Two Months With Lumity 90 after 3 Years With Marvel 90

Hearing Aids
#22

@PaulS

“You sound like an advert for Lumity aids, leaves me wandering how genuineyour post is.
I have had mine for about 3 weeks now and I am not as impressed with them.

I am not so convinced that audiologists understand the capability of the Target software that fine tunes HAs.”

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You’ve answered your own question!

Nothing about advertising PHONAK Aids because they are great, because you aren’t liking them.

A good 80% of liking an Aid is down to how the audiologist fits them. An audiologist who fits them poorly means you’ll hate them!

Just because @d_Wooluf likes them, means nothing to everyone else as it’s his/her own ears.

Sounds like you feel ALL audiologist will do a poor job?

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#23

Err… never tried them? I just don’t like pointless narkiness.

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#24

Oh I tagged the wrong person. Sorry.

:slight_smile:

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#25

I am not sure if this is the best place for my question, but I’ll put it here and then start a new thread instead if people object.

I’ve had Lumity L90-RL for about 3 months. I agree with all the good things the OP and many others have said. They work incredibly well in noise, so well that I haven’t yet bothered to transfer the Roger licenses from my M90.

A minor point is that I had to disable tap to switch since I was always doing it by accident, even with the least sensitive setting. Leaning back in a chair was enough to do it. Big ears, I guess.

However, I have 2 issues.

  1. Since the last IOS and Phonak app updates (don’t know which to blame), even picking up my iPhone 11 causes the aids to switch to Bluetooth + Mic. If I then turn off the phone screen that usually fixes the problem. This has only started to happen in the last week or two. I have turned off essentially all notifications and still get the problem. I’m reduced to switching off bluetooth in the phone. Has anyone else experienced this?

  2. The charger (Phonak Charger GO) is a bit flaky. I have to hard reset it every week or two when it either appears to be completely dead, or decides to switch off or on only one of the hearing aids when it is inserted or removed. The app sometimes thinks the problem is in the hearing aids and tries to fix this, possibly compounding the issue.

If anyone has a solution to this (other than switching to an Android phone, which I’m OK with but not right now), please let me know.

#26

@xyzzy

Number 1 is sometimes caused if you leave Apps open.

My friend found she has to fully close each App.

This might not help you but it helped my friend on iPhone and L90 as well.

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#27

@Zebras : Thanks for pointing this out. I used to underestimate how having too many open apps could degrade performance - but I’m now a believer, and frequently check on my open apps.

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#28

Exactly that happened to me with both my Paradise and Lumity life aids and it was the same charger so I’m leaning towards thinking that it is the charger.

The first time it happened I had to try to fix it for quite a while as resetting didn’t immediately work. The second time it happened to me was overnight when an aid was loose and started whistling.

Both the aids and the charger were dead in the morning which I wasn’t happy with at all, but resetting the charger with a pin worked first time.

It seems to happen to me if I allow the battery in the charger to run out completely. I haven’t tested it so I don’t know if it happens each time the induction charger case battery is out of charge.

#29

Zebras I truly appreciate your posts.

I think finding a good audiologist is essential.

And being able to communicate well with the audiologists is so important too.

Someone recommended this book in a post here:

“Hear & Beyond” Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss"

by Shari Eberts & Gael Hannan

The book has helped me so much. Trying to help.

DaveL

4 Likes
#30

@BeLo Thank you for describing your experience. I don’t think my problem is to do with the state of charge of the battery in the charger, because I’ve never let it get below two bars. Hmm, it may be that the charger is lying to me about its state of charge, so I’ll try running the charger battery down and see what happens.

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#31

Thanks @Zebras. It didn’t change things when I closed the Phonak app, but I’ll try closing some of the many others that end up running without my knowing why. I tried connecting to an Android phone and I didn’t see the problem, so the issue does seem to be with IOS. My best hope at present is that the next IOS update fixes it. Apple seems to frequently have issues with bluetooth when it does system updates, to the extent that some people have been unable to connect almost anything at all.

#32

Phonak Lumity sounds like the hearing aid where they finally paid attention to speech in noisy situations that so many of us complain about. I wonder if this hearing aid will be the right fit for me with my really bad profound hearing loss.

#33

No and no.

Lumity is just another new release where there have been small and incremental improvements to the previous version. Hearing aids for the last 30 years - arguably since they went digital have attempted to deal with noisy situations. Do not believe the hype that Lumity is now a total solution. It is a difficult problem to solve and it becomes more difficult the more difficult the loss, in-particular for severe losses and beyond. It might be the case that you will receive little to no benefit at all because you may need improvements of up to 20DB in signal to noise ratio to hear in noise. In which case you would need assistive devices.

