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Got my first set of Phonak aids today

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Edited

Wow what a difference the Spherical speech in noise makes. And I didn’t have use the manual program. The battery drain wasn’t near as bad as I had expected seeing my aids aren’t updated to the Ultra level.

Phonak is a good company. Their Educational Systems Division has done a lot over the years for the hearing impaired. They have a great line of accessories, including, but not limited to the Roger line. They have a terrific world-wide support network, a real benefit for those who travel.in addition, their hearing aids are the best.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

The battery drain wasn’t near as bad as I had expected seeing my aids aren’t updated to the Ultra level.

Great news, Chuck! I’ve read many posts which back up your claim on battery life in Spheric mode, so not surprising.

In reply to @Psych2

@Psych2 said:

Phonak is a good company. Their Educational Systems Division has done a lot over the years for the hearing impaired.

At a great cost to them too!! Their Roger products have been priced at a level that could be said was: “Ripping off the disabled”, especially when the R&D technology was funded by the US Military.

This became even more apparent once their Marvel range appeared in 2019. They were all “Roger direct enabled”. However, you still had to buy 2 licenses per pair, plus the Roger device.

They also use sharp practices in the local market place to enhance market share. There are people on here that have been ripped off by Phonak Tech Support (US).

I only use Phonak. They seem to fit my needs and are very reliable, but they certainly aren’t a charity.

Peter

There is no for profit corporation that is totally charitable. But most corporations do a lot of charitable things. As a retired IT professional and veteran I have seen the cost of research and development. As a disabled veteran I have seen the charity side if corporations. The Roger ON 3 has unlimited licenses build into the device. I just got the Phonak Spheres and the Roger ON 3. I have been wearing aids for 20 years, Oticon aids for 15 years the Spheres are my first real experience with Phonak. I did a quick test of a set of Phonak aids 10 years ago. They had domes abd I have always had custom ear molds so the aids didn’t come close to giving me a feeling of I should get them. I have had the Spheres now for only one full day and I am impressed. But I give my reasoning to my audiologist of 7 years. He battled my hearing loss with me. Keeping me with Oticon aids, spending countless hours on the phone with Oticon because his expertise is with Phonak aids. He had over the years hinted at me changing hearing aid brands. I had been hesitant because I have so many of the Oticon extra stuff, TV adapter, connect clips, remote, and the EduMic. I did a deep dive research of the Spheres and decided that I would give them a go. My audiologist has done a masterful job of duplicating my fitting of my Oticon INTENT1 aids to the Spheres. The Roger ON 3 actually replaces all of my Oticon extra stuff along with the Bluetooth classic of the Spheres. The Bluetooth streaming sound is great. The connectivity is rock solid. The Spheres paired easily to all of my android based devices.
The Spheres are awesome in noisy environments. And I really haven’t needed the Roge mic, or TV streaming with these aids. Music sounds great, streaming audiobooks is great. And I can even hear calls over the home landline with the acoustic phone program. Honestly I kick myself for not switching sooner.

In reply to @TonyF

@TonyF said:

That would be great. Thanks

OK, here goes:

  1. In your Target fitting session, go to the “Fitting” tab (on the right).

  2. Now go to the “Fine tuning” sub-tab.

  3. On the left of the screen, you’ll see a column with various programs and headings. The last heading (in grey) should be “ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS”, with a plus sign to its right. Click on that plus sign.

  4. You should get an “Add program” popup. On the left of the popup, there is a list of existing programs. Under “Based on automatic programs”, click on “Spheric speech in loud noise”.

  5. On the program options, make sure “Create a new program copy” is selected, and the custom name can be left as “Spheric speech in loud noise”.

  6. Just click “Add”, and you should be done.

Easy-peasy!

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

The Bluetooth streaming sound is great. The connectivity is rock solid. The Spheres paired easily to all of my android based devices.
The Spheres are awesome in noisy environments. And I really haven’t needed the Roge mic, or TV streaming with these aids. Music sounds great, streaming audiobooks is great. And I can even hear calls over the home landline with the acoustic phone program. Honestly I kick myself for not switching sooner.

