Phonak Spice

Hearing Aids
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#203

You must be so excited! Just a shame you still have to wait so long. I have fitted several pairs so fair with fantastic initial response. I even had one client who had just come from an Oticon Agil Pro Mini trial for a trial of the Smart S III’s and found the sound quality to be much better on the Smarts even in a noisy cafe! Hopefully this is the same for everybody who uses them. I did initially stuff up the settings, but am now much more comfortable with the software and am starting to know what does what and how the intrument will respond. So even if you audi does not get it right first time, try again as it can be tricky when you are unfamiliar with the software and tech. As your audi to calculate the fitting from scratch after making sure she sets the acoustic parameters correctly. This seems to generate a much better outcome than transferring settings from a previous generation aid. Also make sure she verifies the fit with real ear measurements.

Enjoy!

#204

What are the differences between Phonak Audeo S Smart IX and YES IX ?

The YES has 2 microphones on each side, the Smart has the manual control.

Any other advantage of the Spice Smart ?

#205

They have exactly the same technology, the only difference is the casing that allows a button control on the Smart. I honestly do not understand why they have kept the YES style as the Smart is superior.

#206

I honestly do not understand why they have kept the YES style as the Smart is superior.

The slightly larger YES format may be easier for some people to handle.

Also, it can’t roll-over behind (some) ears unlike the SMART/MINI format.

However this is an academic point here in the UK … Phonak have stopped supplying the YES format.

#207

So I better try to compare Oticon Agil vs Phonak Smart.

My own voice is like thunder in my YES anyway.

#208

I just made a test.

The oticon agil pro on the right side and the Phonak Audeo S YES on the left side.

Great.

Oticon good in the higher frequencies. More Bass was not good.
But the Phonak had more bass an the left.

It was like stereo.

Conclusion:
I am still not convinced, that the unity of both ears with the same signal is good for the brain.The Spice feature may be technically good, but not usual for the brain.
And the Phonak- Zoomchanging in automatic is not to handle for the brain.
(I made this experience with Spice)

May be I must trial the Smarts. I hope, they would not have this “own - voice - dominates - my - head” Feeling. like the YES

#209

Same machine different box:)

#210

Maybe, but the number and the location of the microphones is different in Smarts and YES.

Phonak itself made some illustration of the different location.

#211

Excellent points.
I was unaware of the number of mics being different.

#212

The mics are the same and the position is the same i.e in the horisontal plane. The Yes required an extension to achieve this, thus the rabbit look. So no functional difference.

German, I suspect the extra bass that you are experiencing from your Phonak’s is likely due to a difference in dome used between the Agil and Phonak. A closed dome on the Phonak might cause a nasal quality if your low frequency hearing is good. The fact that your are also using the Auto ZoomControl as your main program, makes me doubt the fitter’s familiarity with this new product. I have to admit that my first few fittings were tricky, but after many pairs, it is now MUCH easier and I am recalling some of the first ones to improve the fit now that I know the product better.

#213

I think you made the point.

The domes are different and the Phonaks are more closed.

The audio is familiar with Oticon, the new Target is difficult for her.
When I wanted to change the automatic, because it was pumping she made some changes.
And these changes made it even worse.

The xpower receiver on the Phonaks is more powerful than the medium receiver of Oticon.
I could use the power-receiver from Oticon, but it is very big, bigger than Phonak.

May be, there is too much bass in the phonaks. The oticons are bad with the bass.
So in reality ( I wear it today) it is indeed the best, when I where the Phonak on the left side and the Oticon on the right.
But I would not buy this mix.

Very good answer from you, thank you.

#214

My Pleasure :slight_smile:

I would certainly not use two different aids on each ear as it WILL interfere over time with the brain’s ability to process sound and each aid reacts differently to the acoustic environment and has to form new connections to integrate this information. Remember, the ear is simply the brain’s microphone, the brain is the hearing organ and is an adaptive organ that changes based on the stimuli it receives.

#215

I certainly will not buy two different aids.

The new spice seems good, when the fitting is successful.
hearing is good, but speaking is a pain with the own voice. But you recognized the problem.

In 1 or 2 weeks I have to decide. I think the Phonak spice smart IX will win. When fitted well. I am not a friend of the automatic programs. But on the other side: when I cancel all the automatic things on spice, why should I buy the IX ?

Domes must be changed, here you are quite right.

I think you must be very experienced and good in your job.

