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Phonak sphere setting up tv and mic and surround settings. Step by step

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I can’t figure it out. My wife is a loud talker so when I’m watching TV in TV and mic program and i turn the aids for her the TV also lowers volumn

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My suggestion is to get a Phonak TV connector and use the toslink cable to connect to your TV. You and your wife will each have your own volume controls. In addition by using the MyPphonak app on your phone you can control the amount of ambient sound (control the volume of your wife’s voice without affecting the volume you hear from the TV). These are available on EBay at a reasonable price.

The buttons on in tv + mic mode change the balance of sound sourced between the tv connector and the HA mics. Use the app to change tv volume, or the buttons on the connector, if your model has them.

WH

I have huge experience in this.
But the way the question is asked, I am not sure, if you are posting for your wife, if the aids are hers, … just too much confusion due to writing syntax. If you have figured it out - great. If you still need help… could you please rewrite your question…
Usually it is more expedient to take longer and make sure the written word accurately reflects your thoughts, and can be clearly understood by the most easily confused reader, than to hastily post something for everyone to try to deduce and muddle through. The question always is, not if you know what you are asking, but if the reader will know and understand!

That is why the EDIT button exists.

The hearing aid app allows you to control the overall volume, and in addition, the balance between environment and TV source. HOWEVER, as I have been complaining since the day I got these aids… the app has a major defect.
The moment that the volume slider is touched - for whatever reason - the microphones on the instruments themselves UNmute, even if they had been muted. Which possibly - if your wife speaks so loudly, you just may. Your can vary the balance to some extent in the main programming software, but for sure you should find the right setting in the app on your own. It probably will take constant adjustment -depending on your sensitivity and your hearing, because just as your wife’s volume varies, the TV also can have massive variation, as well as huge differences in clarity and background noise - necessitating change.

In reply to @mceach8

@mceach8 said:

I have the tv connector but while on tv +pic program if i turn down my wife’s voice via ha buttons , tv turns down also

If you have the latest latest app update and are using the TV connector, the identification should be “TV Connector + mic” not “tv+pic.” You should see two buttons, Volume and ambience. Select the Ambient button.

Ìf the TV connector is connected to the TV with the video cable (not to the audio output jack on the TV) the volume of the TV speakers is controlled on the TV. The volume of the hearing aids is controlled by the TV controller (a real pain) the buttons on the hearing aid or better in the MyPhonak app. In the app are rwo buttons one for volume and one for ambient. Using the volume and a.bient ambient buttons, hopehully you can find theright balance.

Screenshot_20250531_174525_myPhonak
Screenshot_20250531_181831_myPhonak

OK, sorry I can’t be more helpful. I was hoping between the two controls you could find a balance that worked. I find that sometimes just have to pause the TV to talk. On another topic (slightly), If you still have the Toslink cable that came with the connector, I think you will be happier than using the audio cable. (Maybe you are already since using the audio cable usually silences the TV speakers.)

In reply to @mceach8

@mceach8 said:

I’ve tried sliding to ambient but sliding the pointer in ambient still turns down the mics on ha

It will necessarily increase one and decrease the other. If you want to hear wife more, turn up volume a bit and increase ambient a bit until you hear both tv and wife at volumes you like. Think of volume as a master control, like the volume of water on a single knob faucet, and the ambient like the temp control in one-knob faucet. Changing volume doesn’t change balance. Changing balance doesn’t change volume. But changing both should let you find a place where you find the happy place where you get enough of all you want. There are limits to the ranges on the controls, but you can find what you need, hopefully.

WH

3 Things:
1 - The TV:
Dig deep into your TV menu.
In the audio settings.
The Toslink audio out, or if you are using the RCA out.
There might be an item that means the audio out level is a constant.
That it will not vary with TV speaker volume, and that the TV outputs BOTH at the same time.

2 - The Aids:
Use the App to select TV

Slide the Balance to the right about 1/4 to 1/3 to the TV to the Right ( which is labeled backwards from how it should be based on the headings above)

Raise the Volume slider till loud TV is clear, but not painfully loud

Go back to the balance slider and ride that continually as needed, to the left, when commercials come on, to the right when TV is unclear to you.

3 - The Wife…
What you gonna do about her ?!?
Does she have something new to say?
Does she want to watch TV, or Talk?
Maybe let HER use the balance slider!
And you just PAUSE the TV when she talks.

Edited

I’m really interested and following. This post is really helpful for me since it talks about the use of my tv adapters to the next hearing aids I may get. i hope that Workman’s Compensation changes there practice and provides the “90” model of the Sphere. (My concerns are “speech in noise” and particularly all around hearing improvements as I’ve almost been hit by motorized equipment on construction sites several times; I couldn’t hear them at all with my last hearing aids–Phonak B70)

Since my dispensing audi had trouble setting up my Paradise P90R’s I’ve been hoping that future hearing aids will meet my needs better.

The Sphere seem to be a significant improvement from my hearing aids, and the Lumity that followed. Lesson to self:

  • the tv adapter will work with Sphere (I have 2 of them.)
  • I’m grateful I didn’t work hard to get the Lumity (I suspect there were subtle improvements from Marvel to Paradise, and Paradise to Lumity)

So many of us have trouble understanding speech in loud noise. I’m impressed with the reviews showing real improvement in the “Sphere” Well done Phonak.

Here’s to even more improvements in hearing aid performance.

DaveL
Toronto

In reply to @WhiteHat

That’s true. I have three Phonak TV adapters and right now I’m travelling with one. I currently have it connected via TOSLINK to a TV where I’m staying and I use the app for volume control.

But I miss my setup at home that uses a cheap DAC from Amazon with a remote that I can use for volume control without needing the app. The problem with the app is that if my phone gets a message of some kind, it cuts out the TV stream for several seconds while it plays notification sounds. I find that annoying.

In reply to @DaveL

I was wearing oticon more 1’s for 3 years. That format allowed for 360 hearing and i could no longer go out with friends because i could hear too much background noise to carry on a conversation. Now with Phonak sphere on automatic i can hear everything everyone is saying around the table. Night and day

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