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Got my first set of Phonak aids today

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I finally got around to checking my Oticon INTENT1 aids out after the custom ear molds were changed. I have noticed that the vents of my Spheres and INTENT1 aids now look to be the same size, and about half as large of the ones in my old ear molds.
I have to be honest I cannot tell enough difference in the sound of the INTENT1 aids and the Spheres in a quiet calm environment that is my living room. I did notice the parakeets do have a higher pitch with the INTENT1 than the Spheres.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

I have to be honest I cannot tell enough difference in the sound of the INTENT1 aids and the Spheres in a quiet calm environment that is my living room. I did notice the parakeets do have a higher pitch with the INTENT1 than the Spheres.

FYI, Chuck, I was at the today, and in passing the audi clinic bumped into my primary audi.

They are now running Genie 2 2025.2, so you should be good to update your Intents to 1.3.0, and get working through the Companion app.

Avantree gave me a C82 LEA usb dongle to test on the Intents, and their latest update uses Auracast, so I’m able to stream from my computer without the CClip.

Interesting the Intent sound so similar to the Spheres. I guess it shows how well your audi programmed them both!

Edited

Like I have said over and over the audiologist is the key to proper fittings. As for me getting the 1.3.0 update. In this area I have no way to even try . And to be honest I am loving having straight connectivity to my Kindle, Fire tablet and old Android tablet.

I still have my INTENT1 aids, they are my backup aids at this time. To be honest I switched between my Phonak and INTENT1 aids yesterday just to compare for a review I am writing per my audiologist’s request, and I don’t notice enough difference in sound between them in a calm environment to say there is a difference. If I was asked to tell you which I was wearing I wouldn’t be able to say which pair it was. But in a noisy environment boy do the Phonak Spheres shine. The difference is light-years better with the Phonak Spheres.

I know you don’t feel like you need it, but you can get TV streaming with the Roger On, you don’t have to add a TV Connector

Edited

I have it already and it sounds good. But the Myphonak TV program is working fine for me. I will use the TV streaming if I need to have the TV speaker muted.

I have been wear hearing aids so long I am naked without my aids

I am absolutely amazed that I haven’t had any issues getting use to the Spheres, well the Bluetooth capabilities are way different and some learning curves with that. But I love the fact that I don’t need any extra devices to stream from my Kindle, Fire tablet or Android tablet. I can even pair the Spheres to.my watch, not sure why I would need to though.

I haven’t noticed any of the negatives that some talk about. I do have the Roger ON 3 with TV streaming and I like it if I need to hear the TV and have the TV speakers muted. Just to hear the TV I find the Myphonak TV program to be perfect. I may need to ask my audiologist because it seems that the Spheres go into speech in noise to easily in my opinion. I was of the impression that Bluetooth classic was a battery hog and I haven’t seen it. I wore my aids yesterday 14.5 hours and streamed 5.5 hours and the aids spend 3 hours in speech in noise and I had 65% battery life left at the end of the day. My INTENT1 aids would have been down to 30% or less batty life left. As for as sound difference I have to say that with the new custom ear molds I noticed very little difference in sound. The difference in my new and old ear molds is smaller vents and the new receivers use the smaller . There wasn’t any changes made to the fitting or adjustment changes in the INTENT1 aids. But the INTENT1 aids don’t hold a candle to the Spheres when it comes to noisy environments. I definitely am a happy camper.

Edited

I have had 2 really excellent audiologists over my 20 years of getting aids from the . And several other audiologists that probably became excellent with experience. But with the VA it all depends on the location of the clinics. And if the clinics are overloaded or if they were short staffed.
I have to say the VA clinics here are great because of the cooperation between the Veterans Administration and the University of Arkansas Medical School and Hospitals.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

I was of the impression that Bluetooth classic was a battery hog and I haven’t seen it.

