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Phonak Spice

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Thanks for your detailed post cnicklo! I see a description of DuoPhone on the Phonak site. I want DuoPhone! But the audi has not mentioned it to me and Phonak says “with a push of a button” you invoke this feature, which could be very very important to me in the workplace.
Anyone: what do I request of the audi? Is this a custom program?
Thanks!

Edited

When my audiologist was setting up my initial fitting, I requested putting DuoPhone into one of the available slots.

He had to call Phonak to learn how to do this with the new Target fitting software. As I remember it, he had to add “Analog Phone” as one of the programs and then I believe he checked a box to enable the DuoPhone feature which streams the phone audio into both ears.

My complete program list is as follows: DuoPhone, StereoZoom, ZoomControl with direct touch (if I activate the program using the right hearing aid button it zooms right, if I activate with the left hearing aid button it zooms left), Music and Mute.

Hope that’s helpful

Chris

As an addition to the Duophone discussion it is possible to have set with the easyphone feature which does not require the push of the button (works best with and a phone with a strong magnetic signal (landline better than most cordless/cellphones).

In reply to @cnicklo

@cnicklo said:
  1. iCom Adjustments
    Right now, the iCom has a delay as it activates, so I will sometimes miss alert tones on my computer. I’ll hear the iCom activation tone followed by the disconnect tone - but no computer alert in the middle. I’d like to see this delay adjusted, if possible.

I want to use the Audio Jack to carry on two-way communications over a radio. The delay before the streaming comes on makes this impossible. The delay time can be shortened by selecting “Speech-in-Noise” as the initial program when first adding the Audio Jack program, but it doesn’t completely eliminate it. If you find a way to eliminate it let us know.

In reply to @cnicklo

@cnicklo said:

Lastly, I’d love to have a program that would enable me to listen to music or phone via iCom with the HA’s external mics muted. Right now, in noisy situations (like on the subway), The HA mics are picking up and sending through so much ambient noise that I can barely hear my music. It really degrades the experience I’m looking for.

The mics can be turned or volume reduced in the Audio Streaming programs. I don’t believe there is a way to two Audio Jack or two Bluetooth Audio programs, one with the mic on and one with it off. The ability to control the mic volume via remote would be a great feature to have.

In reply to @cnicklo

@cnicklo said:

When my audiologist was setting up my initial fitting, I requested putting DuoPhone into one of the available slots.

He had to call Phonak to learn how to do this with the new Target fitting software. As I remember it, he had to add “Analog Phone” as one of the programs and then I believe he checked a box to enable the DuoPhone feature which streams the phone audio into both ears.

Chris

I believe the program that enables DuoPhone is called “Acoustic Telephone.” It does work great except mine works only on the right side, but I prefer to hold the phone in my left hand. I thought perhaps you had an option of which side you held the phone (by entering the program with the button on that side), but that doesn’t work on mine. I then thought perhaps the Smarts would figure out which mic the phone conversation was coming through and automatically select that side (volume up on that side and mics suppressed on the other side). That didn’t work on mine, either.

@Micro said:

I believe the program that enables DuoPhone is called “Acoustic Telephone.” It does work great except mine works only on the right side, but I prefer to hold the phone in my left hand. I thought perhaps you had an option of which side you held the phone (by entering the program with the button on that side), but that doesn’t work on mine. I then thought perhaps the Smarts would figure out which mic the phone conversation was coming through and automatically select that side (volume up on that side and mics suppressed on the other side). That didn’t work on mine, either.

My Ambras had the option of the left or right side for DuoPhone

@Stratuscom said:

My Ambras had the option of the left or right side for DuoPhone

My did NOT want to program it at all (thus, she may have not been as diligent in selecting any boxes for options). She said that her patients/clients (what are we?) use DirectTouch instead. Since I have that programmed, as well, I’ve tried it, and it’s a poor substitute for DuoPhone, frankly. It does a bit of the same thing (one side turned up; the other side turned down; sound piped to both ears from one side), but it’s not nearly as clear to me. The DuoPhone almost blows me away, so I have to hold the phone away from the aid a bit or (as I’m learning to do with everything now) turn the volume down on the handset from full UP.

