Whisper has Bluetooth, phone only for now. It’s via the Brain, not directly from earpieces.
Yes, I should have specified that I meant for streaming. I presume it uses Bluetooth for the app? They asked they I not set up the app for the study.
Yep, the app uses Bluetooth.
Answer: No, it does not.
That being the case, how can any hearing aid improve the listener’s ability to hear speech in noise? All premium hearing aids claim to be able to do that to one degree or another. Frankly, how does any human being with perfect hearing deal with speech in noise? No one is able to listen to speech in noise and have their brain eliminate the noise in the way that your fast computer does in 40 hours.
As a Whisper user, what I find the real challenge to be enabling the listener to hear speech in noise when the background noise is more speech as is the case in restaurants, bars, sporting events, work parties on clean up day at my club, etc. My experience is that I can hear the loudest voices the best, but not necessarily the low talker next to me. (Remember the Seinfeld episode and the puffy shirt?) The loudest voice might be 20 feet away. I can hear it and understand every word, but a nearby voice might still be challenging. The AI is designed to separate speech from noise, but separating speech from speech/background noise is a whole other level of challenge.
What you’re talking about, Bill, is what I think the HA industry calls “babble” (undistinguished speech noise from multiple speakers around you). I saw a video from Don Schum a long time ago on Audiology Online that talks about this. I mentioned it in one of my posts (around post 40 or 41) in this thread here → https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/oticon-more-my-first-experience/
Below is an excerpt of that post that I wrote, for reference:
"I think spatial acoustic (to provide directionality on the voices) is not the only thing that can help or will help with the cocktail party effect. People also rely on other differentiations to help them single out and tune in on a single voice. I remember watching a presentation by Donald Schum (from Oticon at the time) from Audiology Online, and he offered another point of view that it’s better to get more speech cues from the surrounding environment that are different from the target speech cue, which can also help the listener be able to differentiate in order to isolate and focus better on the targeted speech cue.
I think what he was saying is that front focus beam forming helps with isolation toward the front only, but if the front has the babbles of voices (from around) diffused in with the targeted speech in the front, it can still be a challenge to separate out the diffused babbles from the targeted voice. But if the surrounding voices are made more clear to the listener right up front (not meaning toward the front, but in the first place), instead of getting blocked out by beam forming and reduced to a mix of babbles diffused with the targeted speech in front, then maybe the addition of the surrounding voices (that has better clarity and not reduced to diffused babbles up front) can help the brain hearing differentiate and single out more easily the targeted voice to focus in on.
What I got out of that presentation from Donald Schum was that it’s better to have more acoustical information to present to the brain for it to discern from and separate out, than to hide the acoustical information and starve the brain of the info it needs to sort things out."
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Well, I’m no expert. But I would think that it’s really a matter of the mind learning to sort out the stream of sensory impressions that we all encounter in various situations. And we naturally ‘select’ what’s relevant and important, and ignore the rest. Otherwise we’d be overwhelmed.
So, the same would hold true with the soundscape as heard through our hearing aids. We learn over time to select the relevant sounds and focus on that. So either an ‘open’ soundscape, or a ‘filtered’ one that tries to emphasize speech that’[s near at hand while suppressing background babble both require a period of adaptation. We have to learn how to hear with our given soundscape.
But we’re told, or have come to believe, that our devices will perform this work for us. so we expect our new HAs to immediately improve our hearing in noisy situations. I don’t think this is possible.
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I"m thankful for your description of your experience with Whisper. I’m thrilled that you’ve had improved hearing in noisy environments. Music to my ears. I wonder to what extent your positive experience is related to your audiogram. My hearing drops off substantially in higher frequencies and, I’m told, this makes key sounds in speech more difficult to pick up. I hope someone with a more sloped audiogram takes the time to make a report as comprehensive and thoughtful as yours is.
Are there any more end-of-year performance accounts from the Whisper subscribers ?
