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Advice for Phonak infinio Sphere adjustments

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Hello, 1st post here so sorry if it’s not in the best place.

I’m 40 years old and I’ve been wearing aids for around 15 years, I have otocelerosis but with a mixed loss.

I have just been fitted with the phonak infinio spheres moving from their Marval aids.

I have these from the same company, the difference is they no longer fit with .

I haven’t had the ‘wow’ that others report with these and I have had to use my old aids for some occasions since I got these last weel.

Issues I notice, people close to me are super quite busy I can’t hear people from 20 meters away in the office.
Friction sounds are very loud.
When they go into the spheric mode my voice sounds broken, robotic.

It’s very hard to hear in loud noise.

Any suggestions or advice on what I should suggest to my audiologist, when I got them I mentioned the right aid was very quite and she bumped up the frequencies but I feel there is more to it?

I will of course tell her of the issues and I’m sure she’ll make some adjustments but with these I was in a supermarket and someone in front of me in the queue waved in front of my face saying owh, they had been speaking to me and I’d not heard a thing, my old aids I would have done. So far unless a there are some really good adjustments then I’ll be keeping my old aids.

Reason for upgrade was the batteries are the original and now last only around 12 hours, I work 10 hour shifts.

I do like the Bluetooth to a point, as in I can connect to two devices at a time which is good, they are pretty stable, however when scrolling YouTube shorts the audio cuts out for a second between videos which isn’t like my old ones.

If these get ditched what may be better for me given my I’ve uploaded?

Thanks

7 people in this conversation8 min readJump to latest

Sorry to see your troubles.
I think that with your complex loss you need verification using rem.
You haven’t said what the quality of streamed sound is like, if it’s good then that also points to fitting issues.
A majority of users report good results with sphere but I think your loss may be a challenge.

BACKGROUND NOISE

I honestly think those of us with severe loss in the high frequencies aren’t going to get the “wow” or “life altering” experience that others are experiencing.

Download a db meter to your phone such as Decibel X. Measure the environments that give you the most trouble, and report those findings to your audiologist. For me when it gets to about 75 db, the Spheres just aren’t getting it done. I end up using my Roger On. Before I purchased the Spheres, I had a long discussion with Otolaryngology at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I was told, with my loss, there would be situations where I would still need the Roger On.

Spheres have helped me in less noisy retail stores (60 db - 65 db) to clearly hear the clerk, something I struggled with when wearing Phonak Lumitys. Phonak Lumitys had Dynamic Noise Cancellation in both Speech in Noise and Speech in Loud Noise programs. I never could get either of those to work to wear I was satisfied. I am finding the same experience with the Speech in Noise program within the Spheres. I think the DNC just isn’t aggressive enough for some of us.

Since becoming a user, and trying to learn as much as possible to get the most out of my hearing aids, there isn’t a topic that is debated more than REM.

Years ago when I was wearing Marvel 70s, I had REM performed prior to an international vacation. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to hear in all situations. It was a disaster. It did not improve my ability to hear better in background noise (airport checkins, hotel checkins, restaurants). In calm situations, peoples voices sounded very tinny. When I upgraded to Lumity 90s I did not have REM performed, nor do I intend to with my current Spheres.

I did discuss this with an audiologist who does perform REM and my direct question was “Will REM help me hear better in background noise?” The response was a firm no. I get where REM will help conversation in calm situations sound more clear, or media streaming and telephone connections.

Even Dr. Cliff Olson says here that only 30% or hearing care professionals use REM.

Just passing along my experience.

In reply to @michael1

Good morning,

Thank you, the streaming quality seems fairly on par with my old ones, I can understand what’s being said in YouTube videos so I expect it’s very much to do with the fitting overall :slight_smile:

In reply to @raylock1

Good morning,

I am using a 2P fitting on my left ear with a small and then a c shell on my right ear, this had been the set up I had with my old ones as although the closed dome should be closed I can still use this ear for phone conversations. I use Bluetooth for my own phone, however for work we have phones which are not Bluetooth so this works for now at least :slight_smile:

In reply to #4

Good morning,

Thank you for the info, I think the main thing may be around . My old ones were set up with this however the audiologist no longer has the equipment to set them up using this and so I think I’ll either need to find another audiologist who does fit with REM or find someone who I can pay to set them up.

