Phonak announces ActiveVent receiver and CROS Paradise

I wondered if it was possible to achieve something similar with a step vent like an Alpine noise filter.

It’s a good idea using the RIC unit to do this, but there will be a power trade-off involved. Also say you’re chewing and creating lots of occlusion noise, how does the aid know to open the vent?

I can understand the streaming and natural sound venting argument through the aid, but what happens when you’re chewing and streaming or needing to listen to a conversation.

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I assume that they have some kind of override to keep the receivers open when you’re chewing/eating if you choose to override it.

Yeah, for streaming it’s nice to be able to stop the bass leak, but for non-music streaming, it’s not that important to stop the bass because normal voices don’t go that low anyway. For music streaming, the tiny receiver’s bass performance is not all that in the first place. It’s still better to wear a good set of headphones over your open domes HAs if you really want a really good bass response when listening to music anyway.

The real value I see is in very noisy place where you can close up the vent to keep the noise from coming in. I wonder if just stuffing a couple of soft ear plugs into your ear (assuming there’s some room left on the outside of your ear canal to keep it in place) will be just effective and much less expensive, especially if you don’t get exposed to very noisy environments that often in the first place.
For folks with custom molds with a vent, it’s also easy enough to have a couple of plastic plug to plug up their vent hole to close up the vent.

The big question about the ActiveVent receiver is whether the Phonak Paradise has the smart in there to hold a dual prescription, one for open vent and the other is close vent.

The other big question is how much of a battery drain it’ll be to wear these ActiveVent receivers if they keep switching in and out all day. Will there still be plenty of juice left on the rechargeable at the end of the day for it not to become an issue or not?

Also, occlusion is a big deal for many people. I’m not sure if being totally occluded while streaming is really worth the trade-off in the first place. I assume that there has to be some override available so the user can make the ultimate decision for each instance instead of being at the mercy of the HAs.

My Audi ordered Phonak ActiveVents for me. The titanium shells came in but the AV receivers, she was told, are on back order. They stuck in moderate receivers in the box which don’t even fit in the shells.
This begs the question; Is Phonak having technical issues with the AV’s or are they truly on back order? Has anyone received their AV’s? What kind of response do you have for their effectiveness if so?
Thanks for any information……

Are phonak’s new active vent recivevers only compatible with the latest range of phonak hearing aids or will they work across all ranges of phonak aids

@LRav won’t work for NHS Aids yet unfortunately.

They only work with RIC Aids where your Aids are BTE.

ActiveVent is only compatible with the Paradise platform currently.

Ok thank you was just curious about the compatibility of them

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Anyone using Phonak ActiveVent receivers who would like to comment on their experience? They sound like a game changer but also appear to have drawbacks. Just looking for some real world experiences.

Not my personal experience but here’s one review. I just ordered mine and I expect to get them in the end of the month.

After reading this review I’m a bit afraid of that click sound. Well if I’m not happy with Activevents I can always go back to my current settings.

I inquired about getting one and was told they are caught up in the delivery delays. Has anyone heard a price?

I had the MAV’s with the titanium slim tips for about a week. Then when inserting the HF3 wax trap is one them, the entire receiver came out. I gave them to my HIS and they are now going back to Phonak for repair or replacement.
But I will tell you three things from using them for a week (using Paradise M90’s):

  1. The sound quality was incredible.
  2. The titanium domes were the most comfortable domes I have ever had.
  3. You have to get used to the mechanical click that happens when they switch from open to close and back. It is LOUD.

I can’t wait to get them back however. I hope this info helps.

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What are the noise scenarios that cause the vents in the receiver to close? Is it noise? Also….how was listening to music?

Jordan

They are controlled through Phonak Autosense. So I haven’t worn them enough to be able to tell you the exact scenarios that Autosense is looking for to switch. It does take some getting use to in regard to the mechanical switch. It’s loud!
On music, I do wish there was more bass but that might have been from how the one side was sitting in my ear. I hope that changes when I get them back.

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Do you know if it’s possible to completely manually control the open/closed state? These seem really nice, but there are times I do want open domes when streaming pc audio or listening to a podcast, and other times I want them closed.

Have you got your Paradise cross, as I cant get one in the UK, they don’t seem to exists .

Yes, I’ve had them for about two months now, but with the standard receiver. The Activent receiver isn’t available yet. I purchased the P70 model and they work exactly as expected. Battery life is about 14-15 hours, but I stream all phone calls and I get more phone calls than the average person does. I will run an iPhone dead in 8 hours if I don’t top it off during the day.

@Alberto

Just done a Google Search and the Phonak CROS P is on the UK Phonak website.

Thanks Tex and Zeb for reply’s, I will give my audiologist a call he knows what I need as I had a trail of Signia ax7 cross which was a strange experience. The Signia had an unusual fault in that some sounds that needed supressing increased by 90db for example noise in car , electric kettle boiling vacuum cleaners and even electric toothbrush, I went to my audi with my toothbrush and we measured the increase by using real ear, he had never come across anything like it and he is very experienced and award wining . Our conclusion was that it was a program fault, so I agreed to wait for the Paradise as I did not want problems like that.

Just heard for my Audi due early December, but we know lots of shortages in supply chains might be a nice Christmas present.