Phonak Audeo M70-R static noise with Bluetooth connection to phone

Hearing Aids
#1

Hi everyone. I am 58 and have had progressively worsening hearing loss over the last 10 or more years. I am told it is congenital. I recently inherited this pair of hearing aids…my first experience. Went to the audiologist, had a test, and had the things tuned for me. Downloaded the myPhonak app to my Samsung Galaxy S8.

I have read through some threads here but am mostly lost in the techno-speak. I simply want to wear them, hear better and forget they are there. I don’t have the bandwidth to become an expert on hearing aids. I have enough on my plate.

Anyhow, one issue came up. The left unit would produce some white noise, seemingly like over amplification, and it would come and go on a disturbingly regular basis. After a week it occurred to me that it might be related to the phone. I turned the bluetooth connection to the hearing aids off and, viola, problem disappeared. Rebooted the phone but same problem, until I turned the bluetooth connection to the hearing aid off.

Despite that I don’t think it is an issue with the hearing aid itself, they are under warranty and the audiologist suggested returning it for a replacement. Fine.

Buddy of mine has Starkey and he says he had a similar issue. It was the app for the phone. Spoke to the audiologist who first sold these to the prior owner. He too said it is an issue with the phone.

Interested in other experiences and how it may have been resolved. Thanks in advance.

David

#2

I’ve experienced something similar with my Costco KS9s. I think it’s related to notifications, but am not sure. I’ve pretty much given up and really sorting it out and just use it as an opportunity to practice not letting things get to me. (Hearing aids provide plenty of opportunity!)

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#3

I think I know what you’re talking about. My Phonak Marvels sometimes make a brief squelching noise after a phone notification. I think it’s from the hearing aid’s program changing from Bluetooth back to normal listening mode, and it takes a moment for the HA feedback settings to adapt. It doesn’t bother me too much, but if it bothers you and you’re not interested in the Bluetooth functionality of your hearing aids, a simple solution is to unpair them from your phone (go into the Bluetooth settings and “forget” your hearing aids). Or alternately you could probably set your phone not to automatically connect; that’s a bit trickier but leaves you with the ability to connect whenever you want to use Bluetooth.

Otherwise, my guess is we just have to hope Phonak can fix this with a firmware update to the hearing aids somehow.

#4

@seabeast I suspect what you are describing is different, but maybe a related issue. I don’t think it is the hearing aid itself. I suspect it is how the app is programmed to work on the Galaxy S8

#5

Yup, that’s the current behaviour.

Few solutions (ask your fitter to do it)

  • put fastest switching for autosense, so it will be very short.
  • disconnect media stream from phone but keep phone stream (in phone settings) so all those silent notifications won’t go through (you can use tasker, automateit, ifttt to make it automatically)
  • in case of asymmetrical loss, it makes sense to put soft noises to quieter for the ear that hears better, eg decouple option for quiet program and put more ‘soft noise block’ on the better hearing aid, or maybe completely make it a bit quieter
#6

For me, this has nothing to do with phone as I don’t stream from the phone. Issue seems related to Chromebook. It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t bother me much–just an interesting “quirk.”

#7

Doesn’t matter which device initiate the stream/notifications. Most common culprit is the phone so that’s why I was answering in that manner :wink:

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