As far as not filling all the program slots goes, she said her patients/clients get confused or overwhelmed, so she wanted to give me only two slots filled. I was a bit insulted that she thought I couldn’t keep track of five programs. I actually don’t use them too much, other than to experiment, but I know I would wonder if I didn’t have them to play with. For me, Auto is working extremely well (and I like DuoPhone).

In reply to @Stratuscom

I’ve been wearing my Ambra SP for 1 week now. I had expected that my audi would order the P but he went for the SP instead. My left ear has deteriorated since the previous tests and is at about 70 - 75 for most frequencies at the moment. He wanted to be sure the ’s would have some room left in case it gets worse in the years to come.

I join the club of Spice fans. I can hear so much better now with just the default settings. I hardly have to ask people to repeat themselves anymore. The programs I have are: stereozoom, autozoom, acoustic phone and . So I have 1 slot left.

Last weekend I was with my father in a kind of small reataurant with all other tables in use. I put the aids in stereozoom and it was amazing. MY eyes told me there was lots of talking around us but to my ears it was like my father and me were the only ones there!

Today I had the biggest challenge for Ambra. I was at a party at work where the area was crowded with hundreds of people. Someone started a conversation with me and in stereozoom I could understand everything he said.

I have my next appointment with my audi next week but there’s not much finetuning to do. I just have some of the issues others mentioned before.

  1. I think ít’s the calm program in automatic. I’m having trouble with loud male voices while there’s no noise present. Switching to autozoom is a solution but I’d like to solve the problem. I wonder what is best: turning down the low frequencies or following the advice someone gave earlier: put calm in a slot and give it the settings of speech in noise. Is there something I have to give up when I follow this advice?

  2. There seems to be so many programs for phone. Acoustic, easy, duo (someone mentioned analog phone also). What is best? Easyphone won’t work for me so I know I have to swich programs. Acoustic phone picks up too much noise. Should I have acoustic adjusted (lower the bass, like someone told me here before) or take another program?

These are the only things that needs to be changed so I’m a happy man!

Hello All,

I had my second visit with my audiologist yesterday morning and a Phonak rep was present to introduce her to the new Target software. Here’s what happened…

  1. My custom hard shells came in and they are great. They’re about 25% smaller than my old micropower shells and that’s with housing a power receiver! They fit beautifully and I can’t even tell that they’re in my ears. No feelings of occlusion or discomfort whatsoever. They have a very thin vent compared to my old shells - approx 1mm in diameter.

  2. The Phonak rep made some adjustments because I complained about too much switching and sound processing and I believe that he did this mainly in the comfort in noise program. I’m not sure exactly what he did but I remember him adjusting the big black line on top of the graph display as well as changing a few different numbers on the middle of the screen. Sorry, not a very technical description but I will not begin to pretend I know much about hearing aid programming. He did not change the sensitivity of the auto program switching…he kept it right in the middle (I think it was at the medium setting).

Since the adjustments, while the hearing aids are in auto mode, everything seems too trebly with a noticeable amount of distortion. This is especially true when there is a lot of background noise or when more than one person is talking. Everything seems too loud and there is a background very faint hum. I’m not sure if it’s the heat vents that I’m hearing or what. I’ve tried putting the hearing aids in stereozoom and standing right in front of a vent and the hum is much less noticable, even when I turn the volume up all the way. Voice sounds in stereozoom and autozoom are much less trebly but voice sounds, although clearer and less distorted, are attenuated and I have to turn the volume up to full blast in order to appreciate a volume that is similar to the automode without any volume adjustment.

I am distressed because I had a much better experience before any adjustments were made while in auto. Sound was much more natural and speech was so much easier to understand. Sure, the auto switching between programs was much more noticeable but it wasn’t bad and I was kinda used to it (or it was happening much less frequently as the hearing aids learned my preferences and environments). In fact, I really don’t think that these things are switching at all anymore. I’ve stressed them with different sounds in a variety of different environments and I can’t notice any change in processing - even in a car with the radio on, the windows rolled down, an airplane overhead and the kids screaming in the back seat…there is no attenuation whatsoever, everything just pours in.

