A bit of a tangent, but I think we should know by the end of the month if the new Snapdragon 895 (or 898) chip has BT 5.3. Quallcom is supposed to announce it by end of the month. I believe it will also be the first with ARM 9 architecture.
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I heard that Oticon was hoping their 5.1 chip could be upgraded to 5.2 in their most recent hearing aid to use LE Audio, but they discovered it wasnāt possible.
The manufacturers are learning as they go along. Iām pretty pleased that the ONE supports hands free calling!
I do see 5.3 as being listed as better in some ways including reliability. It seems like LE Audio has potentially finished the hard work of standardization so they released 5.3 and quite quickly while 5.2 was around for quite a while.
So my guess is that perhaps some 5.2 devices will support LE Audio if the manufacturer wants to use it. But there might be a feature that isnāt released until 5.3.
Iām going to wait for the successor to the Resound ONE as I would guess it would have 5.3 Bluetooth.
Iām hoping 2022 is the year I feel confident in buying multiple products that I plan to keep for a long time!
It isnāt every few years that Bluetooth experiences such a drastic upgrade. Yes, itās hard to be patient. But it will be worth it.
Granted, for those who want to buy hearing aids now, theyāre very good. And youād get a lot of features. Fortunately, iPhone users donāt have to wait to enjoy terrific phone calls and hands-free calling with the ONE! (Or Phonak).
Just personally, Iām thinking 2022 is the year of more future-proof products. 
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I agree that 2022 may be the year that LE audio gets fairly well sorted out. I try to avoid the allure of āfuture proof.ā
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Poking around with the Bluetooth Product search and discovered that the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform is 5.2 certified. Interesting for a device that came out early 2019.
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The Resound ONE literature says itās forward-compatible with the new version of Bluetooth LE Audio, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I recently upgraded my Cochlear side so a newer Resound would be required for them to work together on the iPhone anyway.
Iām hoping the hands-free audio quality of the ONE is better than the Phonak Marvel hands free I recently trialed while my Linx2 was in the shop. The audio quality of my voice to other people was awful.
What do you mean by āResound ONE literatureā? This has come up before. A couple of reviewers have claimed the forward compatibility but Iāve never seen anything from Resound confirming that. Hope itās true.
The only thing I found in this is the kind of nebulous claim of āā¦direct audio streaming via future-proof Bluetooth Low Energy.ā https://pro.resound.com/en-us/products/hearing-aids/one
I was about to post the brochure from Resound which states itās future-proof for Bluetooth Low Energy Audio and also Iāve asked and theyāve said theyād be able to do a firmware update to support it: https://cdn1-originals.webdamdb.com/13512_110297007?cache=1598478408&response-content-disposition=inline;filename%3DMK605319-br-one-dispenserbrochure.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&Policy=eyJTdGF0ZW1lbnQiOlt7IlJlc291cmNlIjoiaHR0cCo6Ly9jZG4xLW9yaWdpbmFscy53ZWJkYW1kYi5jb20vMTM1MTJfMTEwMjk3MDA3P2NhY2hlPTE1OTg0Nzg0MDgmcmVzcG9uc2UtY29udGVudC1kaXNwb3NpdGlvbj1pbmxpbmU7ZmlsZW5hbWUlMjUzRE1LNjA1MzE5LWJyLW9uZS1kaXNwZW5zZXJicm9jaHVyZS5wZGYmcmVzcG9uc2UtY29udGVudC10eXBlPWFwcGxpY2F0aW9uL3BkZiIsIkNvbmRpdGlvbiI6eyJEYXRlTGVzc1RoYW4iOnsiQVdTOkVwb2NoVGltZSI6MjE0NzQxNDQwMH19fV19&Signature=NQc3gaJJ9Tge6sKwk356EV3QTStYX13TDWp7eDS~bmnVmHxH-jXl6SFdxRDlZvoYh7tyBwArKDN64zCG54IxH4bIc7WRnZ7fzT1UubKEwwaf412EEvnGpuHsQj5ksOU1pF0CLjyJRJhJO40QbyXL5W2HiWLI1u01FgQnbi5ZtVMnswRh771MXFt~EJaU1Sa5VYzmuFGL6dvRnYWcxjePeCCsFll8z8Ro3YkjN1q6efFkWbW04rE14JZbYEDxx8bk0IPofPePS1jds1exisRyo3TWKX1OxVVDQdLBKaFLmNobm-C64zeFkXrvbdWNGx1wEbqOF2IBK4qLER~U2JPV4w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAI2ASI2IOLRFF2RHA
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I donāt see anywhere where it says Low Energy Audio. They say Bluetooth Low Energy which most current hearing aids support and even ones that donāt use it for streaming (like Phonak) use it for controlling the app. They may very well support LE Audio and I think thatās the impression theyāre trying to give, but theyāve left themselves enough wiggle room if they canāt pull it off.
