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Echo with Oticon Real 1 and iPhone 17 Pro Max Plus

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I have recently begun using Oticon Real 1s due to dissatisfaction with Costco support in Dallas, Texas. It worked well with my iPhone 13. I have moved up to the iPhone 17 Pro Max with unsatisfactory results. When selecting my hearing aids the sound is distorted with a ringing sound. When there is a person speaking on the phone the echo is more than moderate. It negates any advantage of routing the call through the hearing aids. I wonder if this is due to these hearing aids utilizing their internal microphone rather than the phones microphone. I don’t know if it is a form of managed feedback or something else.

Is there a way to use the phones microphone while on a call to test this theory?

I tried removing the Oticon app from my phone but that made no difference.

I look forward to hearing some sage information.

Thanks

6 people in this conversation4 min readJump to latest

No. I just upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I hope you are wrong because the sound quality is unintelligible for the most part.

In reply to #2

@OcramSagev said: (unavailable)

I don’t think there is a way to stream the call to the HAs and use the phone mic at the same time.

I use my Real 1’s like that on iPhone 13 Pro, currently running iOS 18.6.2 but it’s worked on all previous releases too. It’s done by having Mic Input set to Off. I can’t think of any reason why Apple would have removed this capability on the latest iPhone and iOS, for whatever that’s worth.

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Edited

Yep, and in fact that’s the only way it worked when Made for iPhone hearing aids first came out. Apple and the hearing aid manufacturers added the Mic Input option later.

In my experience (and that of some other users here) using the hearing aid mics for phone calls is less than ideal, especially in a noisy place. The problem is that hearing aid mics are able to “beamform” (listen directionally) horizontally, so they can focus on sound in front of you, or to the side, etc. But they can’t beamform vertically, like focus on sound coming from your mouth, so their noise reduction strategies during phone calls get overwhelmed in a loud enough place.

This affects how well the person you’re speaking to can hear you. There are free echoback phone numbers that echo back what you say, so you can tell how you’re heard at the other end of the line.

In reply to @x475aws

It took me a while to try this but it seems it definitely fixed the problem. While it would be nice to be able to use the hearing aid mics for phone calls, the echo negates any connivence of not having to talk to the phone microphone. Over the years I have been conditioned to hold the telephone when talking, I guess I will continue the traditional method.

I appreciate the tip on solving this irritating issue. You saved me trying to seek help from Apple or T-Mobile, which would have been an uphill battle.

In reply to @x475aws

I too am using 13 Pro with hearing aid mic turned off, and using iphone mic with hearing aid receivers/speakers. I am running 18.7.1.

Hearing aids are streaming Bluetooth LE to iphone for audio, which causes dropouts by just having your phone in your pocket, and not great audio quality.

I would like to know if anybody is able to stream audio via on the iphone 17 Pro?

If so, it is time for a phone upgrade. If LE Audio still not implemented on iphone, it may be time for a Droid that uses LE Audio.

There is a new Apple Streaming Codec on iphone 17 and airpods 3, but my research says not enabled yet.

Would welcome knowing if anyone has verified and used LE Audio to stream to hearing aids with LE audio?

I have a question regarding the echo I experienced while using the hearing aid microphones. My hearing loss can be seen in my . I am currently using Oticon Open Base Domes which have multiple vents. Is it possible the echo and ringing I experience using the hearing aid microphones are due to sound leaking from the domes to the microphones?

To reduce the echo, would it be possible to use frequency shifting only on phone calls? I haven’t looked into using frequency shifting thus far but if it might allow totally hands free iPhone calls using the Oticon microphones while on the phone.

Any thoughts?

You’d probably benefit from slightly more occluded domes. You’d be aware of your own voice for a while, but that would diminish over time.

Try some Tulip domes from GN. (technically) Your low frequency response needs rolling off a bit: however it’s likely that your aids aren’t going to be doing much below 1KHz anyway.

The echo is likely caused by over-production (and leakage) of low frequency sounds re-entering the system. So, you reduce the leakage and in doing so reduce the LF gain (roll-off), which won’t sound much different to the wearer, as more sound is retained in the canal, but you’ll get less transmission back to the mic.

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