Trialing Phonak I70, should I consider I90 or even Sphere instead?

I was fitted with Spheres yesterday after trying the I 90 -r. I use reading glasses and take them on and off all day. There have not been any issues and the aids really are not that much bigger.

@Beryl1 said:

Perhaps the domes are a factor but with my last hearing aids I had custom molds made and really hated them.

I am not sure what has made you hated them, but perhaps you need to remake them. Consider different impression technique (open jaw with bite block and keep that during silicone injection and curation).

You lose many of the benefits of HA, even if no AI features exist.

Interesting you said that. I have some I30 and I decided to get some P90 @ eBay. I noticed ZERO differences . The P90s had a defect (luckily) and I returned them . I’m thinking of buying some new Spheres @eBay. I’m 6’2 so the size will not be an issue for me.

Bimodal user.
Thanks for the link to the discussion of custom molds and your helofulness in general.

With my last hearing aids Phonak Audeo (before the Spheres) an in his 50s son who has (likely noise induced) hearing loss and wears CIC aids had long wondered why my well respected audiologist didn’t suggest molds for my severe hearing loss (see my audiogram and WRSs are 60 and 48%).
I asked her about them and she said that they would probably help and I paid $150 for them. They were a clear hard plastic with a small vent hole and never had a name that I was told). I stopped on the way home at a parking lot off a major highway and the sound was excrutiatingly loud with my voice adding to it when I got home and talked. It was so uncomfortable that the audiologist turned them down during a virtual fitting. I wore them for several weeks and found no difference in speech understanding and experimented in that resoect with comparing my oticon backio aids with domes with the phonak audeos that had the molds.
I so much preferred the old but recently programmed oticons and gave up on the custom molds. Later diagnosed with hyperaccusis because of the intolerance of sound and cochlear meunière because of an extreme vestibulary event I had the day after the molds were fitted. Events were likely not related. Perhaps more highly vented molds would be a compromise?

@Deadman42 said:

When I had a tympanometry done, they said my right eardrum moves too much.

Maybe tensor tympani muscle isn’t working properly? Does excessive eardrum movement is only on the one side? Any problem with trigeminal nerve or brain stroke in past?

@Beryl1 said:

and the sound was excrutiatingly loud with my voice adding to it when I got home and talked.

I am not surprised; changing domes to earmold placed deeply (which decreases ear canal volume) with a small diameter vent means increasing sound pressure level (SPL) near the eardrum, especially in lower frequencies and one’s own voice if there weren’t any fine-tuning after changing to earmold.

This will be an issue next week in my case because I’ll change my power domes to earmold with the smallest vent diameter possible. I will probably need to decrease gain in lower frequencies and increase it in higher frequencies.

Another factor is that you are probably accustomed to using underfitted HAs, so making it loud enough at once could be shocking for you. There should be a longer period with gradually increasing gain.

Third factor possible is upward spread of masking:

better seal of earmold
fewer low-frequency sounds leaking out of the ear canal.
disproportionately more unwanted SPL of lower frequencies near the eardrum, which masks information from higher frequencies.

Did you have REM?

No trigeminal nerve damage or stroke, but yes the right ear drum only it’s very hypermobile, and your right I do have Tensor Tympani Syndrome and Stapedial Myclonus my Neurotologist wanted to cut the muscles, but my ENT advise against it.

If you look at the Tympanometry for both left and right ears. Whichever has a higher gradient means the eardrum is moving too much. When I saw my ENT and Audiologist both have told me that my right ear the tympanometry indicates hypermobile middle ear function w/present ipsilateral acoustic reflexs.

Sphere is the most comprehensive product Phonak has to offer for speech in noisey environments. I have found they also provide better (compared to my old Paradises) clarity in all other situations. If the units fit your budget at least try them. I was amazed. After 20 plus years of HA, I finally got what I needed.

If you are comfortable with online rather than local purchase, explore Injoy Hearing. Full service and warranty just can’t do any face to face care. Sphere I90 $1500 each programmed to you audiogram. I am 2 months with them and getting top notch care. I found a local audiologist who will do REH for a fee if that is something you need. Tele heath works great as Phonak has supported remote adjustments for many years.

Wow, $1,500 each. Many my audiologist was trying to sell me them $8,000 per pair. I did want to get the Phonak Audeo Spheres, but they were out of my budget. So I went with Widex Allure instead. However, they are having me trial the Starkey Edge AI next.

Thanks a bunch! I will definitely look into it.

Besides REM, you should consider molds to get the most out of spherical mode. Like buying a fine car and getting poor tires if you just let all the noise in.

WH

Excellent. I appreciate your post so much.

I’m impressed. Thanks

DaveL

Ideas in a similar environment. I couldn’t understand a word spoken by any of the 5 people. Closest was 3 feet. Furthest was 6 feet.

My hearing aids are Phonak Audeo Paradise P90Rs.

They are new, replacing my 3 year old P90s at end of warranty. My setup is new. REM. And I have moulded inserts.

Yesterday I took part in the party with dozen (14?) people in ~25 sq. meters living room, still with power domes with my Sphere 90.

It was definitely more difficult than 1:1 meeting, couldn’t understand many sentences, but still is was definitely better experience than would be with old Paradise P90-RT. After 5h15m battery falls from 100% to 28%, because it have to use Spheric program throughout the event. Then I trasitioned to Paradise + RogerOn - not that good outcome, however I have not optimised well gains in my Paradise.

After 30-45mins I changed back to Sphere, because after recharging it has near 60%.

I was out of luck, because my Audi has holiday leave before my friend party.

EDIT: the noise level with dozen of people in one room was 70-75 dB (measured by DecibelX app) with peaks slighly above 80 dB.