Resound One vs Phonak Paradise trial

My Preza’s were not rechargeable, so I can’t help you. They were size 13 batteries. I returned them for a full refund Friday when I decided to purchase the Phonak Paradise.

Hey,
I’m trialing the Paradise hearing aids for a 3 weeks now, and i’d like to share some things that concerned me greatly.
First, the connectivity issue, while it works flawlessly with my iphone and my ipad, i have HUGE issues with my macbook. It is impossible to link my hearing aids to my macbook, when at least iphone or ipad are connected. If i accidentally trigger a double tap and get Siri opened, my aids disconnect from my macbook, and i have to manually reconnect them back. Similar issue, is when either someone call me, or i call someone thorough facetime, i feels like my hearing aids connection get switched to ringing notification, and once that ringing is done, my aids are disconnected again. This is very annoying problem to me, since i can’t immediately hear the other person, and i need to ask them to wait until i fix this usse.
Strangely, when load my macbook in windows, most issues are gone. I can freely connect my hearing aids to macbook and either iphone or ipad. But, since i’m using macos most of my time, switching to windows isn’t an option.
So, after the first issue, i decided to use my headphones with my hearing aids, so i can hear sounds from my macbook properly, and i encountered a really weird issue, when the voice of person i’m talking to, or a music i’m listening can get very very quiet and i’m not able to understand what i’m hearing. Usually it goes away in a minute, but this is really annoying issue.
And my last issue is the stability of connection with my iphone, while i’m walking outside of my home. If i’m in open space, far away from houses, walls, tall cars, then it is pretty much dead, unless i take my iphone in my hand and keep it in front of me. It wasn’t that bad with my MFi Beltone Legends. Also, i noticed what my Paradise are connected to my iphone through my right hearing aids. So, if my right hearing aid loose connection to my iphone, then both are not playing any sounds from it, unlike again my beltone hearing aids, that were independently connected to my iphone.
I also regret switching from MFi hearing aids to non MFi ones, because if i want to change any settings in my hearing aids, i need to unlock my phone, find myPhonak app, open it, wait till the app connects to my hearing aids, and only then i can change something. For MFi, there is a shortcut, where i can in few taps change settings even without unlocking my phone.

Forgive me my ignorance, but what is MFi?

Made for iPhone. It’s Apple’s Low Energy (LE) Bluetooth (with special sauce :<) Their phones (and I think their tablets) use it, but not their laptops.

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Ah, thnx. Hence the reason I don’ t know it. No apples here whatsoever :wink:

But now that all future Mac laptops will be “Apple Silicon”-based and run an iOS-compatible version of Mac OS 11, presumably it’s just a matter of time until Apple’s laptops and desktops have MFi (and/or hopefully BT LE Audio, a.k.a. “Wi-Hi,”) built-in.

Maybe, but you know what they say about predictions, especially about the future. :slight_smile:
The new MacBook Air uses BT 5.0.

I find my Marvels to be just like this and it’s super annoying, where my friend has just got MFi aids and he never looses connection to his iPhone.

It might be like the ReSound Ones with BT 5.2 functionality available after a firmware update. Qualcomm has already announced newer FastConnect chips that will support Wi-Fi and BT 5.2 to appear in 2021 but they will require a firmware update for full BT 5.2 functionality. OTH, Apple is going to continue to sell Intel-based Macs for a few years so perhaps having an Apple Silicon-based Mac that can’t be upgraded is just straddling the middle of an evolution, rather than offering a revolution right out of the starting gate. Since Apple is pretty secretive, it may take a while before the full path forward for Apple users is laid out. Some of Qualcomm’s FastConnect chips are destined for the auto industry. That would be great if just like on airplanes that folks in cars equipped with BT LE Audio could listen to different channels or not with their LE Audio earbuds- we wouldn’t have have to be captive to the driver’s favorite radio or satellite station!

Anything is possible but I find it leads to less disappointment if I buy stuff that has the feature I want instead of buying it in anticipation of a feature it might get.

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I’m not suggesting anyone buy anything - I’m just hinting that suggesting Apple is not as forward looking as ReSound, Qualcomm (their frenemy), etc., is not too likely, which I thought pointing out that the current Apple Silicon-based M1 MacBook Air only has BT 5.0 might imply. Apple usually likes the “One More Thing …” surprise party approach.

Apple appears to be one of the contributors to the LE Audio Specification, which others have pointed out combines and incorporates unique features of both Apple’s and Qualcomm’s special BT-like sauces.