I don’t see an audiogram for you, but Whispers have a fairly limited fitting range. If your loss in the highs is greater than 70dB, I believe you’d be outside of the fitting range. I trialed a pair for a study and using domes instead of my typical custom molds I was not favorably impressed. I realize it was not a fair comparison to my current aids since I wasn’t using custom molds. Dealing with profound high frequency loss present multiple challenges. 1)Getting enough high frequency gain to the ear without generating feedback. 2) If one succeeds, the limited dynamic range makes high frequencies more of an “on/off” thing as you may not hear the frequency until it’s 90dB and anything over 100dB may be too loud. 3) Some of the frequencies may actually be deadspots so no amount of gain is going to help. Frequency lowering which is an option in some aids is not available in Whispers.
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Aye Jim…Seems to have all went relatively quiet on the “Whisper” front… No pun intended! TBH, I was very hopeful, and I had envisaged great strides/advance’s with this new concept, seems to have promised much, and perhaps delivered very little? I am ever hopeful this may change, and the Whisper manufacturers are busy beavering away in the background, making those promises from their enterprise, come to fruition… You would think, by advertising or at the very least speaking up about Whisper, that they may entice more subscribers to come onboard, then they could invest more in their research? Perhaps some of their subscribers will be kind enough to update the forum on what’s happening, if anything? Cheers Kev 
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According to their website it’s been awhile since a software update (March of 2022) There was a previous one in December of 2021. I’m guessing they’re overdue for a software update or coming out with a new model. Always the possibility that they’re having financial issues, but I have no evidence for that.
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Thank you @MDB for that update… There could indeed be financial issues, especially if they haven’t reached their subscribers targets? Perhaps the Banks/Investors have them on a tight rein, and they are unable to manoeuvre/update their software? Who knows… Cheers Kev
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@kevels55: Och! You’ve a keen and piercing ken, laddie. Some of their venture capitalist backers are noted for their inappetence for non-performance.
(I discovered this when, early on in this saga, a list of financial backers was published. I googled a few - most are risk-takers, but their patience with non-productive investments is limited.)
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I just scrolled through this lengthy thread hoping this might be suitable for me. Still having lack of streaming support is a big roadblock. Since 2020 most of my meetings have been virtual. I currently either stream directly to my aids from my iPhone or use a Bluetooth phone clip to a laptop with audio streamed to my aids. It has been 9 months since their last firmware update. If they are truly working on releasing new hardware, their current advertising does not obligate them to release an update for v1 after the new hardware release.
Next month I have an appointment with Duke Health to attempt to program my 4 year old KS8s. If they cannot do that I will likely need to purchase new aids.
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Whisper has mixed advertising claims.
This link says you get continuous system improvements so you always have the latest technology.
Their home page says
Regular software upgrades are supported until the next generation of hardware is released.
According to his page they have already violated their advertising claims
Every few months, you’ll receive software upgrades that offer improvements to your system, from new features to better sound processing.
But It appears to me that those who bought into the latest technology advertising likely actually ended up with aids with shorter firmware support than the major manufacturers. As Bluetooth and phone capabilities change, many times firmware updates are needed to maintain connectivity capabilities.
I am really disappointed.No social media posts since May.
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INCOMINGI am kind of hoping some of their staff is listening in to get the real impressions of prospective users.
They admit that the average hearing aid user keeps their aids for over 6 years while basically admitting their solution becomes static within less than the 3 year loan to purchase.
They also mention up to 90 dB hearing loss. I guess my loss is a little beyond that anyway.
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Personally Jim, it always seemed some “Whisper” users. were perhaps overprotective of their hearing aids, perhaps I am way off base? But, that was the impression I got… I am acutely aware, we all like to tout our own preferred hearing aid brand as the latest, and greatest, knowing full well, every hearing aid has some merit, but they usually have some faults as well, which we are usually obliged to overlook, probably because we prefer that sound? And the occasional blip, is outweighed by the overall sound experience, nothing is ever absolutely perfect, there is always a wee nagging idiosyncrasy to throw the odd spanner in the works… Constructive criticism IMO, wasn’t acceptable, perhaps it’s human nature, in that, if you are a “Whisper” user, you can be critical, because you are an end user, but woe betide if you are one of the profane non-whisper users, it was open season, and you were shot down in flames, if you asked what you deemed was a legitimate or responsible question… I do hope, this hearing aid does eventually take off though, not for myself, I am way beyond the threshold of which it covers, but the concept was different, and variety is the spice of life… As always, YMMV…
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Also known as potential paying customers. Some companies refer to them as their target market.
I wonder why we think they might be in financial trouble.
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