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A retired audiologist recommended these three devices. Which is best?

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The Phonak 30 sounds great, but there’s no noise suppression and that annoys listeners, viz the people I call. Plan to change soon.

A retired audiologist recommended these three, and I don’t know how to choose.

• Phonak 90. • Signia pure 7 bct ix • Phonak audeo sphere infinio i90

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Edited

  1. What exactly do you mean by “Phonak 90”? (Or, for that matter, “Phonak 30”?) Those numbers normally refer to the “technology level” and do not tell us what actual hearing-aid models you’re talking about.

  2. It might be helpful if you could post your - the experts here can get a better idea just what your situation is, and that’s obviously relevant in helping you decide on hearing aids. And more detail about yourself and your hearing history could also be helpful.

  3. As a general rule, “best” is not really a thing: When you’re comparing major-manufacturer flagship hearing aids to other major-manufacturer flagship hearing aids, they’re all very good - and what is “best” for you may not be “best” for someone else, since hearing loss, lifestyle, sound-profile preferences, and other factors vary widely from person to person.

  4. Another useful generalization: The quality of your hearing-aid provider is at least as important - often more important - as which exact hearing-aid model you choose. A wonderful set of hearing aids that aren’t configured right won’t be as good for you as an OK set of hearing aids that are perfectly set up for your needs. And if you have a really good provider who specializes in Brand X and is thus especially adept at Brand X configuration, that can be a perfectly valid reason to go with that brand as long as it meets your basic requirements for functionality and connectivity.

As a veteran I only get the top tier aids. I was at the clinic yesterday and my audiologist has ordered the Phonak Spheres 90 for me. The 90 is top tier and I believe the 30 is the lowest level of Phonak aids. I have worn Oticon aids for 15+ years now and my audiologist of 7 years now has said the Phonak Spheres are the best technology for my hearing loss at this time. My biggest issue is speech understanding abd before my present audiologist I suffered greatly to understand what people said. My VA audiologist has taken me from almost being a hermit to enjoy being in meets, and even with my family. What level of hearing aids an individual needs depends on the hearing loss that the individual has.

I think your major complaint is that when calling people and using handsfree calling your listeners are hearing too much background noise. If that’s the case I don’t think any of the Phonaks are going to be an improvement with your current phone. I believe if you switched to an iPhone there is a way to use the phone’s microphone to solve the issue.

If this is indeed your only issue, you don’t need a higher end hearing aid. The issue is basically solved by using the phone’s microphone. I think you can do this with any hearing aid besides Phonak (more broadly Sonova) or even with Phonak if you use an iPhone.

I have the Samsung S25FE with my INTENT1 aids and hands free calls work very well. I will find out in a month how the Phonak Spheres will work hands free. I have made hands free in my Jeep Grand Cherokee and there wasn’t any complaints by the people on the other end of the call. No I don’t use the vehicles sound system because it has caused issues with connectivity with my aids and the phone regardless if it was my Samsung or my previous iPhone. I left iPhone because of connectivity issues and I have been so happy thatbI did.

The Phonak Sphere i90 now called Sphere Ultra wins hands down. It isa larger device, but the Deepsonic chip plus the ERA chip make it far superior to the i90’s which are limited to no AI. I have tried Oticon Intent1. If the Spheres do not blow me away I will replace them with Intent 1. It requires the audiologist to cutsomize your streaming, and the volume needs to be used, but it is a very clear easy to use device with great battery life. Bluetooth is LE fabulous. That said I think the Spheres will be amazing. I will tell all as I make certain they are set up perfectly and that I am wearing the best slim tips, or open domes to maximize AI features which is critical.

In reply to @MDB

Correct, but I don’t own an iPhone and I don’t want to use the Android’s phone microphone. I like these Phonak Audeo Lumity 30, except I have to not let extraneous noise (paper, cellophane, dogs, et.al.) make any noise. I want noise suppression effective on the hearing aids microphones.

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