ReSound Rant: Streaming user experience is terrible!

Hearing Aids
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OK, here we go: I’ve had my Jabra EP20s (Resound Nexia) for about a year and I really like them. They sound good, especially with the MRIE receivers. However:

The user experience when streaming from my Phone is terrible!

Unlike every other manufacturer, ReSound doesn’t properly separate volume settings between streaming and regular operation.

Here is what I mean:

Here is the normal non-streaming setting that I’m assuming most people will use most of the time: ‘All-Around’ program, default volume.

Normal App setting
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When I start streaming (or a phone call), the app recognizes this and offers helpful ‘Streaming focus’ and ‘Hear all buttons’ which will adjust the volume of surrounding sound coming from the hearing aid microphones. So far so good.

Audio Streaming
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Let’s say I want my peace and quite and click on ‘Streaming focus’ to cut out surrounding noise:

Streaming Focus
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Fine - works.

Now here is the problem: If someone around me wants to talk to me, I will naturally turn off the music (or video) I’m streaming:

First, it takes 5 seconds for the app the switch back to ‘All-Around’. That’s way too long. But even worse, the hearing aids now retain the volume settings from what they were when streaming.

Which means the HA microphones remain off!

Volume remains off
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I can not express how absolutely brain-dead stupid that is!

Every other manufacturer has a dedicated streaming volume slider somewhere that is separate from the normal volume settings.

ReSound introduced iPhone streaming support in 2014 - they have had 11 years to wake up and do better, but they didn’t. Unbelievable.

I recently called their consumer hotline and the very friendly CSR created a ‘complaint’, but I doubt that my voice alone will have any effect.

I would urge anybody who uses ReSound/Jabra and also finds this unacceptable, to call ReSound and complain as well. If you are an audiologist, please raise this with your ReSound rep.

This is such a basic and simple thing that every other manufacturer gets right, but somehow ReSound has remained oblivious for the last 11 years!

And yes, I can manually switch to another program for streaming, change the volume there, and then manually change back to the original program when streaming ends. That works, but it’s two manual program changes for something that every other manufacturer has automated.

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I have mute set up as a function using the hearing aid button (left long press for me).
When streaming and not wanting to hear my surroundings a press of the button switches the mic off. Then when I want surroundings again another press turns them back on to the volume they were previously at.

Note this was not default and required a change in SmartFit.

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@Mike_A, yes I also have one of the HA buttons configured as ‘mute’. But that doesn’t help when I want to increase the HA microphone volume instead of reducing it.

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I also have the Jabra Enhanced Pro 20 hearing aids and I don’t stream music through them because the sound quality is terrible. The music sounds tinny regardless what I do with the settings in the Music card of the app. I thought when I bought them that streaming music would be a feature I would like. Instead it’s very disappointing.

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That’s an effect of using Bluetooth LE protocol for music. It wasn’t designed for audio but is the basis for MFi and ASHA to be able to stream music at all. I’ve had the same issues with Rexton. Phonak use fully fledged Bluetooth which makes streaming sound better at the cost of battery life and OS integration.

Hopefully LE Audio/Auracast will improve this :crossed_fingers:

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Ask you fitter to make some adjustments to try and improve it, can I suggest PowerAmp on android makes a massive difference when streaming, so many adjustments I’m sure you’ll be able to improve this.

Actually not quite true, it’s way better them the older versions of bluetooth, one of the reasons it’s now going to be the industry standard for Bluetooth, Phonak now use LE Audio as well, classic will be around for a long time yet,

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Thanks for the ideas to improve streaming music. I have an iPhone and can’t use Power App.

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@Flyboybob, I’m not convinced that streaming music sounding tinny is a result of Bluetooth (MFI on iPhone or LE on Android).

You didn’t post your audiogram, but if it’s a standard sloped curve like mine, then the tinny sound is likely simply result of ReSound’s sub-par bluetooth streaming implementation.

With a sloped curve, the HAs will amplify higher frequencies, and largely ignore low frequencies. Those lower frequencies will reach your ear directly from the outside, passing through your open (or vented-) dome.

When streaming, there is no outside sound that contributes the lower frequencies.

Other than the ‘Bass boost’ in the app (which I found insufficient), your Audi can give you additional bass boost via the ReSound Smart fit app:

Bass Boost
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This requires hearing aid firmware 9.68.1.0, on previous firmware sound would get distorted. It’s also not very granular an may not give good results for everyone.

Ultimately, I ended up with two ‘Music’ programs: one for listening to outside music, such as in the car or in a concert. And another one for streaming. The streaming one had the gain settings for lower frequencies cranked up significantly.

My original point still stands though: With ReSound, none of this is automatic!

The HAs should be able to automatically apply proper gain and volume settings when streaming and revert back to regular settings when streaming stops.

