but I would imagine for probably a surprising number of users with only one functional ear, this is a viable option.
the new phonak shell cover for their new bte’s looks promising…
I have been debating swapping my Smart S nine’s for the Ceramic cases. I have read the Phonak info about it and read your other post concerning it. Can you elaborate why i should. I know they do not cost more than the plastic cases. Trying to justify giving my Audie a good reason other than why not. Its probably more cost efficient manufacturing wise, though i cant explain why. Probably all the premium models and colors will be standard in ceramic material soon.
Hi everybody, New user here, long-time HA user. Currently on Phonak Exelia (BICROS), just under 3 years. The one thing I ‘hate’ about it, that in CROS/BICROS mode it loses most of its digital capabilities, it more-or-less becomes an analog HA. So you can imagine that I’m reading this whole SPICE thread with great interest. If the BICROS can truly work, do zooming etc., that would be fantastic. I’ve asked my audi to “bring it on”, so I’ll see how that really goes… Here, in Vancouver BC, just this week, Phonak had a big presentation for all the local audis on SPICE etc. (Except for Island Hearing, which is owned by Phonak).
For all you happy Spice wearers could you please tell me how much you can understand in a Restaurant or even at the local shopping centre. I have been trialling Audeo S with SP receiver and also BTE Ambras and I am so disappointed in the performance of both of these aids. I have just come in from a Restaurant (and there was not a great deal of noise for hearing people) and I could not understand one word that was said to me. Not even the person sitting next to me nor the person opposite. The zoom and stereo did absolutely nothing. I went to the Supermarket yesterday and I could not hear what the “checkout chick” was saying either. I am not really that impressed with either the Audeos or Ambras in a quiet situtation but tonight the background noise was just horrendous. Not sure whether it is my Audies inexperience and lack of knowledge of these Aids or whether it is the norm with so much background noise going on. It sounds like 10 jet planes taking off. I am that close to returning both sets of Aids and sticking with my Phonak micropowers. I can hear and understand so much more with the micropowers than I can with these new ones. :mad::mad::mad:
Two words for your audie:
“You’re fired” !
Your audi needs to verify the frequency response of you micropowers and make sure you are getting a similar response from the new aids using real ear measurements.I have fitted a large number of the new SPICE range aids by now and have not met a single person who preferred their previous technology over the new. Initially the SPICE range was tricky to set up correctly, but once you know the software and the product well, the outcome is almost always very good. With the micropowers also being from Phonak, you should definitely get a better response from the newer aids if set correctly. You and I have PM’d often and I understand your situation better than most here, but it is not my place to make any of that info public though.
The question one has to ask is, if you are so happy with you micropower’s why are you considering a change?
go and try something your audi is quite experience at!
In order not to hijack this thread I’ve posted my reply here.
I have had my Spice Smart IX aids for just over five weeks now and have found them to be a dramatic improvement hearing voices in restaurants, fast food places, my health club, etc. There is no comparison between these aids and my previous Oticon Epoqs, which are good aids in their own right. The Spice platform is a great sound processor with wonderful voice facilitation.
However, during my original fitting my audie forgot to tell the Target software that I had the xP power receivers with custom molds. This resulted, like you, in having tremendous loud low frequency noise because the software defaulted, I think, to an open fit tip. I went back in two days and she changed the setting to xP which had wonderful results; the loud lows were gone. During this process she had to key in the numeric codes that are printed on the custom mold.
I have a worse loss than you and have mucho power with the xP receiver. Your SxP aid only goes out to 5000 Hz while the xP goes out to 7200Hz and the regular receiver goes out to 8800 Hz. That is why I have always stayed away from super power aids. Maybe you are just over powered and have some other fitting problems like I had with my first fitting. Anyway, you should be having MUCH better results than you have described. I say this not knowing you, but just talking generally.
Maybe you should try a different audiologist.
Roger
California
Thanks Roger for that information. That is what I wanted to hear that other people can hear in restaurants etc. where these ones I am trialling are absolutely horrendous. Cyclone Yasi could not have made more noise than what these aids are making in public places.
I have been trying the Ambra Micro M’s with open domes and slim tubes. I cant begin to describe how disappointed I am. The audi only put the stereo zoom in one of the slots and the rest is automatic. Voices sound squaky or barky. On the first day I noticed lisping but it doesn’t seem to be as bad now. The stereo zoom really does focus in on speech but I cant recognize what is being said. The voices are harsh and somewhat echoey. I understand that perhaps some fine tuning or even a slim tip might help. I really had high hopes:(.
Do any of you Audi’s have ideas for fitting these to my low frequency/reverse cookie bite hearing loss?
I think I’ll try the Agil Pro’s next. I met someone with similar loss to mine and she has done extremely well with the Agil’s. I am also disappointed that I have to go up to a power aid to get a t-coil. Why is Phonak so unfriendly to t-coils?
At the Audis. She can’t find Autozoom in the program manager. Where is it? Help!
I took the mouse and figured it out myself while she was on hold waiting to speak to Phonak. 
