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Phonak Marvels and Bluetooth... what would you do?

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Hey folks, I’ve spent a bit of time on here reading up on the phonak marvels and what people’s experiences have been.

My situation is that I currently wear cic starkey s-series. They are getting old, my hearing has deteriorated, and so I visited my audi who ran the tests, recommended marvels, and gave me a limited first fit demo.
My initial impressions were that they were awesome and the Bluetooth streaming was a killer feature. But since then I have come to understand that it can only pair to a single device at once.

I’m an IT manager in an open plan office environment and spend most of my day on a Cisco softphone on my laptop or answering calls on my iPhone XR. Whatever hearing aid I pick has to seamlessly cope with switching between those 2 devices and talking to people in the office.

And hear is where I could do with some help given the marvel limitations. Should I get the marvels and supplement with some other tool (roger pen or likewise?) so that I get around the pairing issue? Should I wait until a firmware update around Q3 that may extend the capabilities? Should I look at other options (resound quattros?). Should I wait for a bit? (The starkeys have some life left still). And there may be other options I don’t know about.

But if you folks could give me some ideas about how to proceed that would be awesome as I’m definitely in procrastination mode right now!!

Cheers

30 people in this conversation24 min readJump to latest

Surprised nobody has weighed in. Here’s my take. You’re an IT manager and presumably pretty familiar with using technology. How do you respond to tech that doesn’t work the way you think it should? Do you figure out its quirks and use it happily or do you bemoan the poor design and constantly have negative feelings towards the device? If the former, go with the Marvels. From everything I’ve heard, they’re great aids and they do work, just not the way standard wifi handles pairing and unpairing. If the later, I’d suggest checking out Oticon, Widex or Resound. All will stream directly to your iPhone and with an optional device will handle other streaming. I think your answer is less about the technology and more about you.

From what I have seen with my own hearing aids that do pair with multiple IOS devices, they only connect to one device at a time. And if they are connected to my iPhone and I need them connected to my IPad I have disabled the Bluetooth on my iPhone long enough for them to make the connection to the iPad. And that goes on back and forth. As for as connectivity to my MacBook I have to use the connect clip. I advise you do some research before making up your mind. But I also recommend that you worry about hearing as good as possible without the connectivity as your first need. As a retired IT professional I understand your needs. That was the reason I always went with aids so I could use headphones over the aids.

does the cisco softphone allow you to output just the audio of the call via, say, a 3.5 mm audio jack (or an audio jack that can be converted to a 3.5mm audio jack)? and then use the speaker mic or something? i’m wondering if the “speaker” function of the cisco softphone would allow you to do this.

because if so, then get the marvels + tv connector that streams the audio but you would still use the mic of the cisco phone for others to hear you. this would be something to really look into because if you can make this work, you can establish the connection with your iphone XR and the tv connector, which uses bluetooth LE, for your cisco phone.

how do you do the cisco phone now? the quattro’s solution to this would be the phone clip+ i believe. that has pretty poor battery life from what i can recall (a couple hours on average, but @jim_lewis could set you straight on how long it lasts). if going quattro route, you could keep it (the phoneclip+) plugged in, which would make that a non issue… and then just pair your XR to your . i spent 6 weeks with Quattro and then after 2 weeks of Marvels i had to stay with Marvels despite giving up superior BT connectivity with my phone with Quattro. I could just hear better, more reliably in more situations with marvel. in regards to the streaming, although it was more seamless with quattro, the sound quality was hands down better on Marvel for music for me. as always with these things…disclaimer before i get trampled all over…this is my experience and your mileage may vary. :wink:

There are a few posters on this forum that have the Marvels and pair/unpair them repeatedly and they say it takes them about a minute to complete the process. I have had my Marvels since early December and I love them totally. I haven’t yet gone through the pairing/unpairing as I opted to purchase the Phonak TV Connector and it is very easy to use. I leave it connected to my LG TV through my audio system but I can quickly disconnect it and set it up with my MacBook Pro Laptop when I need to do so. Since you are in IT Manager I would think the pairing/unpairing process would be simple for you to do.

I’ve had my Marvel M90-R for 6 months. I use an Android Pixel 3XL and Windows 10 computers. I’m in agreement with the other Marvel users here. I can reliably pair/unpair and change devices in about a minute but after I purchased the Phonak TV Connector and put it on my PC, I don’t bother with pair/unpair anymore as the change from phone to computer is instant. Whichever device is streaming audio, it automatically connects with the Marvels. If your work phone software is running on your PC you shouldn’t have any problems. When you trial the Marvels, ask your audiologist if you can trial the Phonak TV Connector at the same time and see if it is a fit for your needs.

