Phonak Lyric 4 User Review

Hearing Aids
#33

I’m certainly not saying my experience will equate to yours, but when I had some discomfort in the ear canals it was because the Lyric wasn’t in far enough.

If your audiologist supports it, I encourage you to mention self insertion. You may fear you’ll cause damage, like from going too far. I would need a hammer and nail to force them any further (sorry for the mental image). Once they get to the bony part of the canal they stay.

But if you have, for instance arthritis, I can see how self insertion can’t happen.

#34

Another lyric 4 update. I’m now over six months in the use of Lyra 4’s latest iteration. I thought the following pieces of data might be useful to know for those who are looking for more info.

  1. For doggone sure, make certain that you have a back-up pair of aids. I have a pair of Rexton’s I got from COSTCo before subscribing to Lyric. Why? Because one or the other of my aids, for reasons about which only speculation can provide info, has suddenly “dropped dead.” I routinely have carried my Rexton’s as backup for trips out of town or for when my AuD has been unavailable, e.g., over Turkey Day when I was out of town for 5 days running. Digital in one ear and Lyric in the other. Done. Hearing again.

  2. As Kevin 6 has accurately said, positioning of the Lyric 4 is critical. After several trials, we now have it down accurately, and since she discovered that placing it deeper into the canal worked far better, that’s what we’ve done and there is no movement of it, no occlusive effect.

  3. Sound quality remains for me to be the single biggest plus. Despite no digital correction, I can hear my colleagues in meetings, friends at dinner in packed restaurants. And having some binaural capability has been absolutely remarkably good, especially when I’m in training contexts in which I MUST know who is to my left, rear and right positions. So much for the prior rotten COSTCO advice that I HAD TO HAVE Cross-aids. Left ear for me is severely to profoundly impaired in critical speech range, but, I’ll tell ya what, I sure as hell won’t change out my Lyric 4 to get Cross-aids.

  4. Lyrics are in deep enough so that I can use air pods but they are clunky enough as to deeper insert that I choose instead to use my AirPods ProMax headset. They are for me a perfect combination with the Lyric. One potential downside, however, is that they MAY reduce Lyric battery life because of the sound level of input from the headset. I had one Lyric "go dead’ after a long listening session (Chris Botti on Trumpet at his Boston Concert). My AuD told me Phonak had no data on any causality.

  5. One really good recommendation from my AuD was this; in anticipation of the need for a replacement aid because the battery just died, use the digital backup for 4-5 days to let my ear canal “rest” from the aid’s continuous presence. Works wonderfully as to mitigating the “itching” phenomenon.

  6. XS wax production has not been a continuing issue beyond the initial insertion. Convenience is 10/10. I have begun to do rock wall climbing and it is enormously reassuring to know before going up the wall that I do not have to worry about an aid dropping off and falling 50meters. AND I can hear my belayer below me, even when ambient noise level in the gym rising, no matter where he places himself below me.

  7. As to all the above: YMMV

I’ve got six more months or so to go. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I spend 7k to improve upon what the Lyric 4’s give me, even in the presence of the too often “going dead” events. (If memory serves, probably x3 in six months). And my CPA indicates I’m in line for a $3600 tax deduction as it’s a medically necessary intervention given my work. YMMV on this as wel.

HTH, Anthony

3 Likes
#35

Hey
I’m four days in, a year behind you.
How is lyric working out ?
Read my profile - I think we have similar hearing loss + tinnitus experiences. And I thought I was looking at my own hearing test results when I saw yours! Mine falls off at a slightly steeper rate on the right side.
The tinnitus reduction really weighs heavily in favor. You too ?
Any advice for concert/going ? First test two nights ago in a small club was meh. I resorted to low volume + my AirPods.
Would really appreciate your insights.
Doug

#36

Not interested in the Lyric, but very interested in the cataract surgery. How was it? Did you get the multifocal lenses, or just distance, or one of each?

#37

Hi Doug,

You caught me at the worst time of the year for wearing lyrics. Aka allergy season. I’ve had no hearing aid on the right side because the ear canal is mostly blocked. ‘Lucky’ for me my audiologist is out for medical reasons.

Pros:

  • it really reduces tinnitus for me (and this week is a stark reminder).

  • no daily chores taking care of aids (convenient)

  • no battery replacement or charging (also a con)

  • works with airpods,etc

  • for me they are very comfortable, like I don’t feel them. That took maybe a week or two

  • they take advantage of your ear shape so you preserve the natural direction sensing

Cons:

  • no bass. This is another thing I’m noticing this week. Without an aid in my right ear i may not hear as well but suddenly i can hear the bass in my car, and i miss it!

