Phonak P90-R Bluetooth sound drifting from centered to one side while streaming

Hearing Aids
#1

I am having trouble with my P90R’s sound drifting from center to one side while streaming through bluetooth. We have tried two sets of P90Rs and one set of M90-Rs. While listening the sound will drift from centered to one side in several minutes. My provider has not been able to solve the proble.

I have tried both my phone and my PC for streaming and both have the same issue. I connected my older Oticon aids through the Streamer’s bluetooth and they do not have the issue. This proves the issue is with the Phonak aids. Has anyone had this issue?

Thank you,
Fred

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#2

I am not sure the Oticon trial tells you anything. If all three Phonak hearing aids exhibit the drift, why would it not be the streamer that is common? Is the connection with PC using the streamer low energy connection?

#3

The Oticon trial uses the Oticon Streamer and does not show the issue.

The Phonak aids do not use a streamer. The Phonak aids show the problem when either the PC and Android phone are use to stream the book I am listening to. I have seen the problem with more than one book.

I hope this answers your questions. Thank you for your reply.
Fred

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#4

I had the same issue with my KS10s. Turns out it was wax somewhat clogging one ear dome. When I cleaned the aids and replaced the wax trap, the problem went away.

#5

Why doesn’t your audiologist call phonak for help

#6

I will discuss this with my audiologist. While I like the sound from the P90Rs, I may try the latest Oticon HAs and see if they can match the Phonak P90Rs. I have send an email to Phonak to see what they can tell me.

If anyone else has had a similar issue I would like to hear of it. Thank you, Fred

#7

I am assuming you are nearby to the streaming source and not at the limit of BT range. Does this only happen in one location? If it behaved normally in other locations it might be interference from another device. Drifting with multiple hearing aids seems very odd. Ask your audiologist to loan you some trial aids and see what happens.

#8

I have the phone or PC within 3 feet of me. I have noticed it happens quicker in nosier environments. I first noticed it while listening in a very low noise environment and it to much longer to happen. I found it happens much quicker while driving or listening while my car is running.

The HAs are in the autosense program mode and the Phonak app shows they go into the Bluetooth 1 microphone program. I do not know how to put them in a manual mode and trying it in the Phonak app does not seem to work. I suspect my audiologist has them set to AutoSense only.

I will discuss this with my audiologist tomorrow morning.

#9

I have P90’s and m90’s and both do that at times.
It seems to me to be the program switching during periods of pauses in the sound stream.
Now that I have been using the Roger Select for TV I have not noticed it.

#10

I have found that my right dome tends to slip out of my ear canal slightly and then if happens. If I push it back in the sound does not recenter until I pause the audio and then turn it back on in the app.

By making sure the dome does not back out, the sound stays centered. These domes are vented and it would seem this should not make a difference, but it does.

I have put half of a foam ear plug in both ears to hold the domes in the canal and it does not happen and the domes stay in place.

I have an appointment with my audiologist next week to pick up my new HAs and I will ask for better fitting domes and hope to get the small springy things that hold them in the canal. These are trial P90s she gave me to try.

Thank you for getting back to me. It helps to know at least someone has experienced a similar issue.

#11

I have found that it is better for me to have custom ear molds.
Mine are soft silicone … and they never loosen up or come out :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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DSC002656000×4000 1.31 MB

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#12

I have been playing with my streaming problem more and still find the sound drifts over time to one side while streaming. even with foam plugs holding both HAs firmly in my ear channels they drift while streaming. It is much more noticeable while streaming a book on tape where the reader is centered. After a while the sound drifts to one side, but I still some from the other HA. If I pause the streaming for a few seconds and then continue streaming the sound is again centered.

I would like to ask any Phonak HA user to try streaming an audio book and see if they find the same issue. This information will be a big help telling my audiologist if others find this also. I have found this on three different sets, one P90R and two P90 Life sets. It could be how they are being programmed.

Thank you,
Fred

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#13

I have P90’s and when I listen to speech from a news blog it does what your are describing, I have always thought it was switching the auto setting from speech to music.

