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Phonak introduces Marvel platform and Audéo M hearing aids

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In reply to @jim_lewis

I did not try the domes with the Quattros. I will say the Resounds have an awesome app. I was able to make them sound pretty dang good by tweaking the bass/treble sliders. I think either the Resound or the Phonak apps allow you to adjust or eliminate the external sound being picked up. That with the double domes, while not noise canceling, did a pretty good job of isolating the external audio. The Marvel app does not allow tweaking, but to me they still sound awesome. My 2 loves with the Marvels are, true hands free phone (restricted to my iPad until fix), and the streaming quality. A third love may be the ability to stream music or podcasts from my Apple Watch.

In reply to @focusandearnit

@focusandearnit said:

The Marvels right aid dying quicker is very likely the one that is actually doing the Bluetooth connection. It can be right or left, whatever the audiologist sets it in Phonak Target

That is my understanding. I have the rechargeable M90R and my audiologist set up my right Marvel as the “primary” connection. Apparently all music streaming, phone calls, etc. go initially to the right aid and then are “sent” over to the left hearing aid and I believe that is the reason the right hearing aid tends to show lower remaining power (although for me it has not been that significant). For music streaming the Marvels provide a strong stereo effect (which I verified by listening to old Beatles albums - White Album is fantastic) and as mentioned earlier in this thread you can dial out the outside noise using the app so they will rival high end headphones.

I concur with you on the primary device. It seems that my primary (right) runs about 5-10% under the left by the end of the day. I am extremely happy with my rechargeables having come from the Widex Zpower world which was awfull!

Edited

In reply to @petermo

I wear glasses with fairly thick frames. The rechargeables fit fine and I really don’t notice them behind my ears much after I’ve had them on for a few minutes. My hair is fairly long right now (overdue for a haircut) so my hair goes over them as well. I don’t think my ears are overly large but in any case, there isn’t any real problem with my glasses interfering with the Marvels. My audiologist suggested I put the glasses on first and then the aids which is what I do in the morning, however, during the day I take off the glasses from time to time to clean them or whatever and I don’t have any real problem putting the glasses back on with the aids already inserted in my ears.

In reply to @petermo

I have the Marvel M90-R rechargeables. I take my reading glasses on and off all day long with no problem whatsoever. I’ve always thought I had normal size ears. In the morning after I put my Marvels in I forget I have them on, they’re that comfortable. After two months I can’t imagine going without my Marvels.

In reply to @petermo

@petermo, I found the M90 rechargeables to be a very uncomfortable fit with glasses, and it was one of the reasons I returned them after the trial. But everyone’s anatomy is different, and I think it depends on how much room you have behind your ears. The only thing you can do is try them. You’ll know within a day or so if they are going to bother you or not. Good luck.

In reply to @etherington

I agree with you on the streaming sound quality. I returned the Quattros in favor of my old Phonak V90’s with Compilot, but then got the Marvels which sound as great or better than my old V90s in streaming mode. It sounds great. I’ve never been a fan of ear buds or headphones even before wearing . I love having the phone stream music, or the iPad stream shows. Turn up the volume on my HA to drown out external noises too.

Edited

In reply to @warneral

@warneral said:

Turn up the volume on my HA to drown out external noises too.

Actually, paradoxically, this user alternative is what headphone manufacturers, particularly noise-cancelling ones, use as a selling point. You can hurt your remaining hearing by turning up the volume too much to drown out noise and since they say users habituate to loud sounds after a while and are tempted to turn up the volume even more, that’s not good. I try to follow the Android warnings when my phone thinks the volume is too high but somehow between the Android OS volume settings, the app volume settings, and (in my case) the headphone hardware volume settings, I’m not sure what the Android OS thinks is just OK loud and too loud still works right (I can sometimes be way below too loud by Android OS and HA app judgement but still by headphone hardware dial have the sound to my ears plenty loud - the fit software says that I typically listen to streaming at something like a -17 volume setting whereas it’s loud in my ears.

