Am I expecting too much from infinio sphere?

Hi good to meet someone with similar loss ! I’m just back from my appointment and he’s sending my moulds back for larger vents. There are only two and they are tiny. In the meantime I’m trying some vented domes which are much better. When I use my Roger I always set the ambient to fully Roger to cut out the surrounding. That seems like it would mute the hearing aid mikes. I don’t particularly find Roger mikes helpful in noise though. I’m hoping these new aids will be an improvement. Feeling a lot more positive now I can really try them without the awful occlusion.

Hi Sandra,

I’ve been using P90 paradise UP for six years. I’m guessing here but assume you might be like me and have used power aids for a while all with dispousable batteries. I personally have never used a rechargeable battery HA. New aids are many times a hit or miss but do you have any thoughts on recharging Phonak Spheeres (pro or con) on a twenty-four hour basis?

Regarding ear shell you want full custom shell that fits well. I find a acrylic shell works better for me than silicone. Its just a more comfortable fit and I seem to get better vent air flow with acrylic. I question why Phonak keeps moving location of aid receivers with BTE ears aids from hearing aid body to ear canal mold. You would think by now aid manufacters would of settled the BTE receiver location for good, but it seems its still a moving target.

And I’ll throw out the obvious, but make sure you Audi checks your ears for ear wax build up before trailing new hearing aids. I actually thought my right side Paradise aid went dead a year ago and then before Audi started testing aid, she checked my ear canal and it was totally plugged with wax. I now have to go ever 9 to 12 months religiously to have wax removed, or I pay the price.

Hi yes my ears are clear. So far i haven’t had them in for a full day and also i use Roger and Bluetooth a lot which will increase battery use. But my mum uses rechargeable paradise 70s and they easily last all day and she uses Roger tv listener and Bluetooth for calls. It says mine have 16 hours at full but we will see. The good thing is the charging box works without being plugged in so if necessary you can boost them while out and about. I must admit I had the same concern but will see how they go.

It is really annoying if phonak don’t bring out a BTE version though.
I’ve been using my paradises with silicone open moulds and the ones I’ve had made are acrylic. Hoping they come back with enough vent. But these domes are doing ok so far. Just been in a shop for a while and I didn’t have to ask my husband to repeat what the lad serving us was saying. He also says I’m hearing him first time in the car which never happens normally.

I’ve been wearing hearing aids since I was 21 (I’m 70 now). I lost a large chunk of my missing hearing range when I got measles at 6 years old. Old age has taken a tiny bit more, but I’ve been hearing largely the same over the years. My Spheres are the 4th or 5th round of Phonaks. I can say that my Spheres are the best hearing aids that I have ever had for speech, tv, music (both streaming and not). I have worn deep set acrylic custom molds from the moment I put them in. With previous aids I never used the automatic programming, always choosing a program that best fit the situation I was in. With the Spheres, I am usually in the Automatic program. Speed in Loud Noise, TV, Music, and a special program for traveling by car are the ones I’ll switch to in rare circumstances.

The only other things that I did from the start are related to Bluetooth. The first was to change the Bluetooth Device Type for the Phonak Infiniio Streaming to Car Stereo in my Iphone’s Bluetooth settings. This muted out some ambient sounds that were being picked up by the microphone when talking on the phone. The other is to turn off that Phonak Infinio Streaming when I don’t want to stream, especially when using my phone, tablet, or computer. The “sound” I hear is totally different when that Bluetooth engages from various apps or web sites. That thin or tinny sound you are describing sounds like that “Bluetooth engaged” sound to me.

I hope you find the magic setup for these hearing aids! They’ve made a huge difference for me.

@SandraN said:

I don’t particularly find Roger mikes helpful in noise though.

This is even with more occluded earmolds? I suppose the less efficacy is due to noise coming through slit leaks of domes.

