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Phonak Marvel - vibrating tremolo effect for high pitched (electronic) sounds

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Dave, I think you’d probably want to try Autosense with WhisteStop turned off. That is what I plan on doing when I test the KS-9s. Besides that awful trill from WhistleStop, I very much liked the Marvel 90s. I am hoping that will cinch the deal for me. Certainly, the Autosense made it much easier to hear in a restaurant.

@legsmaniac69 said:

I’ve set Music as Program 1 and turned AutoSenseOS off. So my aids won’t auto select anything else but stay on the Music program which suits me. Even SoundRecover is off. Everything is off. I hate compression of any sort.

Legs - I’ve tried going the full monte with no compression, but my loss isn’t as severe as yours and there are things that make me jump out of my skin. I tried to live with the Music program as my full time setting, but was just way too harsh in some environments. So, I need the compression to get a natural sound.

@uburoibob said:

to get a natural sound.

And therein lies the rub, I guess. Just what is “natural”? To me at least.
Having been deaf since birth and didn’t get my first hearing aids until I was 4 years old, the only memory of sounds of the “natural” world are are that of which the old analogue hearing aids provided to me. Digital didn’t come along until many years later and was longer still before they were available on the NHS.
You can then appreciate what I finally heard, after some 40 years of wearing analogue hearing aids, was a load of strange compressed garbage. Hence my personal preference to turn off all compression where possible.

Thanks for the response, Legs. As someone who had great hearing until about 20 years ago, I am always chasing what I know I am supposed to hear. So, natural to me becomes that unattainable thing that I am always getting closer to. Compounded by the fact that I am in the music and broadcast audio biz. So it’s wonderful that we have so many options available to us.

As a newbie to aids… yep, I keep wanting things to sound “natural” which I thought was what I could hear before. But it’s only been about 2 weeks since I got the Marvels and I’m having to make up for about 20 years. I first learned I had high frequency loss when I was about 40 and never did anything until now. I’m slowly getting used to them and now when I take them off everything sounds so subdued and muffled. Maybe I have found my new normal? :slight_smile:

Hey Dave!
I also have a ski slope pattern and I fully appreciate what you’re saying. When I first got my M90-R, I was expecting something much different. Now that I’m 7 months in I have a new normal and I experience the same thing when I don’t have them in yet. Everything indeed sounds subdued and muffled. My piano doesn’t sound full and rich without my Marvels.

Well, a new development I discovered today with the tremelo issue. Even though I had WhistleStop turned off on Autosense… when I use the TV connector, it resets the settings back to include WhistleStop. As soon as I turn off the TV connector, it goes away. Weird… wonder if there’s work-around.

I guess when you use the TV connector you are using bluetooth and not the autosense program, so you would need to turn WhistleStop off in the bluetooth streaming program.

Hmm, not sure, but I think the TV signal is but I don’t think the regular hearing signal is…

The Phonak TV Connector is decidedly NOT Bluetooth. But either Bluetooth or the TV Connector use a streaming program that is separate from parameters in other programs. I recently had these modified by my audi for my Marvels, but I don’t remember if they were separate programs. Anyway, just make sure they make the Whistle Stop adjustment to your liking for the streaming programs as well as all the other programs.

As a working musician I had to work around this tremolo effect for years. I was using Phonak high end products and my audi turned off the feedback manager. This fixed the tremolo but my hearing aids weren’t as effective as they could have been, In my search for new products 2 years ago I demoed Starkey as they could turn off the feedback manager on individual programs while the Phonak were an all or nothing proposition. I also tried OPN hearing aids and the tremolo effect wasn’t able to be remedied even after calling the tech help folks. Fortunately, I discovered that the Widex 440 Beyonds had no such tremolo effect problem and there was no adjustment needed as well as having a better overall sound.

@jazzpete said:

I was using Phonak high end products and my audi turned off the feedback manager. This fixed the tremolo but my hearing aids weren’t as effective as they could have been, In my search for new products 2 years ago I demoed Starkey as they could turn off the feedback manager on individual programs while the Phonak were an all or nothing proposition.

I believe this statement is incorrect. Phonak’s Target software can adjust each and every program’s feedback with Whisleblock.
At least that’s the way is see it.

The audiologist or fitter has control over whether feedback rejection is turned on for each program. I too am a jazz musician and have the Costco KS-9s (Phonak’s Marvels). I have a separate program for playing live music. In the range of auto programs, I have the feedback rejection turned on because I ride my bicycle a lot and the proximity of the helmet and over-the-ear wind reducers trigger feedback. From Costco, I have a pair of the Philips HearLink on order. I am told that these should give me the same satisfaction that you are getting from the Widex. We will know on Wednesday.

The Phonak feedback control is much more than “turned on or off”. If it’s off it is off but when on it has many adjustments of sensitivity.

Sort of, depending upon what you mean by “proper”. If there was no need for some users to to require feedback rejection, then it would not be there. Again, no problems with on other hearing aids. Let’s politely say that with your hearing loss and mine being quite different, we shall agree to disagree on this.

Oh the tremolo! Just migrated from obsolete Phonak Naida S VSP, to Signia Motion 13. Mostly better - more transparent. Audiologist took much care over the settings options, knowing I work with music and voice. Tremolo was instantly noticeable on my own voice, at all and gain settings.
Getting home to my favourite organ music I am dismayed: Festival Hall pipe organ sounds like a Hammond, sopranos with rock-steady pitch (e.g. Elin Manahan Thomas) are misrepresented.
All music sounds as though it’s from fluttery cassette. Music is still the poor relation, it seems.
I shall contact the manufacturer, go back to the audiologist and report further.
As you’ll all know, there’s a great research prog going on at Leeds University, UK, Dr Alinka Greasley, into music and hearing aids. Will talk with them, too! Very pleased to discover this thread.

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