That’s really not a pitch either, it is strikingly good.
As Um Bongo said earlier there is a downside … the Spice user is going to need a lot of educating - and lots of practice - concerning optimal remote control use.
I also suspect that a fair proportion of dispensers won’t be able to fit this product properly.
If this is really the case, it will be doom. They got to find a way to put it in an auto mode…
Oh the beloved reps, I recall- from another company “we have unlock the nano technology”, “Our instruments are multicore instruments they made 20,000 calculations per seconds”, “it is evidence based and it is best in class”. We all remember such statements but when we ask
the details on how this will help out clients/patients never got a straight answers.
I trust my fellow forum members…
The reps response is similar to the responses of the experts on this board.
I would agree with this. With much respect to the experts on this board, as they are a source of excellent information, perhaps they are too close to all the hoopla. It seems when a new aid comes out with new promises everyone climbs on the bandwagon. So when I read such hyperbole such as: “they’ve cracked the holy grail”, my skepticism soars. The Spice series may well turn out to be a fine aid, but let’s maintain some objectivity. The Audeo series inspired similar reactions, and as the months passed, users reported back Audeo’s deficiencies, as with other aids. The Spice series will show it’s worth when actual users report back to this board, until then it seems more like dispensers returning from conventions mesmerized by the hype.
Not every audi present in this forum is enthusiastic about new Spice. And I would join them…
Look, it’s not some post seminar feel-good thing. If they were crap, l’d be deriding them as much as anyone out there.
The reason why it’s a paradigm shift for us is that it forces both aids to be considered as part of a hearing aid ‘system’. In the UK, the commonly held belief, due to the large number of NHS fittings, is that one hearing aid is enough to get by. Now as we all know there are clear clincal benefits in fitting two. However this system will ‘only’ work under binaural conditions, meaning that the precedent to get full functionality is established on the basis of two interacting soundfield patterns. The effect of the stereozoom in subtracting the extraneous sounds is quite marked and has been a long-standing aim of the industry since the development of multiple mic platforms in beam-formed arrays (like the Starkey device that Lou Ferrigno trialled).
In terms of what it does, you are looking at a bit of a ‘Concorde’ moment, it might get washed away by future innovation, longevity or practical issues, but in fairness to Phonak, they put it out there first.
And the worst part of all is that it is too expensive for nearly all of my current customers…
I appreciate the audiologists who have put forward their opinions on the new Spice. Whatever the final determination is on the Spice, at least we understand what makes them different. Something that is impossible to glean from the brochures and press releases. I look forward to giving them a test run.
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And the worst part of all is that it is too expensive for nearly all of my current customers…
Any idea on how much they are?
Whatever you are likely to be charged by your current audiologist in their ‘premium’ category plus a bit more.
It’s not going to get discounted much, at least initially, simply because it has an USP over the rest of what’s out there.
And the worst part of all is that it is too expensive for nearly all of my current customers…
Tricky issue.
I have discounted the earlier Audeo YES IX prices in the past … but the fitting time I’ll need to invest with these new models means that heavy discounting is now out of the question.
In fact, if users find a discounter of these aids they had better make sure that they will get a FULL IN-DEPTH fitting! If you are fitted with a top-end aid and are NOT offered a remote control … “This aid is fully automatic sir/madam.” … then maybe you are being short changed!
As for the Audeo comments - it is/was a fine aid … especially the YES IX variants.
My Audiologist called me yesterday to book an appointment for this Tuesday morning. He ordered me a pair of the new Audeo S Smart IXs with the new Spice chip and features and they finally showed up. I’ve been testing the Resound Alera 9s for the last few months and I’m looking forward to doing a head to head comparison of the Aleras and the new Smarts.
I’ve spent some time reviewing the Audeo S literature and I think the most meaningful Spice upgrades are StereoZoom and AutoZoom. Phonak claims that these features do fancy things with the microphones to improve voice comprehension is very noisy environments by 2-4 dB. My biggest complaint with the original Smart IXs was they they really had issues in noisy places like restaurants. If they have finally solved this problem…the hearing aids might still be worth considering. I must say that I am really happy with the Alera 9s so the new Smart IXs would have to be remarkably better for me to give up the wireless features of the Alera 9s.
We shall see. I will post an update next week with my initial thoughts.
JordanK.
Jordan,
Thanks for your continued posts on this board. Your detailed and objective overviews of the Alera have been very helpful.
Looking forward to hearing how the new Phonak’s compare.
Chris
Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with the Phonak Spice aids. I am patiently waiting to see whether this model comes to Australia and if it does to try them. Please keep us informed.