The issue is that my work are paying for them, they have a procurement process and will only buy from authorised companies, they’re view of ordering hearing aids are ‘we will order them and let you know when they have been delivered’. So trying to get them to loon elsewhere may be a challenge, fortunately they’ll order from the company I’ve used before who have fitted these already.

I have had some adjustments made and the robotic sound is present in everyday hearing which I think also suggests a fitting issue. Particularly on my right ear where the range of loss goes up and down a lot rather than flat.

I asked for the settings to be transferred over but the fitting software wouldn’t allow it.

I have access to the fitting software so I’m considering ordering the noahlink wireless 2 and doing this myself, I can imagine I can manually capture this data from the old ones and programme them to that. At least then I’ll get a good idea while I’m still trialling these.

Many thanks

In reply to @orgullodemexico

Good morning,

Thanks for your message, it’s really interesting to hear your thoughts on , I had also read mixed views of some who swear by it and others who feel it’s not beneficial.

I think for some people it’ll really help and others not as much.

For my old marvels they were initially fitted without REM and my ability to hear didn’t differ too much from the aids I had before this. After a year or so I asked them for a REM fitting, curious as to how they would sound and I noticed the highs on my right were then more audible and I feel I could then hear speech better, but this may just have been in my head.

However this is now probably the 6th pair of aids I have had. First started to wear them when I was early 20s and I’m now 40. The spheres are the first pair where I have had to put my old ones back in from being unable to distinguish what people are saying. Other than the marvels after the 1st year, all other pairs were set up without REM and I didn’t ever need to put the previous pair in.

I may just try a route while I have these but currently they haven’t impressed me and I feel it’s more for the fit and fine tuning than the aids themselves but I’ll see if I can adjust them well enough if I go that route.

Many thanks

In reply to @Bimodal_user

Hello, I’m not sure of the diameter but it looks to be around 1mm. I did try one on the left with the marvel aids which were set up with rem and I found that I could hear better with a on the left but the right was better with the c shell.

Hello thanks for the posts. Just an update. I visited a different audiologist who can fit with and he found that my left ear with the wasn’t too far from what I needed but he made some minor adjustments, however on the right it was very under amplified. He couldn’t get this to target due to feedback and I expect the c shell needs to be bigger but it’s made a huge difference.

I’ve bought the noahlink wireless 2 so I’m going to save a back up of the new and old aids and compare the amplification and settings, it’s arrived today so it’ll be a job for over the weekend but I’m keen to take this slowly and see if I can make any minor improvements.

However from the updated Rem fitting the aids are much better, the spheric mode still sounds a little robotic but with some minor adjustments I’m sure it’ll be better.

I’ve been wearing hearing aids for 15 years, Sphere Infinio for 6 months. seems very important to me, adjustments were made in real time while playing different voices at different volumes. I have ear molds, because the sphere works best in loud noise if you’re getting most of your sound from the aids. I initially had the standard silicon tip, but too much noise leaked in. I find they work well in noisy restaurants and gatherings, less well if there’s live music. The automatic switch to different programs works well, much better than the Marvels I used to have. Note that the Spheric mode is fairly directional.

In reply to @Charliefox

@Charliefox said:

he found that my left ear with the closed dome wasn’t too far from what I needed but he made some minor adjustments,

Even in 2.5-8 kHz range? :thinking:

@Charliefox said:

Hello, I’m not sure of the diameter but it looks to be around 1mm. I did try one on the left with the marvel aids which were set up with rem and I found that I could hear better with a closed dome on the left but the right was better with the c shell.

What was better with the vs. cShell in the left?

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