Well DAZE later … still wearing my Phonak Lumity Life aids that I picked up two weeks ago. Yes, it was ME who drowned the trial pair of Paradise Life aids after just a couple short swims in the pool. Turned 'em in 4 days before the trial was over (whew!), so I basically exchanged them for these Life aids on the newest platform. Here’s my experience after 2 weeks of wear:
Waterproof? I’m older, wiser and more jaded after the “waterproof” test I gave the previous Life aids. I won’t even test these Lumity Lifes in the shower. And forgetabout ever taking them for a proper swim in the pool. I’d wear them if I I kayaked or jet skiied in the water, but NEVER to snorkel or swim. The best I’d hope for now is that if I got caught in the rain or my hair was a bit wet from a shower, they wouldn’t DIE on me.
That said! I put on a pair of little plastic shower caps over my ears and had my hair gal rinse me out after a coloring. She was really worried, cuz water got IN the stoopid ear covers. The sound was distorted when I sat up, but in several minutes seemed to “normalize” so I didn’t panic. I’d probably never do that again tho.
Noise Management - Overall I’m happy with the Lumity Life aids and will keep them. I plan on getting the phone app so I can manipulate them a bit more cuz the Noise Management is still too aggressive. They seem to do quite well in noisy places if I sit across from the person I’m talking to. But in a car? Not so good! I can’t hear people in the front seat that well if I’m in back. That’s where I’m hoping that Speech in Car will help out? So far, I’ve only used Speech in Loud Noise program once - and it was identical to what the aids were already doing! That’s a big improvement over my backup Marvel aids.
Rechargeable Battery Life - HOWEVER. Heads up to ANYONE who travels or puts in a long day of socializing like I’m doing on this trip. The Lumity Life rechargeable aids last 14 hours TOPS (with NO streaming). I need a good 16-18 hours when traveling. Hubs & I were up at 3:30am to catch an early flight to the airport. Aids were DOA before 5pm later that day. Good thing I had my battery Marvel aids to put on.
Every day this trip I get up and put my old Marvel aids in. By 10-11am I swap them with the Life aids. That keeps me going till about bedtime - but it’s NOT ideal to require TWO sets of aids to get through every single day on a trip. (At home, my days are not as long, so no probs.)
Connectivity/Streaming - I DO love that both my Lumity Life AND the Marvel aids are actively paired and connected to my Samsung Galaxy Flip4 phone! That was not the case with my Marvel and Audeo-B aids. So I can seamlessly stream on the phone with either set of aids, and no fussing around connecting one pair or “forgetting” the other.
I will report in after downloading the phone app and trying that out in the weeks to come.