Streaming volume too loud on iPhone even on lowest setting

Don’t forget that you can usually adjust the volume (and e.q.) in the settings of your streaming platforms and apps - that may be the source of your difficulties rather than the HAs.

Different make here - I have Widex moments, but I did have this problem earlier on. In my case the answer lay in the “sound mixer” which has a slider to balance the sound at one end to “surroundings” and at the other to “Stream”. Sliding the balance more towards the “Surroundings” end reduced the sound to the hearing aids.
Perhaps your app has something similar?

I don’t like for them to adjust the output of the hearing aids by adjusting the frequencies to be lower because yea that lowers the sound but it also changes the way the sound…. sounds

What/how you are “streaming” can make a big difference in the performance of hearing aids. Music, YouTube videos, podcasts, bluetooth TVs… they’re all “upstream” of the aids, creating (and shaping) the sound that hits your hearing aids. Depending on the source of the audio, the sound can usually be adjusted by the app/device delivering it through the settings in the source of the audio - independently of the hearing aids. And (unfortunately) independently of each other if you’re streaming from several sources.

In any event, I’ve been able to improve streaming performance of my phonak aids by adjusting the audio settings at the source. I hope that’s more clear (no pun intended). Good luck.

In the myPhonak app, if you tap on the name of the program your HAs are using, you’ll find the sliders to adjust the proportions of background noise, speech clarity, and so on. You can save the settings as a new program which you specify a name for.

As clayville wrote, reducing the volume of the streamed content at the source is effective. It may save you some adjusting in the myPhonak app.

Phonak Target does allow you to adjust streaming gain but this is not the same as a separate media volume slider that’s independent from overall gain.

from a purely sound perspective, there is a difference between lowering the streaming gain in Phonak Target versus having a true media volume control (like a dedicated input volume slider).

Lowering streaming gain causes loss of detail in softer parts of music or speech. reduces clarity.

I want to lower the volume without affecting the full dynamic range of sound processing. don’t want changes to output shaping, compression, or MPO behavior.

I don’t think you know what your saying? I mean it’s all done from target (overall gain) plus all the handles are available to change if you wanted as well, the rest can be done from you phone, I use PowerAmp on my android phone, it’s absolutely fantastic, I’m very happy with my pod casts, and music streaming.

@monke said:

don’t want changes to output shaping, compression, or MPO behavior

So don’t change them then, use PowerAmp App.

In target, there should be a place where you can adjust the streaming volume. Left side of the screen where it says all programs. Under there should be a program named something like Automatic x.0 (streaming) and you can adjust the gain for streaming there.

What I’ve been trying to say here is that IF the volume within the audio app you are streaming is cranked up too high THEN the Phonak app slider and/or iPhone volume buttons are not going to tame it. In THAT case it isn’t the fault of the HAs or the general phone volume, but in the settings of the streaming app. It was just a suggestion of something for you to investigate if you haven’t already.

I find, often, that when many participants here are frustrated by their “aids” performance - whether that is bluetooth performance, audio streaming, phone calls, whatever - the root cause is their phone settings, the number of bluetooth devices on in their homes, the audio settings of external sources they are trying to stream.

Certainly not saying HAs are blameless or that your audiologist and Target can’t help, just that if, as in your case, the volume of streamed audio is far too loud before it even gets to the Phonak app or your aids you MIGHT be able to adjust the volume at the ultimate source (rather than the end of the chain). In my experience here, many people forget that or don’t think to try it.

I’m confused, let’s see if I got it right (If I didn’t, just ignore the instructions below)
1.- Streaming audio is too loud. OP cannot lower volume low enough using his iPhone.
2.- OP does not want to alter the non-streaming programming of his Phonak.
3.- OP does not want to alter the balance between outside world sound/streaming sound in the app.
4.- User has access to Phonak target.

5.- If this is the situation, the OP can lower the volume of the streaming function by using the automatic fine tuning feature in target
5.1- Open target->Fine Tuning, click on AutoSense OS (streaming): Underneath this, there will be two tabs: Media speech + mic, media music + mic (see picture below). Select the one you want to modify (let’s assume is Media speech plus music).
5.2 Click on media speech plus music
5.3 Click on Automatic Fine tuning
5.-4 In “Select type” pull down menu: Choose loudness - all sounds (of course you can explore the other items in the pull down menu).
5.-5 In “Select issue” pull down menu: choose overall too loud.
5.-6 Click on “fix issue”.
5.7 This process may be repeated until the result you want is achieved. Target also allows to revert the change.

Target has three types of streaming you can adjust: Music, Speech and the Phone talk

Phonak target, IMHO , is the most flexible/more options sw I’ve found for tuning. (and my fav one)

I hope this helps.

https://imgur.com/a/3W9iWvb15

OcramSagev,

While this is a very detailed and thought out comment and possibly the only thing approximating a solution, it is still not ideal. I can certainly use the “overall too loud” function to reduce the overall gain, but this is not the same as reducing the overall volume. When I use the function you described to reduce the overall gain, it does indeed lower my volume, but it also changes the sound quality to be significantly worse. I lose musical detail, it sounds horrible. when you reduce gain, you change the way the audio that comes through is shaped and compressed and you lose the original sound. i want the same sound, just louder and lower (similar to turning up and down the knob on a car radio). GAIN adjustments feels more like a poor man’s workaround to being able to actually lower the volume, and sacrifices clarity and quality.