Phonak Spice

Thanks for the reply Aero777 I have decided to try the Smart S 1X now just have to wait for them to come.

Phil

@AMT said:

Can anyone give me some differences or advantages or disadvantages between the
Ambra and Audeo? I have kind of decided on one of these but am unable to see them in person. My audi also does not have much experience with either of them.

thanks
Phil

You can see by the fitting charts that the Ambras, with the classic coupling, should handle a more severe loss than the Audeos. My Audi says the charts are not always accurate. He felt the Ambras (which I got) would perform better for me, although, all things being equal, I would have preferred the thinner wire of the Audeos.

@JordanK said:

I am still very pleased with these hearing aids and I have been quite surprised about how little fine tuning was required to get the hearing aids to this point. I believe that the new software makes all the difference. JordanK.

I am very pleased with these as well, although my previous experience is only with Phonak.

It appears that AutoZoom or ZoomControl works better at canceling noise during conversations than Speech-in-Noise. The Phonak Tech Rep confirmed this. You cannot adjust noise canceling in Speech-in-Noise to as high a level as In ZoomControl. The Tech Rep demonstrated in AutoZoom the HAs identify the dominate voice and after a couple of seconds all other sounds are lowered. A couple of seconds after conversation ceases all sounds return to their original level.

My Audi initially seat the gain levels manually instead of using the gain settings suggested by Target. The Target levels were much closer to what I needed.

We have also discovered the gain (especially for the highs) for the different iCom modes do not have to be set as high as for the normal hearing modes when the sound is coming from the onboard mikes.

@Stratuscom said:

I am very pleased with these as well, although my previous experience is only with Phonak.

It appears that AutoZoom or ZoomControl works better at canceling noise during conversations than Speech-in-Noise. The Phonak Tech Rep confirmed this. You cannot adjust noise canceling in Speech-in-Noise to as high a level as In ZoomControl. The Tech Rep demonstrated in AutoZoom the HAs identify the dominate voice and after a couple of seconds all other sounds are lowered. A couple of seconds after conversation ceases all sounds return to their original level.

My Audi initially seat the gain levels manually instead of using the gain settings suggested by Target. The Target levels were much closer to what I needed.

We have also discovered the gain (especially for the highs) for the different iCom modes do not have to be set as high as for the normal hearing modes when the sound is coming from the onboard mikes.

Your observations are interesting and they closely match my experience with these hearing aids. I am finding myself rarely using the “Speech in Noise” setting now that I have ZoomControl and StereoZoom. I think you nailed the issue on the head perfectly. As an example, AutoZoom locks onto the voice, the noise reduction kicks in and on top of this, you have the microphones on each hearing aid wirelessly cross transmitting the sound to the other hearing aid. These three things work better for speech in noise than the actual “Speech in noise preset”. In addition, you can always flip to StereoZoom and the microphones narrow their scope further to cut out any background chatter. All of this works amazingly well.

Here is another good use of this technology. I was driving my son to a practice this morning and he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car. It was windy, there was lots of road noise and unfortunately, my right each has a lower discrimination score than my left. This is a bad combo for me. I flipped the hearing aids to AutoZoom and the problem went away. The AutoZoom locked onto his voice, noise reduction kicked in to reduce the road noise and the right hearing aid transmitted his voice wirelessly to my better ear (left side). It wasn’t perfect but it was a significant improvement. If I would have had the myPilot with me, I would have bumped the gain up a click and it would have been perfect. I had a similar situation on Tuesday except it was my daughter in the backseat of the car. AutoZoom focused behind my head and I could hear her much better.

I am also finding that the best setting for a noisy Christmas party is StereoZoom with the gain bumped up slightly. If you think about it, you are always facing someone up close when you are talking at a party and StereoZoom fits this use perfectly. I have found myself leaving StereoZoom on the whole evening when I am in a party setting and I often wonder if I can hear better than people with normal hearing. I’ve noticed more than a few people asking others to repeat themselves when I (the hearing impaired person) can hear the speaker quite well in StereoZoom. It kinda makes me chuckle a bit.

It is not all perfect and there still are situations where the Zooming features don’t quite work (i.e. speaker is quite far away and the room is noisy) but all in all, these features are a huge step forward.

Everyone keep posting your impressions. Its interesting reading…

Jordan.

I’m getting fitted this Wednesday for the Audeo S Smarts IX with remote Control and iCom. Any suggestions from anyone as to how I should get them set up would be great. I have already noted that I need the Zoom to be a program on the remote, noiseblock set to moderate and to run the Real Ear Calibration. I have my fingers crossed that I am not expecting too much.

@German said:

I read about all these zooms. I test my Spice aids and I have Pilot one.

Silly question:
Have all these zooms to be activated or are they automatic ?
Do I need the MyPilot Remote for this ?

I have read, you must have a program set for zooms. But there are different zoom functions.

Sorry for this question. Phonak explains the different zooms. but I actually do not know if I have them activated in my aids or what I have to do to use the zooms.

StereoZoom & auto ZoomControl needs to be manually added to your programs. You then use your PilotOne to activate them (second button from the bottom)

@SuJaDon said:

I’m getting fitted this Wednesday for the Audeo S Smarts IX with remote Control and iCom. Any suggestions from anyone as to how I should get them set up would be great. I have already noted that I need the Zoom to be a program on the remote, noiseblock set to moderate and to run the Real Ear Calibration. I have my fingers crossed that I am not expecting too much.

