly (relatively) switch the Bluetooth streaming (music, FaceTime calls, etc) from between your iPhone and your iPad.
We used to have KS 7 hearing aids, and would need to disconnect Bluetooth from one device, and then join Bluetooth on the other device. Big hassle and didn’t work very reliably in any case.
Anybody know if this is easier with the 9040?
(also, for extra credit; I think this feature is not available with the Jabra Enhance Pro 20. Is that correct?)
Trying to decide which of these two HA to go with from Costco.
Thanks.
I have the 9040s from Costco and I’ve not had any luck switching between my iPhone and iPad. If anyone has the Secret I too would love to hear it.
Interesting. My wife and I just purchased the Philips 9040 for her and the Jabra EP 20 for me. The Jabra and Philips do support hands free and streaming with the iPhone (with Bluetooth 5.2 and 5.3) but that Jabra can only connect to one active device so you have to disconnect to switch to an iPad. I thought that the Philips supported switching between two active channels but I’ve read so many tech specs at this stage that, even with a good old speadsheet it can be confusing. The marketing people have a field day with their jargon.
We have not yet received our HAs but I thought I read that the Philips device could switch between two bluetooth sources. Certainly both can pair with more than one device. Both appear to support “Tap” to connect an incoming call.
Personally I like the Jabra more (we demo’d both in Costco). I also like the idea of future proofing with the Auracast and LE Audio features on the EP Pro.
I don’t have the Philips 9040, I only have Oticon aids. But it’s very likely that the 9040 would behave like Oticon aids in this regards because they use the same connectivity technology. I can never get my Oticon aids to seamlessly switch between my iPhone and iPad either. I would have to disconnect the Bluetooth connection in one for it to start working on the other if I turn the other on afterward.
But I don’t blame it on hearing aids that use the MFI protocol to connect with iOS devices. I blame this limitation on the iOS MFI protocol for not allowing this. That is why you haven’t seen it working on your KS7, the 9040 or the Jabra, or probably any hearing aids that uses MFI to connect to iOS devices. Phonak branded KS9 and KS10 use the standard legacy BT connection with iOS devices and not via MFI, so maybe they can switch more seamlessly.
For Android you can put a Bluetooth widget on the main screen of your phone and tablet. It toggles the connection for that device. So, pretty quick to disconnect one and connect the other.
Apple probably has a similar function.
I have the 9040. I have them paired to both my iPhone and iPad.
The switch between the two is designed to be automatic, and it actually works pretty well. If the HA are connected to the phone and I start streaming on the iPad the system senses this and automatically switches to the iPad source. And visa versa.
Example: If the HA last streamed a phone call on the iPhone and I pull up a Youtube video on the iPad and start it playing the HA automatically switch the streaming source to the iPad. I might have to push the Start button on the video twice to get the switch to occur, but that’s no biggie. The system works exactly like I would ideally like it to - transparent switching.
Is it perfect, 100%? No. Is it reasonably reliable? Yes. Do I occasionally have to disconnect and re-pair one of the devices because something has gone haywire? Yes but not often. All in all it’s a very useful feature, an important one for me because I do a lot of back and forth with my iPhone and iPad - important enough that it was - and would be - part of my purchase decision.
I had the KS9/Phonak and as I recall it allowed only one source to be paired. I also had the KS10 and it allowed two sources, which I appreciated. The 9040 works better for me than the KS10 because the 9040 switch is basically transparent. The sensing and switching are done by Apple in the Accessibility HA connection/control function, not the HA. The KS10 cannot not do this because Phonak uses normal BT connection. Score one for Apple. I actually use a couple of iPads and could use a third paired source. Apple, are you listening? 
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This is great information you’re sharing here, @Torbill! It’s much appreciated. It makes me wonder if Apple has finally updated their iOS software to enable this seamless switching to work reliably now, but none of us who could never get it to work for ages never bother keep trying again on newer iOS versions. For sure I will now try it with my Oticon aids on the latest iOS versions for my iPhone and iPad and report back whether I can now or not for my Oticon aids.
But I think you’re correct to say that the sensing and switching are done by the Apple iOS and has nothing to do with whether which hearing aid brand/model can do this on iOS devices. That’s why I have high hope based on your report that it can work for my Oticon aids now. Before, it would “occasionally” work for me, but never reliably. Actually it didn’t work much more often than the very few times it did work.
I currently have KS10s and am switching to the 9040s for increased speech clarity. Can you comment on the differences between the two?
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I don’t know anything about how Oticon aids are, but they have a common origin and if they support MFi I should think that they would work.
I find them to be better in nearly every respect than my KS10. The one exception is, that I bought the Roger Select device and in my experience there is nothing better than the Roger device in an outrageously loud restaurant. (Most people would tell you that the Phonak app is far superior to the Philips app. Personally, I don’t fiddle with the app much once my HA are properly dialed-in. And for what I actually do use it for - general and streaming equalizers - I prefer the Philips app.)
General hearing, I much prefer the sound of the Philips. Sound quality seems more natural. And it gives a far more open listening experience than I could get with the KS10, which I prefer. Some people who have been using HA for years may have forgotten that the world of sound is full and unattenuated by a hearing device and they have to use their minds to filter out the extraneoous, so they might not like the tradeoff that Philips has made.
The problem with noisy restaurants and KS10 is that I always forgot to bring the Roger device with me. So, I would have the native capability of the KS10. I find the native capability of the 9040 to be much better - it grabs voices better.