For your loss, Lumity is not suitable as your loss is profound. You will need a super-power BTE aid, or more accurately an ultra-power UP aid. This is for a few reasons. One - it will have more output, probably an MPO of 135DB+ and gain of 80DB+. Two, the hearing aids are usually optimised for dealing with people with severe and profound losses, so as an example they could have 2 receivers - Phonak, or they will have modifications to deal with feedback - for example on the Xceed the microphone is designed to reduce feedback, to deal with the output requirements. Three, in these aids the fitting formula is specifically tailored to deal with people with severe and profound losses - so for example with the Oticon Xceed, a high kneepoint is used to limit the amount of compression, which they say delivers more clarity.

I am not an audiologist but I am sure most people on here would recommend an ultra power aid + the use of some assistive devices, or a cochlea implant for your loss.

4 Likes
#34

I completely agree. I seem to be pushing the limits of my L90 RIC in my right ear at high frequencies even with a custom mould.

The symptoms are sound leakage and feedback which are under control but only under perfect conditions: not eating, talking or laughing!

As you wrote it’s the microphones too: if my hair doesn’t cover my aid then the chance of feedback increases.

I have a mixed loss which isn’t shown on my audiogram and my high frequency MPOs are quite large. If my hearing deteriorates any further then I doubt my current Lumity aids could handle it that well based upon my current experience.

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#35

@TallRobocop ,@glucas : Well, I think that @glucas has given you an excellent answer. The UP recommendation is correct and suitable for your loss.

The “don’t believe the hype” admonition is appropriate, also. When Oticon introduced More, these were also supposed to be the nec plus ultra of hearing aids. This has not been the case.

I do wear genuine Oticon brand More1 hearing devices, and like so many (cf. @cvkemp) they give me excellent performance, and I am satisfied with them. But that derives from:

  • Oticon’s approach to sound/speech processing
  • the patience and skill of my current audiologist
  • the skill of my ex-audiologist
  • the flawless acoustic coupling of my acrylic molds
  • my own detailed notes, which I email to my audiologist before every appointment

They are not the grail that Oticon’s marketing hype paints them to be.

@glucas’ post should be very helpful to you, if you heed his advice.

3 Likes
#36

Depending on your receiver that might be the reason as the UP receiver goes to 105 dB which the only frequency near the 105 dB is the very last frequency in your right ear, which is at 95 dB.

#37

With More1, I am still able to hear the TV (low volume), comfortable, able to hear kids sitting in the back seat, and car radio announcements (no need to be loud). Streaming directly from iPhone (voice and incoming signal). Never miss Phone calls due to connection with BT.
After OS16.2 and firmware update to 1.4.0 - connectivity becomes on and off after away from the iPhone of 10 meters or outside in the garden.On and Off the HA connects back to iPhone.

Only in noisy environments or group dining, the problem starts. So moving towards Phonak UP would be my choice after a trial. Clarity & word recognition would be a choice for me. The wording of superpower and ultra power in Phonak HA is confusing. As you have said that UP would be my choice.

Thanks

.

#38

Hi Zebras, pls elaborate on the above statement with regardton my hearing loss.
I am wearing More 1 with 100dB mic with a power dome.

Thanks

#39

@dankailo
@BeLo

Sorry I realised I didn’t finish the statement as I had a meeting to attend so I was rushed.

If you’re maxing out a P receiver then there will be more chance of feedback than a UP receiver as there is more room.

Obviously once you’re at the max of a UP receiver, then UP BTE Aid is the next best thing but most people get a UP BTE Aid even before maxing out the UP receiver.

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#40

It may be worth a try @dankailo to get 105db receivers, with custom made moulds? Domes will not cut it with your loss… Over the last 5 or 6 weeks, I have reverted back to my Marvel 90 RIC’s, initially because my new moulds (too tight) for my Naida P90 UP, and they are reeking havoc with my ears, causing them to scab over, and leaving me in constant pain, I can’t sand them down, because they have a hypoallergenic coating as I am allergic to silicone… I hear fairly good with the Marvels RIC’s with 105db receivers, though not on a par with the Naida UP’s, I get bye… I just carry my Roger on with me if I am going out… And since you have the More 1’s already, why not give custom moulds/molds a try, your local friendly Audioligist could take an impression, and get them made up for you, and reprogram them with the custom moulds factored in… It might be a cheaper option if they work well for you, you will not know until you try! Good Luck, cheers Kev :wink:

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#41

@kevels55, @dankailo ; Kevin is perfectly right a out the domes being unsuitable for your hearing loss If you mentioned that you were wearing domes before, I apologize, because I missed it.) I wear hard acrylic moulds. I don’t even feel them in my ears, and the acoustic coupling with my ear canal is perfect. The difference in your hearing will be HUGE if you try molds before anything else. And - relatively speaking - they are cheap!

As Kevin says: you won’t know until you try them.

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