#216

I have heard such great things about the Smart IX S Series (Spice) from JoranK and others, but something that is creeping through is the changeability or disorientation of the HAs especially in StereoZoom. One thing I haven’t liked about the basic Smart IXs is the sudden changes, I’m talking outside with my wife and suddenly the HAs change and my hearinig is muffled and I can barely hear her. Almost like too much processing going on. Is it going into speech in noise or comfort in noise? But why is it doing it at the wrong time exactly when i need the clarity of hearing.

So my concern is that the new Spicee has these new features where the signal is beamed across both HAs, but then it’s hard to tell where sound is coming from. So my question in general: is there too much processing going on, is it really helping, or is disorienting?

I know JordanK had great success in Las Vegas, but would be interested to hear what others are experiencing. I’m going to see my audi next week and talk with her about the Spice HAs. She told me she is having an inservice about them shortly. So I think I’d like to trial them.
Thanks.

#217

I started my trial Tuesday Nov 23. The Smart S IX Superpower with the ThinTips. Stealth color Black. I sometimes cant see them myself in the mirror. Got to look close. I am seriously severe to profound. Who would have thought just a few years ago. This is what i have been waiting for.
Dont have anything to add to what has been said so far. But i do want to add that at work in the lunch room with buzzing vending machines i overheard a low talking high pitched female voice to my right as i was walking through. I clicked to speech in noise as i entered the room but never even thought to think to hear in such conditions but my brain just picked her up and i heard her without effort. She has always been difficult to hear but i was not even interested and i was not looking her way.

After some thought about this event, a few minutes later i actually shed a few tears. Thats no hype. We’ll see.

#218

UltraZoom, as I understand it, identifies and cancels individual unwanted sounds. Occasionally, it will identify a desirable sound, such as the car radio, as unwanted and reduce it; and than again it will identify a sound, like road noise, as desirable and let it pass. This happens infrequently and the aids do seem to auto adapt. There isn’t a problem with misidentifying the direction in Automatic, but when in ZoomControl, which directionally focusses the mics, background noise does appear to come from the direction the mics are aiming but, it is not loud enough to be an issue.

I did use audio streaming with the iCom today to communicate over a two-way radio in a jet airplane. The sound quality was the best I have ever heard with any headset, but there was problem. During periods of radio silence, the audio reverts back to the hearing aid microphones. There Is a four second delay from the time communication starts again and audio streaming engages. This renders it unusable for radio communication. I don’t think there is a work around for this issue. Noise reduction was on par or slightly better than my previous aids, but listening over the handset is not possible in the acoustic phone mode as of yet. I will try again after I have my audiologist reduce the mids and lows.

#219

When the ultrazoom decides what is wanted and unwanted sound, then my HA decided it every 30 seconds in a different way. Sometimes in one sentence.
It is better now, but it was a hard way.

You had no problems with the direction.
Situation: Walking over a quiet place, somebody is calling “Hallo”
Do you know where it came from ? I did not, I looked around like a fool.

Maybe it is a minor problem, because I can hear it now and could not hear it before.
Maybe I want too much. The Agils do not have the problem. I can hear exactly the direction. But they do not give me the loud hearing.

Would be interesting, if you do not have problems with the direction with the Spice generation. And how to solve the problem ( some people seem to have it), so I can go with some information in the next fitting.

#220

I’ve been using the Audeo S Smart IXs for a couple of weeks now and they are really very good. Not much to really complain about yet. Lets hope it stays that way.

I hooked up the TV interface over the weekend and it also works quite well. Its not as good as the Aleras where the TV link transmits right to the hearing aids with no interface but its still good. I ran into a weird issue today When my teenage daughter came home with a bunch of friends after school and started pounding away with Rockband 2 on her XBox. I had stupidly left the Phonak TV link on downstairs and I was quietly working away in my home office two floor up. I had the iCom on and around my neck in case I received a phone call and as soon as she started playing Rockband 2, my ears got blasted with trashy heavy metal music. Scared the crap out of me and it took me five minutes to figure out where the music was coming from…hehehehe. It never occurred to me that the freakin TV link would have the range to go through 2 floors of hardwood and furniture to connect to my hearing aids. Next time I’m going to turn off the link when I’m finished watching TV.

