Of the five manual programming slots I currently have AutoZoom, StereoZoom, and Acoustic Phone (which gives me Duophone) in three of the slots with a toss up between Speech-in-Noise, Calm situations, and Music for the last two.
Automatic works so well that I haven’t identified any situations where I need to switch to a manual Speech-in-Noise or Calm; however I only listen to music occasionally. Am I over looking something? Does anyone have a suggestion?
Stick music into the 4th slot and leave the last one free.
The fewer programs you need to switch between the better. Imho you can get pretty much all you need from the first three.
Speech in noise is the weekest point of my Spice aids.
So I have to try Autozoom instead.
On my Micropowers I had one of the programs so that I could turn the aids off. Hopefully I will be able to do this on my Audeo Smarts.
I’ve got Calm, Speech in Noise, Music, StereoZoom and ZoomControl. I think I’m going to replace Speech in Noise with DuoPhone. StereoZoom and ZoomControl are much better alternatives and I rarely use Speech in Noise anymore.
Keep Music in one of your slots but turn off SoundRecover for this program. I don’t like SoundRecover in Music mode because it tends to make the music sound slightly out of tune. When I am listening to music or playing the guitar, I want the sound to be as unprocessed as possible.
Does anyone know how much the PilotOne costs? I’ve got the myPilot but I’m wondering if it makes sense to also buy the PilotOne and just keep it on your key chain. It looks very small and sometimes I don’t feel like carrying around the myPilot.
JordanK.
You can select mute as a sixth program slot.
When do you use the manual calm?
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll consider that.
This maybe a stupid question to most people but could someone please tell me if the Feedback Manager is the same as Real Ear Calibration or are they two separate things?
Same thing
How powerful is this Feedback Manager in the Spice aids ?
If you have done a fitting and run the Feedback Manager, can this Manager change the character of the fitting ( sound …) ?
Thanks - I thought it was but wasn’t sure. My big day is tomorrow 
Yes, if it finds the aids are likely to feedback with your current moulds/domes then gain will be restricted in certain frequencies. It is then up to your fitter to change the domes/moulds to compensate if this gain reduction is confirmed to inpact on your audibility using real ear measurements. Does your fitter know what they are doing with this product as your issues up to this point mostly appear related to programming issues and lack of information provided to you?
I wish you all the best and hope you get the same satisfactory outcome many others have achieved.
I live in Germany and it is great to post around the world and discuss these things.
I have a medical background and so I try to explain and understand the function of the Spice platform.
In Germany you do not get much information about fitting and this is my first trial with hearing aids.
My fitter loves the usual way. I had first the Oticon Agil pro with domes. They were great in the first 4 weeks. Then she made some changes in 1 session. And I got my moulds. One of the points was the feedback manager.
After that I was not sure to take the Agils anymore.
The Spice aids came in October, my second HA trial. And again we had the same problem. Sudden change in sound and performance.
With the spice aids and the moulds I had a steady whistling from the beginning. Feedback manager. And during this session a hearable change in sound and loudness.
She is not a friend of the target software, has to phone, to ask…
She cannot explain, what´s wrong now with the aids.
I think, the steady whistling is too much for the feedback manager. For the fitter the manager is only a helpful tool to stop the whistling.
I think that works for feedback at certain frequencies but not with a permanent whistling.
So I think, the feedback manager in the Phonak aids changed the whole fitting.
(Sinus BEEEP became a BRRRRT; Loudness was too low)
On the other side I ask myself, how useful is a fitting, when the feedback manager can change all ? It would be more clever to let the manager away.
I will get new Smarts IX, they are ordered for me. I am afraid, that these new aids will be programed like the aids before and then limited again by the feedback manager, when he is so powerful.
Phonak is 50 miles away, the new aids will arrive soon.
Should I stop the feedback manager in the new spice aids ?
The Phonak tech rep had my audiologist run the feedback manager before making the other adjustments. The tech rep insisted that the feedback manager was run. Your audiologist has to first specify what kind of ear mould you have and how big the vent is if any.
Make sure that Whistleblock is turned on. This will stop all feedback from telephone handsets or eye glasses, etc. which are placed near the microphone. With the proper configuration and fitting you shouldn’t have any problem with feedback.
Good advice. I have however noticed a few quirks in the target software especially as far a recommendations go for speakers and domes. So in German’s case I would suggest using a standard speaker with a medium closed dome and setting that as such under hearing aid options. I would also increase the Sound recover two steps to compensate for the lack of high frequency hearing considering his audiogram. Target would have probably recommended Power Domes and Power receiver, which would ahve been too occluding. IF the audi gave his open domes instead feedback would have been an issue. So they basically have to select fitting/start from scratch and start over.
I have however noticed a few quirks in the target software especially as far a recommendations go for speakers and domes.
True.
I rarely use the exact acoustic recommendations that iPFG or Target give me.
So important advices, thank you
That is important for everyone who considers spice aids. Here, the feedback manager is in the last step of the fitting. As I understand, it must be first.
I had powerdomes with too much occlusion, I changed myself to medium closed domes. Standard receiver. Whistleblock off, soundrecover off.
The special earpieces have been made in the beginning for the oticon and changed for the Phonak. Too much ventilation I think.
I am a newcomer since September 2010 and learned a lot in this forum.
Feedback manager can change the spice aids. What to do, when fitting is done and you have a change in the earpieces ?
My Spice-YES have no feedbackmanager and are doing better.
I think my audio did not know, that this manager could change the fitting or power of the spice aids.
Today I got my ambra’s after having trialed Exelia Art for some months.
I followed the advice given in this thread and told my audi to rely on the default settings from target. And indeed it’s been a good advice. Everything already sounds so good and natural. Like my own voice, sounds in the house, music, when using iCom. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when Í’m at work and to the parties and diners I have scheduled for next week. So far I can only confirm the experience most of you had these are really good aids!
There’s one thing my audi and I haven’t solved yet. We put autozoom in a slot and it seems to work quite well. But how can I get the old zoomcontrol like exelia art has with 4 directions to choose from? I have a MyPilot but pushing the central button for a few seconds don’t the job. (I get the main menu instead). Do my audi have to put the normal, manual zoomcontrol in it’s own seperate slot?
Second question: I also have acoustic phone but the speakers amplify the surrounding sounds even more than in automatic. Is there something that should be changed in the settings? Using MyPilot for phone give excelent results btw.