I have had a set of Phonak Audeo P90-312 for a bit over a month and I’m having a couple issues I’m wanting to understand. I have the hearing aid connected to both my HP laptop and my Andriod phone by bluetooth. 1) While watching a video if I get a text or email on my phone the video starts and stops on its own every couple seconds for about a minute then runs normal again. It will not start or stop on command. 2) Occasionally when making a phone call the sound is so garbled I have to shut the hearing aids off to talk.
I have a similar thing happen with my KS10 aids. When I am steaming from Youtube from my laptop, occasionally the video will start and stop continuously. I have to reload the video.
So now we know this is common to the Phonak P90 series, at least for some setups. You may want to change the title. Anybody else?
Thanks Herbornist, at least I know I’m not the only one.
Im told phonak has classic bt vs asha which is in newer android phones
Thank you diannajm that explains it. A bit disappointing considering the cost of the P90 but I can hear better so I guess I learn to live with it.
Yes, Phonak uses classic Bluetooth, and that increases battery drain. On the other hand, classic Bluetooth gives you greater connectivity. For example, I can stream directly from my laptop to my KS10’s. With ASHA the signal has to go through the phone, and that introduces a noticeable and bothersome delay. I haven’t used them, but Phonak has a great suite of devices to assist one in difficult situations. @stevelandsales’s aids have replaceable batteries. I would have gone for them if the KS10 had that option. Rechargeable isn’t there yet, at least for Phonak, but that’s another story.
Very helpful and I’m learning.
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I think in order to bt 2 aids, need phone with asha. The phone combines the two like stereo.
Plus the futureistic capabilities i wouldnt invest unless it can be updated in the near future
Thanks for the input.
In experimental fact, not theory, Phonak aids, at least the Costco KS 10, give you full stereo both from an Android phone and directly from a Windows 10 laptop. No ASHA.
“It’s white on this side.” - Robert Heinlein
I want asha…im not going to invest yet.
You grok?
That’s fine; it’s your choice. I’m interested to see what they come up with to address ASHA’s limitations.
So do you think asha is not an upgrade to classic bt? I am admittedly confused
Maybe read this article. Bluetooth causing you the blues? | Audiology Blog. Streaming music from my phone is like sitting in a concert hall. That said, the BT is not reliable, however, it is the Low Energy BT that disconnects the app from the phone, I am sure. The music plays on, but the quality of the sound deteriorates. That is because the music is, when the app is disconnected, ‘beamed’ to the HA’s ‘as is’, not using the special program for streaming music. I use Phonak Target to program my aids correctly. In this case the program that I made is perfect. But the LE BT??
Possibly a better smartphone? Mine has BT 5, but it is budget (Motorola g8 plus).
Thanks hans b, the article is very informative and eye opening.
I am now quite sure what is causing the dropouts. This afternoon, I lost contact with my HA’s. I sat at the pc desk, and tried to reconnect the HA’s to the Phonak app, but that didn’t work, and I tried several times. However, the ‘strong’ BT for connecting the stream of music did connect, but not the LE (Low Energy) BT. Because I had read about ‘interference’, I went to the sitting room and tried once more - the connection was made immediately and everything worked as it should.
Later today I had to wait for some time in my car, I listened to music for about 20 minutes, and everything was okay, without any dropout. And, I want to stress this, the sound was overwhelmingly good. So it seems clear that the environment is very important when you want the LE BT to stay connected. At Google Play many complain that they cannot connect the app (the new Phonak app that is) but in my view the new and the old app have to be in surroundings as free from interference as possible to stay connected.
I am not sure if the smartphone can cause havoc or blessing to this process by having more, or less, influence on the interference from other sources.
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Wow I’m confused, when you first mentioned the dropouts it was the music, which is bluetooth classic, now your saying the dropouts you were concerned about is to the App which is bluetooth LE, which of course has a much shorter range then classic, so you don’t need the app to stream music directly to your HAs? So just having dropouts connecting to the app how does that have “interference” to music streaming?
What is the matter here is that the High Energy BT streams the music, but the underlying program for the music frequency curve comes from the app’s LE BT. So when the LE BT drops out, the music keeps playing, but it sounds awful because it is not ‘programmed’ any more. So it is, I think, straight from the phone to the HA’s. The music is there, but no correction curve from the HA.
I wanted HA’s with batteries too, but I had to accept that the Audeo’s were only rechargeable. I am glad I had no choice, no problem here. The only time that I didn’t know what happened was when one of the HA’s seemed lifeless. I put it in the charger, nothing. I left it in the charger for hours and they were resurrected. I knew that putting the aids in the charger you should check, but in this case I forgot, I think.