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.
No I don’t think so, you have a dedicated bluetooth music program programmed in your HAs ( classic 4.2 not LE) and not the App, so if you remove the App from your phone and play music directly from your phone, what happens? Or music from other Bluetooth devices, say your laptop (turn phone off) and try, I’m curious as to what happens when you do this.
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This thread is SO helpful. I’m so disappointed with the range of the Bluetooth audio on my Phonacs. I put my phone in my pocket and the signal cuts out all the time! (My son’s AirPods are so much better, but luckily he doesn’t need hearing aids.) I also find that Bluetooth audio appears to be disrupted by rival signals when I’m out and about, unless I’m imagining it. Any thoughts?
My first ideas about the cause of BT problems, when streaming music, were wrong. At this forum I found the real solution for this issue, maybe even in this thread, but never mind. The BT streaming program for music and phone should be identical - the HA’s are not always able to see the difference and then switch from one program to the other. When I’d made the programs identical the problem did not occur any more.
I’ve never had an issue with mine but I use BTE Aids which are a lot bigger then the Audeo range. I use Phonak Sky M70 SP Aids.
I wonder if the Bluetooth antenna is a lot smaller in the Audeo range?