See p.2 of spec: https://www.bluetooth.org/DocMan/handlers/DownloadDoc.ashx?doc_id=502107&vId=542963

Companies listed in alphabetical order (Sonova isn’t on the list nor is Alphabet or Google but Apple is)

Not trying to knock Apple. They have an excellent reputation for longterm software support. Their participation in the LE audio spec strongly suggests that they will eventually come out with devices that support LE audio. Honest question though: Do they have any history of offering firmware updates that significantly expand functionality? I find this to be a rarity among ALL manufacturers as coming out with a new feature in a new device gives people an excuse to buy a new device.

I have a now ancient (in the world of smartphones) iPhone 6 Plus. It is old enough that Apple no longer provides updates for it to the latest iOS - it gets security updates but is stuck at 12.4.X where X increments with security updates.

When I first got the phone, Bluetooth was specified as 4.0. At some point it was changed to 4.2 during an iOS update. I realize this is NOT common. My guess it was a software only update as the hardware has not changed as the phone has never been opened/modified. I don’t know what additional features (if any) going to 4.2 added to my phone.

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My original post merely suggested over time that eventually Apple would probably provide MFi in the Mac OS for its Apple Silicon and perhaps BT 5.2 LE Audio (especially since it is one of the contributors to the standard). As far as introducing “backward compatibility,” according to Wikipedia, codec updates are one of the most frequent uses of firmware updates in modern devices, including mobile phones. One could consider LC3 a codec update but it requires specific hardware that might not be present in older devices. I do remember for a number of wireless protocols while a new standard was being haggled out companies like Linksys would offer routers with “pre-release” versions of the standard and promise that eventually the router would be upgraded to the official standard. That worked in PC days because at the same time, if you trusted Linksys, you could buy the pre-release version of the client wireless adapter for your PC so that the router would have something to communicate with. I did this during the evolution of the 802.11n standard. I wouldn’t want to place any bets on what Apple is doing now but since BT LE Audio builds over some features already present in MFi, it’s conceivable that for newer devices, like the iPhone 12, that the MFi in these devices might have the hardware required to turn it into BT LE Audio with a firmware update. Perhaps HA’s are expected to have a longer shelf life than mobile phones. But it is a bit suspicious that GN ReSound, another LC3 contributor, is building BT LE Audio capability into its ReSound One HA’s but has nothing definite to connect to right now except Qualcomm’s announced plans to firmware-upgrade its newest FastConnect Chips in 2021 - but 3/4 of ReSound’s customers are iPhone users according to ReSound’s own statistics.

As an example of backwardly compatible changes, I would say Apple with an iOS update massively retreated on its battery management policy of slowing down older aging iPhones so they wouldn’t suddenly shutdown under extreme power demands that an older battery couldn’t support. Now that option, even in an iPhone 6S, is under user-control, i.e., the function was introduced, then walked back under fiery user protest.

I have been wearing ones for 3 days and I am already over it… the fact I cannot stream from my ipad automatically when I change devices is a big no for me. Can anyone give me some ideas to make these work for me. I just emailed with the doctor and shes ordering the Paradise for me to trial but I have to have a ear mold. I its all about the tech for me really …its how I function in life and I dont want to have to re pair my HA and un pair and not be able to go back and forth. Sigh . I want to be able to not have to use a headset at all.
Dee

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Are you sure you need to un-pair and re-pair devices? Most of us just turn Bluetooth off and on pending on which device we want to use having only one Bluetooth turned on at a time.

now what if I am on the ipad and the phone rings I have to disconnect the stupid bt to go back to the phone? This is where I am having the issues . Its just 8 grand to be stuck where I was before is annoying

I sympathize with your frustration. It was a primary factor in my choice to go with the Paradise HAs. I go back and forth between my iPhone and iPad all day long without any hiccups. When a phone call comes in my streaming from my iPad stops when I answer the call, and then resumes when I hang up. Same when I am streaming from my iPhone.

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I currently have an android but will be moving back to apple once we get our tax money back. I just got new ipad in August. I guess she thought I was an old lady but I listen to youtube and music all day and I spend about 85% of my life alone and need my tech LOL

My take is that hearing aid streaming tech is not yet at the level where it “just works.” Some people get lucky and things go smoothly for them. Some carefully read manuals, learn what to expect and are not disappointed. Many have an idea of how they think things should work and are often disappointed.

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