Phonak introduces Marvel platform and Audéo M hearing aids

See my updated image. I hope the green box helps you understand the Marvel feature.

Turning streaming volume up actually turns environmental sounds down. I was speaking to the noise cancelling feature of the Marvels.

Again, I’m offering my advice to any HA user, Marvel or not. One can set one’s HA’s to a streaming only focus, not get any input from the HA mics, and be tempted to turn up streaming volume only to combat noise, which if it is loud enough, may get by your domes or molds (bone conduction, anyone?). But past a certain point, which may be difficult to judge, turning up HA volume to combat noise can be damaging. I was experiencing that in streaming only with my HA’s. Android was warning me I’d cranked the volume up too much but I still wasn’t overcoming the pretty severe environmental noise I was in at Gold’s Gym (and I suggested to both the local and corporate management that they do something about noise levels-move boxing to a more isolated location, etc.- no reply from either).

My own past experience in driving is that I would crank up car radio volume to overcome any noise. So for the past me, I know it’s easily possible to hurt yourself by not adequately appreciating when things are just too loud for your own good.

We are not getting through to each other via the WWW.

I was talking about a feature that the Marvels have that other HA don’t have (my previous Quattros didn’t at least). Perhaps someone else could do a better job describing the feature. I’m not hurting my hearing. I actually experience a reduction in overall sound when I do this and I’m wishing to hear the source. It is cancelling external noise.

This was the original remark upon which my comments were based, not your subsequent qualifications of what you meant to say. Normally when one says, “drown out” it’s taken to mean that what you’re drowning out does not go away but rather you’re overcoming it by outdoing what it is that you want to drown out.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate (from decades in past): to cause a sound not to be heard by making a loud noise (sound).

So if Marvel’s function as well as you say (with suppressing noise, not drowning it out), I want a pair!

@jim_lewis: Other than offering advice to young teens or something, I gotta think most if not all readers here are well aware of the impacts of noise levels whether environmental or through close-to-ear/in-ear devices.

@warneral: No one asked me but I’ll interject with my understanding. The noise-cancelling term is being used here to describe the effect of turning down the input volumes from the mics.
The headphones business markets devices that they call noise-cancelling that are basically power domes in our language. Or are acoustically closed-in so as to quieten the outside when on.

But I’m no expert.

It is a feature that I discussed and others have as well several times. Seeing that we’ve discussed this Marvel feature, and many of us are using them (including the person I was talking to) I took that for granted.

Yes they do do that, see my image above.

The actual wording used on the image from Phonak (referenced in the green box above) is external noise down upon pressing the volume button up.

It works that way for me.

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Hmmm. I’m still in trial with the Marvel for 312 batteries. I had to ask for separate programs for: 1.) noisy places and 2.) turning the aids OFF completely. If I press LONG on either the UP or DOWN volume rocker switch, it just cycles through these programs. If I hadn’t asked for the OFF program, I would’ve had to remove the aids from my ears to get total silence. Hope I’m doing this right, cuz the fewer programs the better.

The aids seem to stream automatically with my laptop as long as the volume is ON. With the TV, it streams no matter whether the TV volume is set to mute or is on.

My two cents, for what it’s worth. For Christmas this year I got the Sony WH1000XM3 Noise Cancelling headset. It is widely considered to be the best noise cancelling headset available today. On Dec 26th I was fitted with my Marvel M90-R’s. After carefully comparing streaming music with and without my HA’s I decided to return the Sony to Best Buy as for me the Marvels produced better sound. The Sony also way over emphasized bass, but then that’s what most people want today. I should add that I’m a classical pianist and spend several hours every day playing my concert grand piano, so I am biased for live acoustical sound.

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I was just looking at that very set last night… you may have saved me $350… thanks! :grin:

Seems a bit of a presumptuous conclusion - and I was just commenting on warneral’s statement, which if taken at face value as it might be by newbies, might not be good advice in spite of contrary assertions that something else was meant entirely.

I’m not sure that this is a correct conclusion. I think both the Opn’s and the Quattro’s have the ability to completely suppress input from the HA mics so that the user might hope to hear exclusively the sound from a phone call or from streaming. I remember in Russ from Australia a while back being assured that he could turn down exterior mics on his Opn 3’s as much as need be to better handle office phone calls and when streamng with the Quattro’s, there is a streaming focus quickset button, which if you have set it up that way, will completely turn off input the HA mics - but if you don’t want to do that entirely, you can hit the Sound Enhancer button and dial in as much HA mic sound as you want (and remember it for the next time as a different preset if you want) - perhaps you missed that feature. Perhaps one button for the Marvel’s that turns up streaming while during down mics at the same time is unique - but then maybe you’re still increasing input volume past the point where it might be inadvisable-or is the idea that the net overall volume remains unchanged-the increase in streaming volume is compensated by a decrease in mic volume?