  • no replaceable batteries means when they are done you need to visit the audiologist. Usually they will try to schedule you before they flat out fail. My audiologist also let’s me self change, but that’s rare from what i ‘hear’

  • no Bluetooth at all, no phone app, no pairing (but see the pro about airpods)

Most of the year i love them. I am tempted to have something as a backup but haven’t made that call yet.

Also I have no experience with any other style yet so my bass issue may extend to other styles, but (a) with my loss i can probably use open domes, and (b) i think I’ve read others well go down to at least 150hz, while lyrics have trouble below 300.

  • Kevin
#38

Hi Anthony, it’s been awhile so I’m not sure you’ll see this, but regarding:
"Why? Because one or the other of my aids, for reasons about which only speculation can provide info, has suddenly “dropped dead.” "

Assuming your providers stock hasn’t aged out (check the expiration date on a box), i have two thoughts:
Most likely, and especially if it seems to come and go before failing completely, this is a wax/moisture issue. If you see them come out with the yellow foam looking bleached, think moisture. And I’m not saying you got too much water in your ear … I’m saying your ear canal caused the issue. Allergies do this for me sometimes.
The other thing to be careful about is magnets, like your lyric wand. I thought i killed one once … i had put it on top of a tray and forgotten that tray was magnetic. It shuts off on that environment.

Good luck!

#39

Thanks Kevin. All very helpful and sorry about your allergy issues. I’m happy to have found this thread and I see I have some catching up to do reading the rest.

#40

Regarding bass and low frequencies with Lyrics, my concerns as well! Lyric 4 Trial disappointment! Suggestions?

#41

I’m six days with lyric 4
Very confused about whether the clipping effect is physical blockage or the device itself. Probably the latter. And I see it looks like they can play with the computer adjusted settings to help right ?
Last night- fine in my home; but took doggies for a walk and seems little outdoor background noise seems to have triggered it. The clipping and the resulting underwater echo effect of my own voice in my head is intolerable.

I’ve been to live music in a small club setting (150) and larger (500). Not happy at all. I tried sleep, off, on at lowest volume, sleep with AirPods (turned off, just blocking). Mid range is fine but if it’s very loud or high, Very distorted, fuzzy static effect. Any thoughts on that ?

Do you mean you can connect lyric to AirPods or there’s just physical ear room for them ?

#42

OK, I might be able to help with the clipping. Maybe. I have two thoughts:

  1. If you haven’t worn ANY hearing aids before the lyric, give it some time. You are going to be hearing all sorts of sounds you forgot about, and some of them do create a clipping feel. I specifically remember scooping ice from the freezer causing that, among other things. I don’t notice it at all any more.

  2. That said, we did tinker with some things. In the app, your audi can tweak a few things. Regarding clipping, I’d first try turning off the High Frequency Filter if it is on.

walk and seems little outdoor background noise seems to have triggered it

This is almost definitely your brain waking up to new (again) sounds…

Lyrics (and digital hearing aids for that matter) use a form of compression. Forgive me if I explain something you already know … compression in this sense means the device takes the audio spectrum (you’ll often see this stated as 20-20000Hz for music) and squeezes it on both ends so that it only takes (again, by way of example) 300-12000Hz. This WILL sound different until you adapt to it. You will still ‘hear’ the bass, for instance, but it won’t sound the same. (Also with really low bass the lyrics just ignore them). My description is crude especially given the definitely not correct frequency ranges, but hopefully convey the point.

Do you mean you can connect lyric to AirPods or there’s just physical ear room for them ?

Lyric’s have no ability to connect to Bluetooth anything. They simply don’t have enough power, given they have to work for 2-3 months straight. You might have seen your audi program them with a gray wand-like thing. That device emits SOUNDS, not radio waves, and your Lyrics ‘hear’ that sound, decode it and find their programming in it. Weird, I know.

So here’s the problem. You are 6 days in to a trial, and if it were NOT for that, I’d encourage you to wait 2 full weeks before changing anything (assuming your audi WOULD change a setting already), but I know you are probably feeling some eagerness around the trial. I can tell you that it’s fair to expect the clipping to go away (whether on its own or with some tweaks). I do not have much experience with music in a club setting. I know that I’d still have trouble hearing speech in that environment, but you didn’t raise that concern.

Interestingly, I now have a Lyric in my left ear and a trial Phonak Lumity in my right ear, because there’s way too much moisture for me to put another Lyric in right now (allergies, I know I mentioned it). Fascinating differences. The Lyric produces a brighter speech and the Lumity produces a much quieter speech. (No one typically wears a split design like this, it’s temporary). Definitely a better MUSIC response from the right ear, especially the lower frequences.

Today it is raining. Driving back from the audi, I hear the rain rather loudly with the Lyric. That’s something I’ve noticed before … if it rains hard enough the amplifier kind of cuts back, but that destroys conversations.

