Or to keep one earmold close to the bottom and the other one a little bit higher?
would love to see photos of them on ear 
if you can share at some point?
And thank you for the excellent details in your review!
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I just got my 90’s in, and about to open the box… yes!
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Of course! I was told they look relatively similar when comparing both HAs on my ears, which is good news. The velvet black is my preferred colour choice as it matches closely to my hair and blends a little better. I will have to wait until later in the fall as that colour is apparently not a popular one, and Phonak’s prioritizing the other 4 colours (e.g., silver, etc).
When the sphere’s are on my ear, they feel more ‘ergonomic’ in the sense that i can locate the buttons a little easier.
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Wow, golden cShells! Beatiful! They were galvanized due to allergy? I find this difficult to imagine, as titanium is one of the most biocompatible materials.
@wkroeger, why do you have a titanium cShells? Do they provide better retention or sound quality than e.g. acrylic?
I was in to see my audi yesterday, and she showed me the Phonak Sphere Infinio, which I laid side-by-side next to my rechargeable Lumity Life aids (well, my dear 312 Precious Pinks are in the SHOP, so I’m back to wearing the rechargeables). I was bugeyed to see the new Infinios are about 20% larger than my rechargeable Life aids, which, in turn, are about 15% larger than my little 312 Lifes!
You can kind of get a sense of the LARGER Infinio at Phonak’s site here, but seeing is believing. It’s a BIG BRUISIN’ BEAN! Honestly, I think this large of an aid has finally crossed the line for what I can comfortably wear. I already have comfort issues with the Lumity Life 312s + sunglasses + hairband + sunhat which I wore together almost every day for 2 weeks in Greece. I got an earache with so many things pressing on the bean, which then seemed to pull on the speaker in my ear, making that ear canal sore, too. The earache was so bad it throbbed all night even with my aids out. It completely resolved about a week after I stopped hanging so many things around my ears.
My audi explained that the larger chipset is what’s adding to the real estate of these Infinios, and of course that extra speech processing power is what makes the battery drain in 3 hours if set to the dedicated speech clarity program (like my "Speech in Loud Noise program on my Lumity Life aids).
Um. 3. Hours. I suppose I could wear my 312s on a long international flight, then, after disembarking, step to the side to swap in the Infinios (assuming I owned a pair) and be able to hear Customs in all the noise and fracas of a busy airport?
I’ve been pining away for 3 decades on the speech-in-loud-noise Holy Grail, but there seems to be too much of a tradeoff here for me to consider THIS particular offering. I think Phonak is on to something, and perhaps there will be incredible miniaturization gains in hearing aids like there’ve been in semiconductor chip manufacturing.
My audi said that somehow, the Phonak rep was able to rig up a “demo” for a roomful of audis, so they could “hear” the difference in the Infinio. They put headsets on, and I guess simulated the experience, so the attendees could grasp the improvement in speech clarity.
If these Infinios are as good as professed, perhaps sales of Roger mics will go DOWN. And tangentially, perhaps that’s why Phonak threw the doors open for the Roger V3 to work with as many pairs of hearing aids a person has! Too bad I missed that generation with my V2 … and got snookered into having to buy TWO (redundant) Roger V2s so I could have each one dedicated to each of my TWO (redundant) pairs of Lumity Life aids.
Still, good news for us who continue to rail about the Holy Grail! Now I’m daydreaming about how Phonak could get around the limits of low battery life with rechargeables. Is there any kind of wireless rechargeable battery pack out there?
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Roger devices have more space, and could have this AI chip and bigger batteries.
Especially Roger Table Mic
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Read that topic, things is more complicated than that “only 3h”. Perhaps it isn’t so bad. It is described in the first 8-10 posts:
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WOW that is a GREAT IDEA!!! You should contact Phonak Product Development. They could slim down the Infinio, release Roger V4 (or rename it!), improve sales of both aids and the mics.
YEAH BABY, YEAH!
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That is very interesting! Geez, I know I’m a power user (snake belly audiogram sucks it up!) but maybe it could work? I get 15 hrs daily max from my Lumity Life rechargeables, with 2 hrs of streaming at night. My audi did mention that the super speech clarity is also SUPER minimal: just the speech when its present. So it’s like there’s an algorithm to NOT have background noise diminished unless there is SPEECH. Really efficient cut to the chase and no doubt to preserve battery life.