Other manufacturers do this, ReSound needs to wake up!

Anybody who agrees, please call ReSound’s support hotline to complain and/or bring it up with your Audi!

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@tenkan I mean to say MFi uses Bluetooth Low Energy (not LE audio). BLE is limited in terms of data rate to conserve energy (1mbps instead of up to 3mbps). It’s a protocol piggybacking the existing connection to improve functionality (and allow audio) whilst reducing power consumption. Fairly sure it was designed by collaboration from Resound and Apple many moons ago.

LE audio will use the low energy connection with the difference in quality will be due to a more efficient codec (LC3).

I have a pair of Phonaks as backup and they use BLE connection only to exchange data between the app and devices. For audio I have to pair using Bluetooth classic. Definitely sounds better but I miss the OS level integration. You end up with 3 devices connected. This is highlighted with LE prefix.

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I should be receiving an LE Audio/Auracast dongle soon so will be able to see if the difference in quality is worth the hype. Well, when I get my Resounds back from repair…again :sweat_smile:

@wtolkien Out of curiosity are you using open domes / molds? It won’t solve the app/volume issues but I swapped to closed domes and it definitely helps with bass when streaming.

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Yes Mike, I’m quite familiar with the bluetooth profile/codecs ; ) yeah so BLE has indeed been great with the Apps, LEA is definitely going to a lot better, battery consumption, latency etc, the dongles are going to keep all our older stuff going for bit longer, actually Andrew Bellavia did a great write up on LEA and Auracast for iOS, Apple is definitely going to implement this across the board on their respective devices, no way are they gonna be left behind.

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Apologies. Did not intend to suggest you were not familiar. I love technology and am known to waffle on about it :sweat_smile:

I was asked to do a presentation at work on hearing loss with another person and I focused on the technology available.

Auracast was an exciting topic to discuss with regards to how it could be used in our customers premesis.

More exciting though is its potential use in classrooms as we work closely with a school for hearing impaired children in India. Would be great if we could help to see it implemented there one day. :smiley:

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Mike it’s all good,no apologies needed, yeah definitely everyone wants this to move along as quickly as possible, absolutely would be perfect for the classroom, things like this could help kids in schools/learning facilities anywhere.

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Good on ReSound for being at the forefront of Auracast, I don’t want to take away from that.

But it’s amazing that they have been able to make LE Audio and Auracast a cornerstone of their marketing for well over a year, and at the same time they have the worst streaming user experience in the industry…

I guess you don’t get any marketing mileage from being able to say “Look at us, we’ve finally improved the streaming controls in our app and fitting software to catch up with everyone else”…

@Mike_A, to answer your question: yes, I’ve used closed domes for a while and they definitely help with lower frequencies when streaming. But they don’t fix the underlying issue.

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Not true at all, it’s one of the best I’ve and many others have used, if you haven’t already, I’d recommend PowerAmp App, it’s features are almost unlimited for getting your music sounding great and just how you like it to sound, the smart App works great, not perfect ( I don’t bother with it much now anyway) i just use the buttons on the HAs, using an app is not high on most people’s list, although I get that for some it’s a deal breaker, your issue could be solved with microphone attenuation in SmartFit, but again try using the buttons to change the program when you want to talk to someone, might be a little quicker, I’m not sure about your issue with returning to “All Around” program, when I set mine back my mic’s work as they should, have you got a bug on iPhone? maybe MFI bug?

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Is PowerAmp a bass booster app?

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I had the audiologist and a resound rep customize my streaming settings for music and audiobooks. The sound is good through the Apple I-Phone and 3D app.

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It’s that and a whole lot more, acoustics need to be sorted first, so I don’t know your audiogram but closed domes or better custom molds with the correct vent can make a real difference for streaming.

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Is there an iPhone version?

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Poweramp might be good, but it won’t do anything when you listen to a podcast, watch YouTube or Netflix, or want to listen to Apply Music or Spotify.

I think that people suggest all these workarounds exactly prove my point: ReSound’s user experience when streaming is bad!

And I respectfully disagree with @tenkan here: ReSound is lagging behind other manufacturers.

Oticon has a dedicated streaming equalizer in their app. Phonak has ‘Ambient balance’ to automatically adjust streaming volume. Starkey has a dedicated audio streaming program.

With ReSound, there is no solution that doesn’t require some manual intervention every time streaming starts or ends.

IMHO the best available solution is what @Ziby mentioned: have the Audiologist setup a dedicated program for streaming. That still means I have to switch to/from this program manually, but with ReSound, that’s as good as it gets.

I will admit that I have no experience with Signia. Looking at the manual for their app, it seems that they are equally bad as ReSound.

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Try Wavelet app, reportedly its supports YouTube.