The Lumity, being a digital device, just turns down the rain. It’s really quite amazing at that.

I want the best of both LOL

#43

So interesting. Thanks. There are so many potential benefits if the lyric and I’m so early at it I’m staying with it to see if we can realize it’s potential.
At my audiologist yesterday we worked a lot of angles (including literally the insertion one), some prescriptive ones (I had been residing at highest volumes). Good thing she looked in the less problematic right year. Suction on extraction. Pinkness. Taking a break for a week or so to let it breathe so I’m nothing in right. Lyric in left. No better way to appreciate it. Similar to your split situation. The tinnitus is raging in my right ear. Hardly notice in my lyric ear.
Alas I think AirPods are history for me with lyric at least. Best setting is sleep and it’s lousy. Maybe traditional head phones are the way to go.
I’m an attorney but music promoter to so need it to be able to handle live music and be able to converse too. We’ll see.
Lumity sounds promising.
Looking forward to lyric and brain adjustments in the coming weeks.

#44

Who took the lyric out, you or audi?

There’s two tricks to removing them.

  1. apply slight pressure extracting, but keep wiggling them in a circle as you pull (again, lightly). You should feel the adhesion release but continue to go slow so you don’t stick on the eardrum.
  2. if you plan on removing them you can put a drop of olive oil 15 minutes ahead, it will help.

It’s possible the right side should be a size smaller, but if course i can’t say.

#45

She took them out. I had an easy time though at our first appointment taking them out.

I was intrigued by your reinserting on your own but I have tricky canals. Don’t think I’ll be doing that.

Yea there’s a size question yet to be answered.

Really helpful having you as a resource. I appreciate it.

#46

We can talk more about self insertion ifwhen you decide to stay with them.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m a software engineer … I’ve worked with many attorneys over the years and just like my head is overfilled with software so i don’t know a lot about the legal world, most attorneys I meet aren’t that computer savvy. Self insertion means:

  • having an audi willing to let you have spares
  • having a programming wand
  • having your lyric prescription
  • and beyond able to insert (probably the easiest part)
    At this time Phonak does not make this easy. On the one hand they acknowledge it can be done with little risk, and on the other hand they don’t make the software available. There’s other issues too.

So it depends on how motivated you are and on whether your audi wants to support that.

You can in theory eliminate the software side by having the audi program them but once opened the battery life starts declining even if they are off.

#47

Uh oh. I have surgically reconstructed ears, due to childhood cholesteatoma. When an audiologist/dispenser or a GP looks into my ears, they have no idea what they’re seeing. Before taking the advice of someone over the internet–who is doubtless a good guy!–and admirably has qualified everything he writes–ask your ENT about how the shape of your canal might affect how it ‘fits’ a lyric HA. Or anyway, I would. All canals aren’t the same. Some are weird. I’m picturing possible issues.

#48

Good intent. You may think i am suggesting self fitting the lyric. Can’t be done and if it could i still wouldn’t. I’m merely saying it’s possible, once properly fitted, to self insert a new device when the prior fails, if the audi supports doing so…

1 Like
#49

Kevin you are knowledgeable and responsible. Kudos! That’s a rarity on other sites. You certainly know far more than I about Lyric aids.

I always warn everyone to be wary about advice given over the internet from folks they’ve never met if it involves their health. I see that you feel the same. Plus, as I mentioned, I have weirdly shaped ear canals. So I thought I’d add my two cents.

Pax.

#50

Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I am in the last few days of trialing Phonak Lyrics and I really am so undecided on whether to commit or not.

Although I have been very happy with speech clarity, I have been so unhappy with the total lack of base in any music I listen to. Also my right ear has been quite uncomfortable at times, even painful enough to remove the device. On the other hand the one in my left ear has been really comfortable from day one. I wonder if the issue could be that the one in my right ear is too big. It is in fact one size larger than the one in my left ear.

I would be very interested if anyone has found a way of improving low frequency (base) when listening to music

#51

Hi Terence1,
The bass response is, unfortunately, not going to get better. My aud did say another patient modified his by putting holes in the inner shield but i never tried that.

The lyric should not hurt. It’s either too big or something else. My opinion, if it hurts it comes out. I bought an otoscope camera so u could inspect my own ears for issues (i have allergies and often too humid, which can lead to troubles.

After years with the lyric I’ve decided to trial ite (Virto). The new aids are not yet ready so i am suffering with RIC right now. The bass is much better.

I do miss the lyric, but my allergies are too much for it.

#52

Hello Kevin,
Thanks so much for your quick reply.

I guess I was not expecting good news on the bass response, but I do feel that the uncomfortable and even painful right ear is caused by the lyric being too big.
I am going to see if I can get an appointment with my aud tomorrow and see if I can get it exchanged for a size smaller before my trial is up.