I think itās a question on what you expect and what you consider a big difference. As I said in another thread I am able to actually talk to someone with the Spheres in a situation I could not do with the Lumitys. That doesnāt mean that noise is gone, it is not. But being able to have a conversation is a ābig differenceā for me. Another personal experience. This morning I am in the hospital for a minor procedure. With the hospital noise I could not understand the male admitting nurse. I manually engaged the Spheric program and was easily able to understand him. I use cShells.
7 Likes
Yes but again, you can for sure compare Lumity with Sphere and say that this is good for you, but what if you compare Lumity with Infinio, or Infinio with Sphere?
I bet you will also say the Infinio is much better than Lumity, but is Sphere really that much better than Infinio?
I am glad for everyone that could improve listening with Sphere but if this is really the Spheric or just the improvement from Lumity to the Infinio.
To be honest you have to be in a really noisy situation. If you look at a lot of the anecdotal reports of the Sphere, quite a few people have said that it only automatically goes into āsphericā mode on a few occasions i.e. speech in loud noise triggered when it reaches 70 dB or whatever the noise floor is. This means that all the other modes are in play and are going to be the same as the infinio and only incrementally better than the Lumity.
However the crucial thing is that the āsphericā mode, from all the anecdotal reports I have seen, apart from yours (why is that?) are saying that it gives benefit like no other hearing aid before it and most if not all (apart from you - why is that?) have been blown away.
4 Likes
That is the reason you have the audiologist set up a separate Sphere program so you can engage it manually when Autosense doesnāt
.
6 Likes
Also, besides having a manual program, you can have your HCP set a lower noise floor for Spheric noise reduction kicking in. See this post: Phonak Sphere l90 versus l70 - #44 by jim_lewis. You can have increased or decreased directionality and increased or decreased strength of noise reduction (first image in link) as well as vary the noise threshold (2nd image).
Since I have not received my Spheres yet, I donāt know how the strength of noise reduction affects speech intelligibility. With more classic noise reduction algorithms, increasing the strength of noise reduction eliminates more noise from the speech you want to hear but also bites off increasing amounts of speech sounds needed for intelligibility. So, there is a Goldilocks zone, and there may be too for Spheric speech in noise processing.
5 Likes
Maybe because I have no comparison to old hearing aids, but rather compare the Sphere with other top devices.
Iām sure if I switched from my old devices to Sphere I would probably be very happy, but I know that the Spheric is not a game changer for me, maybe in 7 years when I buy new hearing aids, but now itās just a gimmick that is of little use to me because 1. itās not really better than the normal one in the noise program and 2. it irritates me like the Resound Nexia when it suddenly highlights some speech from somewhere and 3. it can only be used for 7 hours (itās useless at a wedding, party, disco, etc.)
Starkey has the Edge+, it works like the Spheric but there no one was talking about a gamechanger.
If I wanted to be mean, I would say itās a placebo effect.
Or you could just say āsubjective assessmentā. It didnāt do much for you but worked for others. The story of hearing aids since the dawn of time.
6 Likes
Yes, sure, everyone hear different, comes from another devices, or is new on hearing aids. Thatās why testing is so important.
I just wanted to give contra, because you only read how good they are, and that they works, but no not for everyone and I start reading from different people that they also donāt hear a big difference.
Maybe you could just return the Spheres and more productively spend your time with HAs that you find work better for you. It does kinda seem like youāre on a mission to diss the Spheres as much as possible. Most of us donāt imagine weāll encounter your experience if we try the Spheres ourselves based on Phonakās reputation and what many professionals and other long-time forum members have said about the Spheres when theyāve tried them. Sometimes, people fall so in love with a particular brand of hearing aid like the Intents, that they feel the need to knock other brands encroaching on their favorite brandās market share, etc.
If you look back through forum history, youāll also find that there is tremendous individual variation in what any particular person thinks/feels is the best hearing aid. There is the fitting, the sound the hearing aid puts out, the userās own hearing loss, the environments theyāve tried the hearing aids in, whose speech or what music they were trying to hear, etc. Very uncontrolled environmental factors, and a lot of SUBJECTIVITY. So, even if itās so that the Spheres, even with the best fitting adjustments, are terrible for you, most of us are just going to integrate your feedback into the mountain of everything else. The general forum advice has always been: donāt take anyone else advice without checking. Try whatever HAs you think might work first before plunking down thousands of dollars. And make sure you know what the trial period is. So, if the Spheres are not working for you, I hope you can get all your money back.