I’m also in agreement with the audio quality. The audio quality for streaming music is superb and rivals my best headphones. I love having streaming music of this quality instantly available wherever I am without having to drag along a headphone.

In reply to @focusandearnit

@focusandearnit said:

does the cisco softphone allow you to output just the audio of the call via, say, a 3.5 mm audio jack (or an audio jack that can be converted to a 3.5mm audio jack)? and then use the speaker mic or something? i’m wondering if the “speaker” function of the cisco softphone would allow you to do this.

because if so, then get the marvels + tv connector that streams the audio but you would still use the mic of the cisco phone for others to hear you.

Yes, you can do it that way and that may be the answer for now. The OP indicated it was Cisco softphone so it runs on the laptop, so you can take your office phone with you. So you can use the headphone protocol on the laptop and I have done that. Cisco Communicator was the old one. Cisco Jabber is the newer one, which is what I use.

The eventual answer will be the Roger Pen, unless they come to their senses and allow the use of the Compilot 2, which is awesome and can handle everything.

But that’s exactly the reason I went with the Marvel. I wanted the freedom to directly connect with my Android phone without the necessity of having to wear a Compilot intermediate device around my neck all the time. :smile:

Thanks for the input, Don! I’m a new user of only 6 months and since I’m an Android and Windows user I took guidance from Cliff Olson, AUD and his YouTube channel in my choice of the Marvel. I have absolutely no experience with anything else, so your experience and knowledge is appreciated.

I currently have the need to connect to multiple devices and the Compilot 2 really is a good device for that. My needs may change this year and I would like to get into Marvels then. I don’t mind or even notice the Compilot 2 but if I could have the connections I need with no device, that would be better. If AMZN does as expected this year I may make a change. :grin:

Do you mean Google/Android rather than AMZN Amazon? I don’t do the Google/Android beta with my Pixel, but I think they are working on something like Apple’s LE flavor of Bluetooth.

Not trying to thread jack…quick question…

I too work in IT, and am trialing some Marvels. I fully understand and can typically adapt quickly to new technology but I’ve have a few quirks I have yet to figure out…granted I haven’t had much time to dedicate to it.

My ’s mute whenever my iPhone is unlocked. The weird thing is, prior to today, they would mute whenever I opened various apps ie. Facebook, Twitter, the calculator(weird) This was annoying enough yet today it’s all the time and they only un-mute when I lock the iPhone.
Thanks.
Mark

mark_h, yes, my Marvels will mute for a few seconds whenever an Android notification comes in from my linked Pixel 3 XL. This is indeed annoying. What I do is pull the Android shade down and in Settings I click on “Do Not Disturb”. I especially do this when listening to music and I don’t want the disturbance. After listening I turn “Do Not Disturb” OFF.

Is the Mute constant for you or is it intermittent and only occurs when Notifications come in?

I would hope this annoyance will be changed in a future firmware update.

Thank you, but…
I’m not streaming, it mutes (or drops sound way down) whenever I unlock my phone. I literally have to lock it to un-mute it. If I’m in a meeting and need to use my phone calculator or shoot out a text or email I’m basically deaf to whatever is going on in the room until I lock my phone.
Thanks.
Mark

In reply to @Don

Hi Don, I am also a huge fan of the Compilot 2 and it’s sheer versatility in dealing with multiple inputs seamlessly - it picks up my 2 mobile phones, my company laptop, home computer, 2 tvlink devices and my iPad, not to mention the remote mic as well. I’d love to consider the Marvels, but would hate to give up so much connectability. Do you think it’s a realistic possibility the Marvels could be made compatable with the Compilot through some kind of update?
Bob

Edited

In reply to @mark_h

That sounds like notifications. The phone may make one beep, but it connects to Bluetooth, the hearing aids go into Bluetooth mode, and both sides (phone and hearing aids) are ready. The thing is, the beep is long gone. So the connection waits a few seconds, then goes back to normal. Any beep and any situation where there could be an audible response can cause it to go into Bluetooth mode for a few seconds.

The solution is not that great. Turn off notifications and sounds on apps that are most likely to cause this, or turn off everything except phone sounds. You could, as a work-around, have your pro keep your microphones high during Bluetooth connection so you could still hear surrounding sounds. The mics don’t have to be off. It’s just a setting.

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