Need advice on LE audio firmware for new Phonaks thru the VA. Alternatives?

A Phillip TV connector costs $199 at Costco.

For under $150 plus another 25 bucks for cables you can buy three Auracast transmitters that you can connect to your TV, computer and stereo. Plus you have the ability to use Auracast at outside venues.

Auracast is dirt cheap!

An addition the connectivity should be better then classic Bluetooth with LE audio. How many folks have posted with connectivity issues with classic Bluetooth?

That is fine if you want to deal with add on devices that you have to keep up with. I just want simple and no hassle

Once the devices are installed, then you just leave them alone. Plus you have Auracast for outside venues. Frankly, I think you are just looking for a reason.

Again, if a new Phonak hearing aid gives you the best hearing out come for your degree of hearing loss, then that should be the main reason for buying a new hearing aid.

However, if another hearing aid can do the job, then buying a hearing aid with Auracast makes sense to me.

FYI others have been still having Sphere BT classic connectivity problems (it seems mostly with iOS, but also Android. The Ultra update may have helped.

Here’s the link to that thread: Phonak Sphere Infinio Bluetooth Connectivity Failures – Who Else Is Affected?

Isn’t your phone Auracast capable? Plus every hearing aid with the exception of the Starkey, uses an assistant app. So there isn’t any need to hook up anything to your phone.

Use Auracast to broadcast audio from your Galaxy phone2

Auracast allows you to create your own broadcast channel on your Galaxy device and share it with others!

My phone is but my new aids aren’t. Due to my hearing loss my audiologist recommended the Phonak Spheres and I will be getting them the first Friday in December.
But I own tablets that aren’t le audio. And I seldom even power on a computer. For me due to my environments the classic Bluetooth is actually a win win .

Why is your audi switching you from Intents to Spheres? How long did you have the Intents? I thought with the VA you had to wait 5 years for new ones. Thankfully my 5 years with the P90’s is up.

Due to my hearing loss and the fact that the Spheres will hopefully be better in extremely noisy environments. My INTENT1 aids will be my backup aids after they return from being refreshed. I am a veteran, my hearing loss is service related and I am 50% disabled. My audiologist of 7 years has taken me from not wanting to be around people to mostly enjoying being with family friends and becoming to want to be active with meetings, concerts and volunteering again. I trust my audiologist completely and unlike some I am someone that can an does adapt easily. I grew up on a farm, went to a very small country school and have worked for presidents and Microsoft and Dell. My audiologist hasn’t stirred me wrong.

OK, so now you admit your claim that you need a device to connect to your phone was wrong.

Your main and probably your sole reason for going with the Phonak hearing aid is to hear better then what the Oticon is providing. Your Bluetooth comments seem to me that you are just you trying to justify the Phonak hearing aids. Hopefully, your Bluetooth classic connection won’t give you a bunch of new issues that the the Bluetooth LE audio didn’t have.

Anyhow, I need to find something more productive to do. So that’s all I have to say.

They have been exclusive so far. However, if it’s possible to switch between the two, then perhaps Phonak is working on it.

I am sorry for your hearing difficulties and hope the Spheres fix you up.

I was curious about how you were able to switch so quickly with the VA. In Intents have only been available since February 2024 and I thought you had to wait 5 years (after the trial period eneded.

I am now also curious as to how the VAS is letting you can keep your Oticons in addition to the Spheres.

I have never had to turn in my older aids. I am not sure why either. Before moving to Arkansas I was getting aids every 4 years. When I had my first appointment here I met my present audiologist and he wrote a long evaluation and had me reopen my claim on my hearing loss. With in a month my disability went from 10% to 50%. And I have been getting the latest aids when they became available. My audiologist is a professor of audiology at the State University Medical school, and head audiologist for the Community VA here in the state. I have been a case study for his graduate classes. And I help out at the clinic. Mostly connectivity issues and talking to new patients getting aids. He listens to me, and doesn’t think I am someone that doesn’t know what I am talking about. It is in my records that I have to have working up to date backup aids and supporting devices.

I’m glad they’re taking care of you.
Before I went in the Army I used to be able to hear dog whistles and wondered what was the point of them. But not after helicopter turbine engines, tank guns and M16’s.
I keep my old 5 - 15 year old aids too with a pair in my car in case I stupidly go out the door without my latest. The battery life on the new Spheres is only 7 hours using AI Speech clarity, so a backup pair may be important. last time I went with replaceable batteries so I could just pop a new pair in. Now they only offer rechargeables so that is not an option.

When the aids are updated with the latest firmware the battery life goes up tremendously. I will not normally be in the real noisy environments. Sure it will happen a few times a week. But not that long either unless I am back at the location of the training room I was in the last of October. I would not be in that can of environments for more that a couple hours at a time.

The latest firmware for the Spheres extends the sphere use to 10 or 11 hours.and over all improvement without the Spheres to a couple of days .