So happy for you. Keep posting. What I can’t figure out is why some people on this forum don’t seem to have the same success with the Sphere’s as you. Either their loss is somehow not working with the Sphere’s (too open a fitting) or they are working with a really bad audiologist who is completely messing up the setup. Bugs me…

Jordan

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

Something I didn’t expect is that powering on the TV automatically enables the Roger ON and puts the Spheres in streaming of the TV, not sure I like that.

There’s an option to disable this so that you have to manually press the button to get into the TV stream, which appears as an extra program in your line-up when you are within range of the TV connector.

@cvkemp said:

Honestly I kick myself for not switching sooner.

Don’t. The Sphere has been a big deal, but prior to that the differences between Phonak and Oticon have not been as significant. Oticon makes a great device. The Opn in particular was better than whatever Phonak had out at the time.

@JordanK said:

What I can’t figure out is why some people on this forum don’t seem to have the same success with the Sphere’s as you. Either their loss is somehow not working with the Sphere’s (too open a fitting) or they are working with a really bad audiologist who is completely messing up the setup. Bugs me…

Some of my patients are blown away by the sphere and some aren’t, and I’m the same audiologist for all of them. certainly has an impact, but there’s something else too that is still a bit nebulous. The acoustics of their situations? Their base ability (too good or too bad)? Certainly I think new users are less impressed by it than existing users.

In reply to @Neville

@Neville this Spheres feel great. The custom ear molds are so much better fitting than my Oticon custom ear molds. Both are acrylic full skeleton. Also today begins only my third day wearing the Spheres and they already sound normal. The clarity of all sound is much better than the INTENT1. I also got new ear molds for the INTENT aids you would think they would match in the shape an feel but they don’t. I really do believe that the right audiologist makes a world of difference. When my audiologist first put the Spheres in my ears to check fit, they felt right, the sound wasn’t what I was expecting. Some on here said they thought the sound was harsh. All thought was wow everything my audiologist was saying was clear and understandable and he was still behind me. I went to a dinner for us old veterans last night and we can get loud, and the Spheres speech in noise kicked in and I could understand the ones talking to me, that was a first even with the INTENT1 aids I could manage with lip reading but not like last night I didn’t have to lip read.

In reply to @PeterH

@PeterH said:

Just wondering why you’re not recommending a “linked” programme.

It would work either way, really. The difference is that if you go back and fiddle with the options on the automatic version, a linked manual program will change in the same way - so it’s basically a way of forcing AutoSense’s hand without otherwise changing what AutoSense would give you. A “new copy” will remain as-is even if you go back and change the original.

A priori, I don’t know that one option is better than the other; I’d be interested to know how some veterans feel about the issue.

In reply to @DonRadlauer

@DonRadlauer said:

A “new copy” will remain as-is even if you go back and change the original.

Addendum: The “new copy” option is particularly useful if you want to create a manual program that’s different from the automatic version. For example, I created a separate manual program (based on “Calm”) with Tinnitus Balance enabled (as high-frequency as I could get it, since my tinnitus is up around 8600 Hz.), while all my automatic programs have the feature disabled. This way I can turn on Tinnitus Balance when I want it (which is only occasionally, and only in very quiet environments) but it’s otherwise inactive.

I also note that my own manual “Spheric Speech in Hell” program is, in fact, linked to the automatic version.

My amazement with the Spheres continued this morning at our church service, the piano and organ sounded so much better to me. I could actually understand the choir too. One of our pastors is very soft spoken and I could understand her. Before the service started it got pretty loud and noisy with everyone visiting with others, but I could hear what was being said by my wife as she was talking with friends. Also I was much more relaxed than normal, the noise can sometimes make me nervous.

Edited

Another wow
The Spheres made it so easy to understand everyone at my Emmaus men’s Bible Study meeting this morning I did experiment with the calm settings but found that the default works great.

I left the meeting energized instead of exhausted
Battery life for me is great. Yesterday after 14 hours of using my aids with 2 hours of streaming and 4.5 hours in Spherical noise program I still had over 60% Battery life left. And remember my aids aren’t updated.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

I am hearing new sounds, but that the sounds are a live and not dead

You’re Audi must have done a pretty good job, I always say the programing is 90% of it, so I can relate, my 13 year old Rooty has started letting off a bit more gas, and the sound she makes even if its pretty quiet, is music to my ears, simply because I can hear them, and I only have the P70’s. In about 2 years from now I probably will upgrade if not before.

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