I have been trialling Phonak Sphere Hearing aids and one of the main problems is the dreadful metallic sound. Today I had a clinical appointment and the metallic sound was almost unbearable and I am wondering whether it is worth persevering with these aids. I do have a number of programmes on my phone set up by my audiologist; despite many tweaks there doesn’t seem to be any improvement. I know that the brain takes time to get used to hearing high frequences that it hasn’t heard for some time, but this is starting make me feel irritable. Any suggestions would be very welcome
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Are you new to wearing hearing aids? I’ve got I90s and the sound that I get from mine is not metallic. Could be a setup issue too. How severe is your hearing loss?
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Sounds to me like the person who setup the hearing aids didn’t know what they were doing. I really bugs me when I hear this because it turns people off of a product which could really make a difference in their lives. My theory is that some audiologist choose to just do a “quickie” kinda setup for those patients who are doing a trial because they don’t want to waste their time properly setting up a product that they think the person isn’t going to purchase. So dumb given my audiologist does the opposite.
No hearing aid should sound metallic. Basically means they were setup wrong. Go back and tell them to try again or find a new audiologist.
Just my 2 cents…
Jordan
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As Jordan says it is probably a set up issue. Maybe incorrect domes or molds or it could be the receivers. If the issue can not be resolved by your audiologist, she/he could return them to Phonak and get a new pair. Sometimes new hearing aids can have internal problems. If your audiologist doesn’t resolve the issue one way or another, I would seek out a new audiologist. I would not give up on these hearing aids.
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Hi,
I have moderate hearing loss and have been wearing aids for quite a while. I’ve been told that the brain needs time to adjust and it may also be that I haven’t fully got to grips with the Phonak programmes that have been put onto my phone. I see my audiologist quite regularly and she does a few tweaks, and she has done the Real Ear Measurement test.
Hi,
I did wonder about this. I have another appointment on 30 June so will mention this again. I’ve been thinking about your theory about the ‘quickie kind of set up’, she disappears and is then back again within a few minutes. I really can’t tell the difference once she has tweaked and have indicated this. I had an appointment last week with a different audiologist who also tweaked, but I think he was nervous about doing this and perhaps made things worse.
Thanks raylock1 for your advice. The metallic sound and the distortion is not great but I will wait until Monday to see my usual audiologist, I don’t think I want to see the one I saw while she was on leave, as I’m not convinced that he was Ok with making some tweaks. I do have an older pair of Phonak aids which I think I will go back to and see if there is any difference. It may be as some have suggested that there is a fault with the hearing aids themselves.
Do you know if your audiologist programmed your hearing aids using the NAL-NL2 fitting formula? This seems to be the default formula most audiologists use, however I have found that the two Phonak proprietary formulas, Adaptive Phonak Digital and Adaptive Phonak Digital Contrast provided a more quality sound.
I am wearing Lumity 90s with Phonak cshells and waiting for my Phonak Sphere Infinios.
Overall, I don’t think hearing aids will ever produce the same quality as a set of Bose headphones, so I’ve gotten past that.
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This!!! Thank you for saying this. I had the same issues/concerns and also lack of speech clarity with my Sphere’s. I just returned them and ordered the new Vivia’s.
You’re most welcome PastorDale, I am very tempted to return my Spheres and start all over again. I’m sorry to hear that you had similar issues with the Sphere’s and I hope that the new Vivia’s are much better. So far this is completely ruining my quality of life.
No idea at all about this, I am not a scientific person and wouldn’t know what to ask. It’s so irritating that every time there is a tweak there is no improvement. I do hope you have a better time with the Spheres when you get them.
I agree, that hearing aids will never ‘produce the same quality as a set of Bose headphones…’ but surely it isn’t too much to ask for clarity of speech etc.
I agree with the others that said “This is a setup…” but I wouldn’t say necessarily say it is an issue because, it maybe a feature.
From what I’ve seen, metallic sound usually means that the high frequencies were programmed “high”. This doesn’t mean they were programmed wrong, it may take some time to get used to the new sound. The Phonak fitting software has a setting that takes care of this (in the fitting assistant section).
So let’s test my theory: Go to your Phonak app, select Automatic and then click on “Adjust”. In that menu, select the equalizer button and move the treble slider to the bottom. Also, move the mid slider halfway between the center and the bottom (or you can move it to the bottom too). No need to save the setting, just leave the screen as it is and test the sound. If this works, you can play with the settings (you can select the comfort setting for example and create a new program) until you see your audiologist. This is why I think Phonak has the best app of the hearing aids I’ve tried, its very flexible.
If you have your old Phonak then yes, it would be a good idea to take them with you. They can look at the deltas at high frequencies and see if the difference is large.
Would you mind posting your audiogram? That info is helpful in this situation.
@Judi_L It would be helpful if you would post your audiogram, so maybe someone might have more informed ideas. To do that: click on your J icon at the upper right, then click on the profile icon (little person at the bottom) then click on the profile again and then My Audiogram. You can then enter the numbers from your audiogram.
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@Judi_L, I agree with @OcramSagev. I add my quote:
You should wear hearing aids as much as you can to get used to them. If this fails, ask the audiologist to lower the gain of high frequencies, for example, to 80-90% od full target gains.
Do you have a hearing test you can share? An audiogram?
What kind of domes or inserts are you using?
I had a really rough time because my hearing aids weren’t set up right. I know how it feels
DaveL