So summary comment for all HA wearers. It would be great if Google and Apple, HA OEM’s, and major headphone/earbud/etc. OEM’s could all get together and coordinate all the volume settings so that the OS (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux), your HA app, or whatever software/firmware runs for your hardware used in conjunction with your HA’s gave a truer indication of where you were in the hearing safety range if everything were functioning according to specs - and ideally, you could have a benchmark test when everything’s brand new to judge system aging by and what might be changing in the chain of transmission - probably asking way too much, especially for a benchmark.

P.S. The turning up the volume on the source that I wanted to listen to may be part of the story on how I “earned” my age(& noise?)-related high-frequency hearing loss. When our daughters were teenagers, they got the good, newer cars with working air-conditioning to drive. I drove an old '86 Camry hand-me-down from my wife with broken air-conditioning in Texas summer heat and to compensate drove with all windows down and turned the radio up loud to compensate - drove tens of thousands of miles that way at 70 to 75 mph on Interstates and the overall sound input must have been around 100 dB or more as the radio was turned up to overcome probably at least 80 to 85 dB (if not more) wind and road noise.

I have the feeling putting together Mars mission might be simpler. :smile:

In reply to @jim_lewis

All of those volume settings are just guesses though. And for whose ears? An adolescent? An 80 year old? Until there are consumer level machines, no one can know what the ear drum is getting. And then how well the user is hearing it depending on their age or damage.

@z10user2 said:

All of those volume settings are just guesses though. And for whose ears?

I would think whether you actually hear something or not, a certain output is going to be damaging. Just like how much ink your inkjet or laser printer puts on a paper, your hardware when manufactured ought to be capable of performing to spec and the transmission/communication standards could be agreed upon. And as to actual output, at least a reasonable qualitative output could be garnered from a phone sound meter app. The sound meter developer uses the phone’s microphone/OS performance to produce a /frequency graph and they work pretty well but obviously are NIST-traceable!

But just as @mdb says, even if it might work in theory, it’s probably hopeless to get it done in practice. As soon as I add headphones to my listening equation, it seems the actually safe volume levels are anyone’s guess, although perhaps I should try cramming my phone into a headphone earcup and see what the Android Sound Meter app thinks about the output.

Edited

In reply to @jim_lewis

Jim, this is where owning or using or trialing the specific model referenced In the thread comes in handy.

With the Marvels, and possibly depending on how your Audi has configured your toggle buttons, one can press the up button on their MARVELS, during streaming, quiets outside noises rather tha amping the volume of the music. See my sheet for how mine are configured.

It seems that whenever someone in this thread comments on the improved streaming sound quality over the Quattros which they tried, you begin to debate or remark on how noise cancelling headphones are a better choice. I think this confuses the topic since you haven’t used Marvel HAs.

Essentially, the Marvels cancel the external noise when you increase the volume when in streaming mode. See image. Note that when you increase volume you are turning down environmental sounds when streaming

image

@warneral said:

It seems that whenever someone in this thread comments on the improved streaming sound quality over the Quattros which they tried, you begin to debate or remark on how noise cancelling headphones are a better choice.

Hi, @warneral. I am commenting specifically on your remark that you turn up the volume to cancel out the noise. Presumably if the Marvels cancel out the noise entirely, you wouldn’t have made that remark. And as anyone can read your remark, I am basically offering the remark to any and all that it’s not a good idea to turn up your volume (past a certain point) to cancel out any noise that you can still hear. And in my experience, noise you might not want to hear can get loud enough to come through pretty occlusive power domes and even through pretty good noise-cancelling headphones worn on top of them. When I exercise close to the boxing setup in the gym, I still hear a fair amount of sharp, sudden punching bag sounds through all my hearing defenses. My specific reply here has nothing to do with Quattro’s and I have been deliberately omitting any mention of the brand of headphones that I use, too, in any recent references to use of noise-cancelling headphones.

I am just joking but for it being a Marvel thread, you don’t seem to be able to avoid mentioning in many of your posts that you used to wear Quattro’s. So it’s pretty ironic that you think someone is mentioning Quattro’s when there is no point in a Marvel thread but you don’t follow that logic yourself! Check out your post that I linked to in commenting specifically about turning up the volume - you mentioned the Quattro’s - I made no reference to such. Tcch! Tcch!

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