I currently use Phonak Nadia from 2018, and loved the transition to the digitized aids. My audio results recently showed further loss, more in the profound region. My audiologist recommended Phonak Audio I-R. I don’t see a lot of forum on these particular aids. My questions:
I was told that the rechargeable batteries should last for my work and leisure activities. I work as a school psych and special educator in relatively busy noise environment. Does anyone have experience in this area?
Second question: I try to invest in optimal aids up front so that I can use it for at least 8+ years. Would it be advisable to invest in 90 aids, considering that I continue to lose hearing?
Last question: I finally got comfortable ear molds in 2018 after 6 decades. I don’t know how my last audiologist did this, and I am not happy he moved far away, but he is forever my hero for this. What molds worked best for you with this aid or other similar aids?
Thank you.
Since you wear naida now and are pushing the edge, I’d say wait a bit for the naida version of infinio we hope to come out soon. This would give you the best hope of the aids lasting a long time. I think rics will run out of steam for you in the power aspect and a disposable battery option will help with it lasting a long time. If you get rechargeable aids, you can send them in for refresh before the three year warranty expires, but then I think performance for all day in a high power situation gets risky at the 6-7 year mark. They would probably not be suitable backups after you buy new at the point.
If there’s nothing pushing for a change this moment, I’d say wait a minute.
WH
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Oh, and welcome to the forum!!
WH
Thank you, WhiteHat. I may consider pushing for Nadia if the issues do not resolve adequately. The research seems promising for the Audio versions, in terms of speech recognition.
Well, it has been just over a month that I invested in Phonak Audio Infinity 70. It has been an experience. First, the ear mold fitting did not work out well and it took a bit of adjustments to fit comfortably. This issue is resolved, thank goodness.
Secondly, I found that I was struggling to adjust to the various demands in the environment at my school and assessments. I did not find automatic feature to be as quick but perhaps I needed to be patient to have the system figure out the audio demands. I tried the programming on my cellphone but found it a cumbersome process, especially when I needed to deal with issues at the moment, particularly in crisis situations.
Finally, I visited with my audio yesterday to get the correct ear molds. My audio addressed my concerns about not adjusting to the variable demands and adjusted my aids. Things seemed much better, until I received a warning that the battery power was low on my left aid. 2 hours later, it was at 1% while my right was in the 80%. I contacted my audio who then told me to do a reset process. I did this three times and it is not functioning. I did a research and nothing really came up other than some people mentioning the possibility that one aid may be the master, and thus drain faster. I am in contact with my audiologist.
Has anyone experienced this with the barely month old aids?
These aids don’t keep track of your environments and try to learn like that. The AI learning all took place when they were training the model before the hardware and software you hold came together. The aids account for different aspects of your environment hundreds of times a second and make changes based on the learning it got before manufacture, and rules/thresholds set in your programming by your audiologist. I’ve simplified things a bit, but there isn’t a wizard in there scratching his chin wondering if “this” or “that” wouldn’t help right now, based on the last couple days etc.
One aid is master, but that’s for Bluetooth. If you’re streaming for hours and hours, I’d expect at the end of the day you’d see remaining power of 58% in one, and 54% in the other. There’s a difference in the use but it doesn’t seem to be as bad as my paradise aids have. The difference at the end of the day there might be 20% and 4% at the end of the day with a lot of BT streaming. I use Roger on mic a lot with paradise because the power load is lower and even (more based on loss differences than handling the streaming.)
WH
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Again, thank you, WhiteHat. I am definitely behind the times and will have to read more into this. Your explanation makes sense and this was verified by my audiologist yesterday. As for the rapid loss of power in the L aid, my audio deemed it defective, a very rare occurrence, and sent it back. I will wait til I have both aids before further analysis.
WhiteHat, is your Roger a separate feature from the aids?
Thanks again.
Roger is a Phonak brand of microphone/assistive listening devices. “Roger on” is the latest model.
Roger on
WH
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