I think a more important point about all this for the general HA user, no matter what the brand, that’s been left out of the the discussion so far (the above is just niceties) is, “What’s the hearing loss of the individual?” You don’t post your audiogram so of all the helpful things one could add to one’s avatar, that would actually be the most helpful thing in judging “where one’s coming from.” If one has severe to profound hearing loss, why that’s almost like wearing noise-cancelling headphones all the time. Just turning off the HA mics when streaming will work great because you can’t hear anything that doesn’t get amplified a lot by your HA’s and the streaming, which is getting amplified while your exterior mics aren’t on will stand out by a mile. But if you’re like me and have pretty decent low-frequency hearing, even wearing occlusive power domes does not do a whole lot even when the HA mics are off. Even if you had a dome supposedly certified for a certain passive noise reduction, it’s impossible to guarantee that its going to work really well on any particular person because of irregularities in the shape of the ear canal. If I turn my HA’s completely off, I can still hear the outside environment faintly and serious noise comes busting through. Maybe if I get to a more profound loss, it’ll be a different story. I won’t need or want noise-cancelling headphones then!

Too bad domes and molds are not rated in terms of dB of passive noise reduction provided if the fit were perfect. As it is, for so many things HA manufacturers give you little solid specs to go on (the sort of whitepaper fluff) and HA users are left comparing subjective experiences not really knowing how about many variables in the hardware, fitting, and actual performance of the HA’s in between.

The thing that would be useful to add is if you compared your HA’s vs. the Marvels by themselves in a very noisy environment. At Gold’s gym, people both hit punching bags and drop barbells so loudly it can actually be painful to the ears if you’re in close vicinity. The arrangement is because of space limitations - they’re trying to cram every possible form of exercise into a limited amount of space and unlike @z10user2’s assertion about common knowledge, apparently Golds’s Gym is oblivious or indifferent to the damaging effects of high intensity noise, let along the unpleasantness. We also have medical helicopters flying over head in the neighborhood to rush people from outlying rural areas to a medical complex a few miles from where I live. So that’s the sort of really serious noise level, >100 dB at times, that I’m trying to deal with in listening to podcasts while walking or exercising at the gym. I’d be interested to know if anyone finds HA’s alone effective with that sort of outside noise while not being severely to profoundly deaf without the HA’s. Someone like me with pretty good low frequency hearing.

The feature I mentioned was how I can just reach to the HA and turn up or down to adjust external noise. You are right, I poorly-worded my description, but I highly doubt I was putting some newbie in danger…

It seems like you and I continue to have these round-and-round conversations where you speak from a technical perspective and me from a non-technical but actual experience. Clearly we won’t see eye to eye by chatting over a message board.

I’ve never asked for a copy of my audio gram to post as I’m not into the technical specifics (which is obvious by my posts). Actually, I need to make a follow up appt. with my audiologists to make some minor adjustments, but haven’t bothered because I’ve been happy since my first fitting.

Kinda hoping a firmware upgrade to help with switching between devices before I go back.

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Hi Jim! Thanks for the comment! I couldn’t add any of your useful additional information because I don’t have any of those noisy environmental variables. I used to go to a gym when I was younger, so I know what you’re saying, but today I have my own exercise equipment in my home and that certainly gets rid of the gym noise problem! :weight_lifting_man:

I also have a rural acreage far from airports and anything noisy, so I included what I could in my “Two cents for what it’s worth” comment. :rabbit:

Thanks for the follow-up. I did notice that I hear about 2x better than you (10 dB higher) through the very low frequencies so I’m probably hearing about 2x as much noise as you would if you were in the same situation as I am sometimes.

We used to live in Columbia, MO out on the edge of a housing development. When we went into our backyard, all we saw were cows and rolling wooded hills for miles. It was pretty bucolic but probably not really rural (although when we came to Columbia the only big stores they had were a Sears and a Kmart!).

Judging from the difference in our hair color, it’s quite possible I might also be 2x older than you are too! :sunglasses:

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Hi, @warneral. Yes, I don’t see the ability in the ReSound fitting software to change relative streaming vs. HA mic volume by a hardware button push. So that would seem to be a unique on-the-HA button option for the Marvels. Perhaps ReSound (wrongly) assumes everyone wants to use the phone app or a remote.

I think a discussion board that seriously discusses and debates things in a nice way is great. With all the gloom and doom about the stuff the Internet unleashes, the overall idea of turning the world into a global village is great. It’s pretty hard to find locally in any way the wonderful information that can be gleaned from this forum and I enjoy hearing different views - and sometimes debating them, too!

I do think it’s useful to know in any discussion of how well HA options suppress outside noise what the natural hearing ability of the poster is. Maybe you could ask your audiologist for a printout the next time you visit or even do an online test as a possibly inaccurate approximation. I guess if you can hear pretty well without HA’s, you’re more like me. If you absolutely need HA’s to hear much of anything, that lack of hearing is kinda like built in noise-cancelling headphones as, unlike me, you’re only going to hear what your HA’s decide to send your ear drums.

Common knowledge: like many people smoke knowing full well the health risks. Many people drink alcohol knowing full well the health risks. Many people consume sugar in its myriad of forms knowing full well the health risks. Everybody knows full well that we need to eat “right” and exercise. Does everybody? No.
People do all kinds of things known to be a level of risk over time.
That doesn’t mean no one is going to do those things. Just like your gym. If others don’t care then only you can protect yourself if you do care.
Thus my presumptuous conclusion. Everybody here is going to know all about hearing risks. Everybody here has a story of how they got here well aware of the fact that they took risks at some time and wound up here.

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Exciting stuff!!! Give me an app overhaul for my trial upcoming in a couple weeks - I beg of you, phonak!

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