Have you talked with your audiologist about deeper earmolds, reaching the bony part of the ear canal? That position could decrease occlusion, even to zero…

Hi I’ve used Roger products since 2017 mainly in a work environment and also for the TV. When I’ve tried using it at social occasions it does pick up whichever speaker I want to hear but it also makes surrounding sounds louder too and I very quickly find I can’t cope with it. It just requires so much listening effort and tbh I don’t find it relaxing and I’m supposed to be enjoying myself, so tend not to bother. Also I’m often in a group of family members and don’t just want to focus on one person but want to participate in a fast moving conversation involving a number of people.

I can’t cope with occluded ear moulds I think possibly due to my normal level of bass frequency. At the moment I’m having more success with the vented domes I’ve been given to try.

Will try the moulds again when they come back hopefully with much bigger holes in them !

Hi again Barbara - thanks for the Car Stereo tip it really does make a huge difference!

I’m enjoying these aids tonight - testing myself watching TV without subtitles for the first time in many years and it’s working !

Hi Barbara
Thank you for the idea of changing the iPhone setting to Car Stereo. I’ve just done that with my 3-week old Spheres to see if it improves my hearing.

You can actually create your own version of any of the programs within the AutoSense main program, so that you can turn them on or off at will, without waiting for the Automatic version to kick in…and you don’t need an audiologist to do it.

The 'trick is to first conjure up a situation where the program you want to duplicate (like Spherical Speech, or Speech in Car, for example) HAS been turned on automatically…you can check that with the Phonak App while in Automatic mode by simply hitting the ‘Adjust’ button, which will then display the specific program that is running under the Automatic system…slightly tweek something like the volume (say) and then hit the ‘Save as New’ button…the system will provide a name for the ‘new’ program, which you can then modify to your own desire before you ‘save’ it.
Your ‘new’ version of the original program will appear in the available program list (under the name you have assigned to it) and can then be selected at any time manually instead of waiting for the AutoSense system to kick in…also bearing in mind that the threshold for that to happen WILL have been originally set be Phonak and/or modified by your audiologist where preparing your HAs.
After doing going through the above procedure, you can manually select and deselect these (normally) specific AutoSense programs whenever you please…bearing in mind ALSO that Spherical Speech consumes your batteries at twice the normal rate…so turn that off again when you’re not in need of it!

It’s a bit of a hack, but it DOES all work, and you can do it yourself without waiting for an audiologist appointment…somethings can be helpful during a ‘trial’ period, to help you evaluate the hardware better. HTH, Peter in Oz

Hi Peter

Thanks yes this is the same as my existing paradise aids I use the programmes a fair amount.

Happy to say my experience with the Infinios with a power dome is exceeding my expectations now. Even with the domes rather than a custom mould the clarity of speech is much improved both with and without the spheric setting. Just as I’d hoped. Examples are

Being able to hear my husband talking to me from behind while kayaking.

Holding a conversation while we were travelling in our motor home without any need for repetition or any misunderstanding.

Being able to watch some tv without subtitles.

Out for dinner with five family members and being able to fully join in the conversation without mishearing or needing repeat.

I’ve used them for work twice now using Teams with Roger Select and Bluetooth. The Roger is marginally better.

I’m now wearing the trial aids all day and impressed that the charge lasts even when using Roger , streaming and spheric mode for 3 hours.

If you give it to someone close to you it’ll give you their voice above the noise. If you give it to someone up to 25m away it will feed their voice to you but you may also get the background noise if like me you have low frequency hearing loss and open moulds. I mainly use Roger now for virtual meetings and TV but have used for work meetings in person in the past. I don’t find it much help in noise tbh. Eg crowded pub or similar.

The only way I use a Roger Pen is in pointing mode. I use linear compression to pick up near voices.Unless the voice I’m pointing at is very loud I’m restricted to, say, 10 feet. In very loud noise I don’t understand anything.

Hmm… Thanks for the feedback. You refer to Roger ON or Roger pen? New version?

I see. Hope new AI technology can help with the noise filtering soon. On their website says 20 meters… strange.