Returning to Phonak with the Infinio Sphere - the good the bad and the ugly

I have the Roger ON3 and I am find more and more uses forit. I too have the UP 105 receivers. Mostly because for me to hear in the mid range of frequencies my aids are adjusted up to 110% of my prescription. I have some frequencies that the normal exam to check that are in the profound range.

Bottom line - People with a severe to profound hearing loss are extremely limited in the selection of HA they can test, much less use. At best, there are maybe four power aid brands to trial, and of those four, maybe one works well enough to purchase. And now we’re seeing longer and longer time gaps between power aid development and marketing. Like 4, 5, 6 years gaps between old technology and some yet unknown future date for a replacement. Case in point, Otiocon Xceed came out in August 2019. It’s now March 2026, and Oticon has yet to replace the Xceed. Sad.

Unfortunately, HA manufacturers are no longer “consumer-friendly” for those in the severe to profound hearing loss group.

Yeah. I agree. It’s worrying, and it’s ironic. The severe to profound and the profound loss cohort are the people who need the most help with speech in background noise as they probably have the most difficulty with signal to noise ratio. The industry mantra - well, use accessories like the Roger. Except, the Roger is not an out and out solution for background noise, as it does not eliminate background noise totally. I’ve even seen anecdotal reports that it adds to it, and I’ve experienced this personally. But Roger 3 may be an improvement over 2 in this regard, but I’m not holding my breath.

However the sphere infinio is a solution for background noise, with its sphere mode. To explain the irony, I mean that it’s only available for RIC wearers, some of whom can hear quite well in background noise situations anyway, not the cohort that needs it most. Unless I’m mistaken there is no sphere mode in the Lumity SP or UP. This is disappointing. And it has been out, what, about 2 years now, or just under. Really disappointing. Don’t know if it’s a power issue - probably is.

As my audiologist who is a professor of audiology told me once individuals get to the severe to profound level there isn’t much in the way of bells an whistles that really work or help at that level of loss. I was use to wearing ITE aids and the switch to MiniRite aids was a shock. But before my present audiologist I wasn’t tested fully and completely. The reason is my audiologist has the same type of hearing loss as I do. So he knows what he had to do to help him to understand speech properly.

@Simplicity said:

I have been lucky as they suit me just fine using medium power receivers and easyguard domes

That’s impressive with your hearing loss.

Thanks for sharing this information.

I understand and agree absolutely about the issues with Autosense. It nonsensically switches programs in the middle of what the wearer perceives as a stable sound environment. In my case, the switch would complete disrupt my experience/understanding. I have profound/severe loss. Had been wearing Oticons for 6+ years. Wanted to go with “the best” tech, so went with Phonak Spheres. What drove me over the top – in addition to myriad other issues – was Autosense. I finally threw in towel and decided to try Oticon Intents. I still have problems that are probably due to worsening hearing and maybe unresolved tweaking. I can mostly live with the issues; I could not with the Phonaks even as I pushed the limits of my trial period. The Autosense thing in my experience is a lovely idea that is still in the realm of sweet fairy tales.

I also have AutoSense disabled. My audi says I’m the only one of his patients who does. I need to have control of which program I’m in.

I’m usually in the default program but when I go into a situation where I know I’ll be conversing with someone whose voice I’m not familiar with I go into the Spheric program and I usually bump up the volume a couple of clicks. I think I’m going to ask the audi to make that “two clicks up” volume my default volume for Spheric.

I have three other programs that I rarely use but I absolutely need for some situations. It drives me nuts that I have to cycle through four programs to get back to the default program after having been in Spheric. I was very surprised when my audi told me that you can’t program the button on one side to cycle up through the programs and the button on the other side to cycle down through the programs, like Oticons can.

I would say that unless a user is constantly going into different situations that require different programs for each situation, then AutoSense might be more trouble than it’s worth if it routinely goes into an inappropriate program.

I can hardly wait to hear Oticon’s next model, which should be a response to the Sphere. I miss my Oticon Mores, but there’s currently nothing like Phonak’s Spheric mode for speech in noise.

I have been wearing the Sphere’s longer than just about anyone on this forum and I can honestly say that they are the most rock solid hearing aids that I have ever owned. Zero glitches. Zero repairs. In fact, I leave them on automatic 99% of the time and almost never switch programs manually or fiddle with the settings in the app.

When I read about people with issues my first thought is that they were poorly setup or the user was given the wrong receivers or wrong domes/molds. Second thought is…if they were poorly setup, I’m not sure that messing around with self programming after a poor setup is doing yourself a really big favour.

Go find a better audiologist who really understands the platform and start again.

Pro tip: Don’t start your selection based on which audiologist is selling the hearing aids for the cheapest price.

Jordan

Hi Jordan,

First of all, let me start by saying that the Spheres are awesome, despite my gripes about Autosense. I have worn them for a week and have calmed down somewhat after my initial rant, which was more to do with noticing some differences from having worn Oticon Intents for 15 months.

I agree with you, as I did wear Phonak for many years previously (over 20 years in fact), that most of the time, I don’t notice Autosense changes. I think I played devils advocate in the kitchen, and had a number of kitchen appliances on, and Autosense started to jump programs, and I wasn’t happy.

Aside from the issues with Autosense, which, yes, are soluble to a large extent by going into Target, there is a nuanced argument about the way that Phonak and Oticon operate in noise. This is not a bar fight argument. I just held up the point for discussion. Oticon tends not to reduce gain, whereas Phonak will do this and zoom more (again, I appreciate it’s configurable). I think for me, it’s more significant because I notice any dips in gain straight away. My loss is pretty severe, so when this happens, it’s a bit of a problem. However, I can’t light the candle at both ends. I have been in situations with the Oticon Intents where there have been no dips in gain, but I am reduced to hearing a mass of noise, and hence couldn’t hear anybody. Which is why I switched.

All the best.

@JordanK said:

When I read about people with issues my first thought is that they were poorly setup or the user was given the wrong receivers or wrong domes/molds. Second thought is…if they were poorly setup, I’m not sure that messing around with self programming after a poor setup is doing yourself a really big favour.

Or some people just really don’t like AutoSense. Even with my Intents, I keep my general program set with minimal noise suppression. I’m just too aware of little nuances all the time, and I don’t like the distraction.

I dare say I’d probably hate the Sphere program—based on what I’ve read, the artificial “bubble” would drive me insane. I’m glad you like them and that you’re very happy with them, but the Intents are fantastic too.

Anyhow, we’re all just different, with different needs.

I have the Spheres and have no issues with wind noise. I ride motorcycles and drive with the windows down. And i walk 5 miles a day in the forest. I have custom ear molds.

@cvkemp said:

no issues with wind noise.

Thanks for that, I have the P70T and created a program that deals with this pretty good, have them 3 year’s now, but eventually will move up, the cost is high but I get full service for 3 years everything included, I also wear custom ear molds, and all things considered function almost like normal 95% of the time. Without them… Solid silence on all fronts.

@PeterH said:

I really want silence, I just take them out, which I do often.

You, or your audiologist, can set up a long down press on the rocker switch to mute or unmute them. No need to take them out.

@xyzzy said:

You, or your audiologist, can set up a long down press on the rocker switch to mute or unmute them. No need to take them out.

I’m aware of that, but I also, occasionally, take them out as my ear canals get warm.