I appreciate the technical and informative answer :). You obviously know a lot about this stuff. I’m not super well versed on the Audiology side of things, but know just enough to get by. Always great to learn new things.
How does the Pure do automatic environment detection? For example, if one of your programs is “Reverberant Room”, when you walk into your staircase or cafeteria, is the Pure smart enough to change to that program automatically?
What happens if your cafeteria qualifies for both “Noisy Environment” and “Reverberant Room”? How would the Pure decide on which of these programs to switch to?
It’s not automatic. That was the problem. I had to manually change programs in each scenario based on how what I thought the right program would be. The Universal Program on the Pure 13 BT was not sufficient for those environments - changing the volume didn’t improve things.
That’s why I reported missing my Universal Program from the Oticon Opn 1s - I rarely change it. Just volume up and down when needed.
Oh, OK, thanks for the clarification. With most modern HAs having some kind of automatic listening environment detection that triggers program change, I just assumed that the Pure has something similar.
The OPN obviously doesn’t have such a thing, but then like you said, it doesn’t need one in the first place.
Well, actually, I take it back. The OPN does detect different listening environments, from simple to complex. But it just makes adjustment to the noise reduction on the fly to adjust for the varying listening environments based on the parameter settings. It just does this all within the same default program.
I’m sure there was something going on automatically on the Universal Program in the Pure 13 BTs, but it didn’t change the hearing aid response in a way that made it easy enough for me to hear. Hence the manual program changes.
I have Pure 13 BT since mid August. The Bluetooth connection to the iPhone is very unreliable, in my opinion. I’m on my second pair as the first pair I believe was defective. Shut off on their own. Had to pair to iPhone so many times during the day. Couldn’t stream audio w/o re-pairing etc. my Audi got me another pair about 3 weeks ago. They were working pretty well, until a week ago. The problems are arising again. As many HA wearers know, talking on the phone is tough, at least for me. The call ‘should’ go directly to HAs. It does sometimes. On 2 occasions, I answered an important call. No connection to HAs. I just struggled through the call. The clarity of speech is good. TV streamer is great. The BT reliability is bad. I can’t rely on them to work when I need them. Hopefully my Audi will work with me. I’m thinking of trying the Oticon OPNs.
The other thing is Signia has come out with a new HA, and I don’t think they have handled issues with the Pure 13 BT. Well we will see.
Thank you for the article. It was helpful and informative to me.
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What kind of iPhone do you have @Sequoia_Woman? I have an iPhone 7 with iOS 11.0.3. The experience has also been the same with my iPad Air 2 also running iOS 11.0.3. My review was based on that. Is your iPhone perhaps older? Do you have an iPad or iPod you can try connecting to? I’d be curious to see if that makes any difference for you.
I’ve had cases where I was Bluetooth paired to multiple devices (i.e. my iPhone and my car), and I’d have to manually switch to the iPhone, but don’t recall ever experiencing connectivity issues in the 2.5 months I had the Pure 13 BTs.
It could also be a firmware problem, so an update might be in order unless you’ve already tried that route.
I suggested to @AbramBaileyAuD that we need create forum here for manufacturers to respond to these kind of problems with tips on how to diagnose and workaround them. But I think the issue is convincing them to have people on here to provide that support.
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I confirm the problem
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I think the Phonak Audeo B just released does Bluetooth 4.2 to any device IOS or Android. Any thoughts on this? Do you think the Pure 13 NX can get firmware to allow BT to Android? Or would you need their upcoming streaming device (release in 218)?
Am I the only one who never seems to have the extra device with them? Even the EastTek around the neck is somewhere else with a dead battery,
Should clarify these are Phonak Audeo B-Direct,
I would think having a manufacturer’s rep giving straight answers to questions would be a great marketing tool for them.
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To add to this question, and other related ones I asked on the article page in the comments section:
BLE Android Discussion.
What exactly is the issue that prevents direct streaming on Android? Is it hardware, drivers, protocol support, lack of integration in Android runtime? Does anyone know?
Hi ConZ27,
Thank you for your response. I have an iPhone 7 with iOS 11.0.3. I don’t connect to my iPad Pro 10.5, also iOS 11.0.3, as it causes problems if I use my iPad then I have to re-pair my iPhone if I want to say use it for TV or stream music on a walk. The HAs do not seem to seamlessly switch from one platform to another. I do have an Apple Watch that I wear and it BTs to my iPhone but I don’t do anything with my watch and my hearing aids. I can try staying connected to my iPad Pro to see if that makes a difference. These HAs worked great for about a month then started the connectivity problem just like the first pair. I did see the audiologist 2 weeks ago as she had to turn off the noise suppression feature when I was streaming music. That was all she did. I had to,d her the HAs were working great and I was happy. A week ago they started this connectivity problem. It is sporadic and I never know when I will not be connected. I like the features of the hearing aids WHEN they work but the frustration level is high for me right now.
Agreed, why have us guess and have to share answers we’ve had to learn the hard way or spent hours diagnosing. Just give us the answer and have “sticky” at the top of the forum chat with FAQs for on a per hearing aid basis.
Because I flipped mine between my iPad and iPhone frequently, I would go through the pairing process at least a couple of times every few days.
Maybe try going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Hearing > MFi Hear Aids > Devices > Forget this device. And then go through the repairing process.
Also do the same on your iPad if you’re previously paired with it, so you’re connected to at most one device.
Just a stab in the dark, but hoping it helps. Also, try turning of the Bluetooth on your Apple Watch while streaming and see if it makes a difference …
That’s what I’d do based on my Software Engineering background. See if you reproduce things consistently to rule out any inter-device interference.
I had contacted Signia customer service and got a very nice rep. I was discussing the BT problem (my first pair) with him. He responded and inquired about my phone and how I was pairing my HAs etc. he had gone to the trouble of cutting and pasting my questions with his answers. I did the same with my answers to his questions. I sent the message to him. Didn’t hear back. It was in a Friday so I thought, maybe on Monday he got busy and my email message got lost among his others so on Tuesday or Wednesday I resent the message. Note, this email was going directly to him. Never heard a word back. Not for sure what that means , but I did have a helpful guy and then he disappeared. 
The BTLe in BT4.x is very rudimentary. It has narrow bandwidth and the channel is mono-directional. Apple bought a design company with a different chip that support a more viral Le setup. BT5 has variable bandwidth and power where it can get distance in narrow and broader bandwidth closer. It uses a full band as opposed to 4’s narrow bandwidth.
I think Phonax came up with a kludge to bind multiple Le channels in some way.
One of the most annoying things … Pure BTs are affected, Opn 1s are affected … I wonder if Audeo B-Directs have this issue on Android …
Con, I have do and done all of the above. This last week, I pair mine at least 4-5 + Times A Day. Actually while sitting here typing this on my iPad my hearing aids are “Not Connected”. I have done nothing but type on my iPad. I did walk out to my garage and came back. Checked and Not Connected. The My Control app is not connected either.
OBTW, since I have your ear (pun intended) on the app, to get the My Control app to pair with HAs I have to put it in Demo mode, then go back in and select Setup and go from there. That sure is strange way of pairing the HAs. If I dint go into Demo nothing is selectable in the menu. Have you experienced that? Thank you for your input. It is greatly appreciated.
It may help to remove the app, turn off BT support, reboot the phone. Then setup everything again. You’ll want to do that with phone and pad.
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