Got my fitting done today finally. Smart IX with ceramic case. I really like it so far. I think I need a larger dome because they move outward over time and I have to push them back in. With my high-only loss, it’s a subtle change so I’ll have to wear them for a while to give a good evaluation. My audi wasn’t going to program any of the program slots. She was packing me up and asked if I wanted anything else, and I was like… uhh… yeah. I want SteroZoom, AutoZoom, and Duophone. She acted like she’d never programmed any of those things before. I basically had to walk her through it. I wonder how many people she’s fitted without giving them any programs…
I am not an audi, but I also have lower frequency loss than most people on here. From what I understand, and from HA trials myself, the open domes are not appropriate for your loss. They allow lower frequencies to pass through your ear unamplified. Personally, I would not use whoever provided them to you as your audi. You should be looking at closed domes or custom molds or ITE.
I’ve been reading the last few posts about the newest Phonaks, and I am really, really disappointed to read about the audiologists that you guys have.
My audi was behind the curve with Target and the Spice chips, and I have three weeks of hell in fitting them, but she knew enough to get the Phonak rep into her office and teach the four audiologists about fitting Spice aids.
And in addition, she called me in late in the afternoon, and had the rep use me as a training example.
At the end of the fitting session, ALL of the feedback/echo/chirps and other sound artifacts were gone, and I can now tell you that my Ambras are superb instruments! I trialed Oticon Agil Pros, and now that the Ambras are properly fitted there is no comparison.
What I think that you need to do is get your audi to call in a Phonak rep and learn how to fit them, or get another audi!
DaisyD:
I am really sorry to hear (no pun intended) that you are having such difficulty with your Spice aids. As someone mentioned, it sure sounds like you need to fire your audie.
I’ve had my Smart S IX’s since early December, and I am just about as happy as anyone could be, PARTICULARLY in noisy restaurants, parties, and all the situations where (I know most of you know what I mean) I’ve nodded and acted somewhat stupid for years. It is RARE for me to miss any part of a conversation nowadays, in the most difficult situations. In fact, I’ll bet I can understand better than a person with perfect hearing, simply because I have help with the processing and focusing and filtering that they don’t have.
In a car, when I select the right program (it doesn’t do this part automatically), the road noise is virtually gone, and radio or conversation is clear.
I’m still learning how best to use the MyPilot and iCom. Those were a struggle because of me, not because of any malfunction.
I can’t speak for different hearing losses or situations different than my own, but I’m so impressed with the Spice processing that I can only imagine that anyone dissatisfied with these aids has not been fitted properly–I believe it’s not the fault of the aids at all.
No, I don’t work for Phonak. It’s just that I can hear again, and I’m pleased enough that I, literally, hate to take the aids off at night.
Micro, what program do you use in the car? I notice our audiograms are similar. Did your audi make any adjustments to get such good results or just left the Target-programmed settings alone?
Initially, my audie pretty much left the programming on Target’s default (as best I can tell). Since I didn’t have the remote yet, she gave me Direct Control Left and Right as a manual selection by pressing the button. I used Direct Control Right (Zoom Right) when driving, and it cut out the road noise coming from having the window so close to my left side (as well as noise from the windshield and air vents in the dash). It also seemed to cut out most of the rest of the steady noise from the inside of the car. I could then easily understand people to my right (and behind me), as well as the radio.
During the second fitting, I replaced the Power Receiver on the right side with a Standard Receiver for the sole reason that I couldn’t keep it in my ear. Regardless of what tip I used, it would slide out. When she put the Standard Receiver in, with the open dome, that required doing REM again, feedback manager, and reprogramming. She was in a rush, and it’s not quite as perfect as the first time around, but I’m nit-picking.
Since I got the MyPilot simultaneously, I changed the manual programs. Now, I have Acoustic Phone in slot 1, followed by Speech in Noise, Stereo Zoom, AutoZoom, and Music. Since I can now do ZoomControl via the remote, I don’t have Direct Control any more on the buttons. Sometimes I wish I did. If I were to replace something, it would be AutoZoom. I’ve had the least use for that.
My Auto (SoundFlow) still works extremely well, so I leave it there most of the time. If I’m listening to streamed music via Droid X/iCom, I use the Music mode. I asked for her to increase the low frequencies volume, so that sound is a bit fuller than the speech modes. In my opinion, that mode is useful ONLY for that streamed music. It’s poor for anything else, as one might expect.
When she reprogrammed the system with the new receiver, her concern was whether she could drive it enough to make it useful for my hearing loss on that side. But it turns out that the right side is very slightly louder than the left side. My brain has adjusted, although for the first couple of days, I toyed with lowering the volume on that side a notch on the remote. I don’t do that any more. (I’ll have that adjusted when I go back for what I suspect will be the final trip.)
With the re-programming, I found that the background noise elimination is not quite as aggressive as it used to be, so it depends on where I’m sitting in the car whether I use Speech in Noise or one of the Zoom directions. I cycle through and see what cuts the road noise out. I think it might depend on where the noise is coming from, as well. Sometimes, I just can’t tell, so I cycle through until things are clearest. So far, regardless of where I’m seated or whose car I’m in, I can find a mode that works really well (usually, one of the Zoom directions). I might mention that (whether real or not I don’t know) the longer I leave it in one mode in a specific environment, the better it works. I don’t know if it learns and improves the processing or some of it is in my brain, but that seems to work.
These really are awesome hearing aids. I’m just catching up with all the notes in this discussion thread and it’s such a shame to see that there are still audiologists out there trying to fit the Spice aids without proper training. It’s almost like the role of the audiologist is changing from being a sound technician to needing to be a computer programmer. Some audiologists can’t seem to handle the complexities of the Spice platform and the Target software.
I just finished about 3 months with these hearing aids and I’m still extremely pleased.
JordanK