Okay, now THAT’S a load of bullshit! Definitely find another provider
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I’m getting fitted with the new Lumity hearing aids this morning. Stay tuned for some initial observations and comments. The only question I have is whether I should ask to test them with or without Activent receivers.
Jordan
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Are you currently vented? Do you stream a lot? If yes, you might enjoy activevents if you can get past the noise they make when they change state. If you aren’t vented, then I don’t think it will help you in the more quiet places when not streaming.
Hope this helps.
WH
Hi @WhiteHat.
Thanks for you help. Yes…I’m vented. I wear Quattro 9’s with double domes and I stream quite a bit throughout the day. 50% of my streaming is Teams Meetings for work and phone calls on my iPhone. The other 50% is listening to music, podcasts, watching videos, etc. Even though I have double domes I know there is quite a bit of leakage because streaming sounds way better when I block my earholes with my fingers when listening. I will ask my audiologist.
Jordan
My take is that you’d benefit from being in custom molds with little if any venting. I don’t think Active Vent would help much in that situation. (I’m basing that on your audiogram) I’d ask your audiologist what they think of custom molds, how much vent they’d need and if they thought active vent would be beneficial.
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Assuming you are doing teams form a mac or PC, I’d get a USB to toslink adapter and use a TV adapter to listen to the meetings. I use that with my macbook for zoom and google meet.
WH
Hey everyone. I just got home after getting fitted with my new Lumity Hearing aids. Fitting went really well. My audiologist started with a new hearing test to make sure nothing changed. He then did an initial fitting (feedback test etc) of the new hearing aids followed by Real Ear measurements to adjust the hearing aids to my ears. He then followed up with a bunch of tweaking in the settings to optimize the sound based on the results of the previous tests. We then spent some time going through all the setting and installing a bunch of programs for me to try out at home. I installed the myPhonak app and then connected the hearing aids to my iPhone 11 Pro Max. Couple of initial observations:
- My audiologist was surprised how close the initial fit settings were to my final settings. He felt they have improved the software.
- Pairing was interesting. Lumity connects to my iPhone with both Classic Bluetooth (which is used for sound and phone streaming) and Bluetooth LE (which connects to the myPhonak app and is used by the app to change settings).
- Once connected the iPhone connects to one of the hearing aids and then uses that connection and hearing aid to broadcast to the other hearing aid. My audiologist thought it might only be in mono but when I got home and tested it, it’s definitely stereo.
- I had no issue directly connecting my Dell work laptop directly to the hearing aids. I simply turned off the hearing aids and then turned them back on again. I then opened the bluetooth settings in Windows, the hearing aids showed up and I was able to connect. I tried a couple of Teams calls and it worked quite well.
- Sound quality is so far excellent with these hearing aids. The environment around me seems much more interesting and I’m noticing much more clarity compared to my Quattro 9’s. I still need to try them out in a bad restaurant, etc.
- Charger case is tiny. Much smaller than the Quattro’s but no internal battery. Does have USB C which is nice.
- No streamer was available. Audiologist says they are badly backordered due to the global electronics shortages right now. I have a smart TV so will try connecting direct to the TV later today. Hoping there is no lag between the audio an picture.
I will keep posting more observations as they occur to me. So far so good.
Jordan
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Photo of Lumity hearing aids in the charging case. It’s quite small. $20 in the photo to honour the late Queen and to show size.
Jordan
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Good to see your post. My Audeo Paradise P90’Rs are almost a year old. Love to hear more about how you are doing.
It’ll be 4 years before I qualify for new HA’s. Workman’s Comp in Ontario.
I’m really glad you’re having a good experience.
DaveL
near Pearson Airport
One thing that’s tough to do to get an apples-to-apples comparison is to make sure that you have the best fitting algorithm for each HA brand and similar fitting adjustments. For example, IMHO, the best fitting algorithm for the Quattros is NAL-NL2, with the user settings set at Experienced, Nonlinear. If you’re using the “soft” settings that ReSound likes to start users out with for fear of scaring users away with “harsh” sounds (e.g., treble) that they haven’t heard so well for a while, it might not be a fair comparison if Phonak likes to start out with a more aggressive algorithm and settings. The fairest comparison would be with both brands using the same fitting algorithm, e.g., NAL-NL2, and similar user settings. One is also comparing a hearing aid two generations olderr with the latest model from Phonak.
My audi said she’d let me trial ReSound Omnias (hopefully with M&RIE receivers) vs. Phonak Lumity. And that’s with aids at discounted price through TruHearing. Since it takes TruHearing two to three months after release to get the latest and greatest, it may be a while before I get to see which I like better. I’ll try to get the audi to fit them as equivalently as possible, maybe even wearing the same domes for each, etc. And with any luck, Oticon will come out with a new model in the meantime and with the audi willing, I’ll get to try that, too.
Edit_Update: Should clarify one thing. The audi is getting demo models of the Omnia and the Lumity separately for her own private practice so those will be the aids I’m trialing. I don’t think TruHearing per se provides HA trials.
