Hello, I am about a week into trialing Phonak Sky Lumity SP L50 BTEs. The fitting formula used was Phonak’s own propriety formula that came with the hearing aids, set to my audiogram. Two programs were enabled on it for me to trial, the AutoSense and Music. No further adjustments have been made.
So far, these two programs have their ups and downs - the sound, while not horrible, probably can be better here and there. The volume is good, the bass is good, but sometimes I still have trouble understanding people - even in quiet situations.
However, one thing I noticed is that when the streaming programs (media music and media speech) kick in, it sounds absolutely amazing - the bass is far superior in quality - deep like a pair of Bose flagship headphones, and streaming voices come out so smooth and clear, there is no contest.
So this brings me to a pair of questions:
It is clear that the sound in the standalone music program is a different than the music streaming program. Why is this?
Can the settings in the streaming programs be duplicated in either of the standalone programs so it sounds exactly the same as the streaming programs? Or is this impossible - akin to trying to make an apple taste like an orange?
Yes, it is possible for this. The settings from the streaming programs be duplicated/copied in either of the standalone programs.
The L50 does not support “Speech enhancer” for speech in quiet situations. Which could help for speech understanding in calm situations.
The “Speech enhancer” is only available in L90.
Maybe your audiologist should check for upward masking , that may occure when bass sounds are overlapping into the mid sounds and thus can have issues for speech understanding
Thank you Firenzel. If the streaming programs can be duplicated in the standalone programs, then I don’t think understanding speech will be an issue, as I understand media speech very clearly in the streaming programs.
Take a step back.
The difference between streaming, and microphone sound is not comparable.
When you stream, you bypass the mics, and sound from your source goes directly through the aids, and sent to your ears.
When you are in a “Live” situation, the mics must translate the analog input with all the ambient sounds involved to the H aid processor, and be analyzed for your gain, and all the digital processing, before it is sent to your ears, so you’ll never equal the clarity you get from streaming.
I’d say that if properly programmed by an experienced fitter it will come very close, though!
I can understand much much more via Bluetooth or the Phonak Roger System or my Oticon EduMic then when the sound travels through the air to my HA Mics.
Thank you flashb1024 and Zebra. I brought this to my audiologist’s attention, and his explanation mirrored yours - that the streaming sound is always going to sound clearer due to the absence of the need for the mics to process the sound beforehand.
Guess we are still a ways away from hearing aids being able to replicate sound perfectly. At least they make fantastic headphone/earbud replacements lol!