I am new to wearing Widex Moment 440s and they’re suiting me really well.
They stream one-way from my iPhone. I’m sort of interested in the ComDex to stream handsfree, but the clincher would be whether the incoming sound would also be significantly improved with this as the bridge, rather than phone direct to hearing device. Is the rather scrappy sound I’m getting limited by the receiver and open dome, or by the current Bluetooth channel?
Can anyone with ComDex share their impressions please: does it improve streaming quality and reliability (and not just offer connection to more varied devices and a built in mic)?
I have the Evoke custom IPs so they don’t stream direct and I use the COM-DEX for this. The sound quality is excellent, there is no interference or anything that affects it. It just streams high quality sound directly into my Evokes. Speech is easy to understand and clear, music is great. Another family member has the Evoke F2’s with a custom tip which stream direct, and he has great sound quality too. Within the iPhone settings there should be options for audibility, but as you have mentioned, the fitting type may be limiting the quality of sound. You can get a very discreet custom tip made which should improve this for you. I tried an F2 with domes and was really taken aback at how much it reduced my ability to hear and reduced the quality of sound. A custom fit will usually enable the highest level of sound satisfaction for you.
i have the beyond 330 that stream direct and i find the stream quality mostly very good unless you move away from the phone
i may be wrong but it is my understanding that the com-dex is a full bluetooth device as a receiver and then it transmits a low-power bluetooth signal to the aids which should mean you will get better connections if you move away from the phone
my hearing loss is moderate so sometimes when i want to listen to music i will use airpods and with them i can walk all over my apartment and receive the signal nice and strong because it is full bluetooth
i stand to be corrected in any of this
i am thinking of getting com-dex also and wonder if it will improve the sound
I have a follow-up next week, so I’ll ask in advance and maybe they can let me have a go. I’d still be interested if anyone with ComDex has impressions they can share.
I have the Moment 330s with supplied domes and stream direct from my iPhone. Widex Moment HAs in streaming mode have 2 audio settings: Speech and Music The HAs automatically make a decision as to whether the incoming audio is speech or music. I have often found that the HAs will select Speech by default when the correct setting is Music - I use the iPhone Moment app to check and change the setting if needed.
However HA streaming sound quality even in Music is poor compared to when I use my Bose QC25 headphones (without HAs). I had to trial different settings in the app equaliser to improve the HA sound to a just acceptable quality.
My understanding is that hearing aid bluetooth is 64 kbps. That refers to bit depth x sampling rate in digital sound. For reference, CDs have a bit rate of 1411 kbps (sampling rate 44.1 kHz) , high quality spotify is 320 kbps, and MP3 files are 128 kbps. Of those formats used encoders to filter the most audible information into the final result that you get. If the music doesnt sound great on hearing aid bluetooth, that’s because the bit rate / sampling rate is really low and everything is passing through in real time without sophisticated encoding to make sure the track is sampled for the most audible content, but instead you might be getting stuff that’s not supposed to be audible or distortion from sounds being sampled at the wrong times. I like wearing my hearing aids and playing through speakers if they are programmed well, or with headphones where I have tinkered with the device equalizer
This is really helpful, omj44, thank you. I understand my own question better now: it’s about the ‘throttle’ for sound quality, and that’s going to be the Bluetooth channel of the hearing devices themselves. I can now think it through better. Even if the ComDex could carry a wider bandwidth, it still couldn’t alter the capacity of the devices to deliver it. So, ComDex probably isn’t a big enough step-up for me … and that’s fine, but I was trying to figure it out!
One think I’m not sure of is what connections the comdex uses. If it connects with fm to your hearing aids but highish fidelity bluetooth to the sending devices then maybe the quality is a bit better? I do not have experience using the device - just commenting on why hearing aid bluetooth may have lower quality music
yet the difference between full-bluetooth and low power bluetooth is significant in terms of distance, fullness and steadiness of the signal, even if the bandwidth is the same
Probably late with my answer. I have Widex Beyond and COM-DEX. Quality of COM-DEX is terrible when compare to direct streaming from iPhone. If I remember it right - COM-DEX is not stereo - so that’s why the quality could be poor. Yes - it’s good for phone calling but listening music with COM-DEX is a hell…
thanks
i have decided not to get one
may get widex moment in 6 months or so
but yeah, i haven’t heard good things about com-dex
last from my audiologist
I have the Widex Moment 440 and an iPhone 15 pro and streaming anything directly from my iPhone to my hearing aids is terrible. When it’s working at its best it sounds very tinny. Most of the time the sound is breaking up going in and out sometimes with terrible interference. The company that I bought my hearing aids from sent me a Widex COM-DEX and this made all the difference in the world. The sound is really good and I hear none of that interference that I did before. I just don’t understand why these companies can’t get on the same page with their Bluetooth codec So these Devices can work together without me having to wear this thing around my neck. Also my brand new Apple Watch 10 with cellular will not stream directly to my hearing aids. Here again they will only work if I wear the COM-DEX device. You would think this day and time they can make these most recent releases of these devices that they could work together without having to have an intermediate device to handle the protocols.
Widex moment 440 came out in 2020 I think. They did release Smartric last year, but I think that is still limited to ASHA/MFi, and devices designed to go in between other devices and your HAs. There are only a few brands that have released HAs with working LE Audio.
I understand your point, hopefully this will come in time & the com-dex is indeed excellent for streaming. I also use it to stream calls via my laptop at work. I actually prefer being able to control streaming through the com-dex rather than my phone. It’s so easy to mute when running & listening to music then unmute around traffic etc. Otherwise I have to keep getting my phone out. I am glad your hearing care provider recognised this as a solution for you. I am sure many people are not aware of this option.