Got my first set of Phonak aids today

@cvkemp – I’ve read your posts over some time. While you were using the Intents, you repeatedly stated that they were the best hearing aids available, worked perfectly for you, and caused no issues in any situation. Now that you’re using the Spheres, you’re criticizing the Intents in hindsight.

This raises an obvious question: were you aware of these shortcomings at the time but didn’t mention them, or did they only become apparent after switching to the Spheres?

It’s kinda like tasting really good scotch whiskey. If you have never tasted $500 a bottle scotch, you probably think cheap whiskey tastes good

When he had the Intents, he thought this was as good as it gets. New technology changed the perception.

Jordan

I had not wore any aids other than Oticon aids for 15 years until I got the Spheres. Before the Oticon aids I had the Siemens Aquarius ITE aids. The Aquarius were good aids for that time. But the Aquarius didn’t have any controls, no programs or volume adjustments. Before the Aquarius was the Sonic aids I made the horrible decision of ordering online, when I got them I lived in the Dallas area but soon moved to the Austin Texas area and couldn’t get anyone to adjust the aids without me taking time off work and going back to Dallas. I had the Sonic about 15 months when the VA finally provided my first set of aids, the Aquarius. I only go by my own experiences.

I like that analogy @JordanK on the Scotch Whiskey, as a collector, I kinda understand, I have a 50 year old Dalmore, which every year, I try to convince myself to open, perhaps this year is the time to savour it over the festive period… Cheers Kev

If I had posted a while ago in the forum as an Intent user (which I am not) that I was experiencing a specific problem with the aids in a certain situation, Chuck would likely have been the first to respond by saying he doesn’t understand the issue because he experiences zero problems with the Intents.

That kind of response could easily be frustrating, because I would be left wondering why I’m having an issue that others apparently don’t.

I don’t think it does any harm to stay realistic in one’s assessments and to acknowledge that there can be flaws as well. No device is perfect. I’m sure that even with the Spheres, you wouldn’t have 100% understanding in every possible situation either.

@kevels55 said:

I kinda understand, I have a 50 year old Dalmore, which every year, I try to convince myself to open…

Hmph - not bad, I guess, for non-Islay stuff. (Sadly, there’s no emoticon for seagulls or even burning rowboats!)

@JordanK said:

I always thought Oticon’s “open” paradigm allowed you to hear the environment in a more open and natural way but this didn’t seem to be the case with you.

As a Sphere user for over a year now, my only quibble is the same as I had for the Lumitys vs. ReSound Omnis. I think the default AutoSense settings emphasize comfort a little bit too much over open hearing of the environment, and if there is any noise, like the kitchen microwave or exhaust fan, it can be hard to hear my soft-spoken wife, as it seems with the default settings, noise reduction gets a bit too much emphasis over speech understanding. OTH, the MyPhonak app allows one to tune many settings for custom programs to make up for this (I haven’t tried to adjust AutoSense settings in Target, preferring to switch to a custom program as needed). I think the Restaurant program can provide at least 70% to 80% of the noise reduction of Spheric mode at a big savings in battery runtime. In the MyPhonak app, one can tune the amount of noise reduction for a custom Spheric noise reduction program, which might also moderate battery drain, but I usually use Spheric noise reduction set at close to max, and enjoy the amazing speech clarity that @JordanK and @cvkemp have described.

My audiologist has done and awesome job and tweaking the autosense setting for my hearing loss. The calm program is very good at allowing mr to understand speech. I actually believe that my aids switch to speech in noise too quickly.

@PeterH said:

All easy to adjust in target, and well worth experimenting in “Program options”.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to give it a try. I know what you mean about environmental noise suppression with the default AutoSense settings. The other day, I thought the fridge was making weird, much louder noises, maybe on its last legs. Then I realized I had forgotten to get out of some manual program and was no longer in Calm mode. Back to AutoSense, and the fridge became its old, quiet self once more!

There is also “Soft noise reduction” for that quiet, humming sounds, like from frigdes, HVACs or so

I am 78 but very active. I want to hear the environment I am in. And I get around to lots of different environments on a daily basis. I hike the forest trails in my area, I attend meets, classes, church services, doctor’s appointments, do volunteer work for my church and at my VA clinic. I meet individuals on the forest trails, on the streets and parking lots. I enjoy the old movies on TV and I listen to audiobooks, and read over one hundred books a year. I watch YouTube videos on hearing loss, hearing aids and health and nutrition. I am a researcher by nature and profession. Yes I am retired but I am actually more busy now than when I was stuck at a desk, on a flight to some client’s server room. Life is what we make of it. My hearing loss and my vision made me adapt to the changes of life they didn’t confine me to an easy chair.

The more I learn about the capabilities of the Spheres the more amazing I am and the more I see the lack of the Oticon app. Simplicity is great until it isn’t. I have a step son that is very soft spoken. I created a program in Myphonak to be able to hear him, Oticon should take notes.

Forget the name of the function, Speech Recovery, I think. I’ve got that turned up to 16 from the default setting (for me) of 14. That amplifies soft voices in a calm environment. I wonder if that indirectly amps up background noises a bit, too. It would be nice if Target had tooltip advice on any Settings conflicts. I just did a first pass-through “good enough” adjustment and haven’t really gone back and tried to fine-tune my settings any further. Sounds like I should put more effort into it!

I have just transitioned from P in power houses to UP to titanium shell with 0.9mm vent (ordered 0.6mm).

I make one step at a time. Simple copying of previous settings failed the test. I admit that it is a bit amazing when you hear the difference after adding, for example, only 2 step more in gains in 1000-2300 Hz range and 4800-5900 Hz 2 steps also.

I am not sure if Speech Enhancer amplifies the noise. Probably not, because there must be 30-40 dB? (not sure) ambient noise and speech with +10 dB SNR to activate that feature.