I have an appointment on Monday morning to adjust. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know it’s most likely all of the settings that were changed during my visit. Does the Target software have a go back to previous setting? Is the change from power domes to cshells contributing? Why all the treble and distortion? Why is everything so loud in auto?

  1. We also spent some time trying to tweak the icom to acceptably amplify sound from my electronic stethoscope while plugged into the audio jack. He made some changes here too pertaining mostly to the audio jack output thresholds, unfortunately without success. I’ll just have to continue using my amplified stethoscope the old fashioned way…taking my hearing aids out and plugging them into my ears!

One thing that I’ve noticed is that audio streaming from my Mac and my iphone sounds subpar. If I plug the iphone or mac into the audio jack and stream via icom to my hearing aids, everything sounds wonderful but bluetooth streaming does not sound good at all. I had an icom with my original audeo smarts and I did not have this problem. Streaming music via bluetooth from my Mac sounded great. My current problems may be related to the changes that the Phonak rep made to the icom to try and get my stethoscope to work. Does anyone know if it’s possible to reset the icom to factory default?

  1. In terms of programs, I opted to have stereozoom and autozoom programmed into the mypilot remote in slots 2 and 3 respectively. Any other suggestions for programs?

Anyway, that’s my story thus far. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Ronnie

After my first fitting, the mids and lows were too high. Speech comprehension was poor. My audi reduced the mids and lows slightly and speech comprehension improved. I was surprised how little he had to reduce the lows for speech to become clear. During my last adjustment, I wanted to increase the lows for the iCom programs. My Audi increased bass boost for all programs which improved audio streaming from the iCom, but Speech comprehension in the non-iCom programs deteriorated. I will have to reverse this setting.

When I first used the iCom the sound was amazingly full, natural, and good. Then we installed the iCom programs in Target, bluetooth and audio jack, and the quality of sound went way down. The treble was too high with no bass and all sounds lost their fulness. We have since increased the gain in the mids and lows, which was an improvement, but the sound is still not like it was in the beginning.

When you first install an iCom program, Target gives you the option of selecting an initial profile, Calm situation, Speech-in-noise, etc. We opted for Speech-in-noise because the Phonak rep said that would reduce the delay time for audio jack to begin streaming. It did, from about four seconds to two seconds. However, I wonder if that is what caused the fulness of sound from the iCom to decrease. Target does not give you the option to change the profile after the first install of the program. I think you have to delete the program and reinstall it to change the profile. My next fitting is in two days and the Phonak Rep will be there. Hopefully we can resolve this then.

My audiologist says that training for Target did not precede the introduction of the new Spice hearing aids. Training on an individual basis is occurring now and as the audiologists gain more experience with Target, fittings will obviously improve. We need to give the process a couple of months for the audiologist to become proficient before we pass judgement on the Spice hearing aids.

Phonak is introducing the mid and base line of Spice generation hearing aids in the U.S. They are initially giving these product lines to a few select audiologists. If someone is waiting for the lower priced Spice product lines you should have your audiologist ask Phonak to include him/her in the initial cadre.

@ RonnieG

First I had the Oticon Agil pro. I was very satisfied. The audio changed the fitting and she changed to my special earpiece. I am sure that was a bad decision. After 3 month of testing I noticed the same with my Phonaks.

Good in the beginning, fitting made it distorted. Power domes are louder in my ear than the earpiece with ventilation.

We tried to take an earlier session, but Target did not copy it. She made a print-out and could see it. We are working on it, since 3 weeks.

With the stethoskope: with the xpower receiver there was no way.
With the standard receiver I always say I hear beside the receiver.
I think about an electronic solution, but up to now I use them normally.

Oticon Agils were perfect, until the fitting got more detailed.
The same with the Phonaks. Now I always beg my audio to let the programs like they are. I have no zooms installed, because I am afraid, the good fitting will be gone again. I have my old Phonak YES in the moment again with the power domes. They have the old programs.