#14

I will be seeing my audiologist tomorrow afternoon and pass this information on to her. I will ask her to contact Phonak and see if they have any answers. I contacted them already and they said to have her contact them about the problem.

Thank you for your response and I will put their response and any solutions here for everyone to see.

#15

i just got back from my appointment and got a new set of P90RLs. These were programmed for my requirements and I now have the nylon springy things that hold the receivers in the ear canal. We made sure the HAs were correctly adjusted so when her voice came from directly in front of me with my eyes closed the sound I heard showed it came directly in front.

I took a long walk listening to a book streamed from my phone. While there was a slight shift of the sound toward the side as before it stopped shifting and was very close to centered. It seems the problem has been corrected.

My audiologist is at a loss as to why this should happen since the domes are the vented type. She did day the HAs handle voice and music differently and this may have something to do with it.

I will up date this as time goes on and we know more.

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#16

After using the streaming more I still find the HAs balance shifts toward my left ear over time. They re-center if I pause and then continue streaming the book I am listening to. The time this shifts to become really noticeable appears to be longer with the spring things holding the domes in my ear canals, but the balance still shifts and continues doing so until I pause or stop and restart the streaming. It happens with music also, but is less noticeable. We are still working this issue.

#17

Thank you for your reply. I am still having this problem and have contacted Samsung (my phone is an Android S21 Ulta) and we have tried many things to correct the problem. I am wondering if it has to do with the Phonak BlueTooth support on the newer HAs and phone models. I have just about given up using my BlueTooth streaming on the Phonak Life HAs to listen to audio books.

I find it very frustrating to get a different “Help” person when contacting Phonak or Samsung! I have to go over the history of what we have tried and the help tends to repeat things they told me to try.

I would like to work with one person at these places and it would be real nice to see someone at Phonak try streaming an audio book from one of the new Galaxy S21 Ultra phones to their P90Rs or the Life versions… for about an hour. Sometime the drift takes 5 or 10 minutes and at other times it takes up to 20 to 30 mins.

I may have to return my HAs to get my money back and look for a new Audiologist to get someone that knows more about them or is more willing to contact Phonak about the issue. I love the hearing correction provided by the P90RLs …

#18

When I check my HAs with the myPhonak app. it always shows “Bluetooth streaming + mic 1” when streaming. They do not go into the Automatic mode according to the app.

#19

I get the same and it also happens sometimes with the TV steamer too. It can sometimes be provoked by head turning.

When you add in the very long time the app takes to connect to the aids (and also the much longer than other aids time taken to connect by the Noahlink) I suspect there’s a processing capacity issue within the aid chip that Phonak haven’t been able to fix. Their tech helpline just responds with boilerplate empty nothingness.

For example the Oticon aids I also have are instantly connected to the app and similarly fast to connect to the Noahlink.

I have fairly annoying issues steaming when out walking. It can be fine for ages then breakup happens. The aids are set to adaptive bandwidth. Setting to fixed increases the problem.

Usually with Bluetooth or other streaming, designers work to manage a buffer (a length of time) and bandwidth (quality) compromise to allow the user to experience continuous sound while the software works to invisibly manage inevitable connection variability in the background.

I suspect (but I don’t have evidence) that Phonak has some problems here but may have some of that code hard coded into the chip so cannot firmware-fix it (as the app connectivity issue and the Bluetooth breakup have been there through many iterations of updates and are simply ignored by their support).

#20

I am so grateful for response! I have been going nuts trying to find out if I am the only one seeing this issue. My audiologist just seems to want to get a sale and be done with it. I have used a Samsung A12 and not had the drift while out walking, but I will try it some more. I am sitting at my desk and listening to an audio book sent from my S21 Ultra that is 2.5 feet from my head and the drift happens in a few minutes. It is hard to believe it is a signal strength issue. I have the bluetooth transmitter on my PC which is on my desk turned off so it’s signal will not mess with the HAs receiving signal.