Streaming definitely uses more battery than just bopping around - but it’s not really a “hog”. Spheric Hell Mode is something of a real battery hog, especially with the pre-Ultra version - but then it’s doing something far more ambitious than just streaming voice or music. (I really should go out of my way to try it in a real-world situation one of these days… :fearful:)

My results have been comparable to yours - most work days involve a few hours of streaming, largely phone calls and Zoom/Teams meeting, but by bedtime (and I usually get to bed far later than I should) I’m still in the low 60s or, at worst, just below. My initial worries about battery life on the Spheres were needless.

In reply to @PeterH

@PeterH said:

Another thing a “new” programme can do, is disable SoundRecover2, while leaving it active in Autosense.

Indeed. Not an issue for me in particular, as I’ve disabled SoundRecover across the board - but in general you do get a lot of control that way.

Edited

At least for me the negatives about going from Oticon aids to the Phonak Spheres isn’t justified. I am enjoying the freedom of easily going from streaming from my Samsung phone to streaming from my Kindle or Fire tablet and without the need for an additional device like the connect clip. I am enjoying TV without the need for the TV adapter. And by use of the acoustic phone program I can hear the house phone again. The Oticon Phone adapter never really worked. And it was and issue to ensure that the connect clip stayed paired to the phone adapter, which it seldom did. Stop saying so much negative about the Bluetooth classic being a batteryvhog. I am not seeing that. I am wearing my Spheres an average of 15 hours a day, while streaming and average of 5 hours, and having 2.5 hours in noisy environments. My remaining battery life is 60%, and my Spheres are always connected to my Samsung phone.

Like I said before the sound difference is actually refreshing, I am hearing so much better clarity. I can actually hear my wife talking to me over the TV. I can hear my wife talking from another room even behind me. Yes I could with the INTENT1 aids but not with the same clarity.
I never saw much use for the Oticon companion app or the older ON app, but the Myphonak app is very useful and informative. I have actually got a few changes I would like permanently made just by playing around with the Myphonak app.

Don’t get me wrong the Oticon INTENT1 aids are very good but Oticon could learn about apps from Phonak.

With me getting the Phonak Spheres and having an extremely smooth transition from the Oticon INTENT1 to the Phonak Spheres, I am even more convinced that the key is the right audiologist. I say stop chasing the next new and greatest technology in aids and find that awesome audiologist and listen to his or her advice while doing your best to explain your hearing needs, desires and what works and doesn’t. For me it has been a life long journal. I have been doing daily journals since I was 7 years old and actually before then. I started in a paper journal and now it is an electronic one that syncs between my phone and my tablet. I can jot down a thought any time I think of something to record. My journals are. 1 general daily thoughts. 2. My general health. 3 my vision, 4 my hearing loss. 5. My daily walk with God.

Keeping the journals brings about a peace that I have a hard time explaining. It calms me. I definitely bite my tongue at times at something I want to say but know I shouldn’t say, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t get it off my chest, I still vent my frustrations by writing it in one of my journals.

I disagree from the experience between my INTENT1 aids and the Spheres. The same routine that I did with the Spheres on my INTENT1 aids leaves the INTENT1 batteries down to about 30% battery life left. I was always finding myself restrained from streaming when wearing the INTENT1 aids.

It could be that the Spheres are using Bluetooth 5.3 and not the older Bluetooth protocols.

@cvkemp said:

It could be that the Spheres are using Bluetooth 5.3 and not the older Bluetooth protocols.

Pigginess is all relative. If Spheric Speech in Cacophony mode with pre-Ultra Spheres is a prize porker, then Spheric 2.0 after the upgrade is more like a Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig, or perhaps an obese Labrador Retriever. Streaming with the Spheres is more in the Growing Kitten realm (technically known as the Rampaging Beast-Thing Zone); and (presumably) - we should live so long - is going to be somewhere in the canary-to-parrot range.

(Chico the Rampaging Beast-Thing adds: Purr. Purrrr. CHOMP! :cat_with_wry_smile: )

My Spheres aren’t updated to the Ultra Spheres, my clinic hadn’t gotten the latest target software yet when I was there last Friday.

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