Call your audiologist to make sure she gets you a PilotOne remote as this is proving to be very useful. Do not mess with the default noise settings as they are quite good. Make sure she sets up instrument parameters and accessories to match your fitting before running feedback calibration. Good luck.

@SuJaDon said:

Think she has ordered MyPilot and not PilotOne.

With all of the programs, I prefer the extra selection control of the MyPilot.

@JordanK said:

I am also finding that the best setting for a noisy Christmas party is StereoZoom with the gain bumped up slightly. If you think about it, you are always facing someone up close when you are talking at a party and StereoZoom fits this use perfectly. I have found myself leaving StereoZoom on the whole evening when I am in a party setting and I often wonder if I can hear better than people with normal hearing. I’ve noticed more than a few people asking others to repeat themselves when I (the hearing impaired person) can hear the speaker quite well in StereoZoom.

Jordan.

When at a noisy restaurant with several people at the table, but only one person talking to the whole table, AutoZoom does a good job of tracking whoever is speaking. When the table breaks into several individual conversations, that’s when I switch to StereoZoom to focus on the person talking to me only.

@SuJaDon said:

Think she has ordered MyPilot and not PilotOne.

The myPilot is even better with more function but is larger and more expensive. At least you have a remote and rhat is what’s important. I tend to put Stereozoom in prog 1 & AutoZoomControl in prog 2 & phone in Prog 3. Any order is fine though, but your audi has to add these manually.

@onlyme said:

Many thanks for the tips - I’m in a similar position to SuJaDon.

If the aids have both volume control & program buttons, is there any additional functionality gained by shelling out for the remote?

The mypilot allows selection of Zoom direction using manual ZoomControl, you couls set V/C of each aid independently and you could set an alarm. So not essential, but might be nice to have if you like flexibility.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stratuscom
When at a noisy restaurant with several people at the table, but only one person talking to the whole table, AutoZoom does a good job of tracking whomever is speaking. When the table breaks into several individual conversations, that’s when I switch to StereoZoom to focus on the person talking to me only.

@hearnow said:

Great tip thanks, I’ll advise my clients to try the same.

For my understanding:
Does having Autozoom as a manual program work better than Ultrazoom in soundflow?
For example my experience is that a Speech in Noise program works as well as Speech in Noise in Soundflow.
I dont understand why there is a need for a autozoom program slot when ultrarzoom does the job in soundflow, unless a ZoomControl program has the parameters set different to reduce more ambient background noise. I have not had my Smarts set up this way yet.

Using a remote Pilot One or a onboard button. If you set up, say program 1 for zoom control right/back…program 2 for zoom left/back… then use Soundflow’s (automatic) Ultrazoom as it will kick in automatically in speech in noise.
Then i can have Stereozoom, Calm and Duophone in the remaining slots.

I definitely need the best speech in noise tools to help me hear better. If a AutoZoom slot, along with the zoom left and the zoom right slot is better than relying on Soundflow to give me the best speech in noise, then i could go this way.
The MyPilot can aim the direction of zoom in ZoomControl Obviously the Pilot one remote cannot.
All this is a little confusing. Hopefully in time my Audie and I will figure this out but maybe someone here could shed some light on this alleged dilemma.

hearnow wrote
“Make sure she sets up instrument parameters and accessories to match your fitting before running feedback calibration. Good luck.”

Why is this important ? “before…”

Let´s say you have Spice aids and Domes with some occlusion (power domes …)
Then you change and have custommade earpieces with ventilation channels. Permanent feedback from the beginning. Permanent, not at certain sound.

The you run the feedbackmanager. In my thinkling the manager has to work permanently too.

Can this make the hearing worse ? lower loudness or other sound ?

In my case I think the feedbackmanager caused a change and made the hearing worse.

@mstrmac said:

For my understanding:
Does having Autozoom as a manual program work better than Ultrazoom in soundflow?
For example my experience is that a Speech in Noise program works as well as Speech in Noise in Soundflow.
I dont understand why there is a need for a autozoom program slot when ultrarzoom does the job in soundflow, unless a ZoomControl program has the parameters set different to reduce more ambient background noise. I have not had my Smarts set up this way yet.

UltraZoom and AutoZoom perform two completely different functions and yes, in my opinion, you need both. The animated tutorials on the Phonak website are basic but useful in understanding what the different functions do.

UltraZoom works in Soundflow, which is the automatic mode, and identifies an offending noise and reduces it. The signal-to-noise ratio is adjustable as well as the aggressiveness of the noise filter. Soundflow will also automatically adjust the fine tuning when the user adjusts the volume based on it’s interpretation of the sound environment and what it thinks the user is really asking for, i.e. more clarity in speech, reduction of noise, or fulness in music.

AutoZoom, StereoZoom, and Manual Zoom control is designed primarily for conversation. AutoZoom identifies the dominate speaker and reduces all other noises. The noise filtering in AutoZoom is more aggressive than can be set in Soundflow (Speech-in-Noise) according to the Phonak rep (and my experience).

I find myself nevering using Speech-in-Noise in the manual program. Automatic works so well that whenever I check to see if Manual Speech-in-Noise would be better, the Automatic mode has already switched to Speech-in-Noise.