Does your audiologist carry Starkey aids? Can you ask them to give you evolv AI BTE 13 2400 for trial? Would love to see direct comparison between Starkey evolv AI and Phonak Lumity.
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I don’t think my audiologist is a fan of Starkey but I will ask. He did mention that I should potentially try Widex and Siemens. I’ve tried a few of the Siemens hearing aids over the years and they were never a good fit for me.
Jordan
I think the Siemens products are now under the Signia branding.
WH
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Trialing 90s. Need to check my acoustic guitar on music. Been turning down the volume to -3 when playing on automatic. Sounds pretty natural. Will check music tomorrow.
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Thank you! Please let me know your observations.
Jordan
Played my acoustic today with the Lumity 90s. Very very nice on the music setting. Pulled down the vol on my right ear a bit and all was more or less perfect. I was thinking I I’d have to pull my HAs when playing but this is not the case. I’m trialing the 90s and was going to go with 50s but will go with the 70s to get the music program.
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I’m trialing the Lumity 90s, I started friday after trying the omnia 90’s for about 10 days. I didn’t see a huge difference between my 1’s and the new omnia’s … with the lumity’s so far I seem to have better clarity when in small group conversations outdoors, usually I really struggle with this… I was able to use the tv streamer yesterday for a full day of football and baseball playoffs the battery life of the lumity’s is no where near as good as resounds omnia’s are the 1’s, I streamed probably a total of about 8 hrs and only had about 15% battery life left, with my 1’s and the omnia’s I tested I still had about 50% left… as far as the app the phonak app is WAY BEHIND the resound app… I’m looking forard to seeing how I hear while having a meal at a crowded restaurant which is another place I really struggle …
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I will be testing out the Lumity soon.
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This is a really helpful thread. I got in for initial fitting for my 6th set of aids next Monday. I’ve had Phonaks and Resound in the past, like both, now have Widex Moments (not a fan, but that is probably the Audi). This new place fits Phonak, Signia, Widex, Oticon. So the Lumity would likely top my list based on what I’ve read here. Not sure what the latest are from the other three.
Just posting another update.
As you know from reading my other posts and comments, I’ve been testing Phonak Lumity L90-RT’s since Sept 22 and my audiologist then gave me the Resound Omnia 9’s to try (at the same time) on Oct 3. I’ve been swapping them back and forth and comparing them in many different listening situations.
In all honesty, it not really even a contest at this point. Other than rechargeable battery life where Resound Omnia really crushes Lumity (Omnia: 30 hours. Lumity: 18 hours), the Phonak Lumity hearing aids are just better in just about every category. We all know that speech recognition in many different listening scenarios is the most important thing and this is where Lumity really shines. When I am wearing Lumity, I hear everything and speech is crisp. When I swap to Omnia, I somehow lose a bit of clarity and speakers with soft voices (i.e. women) start to sound every so slightly muddled. The loudness is the same with the two hearing aids but with Lumity, everyone sounds crisp and with Omnia, I start to miss soft consonants within words and I can tell my speech recognition is lower. Add in noise in a restaurant or wind outside, and Lumity takes it every single time. I tried it out in many different listening scenarios and while it isn’t always perfect, it’s just way better than Omnia and any other hearing aids I’ve ever tried. Add in music (which is crazy good with Lumity) and the ability to wirelessly connect directly to any bluetooth device, and it’s worth buying these hearing aids just to hear better. If I was to sum it all up, I would have to say that Lumity seems to be very clever when it comes to dealing with fast changing listening environments or dealing with speech coming from different directions. It just senses and changes really fast and seamlessly and the net effect is that you hear speech much better and environmental sounds are superb.
My biggest complaint with Lumity (and really only complaint) is rechargeable battery life. I typically put my hearing aids on at 7:00 am and then wear them until about midnight. By the time I go to bed, the left hearing aid (which is tied to bluetooth) is usually down to 10-15%. This isn’t a huge issue but it does mean you have to plan a bit to make sure you don’t run out. It’s not really a big deal because all you really need to do it dump them in the charger at some point during the day for 20 minutes and this is more than enough to get you through a day of heavy streaming. Easiest way to do it is to put them back in the charger if you are showering after a workout or reading a book, etc. 20 extra minutes in the charger gives you a couple of extra hours. A full charge from 0% - 100% only takes about three hours so 20 minutes in the charger buys you 2 hours of listening.
I’ll let you all know if I notice anything else but at this point, Lumity is the best hearing aid I’ve tried by a long shot.
Jordan
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Have you ever tried Phonak’s previous hi-end aid: Paradise? Is Lumity far better than Paradise? Also did you mention trialing Starkey evolv AI to your audi?
My last hearing aids were Resound Quattro 9’s so that is what I am comparing both of these hearing aids to. I have an appointment with my audiologist on Wednesday morning and will ask about Starkey and other hearing aids that I could potentially test next.