German

Thanks for your input. I was afraid someone was going to say something like that. Now I’m wishing that we would have just left everything alone. I will go in on Monday morning and see if my audiologist will be able to reset the hearing aids and the icom to factory default. I’ll have her add other programs to the mypilot empty slots and I’ll post my experiences.

Thanks again.

I have been attempting to demo the new Smart S’s after trying out the Oticon Agil Pros for probably 3-4 weeks and am having a miserable time of it. The first pair that my audi got for me got sent back due to the fact that they would suddenly feedback for no particular reason. And so badly that I had to rip them out of my ears. Got a second pair and they do not feedback (same settings), but in totally automatic mode, I get an annoying amount of reverb and my own voice sounds rather mechanical. Overall, I find the quality of sound rather on the harsh side. Ronnie mentioned distortion, so I’m wondering if what we’re hearing is similar. Like others, the constant auto-switching is bothersome (mostly in my car), and I also think the sound through the iCom with my iPhone is really tinny with total lack of bass. I am an amateur musician and am therefore pretty picky when listening to music. I do not have any of these problems with the Agil Pro and currently still love them. I REALLY want to love these new Phonaks too, especially after reading all the positive experiences in this thread, so it’s been rather a depressing experience so far. Has anyone else out there had this problem with reverb and/or unexpected feedback? Phonak claims they have a fix for at least some of these problems, and so they are being sent in. If they have a solution that requires returning the aids, I must not be the only person having issues I wouldn’t think.

@banshee said:

Has anyone else out there had this problem with reverb and/or unexpected feedback?

I have not had any reverb or the kind of feedback you’re experiencing.

About four days after getting mine (have had them for about ten days now), while sitting quietly watching television in Auto mode, the right one (power receiver) suddenly threw a few high-pitched weird sounds in, almost like high-pitched crackling. I turned it off and back on right away, and it wouldn’t “boot” at all. Strangely, after several attempts, I found that pressing the button on top caused a tone in the aid in my left ear (cycling through the manual programs one at a time as I pressed the button), so it was communicating and online, but there was no sound at all from the right. I turned it off and left it off for about ten minutes, and it booted fine. Has worked beautifully ever since without a recurrence.

I still do not hear any program switching at all in any situation while in Auto mode, yet that mode works great for most situations I’ve been in.

My only problem, unrelated to the aids themselves, is that the power domes pop out of my ears while chewing on food. Annoying and embarrassing. I ordered another size and a tulip, just to try.

@Micro said:

About four days after getting mine (have had them for about ten days now), while sitting quietly watching television in Auto mode, the right one (power receiver) suddenly threw a few high-pitched weird sounds in, almost like high-pitched crackling. I turned it off and back on right away, and it wouldn’t “boot” at all. Strangely, after several attempts, I found that pressing the button on top caused a tone in the aid in my left ear (cycling through the manual programs one at a time as I pressed the button), so it was communicating and online, but there was no sound at all from the right. I turned it off and left it off for about ten minutes, and it booted fine. Has worked beautifully ever since without a recurrence…

I have experienced the “crackling on occasion” as well. It sometimes goes away on its own, sometimes by switching programs, and if that doesn’t work it always goes away when I “reboot” the processors. It could be a processor “hiccup,” but I wonder if maybe there is an occasional problem with the wireless communication between the two aids. It doesn’t occur often enough to be an issue yet.

In reply to @banshee

@banshee said:

Got a second pair and they do not feedback (same settings), but in totally automatic mode, I get an annoying amount of reverb and my own voice sounds rather mechanical. Overall, I find the quality of sound rather on the harsh side. Ronnie mentioned distortion, so I’m wondering if what we’re hearing is similar. Like others, the constant auto-switching is bothersome (mostly in my car), and I also think the sound through the iCom with my iPhone is really tinny with total lack of bass.

@banshee

Your right. It does sound like there is intermittent reverb and my own voice sounds mechanical. I did not have this problem prior to my recent fitting. I’m sure there is a way to tweak the sound to your liking.

In terms of the icom, try connecting the iphone via audio cable and see if this helps. It did with me. I will bring this up with my audiologist during my next appt.

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