Phonak Ultra upgrade - how do we feel about it?

That is a possible fact. The right audiologist can take so so hearing aids and make them preform top notch. The wrong audiologist can make top notch hearing aids worthless. I have been wearing aids for 20 years and seen both sides.

But hasn’t anyone among you, perhaps someone with a loss as serious/profound as mine, tried the Sphere Ultras at the cinema? Not even a film buff among you?

@DonRadlauer said:

Did you always have pointy, fuzzy ears and long fangs?

My friends and I are not quite sure what you are trying to say there Don?

@mlkary, you are not the only one noticing that the Ultra upgrade makes the HAs sound different.

I started a thread about this a few days ago:

Do your Phonak hearing aids sound different after the Infinio Ultra upgrade?

Ever since I upgraded my Sphere I70s to the new Ultra firmware, they sound markedly different without having changed anything in Target. Other people have commented on that as well, for example @jim_lewis I posted my first impressions here: I’m curious how other people perceive the new Ultra firmware compared to before. If you notice any difference, please post here!

Agreed the audiologist needs to know everything about the new ultra 2.0 release as example or we are not maximizing the technology. They need to actually know that all the new features are turned on, know how to adjust them and be aware that we need the slip tips, or open domes that enable the AI features. I had a problem years back at UCLA, Phonak sent the district Audiologist out and she and my audiologist totally upgraded my hearing 2X. It was awesome. CV is so right. Your audiologist provider is critical. My neighbors audiologist never told, otr showed her how to change wax guards/filters. Really. and people don;t bother to clean their canals often. It takes work to hear the right way.

I know my audiologist has spent hours on conference calls with the representatives for hearing aids and how to get the most out of my hearing aids.

Hi Tony. What new features need to be turned on? I upgraded the firmware myself but didn’t turn anything on.

The biggest thing to remember is that hearing is nothing at all like sight. It is a mix of physicals and comprehension. You can’t just put on a pair of hearing aids with significant loss and you hear like you used to. Your ear has been damaged and the things you used to hear just don’t sound the same anymore, it’s not just volume and sometimes it takes a little while for your brain to get used to hearing the signals in a different way. If your hearing loss is progressive you will need to have things tweaked as you go along, again not just volume. You are hearing different sounds and modern hearing aids can do really clever stuff like frequency shifting etc.

The way I try and describe it to people is if you went to France (or Montreal) you would hear people talking in French but you wouldn’t comprehend them. Sometimes when you tweak stuff you have to wait a little while for your brain to adjust. This is a process, it can sometimes take a few days or weeks.

I generally find that I hear myself at first, it’s a bit weird but logically everyone hears themselves. Sound waves are physical but the human brain filters your own noise out or it would be annoying. Of course you hear yourself differently because you hear through conduction so when you hear yourself on a recording you always say, thats not me but to everyone else it is.

So why say all of this, well when you start programming be really gentle, change one thing at a time and be patient to test it out for a little while. If you do too much at once you don’t give your brain time to adjust and you also can’t work which tweaks worked.

I love programming for the odd small change but for the really big stuff I see a professional because they are just much better than me.

Have fun.

For firmware updates tho, fill your boots, they are so easy to do yourself and I think soon they will be through the app anyway. No need to waste peoples time on things that can be done at home, pretty much failsafe if done properly. We all do this now, iPhone updates, MacOS updates, new software for the car. Hearing aids won’t be far behind, it just new, disruption. Its not a threat to audiologists, its an opportunity.

Can you further explain your comments about maximizing canal oxygen to gain AI benefits? I just got custom molds with no vents for 90 Spheres to better benefit speech in noise per my audiologist.

O = air in the canal. The more air the more the AI Deep=sonic chip will do for our hearing.

@TonyF said:

Open domes are also now recommended, no closed domes

Please show where you got this “recommendation”. It is the opposite of what has been said many times. The more ‘closed’ a fitting is better for the effect of the Deepsonic chip. People with open domes do not notice the AI effect nearly as much. This is nothing to do with oxygen!

Slip tips with venting are the ideal, or open domes. Phonak will take your providers order from your molds, but your provider must order the best venting. he, or she then can also adjust the venting with a tool. We may also find that open does work as well. we will all know soon as we try them all..

if you use ChatGPT and ask Chat the same questions it will provide the 5 features that must either be enabled, and can be adjusted.