Oticon Intent 1, Phonak I90 Sphere, or Starkey Omega AI 24, which should I choose?

I just adjusted the feedback manager at home to low and tested it out on the street. Yes, it’s better now! Thank you for pointing out the issue.

The reason I am changing is due to my VA audiologist’s suggestion. As you know I have almost 6 months to decide. I have complete trust in my audiologist who hasn’t stirred me wrong yet. And I have 7 years experience with him.

Well, since you get to keep your Intent as a backup anyway and don’t have to turn it in, you can always go back to the Intent and switch the Phonak around to use as backup if you don’t like the Phonak. So there’s really no risk for you to try a new brand of aid anyway, like with me. Beside, why get another Intent if you already have one? That’s my rationale for picking the Phonak Sphere this time, because I still have a fully functional pair of Real still well under warranty.

You also mentioned your audi is very fluent in fitting Phonak, so I’d have to agree that he’ll be able to tune them to as good as, if not better than your Intents.

I assume that’s his INTENTion, right? I REALly hope you give us MORE insight as you demo the Spheres.

My audiologist got around the issue by getting my the 105db receivers so I have enough head room that I never have any feedback issues or compression issues.

Same disagreement we had all those years ago.

They set the default because it gave the fitter the ability to increase the setting if the client required a stronger setting after initial fit.

Some users may find NNS Difficult set to Max is too extreme, and others accept it, so it’s left as an option.

Can Spheric SIN be dialed down, or is it a fixed value in Target based on fitting?

Me, personally, I hate any digital processing which interferes with what I perceive as natural sound.

I keep MSI Off in all programs, except Lecture, and that I keep minimal.

The one thing I loved about Phonak was the CShells! Those were so comfortable.

My clinic tells me they can’t order Phonak molds for Oticon, so I make do with the acrylics, which are fine.

Those helmets do put some pressure on the ears. I hope the new molds work out.

I just want to report an interesting/annoying observation here when using Google Maps while I drive, in case anybody might have some tip on how to fix the issue. Everytime just before a navigation command is issued by Google Maps, the Phonak switches over to Bluetooth Streaming to issue the command. I have NoiseBlock set to medium, so when I drive the road noise is quite subdued. But when the aids switch over to BT streaming to issue a navigation command, for a very brief second or so, the road noise resurfaces on the HAs, followed by the BT navigation command, then it switches back out of BT streaming back into the Auto program. So every time I hear the road noise coming back to the HAs, that’s a sign that I’m about to get a navigation command.

It’s not a big distraction or anything like that, but it’s just a little annoying. I guess I might get used to it after a while. With the Oticon aids, it’s kind of the opposite. Because of the open paradigm, usually the road noise is quite prevalent while driving. Then when the Google Maps navigation command comes on, it actually suppresses the road noise momentarily while the command is being broadcasted.

You may use the “up” button on either side multiple times to adjust the mix between ambient and stream. Up gives you more stream. Down gives you more ambient. This seems to be sticky within a pairing for the day. Stream from something else and I’ve had to readjust that one, too. But going back to the first and it is already how it was before.

You may also adjust this in the app.

WH

@Volusiano said:

Your not using MSI most of the times is kind of interesting, because that’s a flagship feature of the Oticon aids that you’re not taking advantage of.

When I wore the More 1 aids, I had MSI enabled, and it was more of an encumbrance than a flagship feature to me. Actually, it sort of reminded me of the Phonak Marvels I demoed from 2020.

I kept it on my P1, and disabled on a P2 to compare, and eventually, after changing the DNN values decided to abandon MSI for good.

Tried again with the INTENTion of giving MSI a fair shake with the Intent, but no joy.

I even played with some ACT settings, but the VA doesn’t do ACT during fitting, so I never achieved success.

I just really enjoy the Oticon Open paradigm without embellishments.

I remember Stephen @Um_bongo remarking some time ago that he had some clients who also preferred minimal digital processing.

@Volusiano said:

Everytime just before a navigation command is issued by Google Maps, the Phonak switches over to Bluetooth Streaming to issue the command.

I don’t drive with Google Maps - I use Waze - but does Google Maps give you the option of routing navigation advice (which sounds much nicer than “commands”, even if we all know who’s really in charge) through the phone’s speaker instead of Bluetooth? That might solve your problem, or at least turn it into a different problem.

I’m not sure about an option in Google Maps to send the voice through the speaker instead of BT, but even if there’s such an option, I’d much prefer to send it to the BT anyway. That little preface with the brief 1/2 second road noise is not annoying enough for me to look for a workaround for it. It’s more of a curiosity as to why that happens, at least to me. If it comes on and stays on throughout the whole navigation command, then at least that means that it’s just the unsuppressed road noise due to a different setting in BT streaming. But it’s just a momentary of road noise “release” for not even a second before it’s muted again, then the voice navigation comes on. I do have the same NoiseBlock value set in the BT streaming as in Speech in Car by the way.

Maybe every time BT is activated, the aids need a short moment before the NoiseBlock feature kicks in. But then when the voice stops and it goes back into Auto Program, why doesn’t the momentary road noise release is heard again as it transitions back to the AutoSense’s selected program? And again, I’m more or less looking for an explanation for that momentary road noise release, rather than looking for a workaround to fix it at the expense of something else. Thanks.

I had my audiologist modify both streaming programs in Target to turn down the external microphones while streaming. I think he dropped the microphones 5-8 db but not sure. This still maintains a bit of environmental awareness while streaming but minimizes the annoying external noise that you are describing. There is an odd side effect to this. Whenever a call comes in or streaming starts, the external microphones initiate the 5-8 db drop a quarter of a second before the streaming starts and it sorta gives you an early warning of an incoming call. It also might help you with the annoying transition you are excoriating with the Google map alerts.

Worth trying to see if it helps.

Jordan

So it sounds like you’re hearing the opposite of what I’m hearing. In your case, you hear a 5-8 dB drop on the environmental noise a quarter second before the streaming starts, which sorta gives you an early warning of an incoming call. I, on the other hand, don’t have my “Enable Microphone” parameter set to drop from its 0 dB default value, and I hear an “increase” in environmental noise a quarter second before the streaming starts for my navigation voice.

So it’s a similar but opposite experience, and it’s something to compare notes. I supposed that maybe if I drop the mic enablement volume down a few dB like you did, maybe it’ll “cancel out” the brief road noise that I hear before the nav command. However, I don’t want to do this because even though I stream a lot at home, I don’t want to miss out on anything if my wife calls me from across the room in the kitchen. So I’d rather leave the “Enable Microphone” at 0 dB so that I’m aware of my normal environmental sounds, especially because the streaming sound is already overwhelming the environmental sounds a bit by defaul already. I only use Google Maps sometimes when I drive, but I stream a lot when I’m home most of the day. So any “fix” for this little annoying thing in Google Maps is not worth sacrificing anything for. I can just treat it as an early warning sign before a navigation voice comes on.

Like I mentioned before, it’s more of a technical curiosity to me than anything. In your case, it makes sense that the environmental sound is subdued by 5-8 dB before streaming starts. In my case, I didn’t do anything (opposite to what you have done) to increase the Enable Mic parameter to increase its volume, so why am I hearing a short burst of louder road noise? My NoiseBlock parameter in streaming is set to Moderate, exactly the same as how it’s set in all my AutoSense programs (except for Music).