I had a series of meetings this week and the hearing aids performed quite well. Today’s meeting was with a very soft spoken senior exec with a heavy Pakistani accident. I started having issues understanding him but after flipping the hearing aids to StereoZoom and cranking up the volume a couple of clicks…all was well. The zooming features of these hearing aids are a life saver and they definitely increase your comprehension in noisy situations. I’m not really noticing the loss of directionality with this feature. I know a bunch of you have expressed some concern about this but SteroZoom is really supposed to be used for listening to sounds directly in front of you. AutoZoom is more suited to sounds from different directions and I haven’t had any problems with directionality while using this feature. I think the reason for this is that I generally keep the hearing aids on automatic. I only zoom when I have to focus in a known direction.

I’m very happy so far and believe me…I am a very fussy hearing aid user. Phonak got it right this time. Next big challenge for them is to replace the iCom with something smaller that has no wire.

Jordan.

#221

Hello there everyone.
I’m new to this forum (just joined) and I’m delighted to find that it exists. I’ve read many threads and I really appreciate everyone’s input.
I’ve been wearing HA’s since childhood. I have moderately severe hearing loss bilaterally - 60 to 85 dB loss across the board. I’ll post my audiogram later.
I’ve been wearing Phonak MicroPowers for the past 3-4 years and I love them. I use the Watchpilot with excellent results - 2 modes only - auto and another program with sound suppression turned off.
I’ve been in the market for new hearing aids for the past 6 months or so…after sending my phonaks in for repair and realizing that my old Starkey hearing aids were not cutting it as back-ups.

I tried the Phonak Audeo Smarts IX’s 3 months ago and I hated them. Sound was muffled, HA’s kept switching programs, and I just could not hear well at all. My Micropowers were much better aids. Multiple visits to the audiologist failed to resolve my issues and I eventually returned them at the end of my 6 week trial.

I just got a new pair of Audeo S Smart IX’s today and I must say that, after 5 hours of use, the new Spice chip is a big improvement. Sound is more clear and voices are not muffled. When I first inserted the HA’s there was a significant amount of background humming - like listening to sea shell oceanside. The audiologist made some adjustments and mostly resolved this. I chose to try the aids without any further adjustment to see how Phonak’s recommended settings will work. So far, I would say that speech clarity is almost as good as my micropowers - not sure if I am biased toward the micorpowers after 3 years of use and “brain training” or not.

Some issues that I have so far with the new HA’s from my limited 5 hour trial.

  1. Too much sound processing. Auto program has too many options to cycle through and although program shifting is subtle, I notice it and It’s irritating. Maybe I’m just not used to it. Example…I’m in the Suburban with the kids. Music is on and I can’t hear it except randomly - hearing aids will occasionally pick up base and I will hear more of a rumble like humming than any music. I’m sitting at my Mac and my wife is watching TV in the background - I hear the audio from the TV intermittently and it is overwrought with a low sea-shell like rumble.
  2. Wind Block feature is subpar - wind noise is too loud when compared to my old micropowers.
    3 I’m wearing the soft Power Domes and boy are they uncomfortable. My custom shells should be available in about a week or so.
  3. My voice sounds different by the minute. I can’t judge the volume of my voice at times because I have an occluded feeling with certain programs.
  4. I can be in the same environment - quit room, TV in the backround, limited talking to wife and kids - and the HA will cycle through multiple different auto modes - this is very irritating and confusing.

I know that many of readers are closely monitoring other’s experience with these aids - as I have been. I can honestly say that they are much better than the regular (non-spice chip) Audeo Smart IX’s “out of the box.” I am a very finicky user and I think I drove my Audiologist insane over these past few months. I will continue to post my experiences with these new HA’s and hopefully I can get them to work for me over the next few weeks.

#222

I could test the Spice YES yesterday and today in very noisy situations.

Situation 1:
Noisy restaurant, loud noise out of the kitchen and the bar.
The HA had difficulties with the noise. It was hard to understand speech
clear, because the HA concentrated on the noise beside. But it was possible. Some pumping and changing of the focus (zoom). Oticons (agil pro) are better in this situation but have a higher tone. My Phonaks are more natural. The Spice Phonaks reached 60% of my expectations.

Situation 2:
50 people in a hall, standing on small tables and very loud speeking.
No kitchen noise. Only the speeking of all the people.
The Spice aids did a great job. I could understand speech in front, on the left and on the right. No pumping and no change of the sound. Program was speech in noise but with lowered loudness. The domes had a good placement, lowering the loudness seems to work better. The spice aids reached 90% of my expectations.

So it was a great day for the new phonaks. May be they learn.