That may be true. But I can assume that with their 5.2 chip they will be able to pull it off. However, only when the time comes will we know for sure how much of it and maybe some parts of it wonāt be supported. Hopefully itāll work out.
I wonder if itās got two Aerials or some dual band functionality.
Might be handy to receive sound and stream on the conventional Bluetooth channel. And transmit on the lower power LE channel.
If itās feasible to do this: splitting the send/receive, it saves over 50% of the packets and massively cuts the latency for equivalent resolution signals. That said, 5.2 might already accommodate this sort of data transfer without the need to use another band.
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I think your āitā refers to the Resound One? To best of my understanding Phonak (in Marvel and Paradise) use standard Bluetooth for streaming and LE Bluetooth for controlling the app. I have no idea how they accomplish this. Theyāre also using some sort of low energy radio for TV Connect, PartnerMic and I believe a separate signal for Roger accessories. Either multiple antennae or a multipurpose one.
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I think users should ideally always be given a choice if possibleā¦ so if they want to use classic Bluetooth despite the battery life, then that should be an option. But I could see patients getting confused over the different settings.
However, I do believe Bluetooth 5.2/5.3 and LE Audio will have the goal of accomplishing the functions of classic Bluetooth.
But, what Iām REALLY happy to see is that Apple somehow figured out how to get hands-free streaming capability in their proprietary MFi technology before the release of Bluetooth 5.2/5.3 so the Resound ONE can have hands-free calling even without requiring Bluetooth 5.2/5.3. One of the features mentioned as a benefit for LE Audio was the hands-free calling functionality; so Iām thrilled we only have to wait for the ONEās firmware update in December. Hands-free streaming does only work with iPhones 11 or higher, since those have Bluetooth 5.1. So I happen to have a XS Max iPhone, so Iāll need to upgrade my phone if I want to use it. I was planning on upgrading my iPhone next year when hopefully they would support 5.2 or 5.3. But oh well.
I hope the hands-free calling of the Resound ONE is a much better experience than what I had with the loaner Phonak Marvel I was provided with while my Linx2 was in the shop. The sound quality of my voice to callers was staticky, even with enhanced Bluetooth enabled in the myPhonak app.
Iād be looking at something that I could take back to the outfit I got the aids from, wave under their noses and point to the bit where it says āfuture compatibility with LE Audioā and say āmake it happenā. I still havenāt seen anything.
Iāve seen two reviews that have claimed future compatibility. Iād assume that Resound were well aware of the reviews, but I havenāt seen anything from them to confirm or deny. It seems strange for a āmedical deviceā maker to leave that kind of stuff hanging. Anyway, letās hope @member72ās audiologist knows what theyāre talking about.
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I didnāt say my audiologist told me. Resound emailed me back. Who knows until it happens.
Thatās pretty good that they put it in writing. Iād keep the email, just in case.
Is this set of features expected to land on the Android world? It would be pretty handyā¦
Not sure what you mean by āthis set of features.ā Hands free streaming is available on both Android and iPhones in Phonak Marvel, Paradise and related hearing aids. Some of us expect a more fully featured version of Bluetooth (BT 5.3) and LE Audio to bring a lot of advanced features and think it will be present in upcoming Android and iPhones.
The linked article says that, on iPhones, you can now answer with a double tap and the microphones of the hearing aid now stream sounds back to your phone. This features are not available on Android and there you can only streaming music or voice, unidirectional from the phone from the HAs.
I just skimmed a couple of links and didnāt see what you were referring to. The Resound Ones only allow the 2 way streaming with iPhone (Model 11,12, 13 and SE(2020)) Phonak Marvel and Paradise allow it with pretty much all Bluetooth capable smartphones.