I don’t have a TV streamer for the 9040. I can understand the TV reasonably well with the 9040, better than with the KS10. However on programs where people have accents (if you like John le Carre books, try The Night Manager mini-series on Amazon Prime, it is really well done). For tougher situations I go over and put in the KS10s because I use the Roger Select for TV streaming. The 9040 simply is not as good as TV with a streamer. I could remedy this by buying a TV streamer for the 9040.
I might just be lucky; maybe I just have a better fitting with the 9040 than I had w/the KS10, don’t know, don’t care, I am very happy with the 9040 for whatever reason.
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Thank you for your thought out response. This is very helpful. I’m not familiar with the Roger Select device. But will look for it on Google.
Best wishes
Bob
Good luck with Roger Select, Bob. The last time I checked the sticker price was over $1500. I got mine off ebay at about $600, as I recall. I think it was new. It came from an audi store in Utah. I think there is a game going on with this device. I’m speculating, but insurance coverage is generally better for HA things in the EU. I think that Roger Select may be priced by Phonak for that market, where people pay a co-pay and nothing near the sticker price. So some people pay the co-pay, get the Roger Select, ship it to sellers in the USA at a profit, and sellers here put in on ebay, a grey market of sorts. Again, this is 100% speculation on my part and others here may have actual facts. In any event Roger Select is a great device. HA are locked out from using Roger unless you buy the Roger device with encrypted codes in it, that are transferred to the HA and unlock them. Watch closely for what you are buying if you go to ebay and make sure that what you buy comes with the unlocking software. And the instructions to how to do the unlocking transfer are far from clear as I recall, so be prepared for a bit of frustration if you proceed and do it yourself.
I saw the prices. It’s not going to happen.
I truly appreciate your post.
I have Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s. They are almost 2 years old. So I’m not due for another 3 years…
I think that the arrangement you have is better. I would like sound to be more open. I would like it to be “unattenuated”.
I want to be part of the environment; not excluded from it.
Thanks for your post!
DaveL
Well, I tried it again on my iPhone 12 Pro Max on iOS 17.3.1 (the latest for this iPhone) and my iPadOS 16.7.5 (the latest for this iPad) with my Oticon OPN 1 and it still doesn’t work seamlessly for me without having to turn off Bluetooth on the one in order for it to start playing on the other, just like before.
It’s funny, sometimes 1 aid plays on one device and the other aid plays on the other device, until I turn off the Bluetooth on 1 device, then the other device (with BT on) would now play BOTH aids on that device.
So I guess there’s something different between the 9040 MFI handling and the Oticon OPN MFI handling. I wonder if any More or Real users who can chime in and share on whether they’re able to do seamless switching between the iPhone and iPad like @Torbill can with the Philips 9040 or not?
I have iPhone 12 Pro.
Occasionally I will get streaming into one HA, but my experience is much better than yours. Today I started a stream and it would not play in my HAs. And then it did. So it’s somewhat flakey, but generally very usable.
@Volusiano Thats exactly how mine ‘work’. I have my More 1’s paired to an iPad and 2 iPhones (work and personal). If I have the Bluetooth turned on on two devices and am in range of them both, one HA will stream to/with each device. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, since it just seems like only one HA is working for streaming, but now that I have figured it out it is very consistent.
The device I most often want to stream from is my personal phone, so I now leave the bluetooth turned off on the other two devices unless I want to stream from one of them and then switch off Bluetooth on my personal phone. I know it sounds like a clunky work around, but now that I understand what is happening it works almost perfectly for me (yes it is an extra step I shouldn’t ‘have’ to do, but its not that difficult).
I also have almost no connectivity issues, so I wonder if a lot of the issues people have are caused by Bluetooth getting confused (I also almost never use the app, just the apple controls).
Exactly my sentiment here as well. At least I won’t let it affect my choice of hearing aids just because I have to take an extra step to turn off Bluetooth on one device. I don’t even interchange my use between my iPhone and iPad that much. I use my iPhone a lot more often, and my iPad now is almost always used by my kid anyway.
The key, like you said, is to know what the issue is and what the remedy step for the issue is. If I like the Philips aid better but the other aid (whatever it is) can give me seamless switching between the iPhone and iPad, but I like it less than the Philips aid, I would still rather pick the Philips aid and do one step to turn off BT when I switch between iPhone and iPad. You still get to enjoy the more favored aid all them times and are only inconvenienced for a second to turn off BT to switch each time.
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With my 9040 I can’t remember having a problem getting my iPhone to take over the connection to the HA from my iPad. I don’t know how MFI works, but it almost seems as though the iPhone has priority, even though the descriptions of MFI that I’ve come across suggest a peer network of some sort.
Hence, when my setup has problems it’s normally that the iPad can’t get control from the phone as opposed to visa versa. I’ve never figured out a consistent workaround. But if I go to on the iPad to Settings/Accessibility/Hearing Devices/Audio Handoff and toggle the Audio Handoff off, then back on, that seems to help. One time a couple of weeks ago the iPad simply would not connect and I had to unpair the iPad and HA, then re-pair. I’ve had these HA going on a year and I think maybe I’ve only had to do that one other time…?
One quirk that I’ve notice is that sometimes when I go to the Accessibility settings on the iPad it tells me that the HA are connected to the iPhone when they are actually connected to the iPad. So, is MFI perfect? LOL, nope! But it’s serviceable for me with the Philips 9040, and a lot better than my KS10s were. No idea why it would be different for the 9040 and Oticon products.
My phone and iPad are normally in different places and if I had to go off and find the phone and do a workaround on the phone when I wanted to be connected to the iPad I wouldn’t be real happy.
By any chance, are the 9040s compatible with the KS10 charger?