My Audi told me their is a release from Phonak on the 12 Nov in Au
He didnt say what thou :rolleyes:
but I’m taking it’s the Ambra
Hi JordanK,
I’ve been following your threads, in particular your enjoyment with the Alera 9s. I’ve been wearing the Phonak Audeo Smart IXs for about 9 months and I’m still unhappy and I’ve tried everything. I twice sent the HAs back to Phonak and they basically rebuilt them, I’ve used the tulip domes, I initially had power receivers which my new audi says was wrong and now replaced them with the regular receivers and created custom molds. Like you said, I continue to find the Smart IXs not effective in louder environments, even yesterday in a open area that was carpeted and not too loud I was having trouble hearing my friends speaking across the table from me. The other night in a restaurant, again not crowded, and missed about 25% of what my wife was saying. And she was right next to me!!
And I continue to have the tinny sound with the voices and a slightly muffled sound.
I’ve been considering trialing those Aleras, though cost is a big issue with me. My health insurance plan paid for a good part of those Smart IXs which is why I bought them figuring they were “top of the line” as everybody was saying and that I just needed to have them adjusted right and they will work great. But they never have. Truth be told: my in the canel Oticon Synchros from 5 years ago work just about as well.
So I’m curious to hear what you experience with the new Spice chip on the Phonaks.
Best,
David
Have you tried blocking the vents in the ear molds. I had the same problem with my Micropowers. When I turned up the volume the clarity and noise canceling got worse. Then I reduced the size of the vents and found the advanced features returned. My assumption is the processors are consumed with blocking feed back. I also have Spices on order and will report their performance when I have had a chance to put them through the paces.
How do you block the vents? And if you do that, don’t you feel occluded and block in.
Are you using Smart IXs now? Not sure what a Micropower is. Look forward to your feedback on the Spices. Let’s all be conscious of not getting carried away with early hype on a new HA. With the Smart IXs about a year ago, everyone was focusing on all the new features and direct zoom and wireless, etc., but little attention was paid to actual hearing quality. Which for me, and most people who have spoken up on this forum, has been quite poor - especially for top of the line HAs.
Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement. I’m so glad that everyone appreciates my posts. Suffering from hearing loss is an ongoing challenge and its made easier by sharing information from other people who are dealing with the same problems.
davidbarry: I spent about 3 months testing the Smart IXs before I started testing the Alera 9s. I really liked the Smart IXs and I really wanted to keep these hearing aids. In many ways, they are a leap forward compared to other hearing aids. As an example, the Smarts do an amazing job with environmental sounds. When I started using these hearing aids, I must say that I was able to hear so many different sounds that I hadn’t noticed in the past. Stuff like birds chirping, traffic, machine noise, and other sounds were all suddenly there again like a memory that has faded and returned. These aids give you one of the most realistic environmental experiences that is available today. The Smarts are also excellent with Music and the wireless synchronization between the two aids for switching programs is awesome.
The one and only area that they don’t do well in is speech in noisy/busy environments. The more that we played with the settings and the more that I thought about it, I began to realize that there was a problem with the way the hearing aids were processing sound. The reason I say this is that the hearing aids did such an amazing job with background sounds but the minute that the noise levels increased to a certain point, voice sounds started to dramatically distort. The typical scenario was that I would be sitting in a very noisy restaurant with a bunch of people around the table. Sounds like dishes clattering, kitchen sounds, chairs moving would be crystal clear but the moment that the person next to me started talking, I found their voice to be distorted and difficult to understand. Sometimes I could even hear people at the next table talking far better than the person sitting next to me. It was almost like the hearing aids had decided to focus their processing power on the loudest prevailing sound and were treating the voices of the people next to me as unwanted noise. This wasn’t only restricted to noisy restaurants. The other scenario that drove me crazy tended to happen at the office during meetings. I would typically be in a large meeting room with 5-10 people and all was perfect until the air conditioning system decided to cool the room down. The moment the fan turned on, the Smart IXs would somehow focus on the fan noise and the voices of the people talking in the meeting would start to distort and/or be difficult to understand. I would try switching programs and turning up the gain using the remote but it didn’t always help. Kinda makes you start to wonder if there was a software error in the code that was telling the hearing aids to do the wrong thing. My audiologist had a different theory. He felt that Phonak’s approach to noise reduction was to cut out lower frequency sounds when the noise levels hit a certain point. I guess the theory is that most unwanted noise tends to be in the lower frequency range and that by cutting lower frequency sounds out, you make voices easier to hear. Whatever the case may be…I found that the hearing aids really fell down in noisy environments. As I’ve said before, hearing aids that can’t deal with noisy environments like restaurants are really a waste of money.
Lets all wait and see if Phonak has addressed this issue with the upgraded Spice versions. If they have managed to fix the speech in noise issue…these aids would certainly be at the top of my list. It would also be nice if Phonak owned up to the deficiencies in the original version and offered to upgrade current owners for no charge.
I will post more on Tuesday after I get fitted.
JordanK.