I’m dictating because my fingers are not all that steady to type along comparison. My hearing instrument specialist just put a pair of resound videos into my ears. I assume they’re top-of-the-line but I’m not sure what the designation is. Would it be nine? At any rate the exercise was this test the noise suppression compared to the Infinisphere I 90s that I already had but were still within the period that I could return them. The HIS played loud Restaurant noise from his phone, and I compared the two different hearing aids. With the spheres, I had to convince myself that they were suppressing the noise. My experience with them in moderately loud restaurant noise was that they diminished the sound a bit, but the people sitting at the table with me sounded a lot louder and more clear. But as soon as the resound started operating, and we switched to the noise setting, it was really a WOW! it was a very noticeable reduction in noise. Much more so than with the spheres. I didn’t wanna believe that because I’ve been a Phonak fanboy for many years. I did try music streaming with the resound as with my previous trial of a Resound hearing aid, the music was very distorted. My music streaming which I do a lot was so much much much much better with spheres so at this point, I’m not sure what I want to do. I just wanted to send a quick note to let you know that the noise suppression with the Resound Vivia’s was much more marked than with the spheres. please excuse the typos.
You might want to follow this individual’s comparison. However, it 's good news that folks are walking away with a smile on their faces with these two hearing aids.
I have been trialling the Phonak Infinity Spheres for the last 2 weeks and although I really loved the natural nature of the sound, I’m not sure they really helped me hear much better and didn’t notice any difference in noisy environments. My audiologist is seeing what changes she can make to help. The other issue with the spheres is the size - they are so wide that they push the top of my ears out and by the evening my ears can feel sore.
However, yesterday I gave back the phonaks and now am trying the Resound Vivia. I was excited but am so disappointed by the tinny nature of the sound - streaming is unpleasant, I can’t hear people speaking on the phone well. I haven’t yet tested them in a noisy environment and will have to wait a week or two to give them a chance, just shocked by how unpleasant I find the sound so far. I’m hoping my brain will get used to them.
I have only had Oticon National Health Service (UK) hearing aids before this and having tried these two top of the range makes, am very impressed with my NHS Oticons. May try some of their top of the range aids next.
Happy to read your post. I am a very senior male in the USA. I have long been a Phonak user: from Marvels on up to Infinio Spheres (the latter on a trial basis). I, too, like the rich, natural sound produced by Phonaks. I, too, found the sound produced by ReSounds to be tinny and even irritating. But, please read on … I trialed the Infinio Sphere 9os, and I did not get a “WOW!” with background noise reduction when invoking the Sphere chip. However, I did notice a “WOW!” when invoking Vivia’s noise reduction mode. Well, maybe more of a “wow!” than a WOW!". But, I worked with my hearing instrument guy, including invoking Real Ear Measurement, and finally, I got good results with the Vivias. Streaming classical music is quite good using the Music mode. I can stream classical music all day without draining the battery of either the Vivias or the iPhone because Bluetooth Low Energy is used. The All-Around speech is still a bit unnatural, but acceptable and certainly understandable. Phone calls work just fine both for my hearing and the other person’s hearing. Two ear taps invoke the incoming phone call, and a single ear tap dismisses a phone call. Unfortunately, there is no ear tap regulation for streaming music. The ReSounds have built-in Auracast™ reception. Phonak does not yet have Auracast™ built-in. No surprise, then, that I have kept the ReSound Vivias and returned the Phonak Infinio Spheres. To be fair, one of my acquaintances got a “WOW!” noise reduction with the Infinio Spheres. So, as we say on this side of the pond, “Different strokes for different folks [or blokes].”
Please read my later evaluation below. In short, after adjusting with Real Ear Measurement, the ReSound Vivias produced much better sound quality for me, and I kept the Vivias.
Many thanks for your very useful reply. Will follow up on the real ear measurement approach and see if that changes my experience of the Vivias. I haven’t heard of this type of measurement before and having looked at a couple of videos on it, I can see why it might be helpful.
Thanks again.
I was surprised to hear what a major improvement Real Ear Measurement (REM) made.
I am three days into trying a new pair of Costco Jabra Enhance Pro 30s (so theoretically the same as the Vivias) after spending 8 months with a pair of Phonak Spheres. I was having enough issues with the Spheres (and got them almost completely covered by insurance) that I decided to at least try out something different. For me the main issues with my Spheres were:
- The way iPhones handle classic Bluetooth (every single sound from a phone gets routed to the hearing aids, like ringtones even if the phone is on silent). I am excited to have more control over this with the MFI Jabras.
- The physical fit (others have written that the Sphere’s large size doesn’t bother them, but for me there is a noticeable difference in comfort when comparing the Spheres and the smaller Jabras especially when wearing sunglasses and hats).
- Trouble adapting to Autosense (I came from Widex before the Spheres, so the Spheres still sound fairly unnatural to me, although I have certainly adapted some).
- Feedback (probably in part due to improperly fitting molds, but I did have them remade and it still isn’t great).
- Wind noise (I get it just when walking around with my Spheres and the Windblock doesn’t seem to do much other than make other sounds quieter).
My early impressions are an improvement in most of the above, although I am a little worried my speech comprehension is a bit lower. Certainly something I will be paying attention to in different situations and possibly need to address via programming. I will say that the Spheric mode was pretty incredible in noisy situations, and I was often hearing better in challenging situations than my normal hearing partner. I have yet to really test the Jabras in a truly challenging setting but hope to this weekend.
I will add that there are many other variables that are different in my particular case (molds with the Spheres vs. currently using power domes, etc.) so it hasn’t and maybe never will be a true apples to apples comparison, but I am at least encouraged by the early returns.