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Thank you for your observations. My Phonak Lumity 90’s are ordered and should be on their way soon!
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Posting another update on my Phonak Lumity 90s.
The overall sound experience is really great! Much richer than what I was used to on my Quattro 9’s and the Linx3D’s prior to that. Hard to put a finger exactly on what it is. I’m hearing a much wider range of environmental sounds. Fans, beeping from the kitchen, creaking of the house at night. Air conditioning going on, wind outside, etc. I know some people don’t like this but I really like to hear it all. I have also noticed that I am hearing things more clearly. Both my wife and I work from home. With the Quattro’s, I was able to hear her talking in our office down the hall but I wasn’t able to understand what she was saying. With these Lumity hearing aids, I can now hear her talking AND understand what she is saying…even though she is in her office down the hall.
I did a test watching TV last night (we are watching The Crown). In the past, I had to use a TV Streamer to hear the TV properly. With these hearing aids, I can hear the voices and understand the speech from the TV sound coming from the speakers. It wasn’t good enough to allow me to watch a long show without a TV Streamer but I can at least get by. With the Quattro’s this wasn’t possible. I will still get a TV Streamer but this is an improvement for sure.
Bluetooth was much better than I expected. I’m an Apple snob and frankly, I wasn’t expecting the Bluetooth integration to be anywhere near as good at the Apple MFI connection I have with the Quattro’s. That being said, it was actually quite good. Better than expected for a few reasons. First reason is that it connected to my iPhone, My Dell Windows Laptop and…my Peloton Exercise bike (the large screen runs on Android) without any issues. Unlike the Quattro’s, a Phone Clip isn’t necessary for non Apple devices and the hearing aids given true hands free by operating as both the microphone and speakers. Sound is incredibly clear and music sounds fantastic (way better than Quattro). Having a truly universal device that connects to anything is a huge plus for me. The only flaw that I discovered this morning is that it the hearing aids will only allow you to simultaneously connect to two devices at a time but it does keep both connection live. I had a live connection to my Dell work laptop and my iPhone this morning. I went to pair the hearing aids to my Peloton Bike and the hearing aids wouldn’t connect to the bike. I turned off Bluetooth on my iPhone and the Peloton immediately connected. When I finished my workout, I turned off the Bluetooth on my Peloton bike and my iPhone reconnected. It’s not a big deal but you just have to remember to turn off the Bluetooth connection on devices when you are finished with them. You can also just walk away far enough from the device to accomplish the same thing.
The myPhonak app isn’t too bad once you figure it out. I would say it has more functionality than the Resound app but its a bit more complex. If you are tech savvy…it’s great. If you are not tech savvy…the Resound app is probably a bit easier to use. The app asks you to create an account so that the hearing aids can track your steps and heartbeat, etc. I use my Apple Watch for that so I probably won’t use these features. There is lots of opportunity to play with settings within different programs and create custom version if you want to do that kinda thing.
I will say these hearing aids just sound natural. They may be automatically shifting between programs in the Auto mode but you just don’t notice it at all. The new version of Autosense is extremely smooth. So smooth that adapting to these new hearing aids was just really easy. I still have to take them into a noisy restaurant to do a real torture test but these are really good so far. There is also way more bass than I am used to but I’m good with that.
I will keep posting new info as my trial continues.
Jordan
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Someone else struggled to connect to their Peloton Bike as well. Can’t remember if Paradise or Marvel tho. Definitely not Lumity.
Lumity can pair to, or is it classed as connecting to 8 devices without loosing any other connections.
It can pair to lots of devices but it appears that it will only allow two of these devices to have live/active connections at the same time. In others words there is a difference between being “Paired” and “Connected”. That being said, when both devices are live at the same time, you can receive notifications and streaming from both at the same time which is useful for me. Having my work laptop and iPhone live at the same time means I can receive calls from either without waiting for one to disconnect and the other to connect.
That’s my observation from playing around with the hearing aids.
EDIT: I just checked the Phonak website and it says this:
“Universal connectivity enables your Phonak Lumity hearing aids to seamlessly connect to all of your favorite devices. Make true hands-free calls and pair up to eight Bluetooth® enabled devices, while two are simultaneously connected.”
Jordan
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Yes thats what i said about 8 devices. I wasn’t implying that you can receive calls on 8 phones!
This report makes me very happy for you!
WH
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Great review. How’s the battery life progressing throughout the day?
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Batteries have been quite good so far. I put the hearing aids on at 7:30 am this morning. I think I threw then in the charger while I showered for 20 min after my workout. It’s 4:40 pm and I’m at 85%. Not bad at all.
Went to an outdoor company BBQ event this afternoon with my wife and I had no issues hearing everyone despite multiple conversations going on around me at the same time.
Talking in the car was crystal clear too. I noticed Phonak has added a Speech in Car program that may have helped.
Jordan
1 Like