Jordan
Jordan, Thanks for your detailed analysis. I’m not broadly experienced, but I’ve read quite a bit. Some opinions I’ve read from those who are experienced suggest that picking up parts of speech ought to be able to be programmed into any of the HAs out there so one sounds like the other. It doesn’t address what algorithms are doing to programming, but for basic sound they ought to be able to make your resounds give you what you need. So it makes me wonder if they used a different/proprietary fitting schemes for one or the other. Do you need a bit of a boost in the highs for the resounds? That’s what I’d think you need. Maybe look at the banana, find what parts of speech you’re missing and see if one isn’t higher than the other there?
Best wishes on your experiment!
WH
Thanks for your good comments @WhiteHat,
I understand what you are saying but I think Phonak has added a bundle additional speech features (called SmartSpeech) that boost speech. Here is the link:
I’m thinking all these things are helping me hear better.
Jordan
Jordan, I to didn’t like that I was down to 15% after streaming about 8 hrs the other day… does anyone know specifics on the battery warranty and does it hurt battery longevity if you have to stick them in the charger for a 1/2 hour to re-charge them every day?? those will be a couple questions I ask my audi next week when I see him
Just to be clear. I’m getting around 18 hours of battery life a day and this is with fairly heavy streaming.
Jordan
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Relative to @WhiteHat 's comments and just to make sure that you’re comparing apples to apples, it wouldn’t hurt to ask your audi for a Clinician’s Report printout (which probably could be exported to PDF for each fit if you audi has a PDF printer installed on their computer). For Smart Fit, one finds the Clinician’s Report under the FINALIZE menu option. It’s basically a full dump of everything about your HA setup including your fitting curves for your various programs. The same is probably available in the Target Phonak fitting software. By comparing the two reports, you’d be able to tell if you’re getting the same amplification in your high frequencies for soft, medium, and loud sounds, for example. If some of your conclusions are based on your audi just not setting you up with the ~equivalent fitting algorithms between the Lumity and the Omnia, then you’re really reviewing the experience of the audi in fitting the two brands of aids, not potentially the real differences. I’m willing to believe the differences you hear are very real. It would just be nice to have more evidence that the fits are really as equivalent as possible. As I’ve mentioned before, ReSound’s favorite fitting audiogram is Audiogram+, which is derived from the original ANL NAL fitting algorithm and, IMHO, is just not as good as NAL-NL2. Harvey Dillon’s ANL group superseded their own NAL with NAL-NL2, which they thought significantly better. Audiogram+ is targeted more at the “comfort” of new users to amplified sounds by not “overdoing” it. If you’re also not using Experienced User, Non-Linear with a ReSound fitting, you also might be more in the ReSound comfort settings for that reason, too, and not in the best listening settings for an experienced user acclimatized to HA amplification.
If my audi still holds up to her offer to let me trial both aids in December, I’ll try to make the comparison as I suggest. The nice thing about my audi is that she’s had no objection so far with me experimenting on my own with different fitting algorithms and user experience settings, although in doing so, I’m unable to confirm the fit by REM.
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Phonak claims to have a proprietary first fitting algorithm. From the PhonakPro website:
“Our proprietary fitting formula, Adaptive Phonak Digital (APD) 2.0 is designed to balance audibility, loudness and sound quality. It does this by applying a dedicated processing algorithm and pre-calculation for a comfortable, spontaneous first-fit acceptance. APD 2.0 leads to reduced listening effort in noise for those with mild to severe hearing loss.”
I will ask my audiologist on Wednesday about what fitting formula was setup for Omnia and if he can try and match the two for a proper comparison.
Jordan
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As you said before, it might be that Phonak just has a better, faster processor that allows the Lumity to adjust better and faster to a particular sound environment. But it would be interesting if there were something in the fitting algorithms themselves that showed an obvious difference, such as more amplification in the high frequencies, particular for soft voice sounds. I didn’t mean to put your audi to a whole bunch of extra work. I just thought fitting curves for, say, the ReSound All-Around program vs. whatever the standard Lumity fit is (if such a thing exists when running Sound Sense or whatever the adaptable automatic program is called) might be informative and it would be easy for your audi to provide you with the equivalent of a Clinician’s Report for each. But maybe your audi has some ideas as to why Phonak seems decidedly better. That would be interesting to hear about, too.
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I’ll be trialing Phonak Lumity starting on Wednesday 10/19. I’m a long time S2P hearing aid user with poor word discrimination. Resound, Phonak, Oticon Epoq, Alta, Opn and recently a More demo. I’m unsure if the transition to Phonak will be a good one but based upon my own research and from reading detailed posts like yours I’m optimistic they will work out for me. After some wear time I’ll post my experience.
By the way I’m addicted to Tim Hortons brew and even got a senior discount today!
Tony
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