5 Likes
I always wrote good for those for whom it works. I donāt want to speak badly about Phonak, they are good devices but also the cons has to be written on a forum, not only when it works for some people.
I was a bit blinded by you, because it works well for you, even though I have to admit that I didnāt expect much from the Spheres, thereās so much sugarcoating and hyping that you have to test it first.
No worry I didnāt spend a cent so far. I would never buy something without testing it properly.
So all these people who have posted on facebook, youtube, this site, reddit, testimonials that they are able to hear in restaurants, weddings and other noisy places, some of whom as cynical as you are, - of which I have seen at least 10 very detailed reviews , saying they were able to hear in situations that they were not able to before - they are ALL wrong are they? Placebo effect is it?
6 Likes
I go right back to the old analog days, I disliked analog with some venom, they amplified everythingā¦The wall of sound, took some getting used too, yet many millions of folk loved them, and they were probably deeply upset, at the advent of digital aids, I am certain many still pine for analog! I have always used the analogy of our audiogram, as like a fingerprint, totally unique to the individual, and as such, our perception of sound varies, extremely so, in some instances, what you love, I might hate, and vice versaā¦ Hearing Aids, are āAidsā they are in effect āAssistive Listening Devicesā, they cannot restore your hearing, they can however, enhance your ability to hearā¦ In choosing the correct hearing aids for you, is very much a compromise, the good bits, should in my opinion, outweigh the bad, what is important to me, might seem irrelevant to youā¦ Above all else, is the Audiologist/Fitter, they can make a cheap set of aids sound excellent, and on the flip side, an expensive pair of aids sound terrible, everything depends on their skillsetā¦ Not all Audiologists were created equal, seeking out the good ones, is key to a favourable outcome! This forum helps you sort sort the āWheat from the Chaffāā¦ But, unfortunately or not, only the individual can tell, if any particular hearing aid, meets most of your needs, hearing aids will not solve all communication complexities, if they solve most, I humbly suggest, thatās as good as it gets!!! Cheers Kev 
6 Likes
The question is, wouldnāt they have heard it with the normal speech-in-noise program too?
I never said that this is bullshit, I just see that it donāt work the way that Phonak want us to tell and I am not the only one.
And I also donāt hear really a different between those two programs.
And I donāt want to say that a or b is a liar, if it works for them great!
@ [kevels55]
you are absolutely right, at the end you take the one that has the less dissavantage.
1 Like
The Spheric HA could work great for most people, but not as well for some. Thereās nothing new about the idea of āindividual/custom fitā and the need to ātry it yourself.ā Personally, I get really distractedāand even very frustratedāif I perceive sound as unnatural. Iād rather hear noise than be overwhelmed by artifacts that distort sound. I canāt cope with that. Thatās why I tend to use the bare minimum of DSP features in my Oticon Intent 1 hearing aids (those that I have a choice, anyways). That said, Iād love to try the Spheric programāmaybe it would work great for me! Or maybe notā¦
1 Like
This I feel is me.
Iād love to try Sphere at some point, but I guess Iād disable Autosense (as I do in Marvel & Paradise), and just have Music and Sphere as Additional programmes. If the weird effects were just in the specific, manually switchable, programme, I could live with it.
Peter
2 Likes
I just want to give my final 50 cents.
I gave my Phonak Sphere back today, before I entered the store I made a last test with Spheric.
What should I say? Yes some language kicked in, but also the music of the street artist. It was nearly like the Resound Nexia or the Oticon Real, they also had sometimes kicked languages from somewhere. I didnāt liked this.
My final decision was now Oticon Intent 2.
2 Likes
In my case the answer is absolutely no!
3 Likes
Thanks, I gave mine back today, with the final test I could also notice highlights on some speech by passenger, but I also heard musik highlighted. Nothing for me, good for those who can profit from this.
If youāre looking for something that leans towards lower processing, you might want to try widex.
5 Likes