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@AudioBlip, thanks for the pics of the titanium cShells, they are exceptionaly elegant. The one photo with viev in the case is particularly interesting as it’s the first time I’ve seen them so long and double-bended 
The right cShell is probably 1,5 cm?
I’ve only now read your edit, I hadn’t seen it before, thanks for adding it.
Quite large diameter! Given the hearing loss and the very deep earmold, both should reduce the effect of occlusion, so I am surprised.
How to recognize the vent is AOV? In Target (and probably on your cShells) you should see 6-digit code:
.
If you do not have an AOV, then the name ‘cShell’ is on the surface instead of the code.
Why you transitioned from acrylic? Due to ear irritation and shallow insertion? They are better from acrylic despite the same shape and depth insertion?
I’m sorry for asking so many questions, but before I buy Sphere, I need to get a proper mould to make the most of its features, and I spend much money to try each of them.
Currently I am after the 4 skeleton:
- zero vent
- pressure vent and too long cable
- AOV with M (D shaped inlet and outlet)
- AOV with P, but cable break
And most current canal cShell:
5. AOV with P (round inlet and outlet diameter 2,5 mm(!))
Are you using AV to indicate ActiveVent? Or something else?
WH
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I’m actually encouraging you (@Bimodal_user) and any users from this forum and in general, who are remotely interested in getting a pair of Sphere’s to get the proper molds before testing. The reason is because while the Spheres are focused on denoising capabilities, it’s very difficult to test that without getting proper sound clarity. I didn’t realize how much of the sound clarity was contributed by the titanium cshell molds, which is why I put my trial on ‘pause’.
The audiologists did leave me to enjoy the trial pair of Spheres until I get my new orders of titanium cshells (8-pin) that will be coming in this week. In the meantime, they have set up the Sphere HAs for REM, but it wasn’t enough. I’ve decided to leave them in the case for now, and wear my lumity as they sound clearer than the Spheres only because of the difference in molds.
Regarding your question @Bimodal_user, I could see on my titanium cshell there is an acoustic code imprinted on my titanium cshell, so there’s my answer 
I transitioned straight to titanium for 3x main reasons:
-
less itch = more wear time
-
WAY more comfortable = more wear time
-
more robust and durable = lasts longer
The other benefit I’m assuming is because the titanium shell is thinner than acrylic which gives the technician more freedom to fit components more freely and come up with a more custom fit for my case (deeper).
It might help to know that it took 4x-6x iterations of my titanium cshells before i got my perfect fit, and it was well worth it!
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Oh, sorry @WhiteHat, i meant to say it’s an M receiver. It’s definitely not an ActiveVent receiver.
Still getting used to the acronyms and terms on this forum
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Have you thought about trying the activevent? You can use titanium slimtips with them (not the same as cshells, but still nice) and get full isolation when in loud noise or streaming. There are some cons, but I love them.
I’ve been wondering if I’ll need new slimtips to go over the new activevents or if I can continue with my existing ones. It’s time for new ones anyway, I guess. Two and a half years. I feel a little leakage on the right.
WH
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Speaking of receivers, how do the Sphere receivers compare to the equivalent power of the previous ones, size-wise? Would they be basically interchangeable in soft silicone molds with some give to them? I’m seriously thinking about upgrading once these things start hitting ebay at reasonable prices, but I’m not eager to mess around with new molds. Though I’ve noticed the cheapest online “retail” prices now are quite a bit lower than they were for the L90s at the same point after their release, so that’s an encouraging trend. (For the consumer, at least. Probably not so great for the independent audis who are getting shafted by Phonak.)
Can’t see why not, but the receiver isn’t interchangeable between platforms, it’s supposedly a new 8 pin design.
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That’s what I suspected. I once bought espensive SmartLink+ (Dynamic FM), which did not bring me any benefits because a dozen years ago I did not know about the important role of ventilation in the transmission of noise and I didn’t informed about this.
So you apparently have AOV 
I recently discovered that applying slight pressure to the mold dramatically reduces occlusion and significantly improves sound quality, so your description seems promising.
Yesterday I looked at my last silicone impression and realized that it do not have the second bend of my ear canal. So clearly I have to get new (deeper) impression.
Why do you have such large vents, despite your quite significant hearing loss in the lower frequencies and deeply seated earmold? Doesn’t it let more noise into your eardrum?
Thank you for letting me know about this experience. It’s important to always try to improve. Why did you make so many iterations? Was the fit too shallow? Was there occlusion? Was every iteration necessarily paid for? I plan to get an acrylic version, and if it’s good, then titanium.