Costco Kirkland Signature 9.0 (Product Information)

OK, I got it, thanks for the explanation. I guess my loss is not as bad as I thought it was. Something to look forward to I guess!!

@Don said:

Not really. The microphone is picking up just as much sound. The amount output to your ears is turned down, but not the part going to the other party. Think of it like a splitter. Once the sound is split, the part going to your ear has a volume control.

Yes, that makes some sense. I can see how that would help. However, the signal going to the caller at the other end still is getting a mix of voice and surrounding sounds picked up by the microphone. Yes, as haggis has pointed out, there may be a bit of use of directionality of the mic to try to focus on the speaker, but it will still be a mix.

With other systems the microphone sensitivity is simply turned down thus suppressing the speaker’s voice and surrounding sounds. The iPhone is left to deliver the speaker’s voice, which can be controlled manually by moving the phone closer to your mouth.

Once they split the signal, they COULD apply different processing to each channel, so the noise reduction of the signal going to the other party could be improved over time. The ultimate would be if the hearing aid recognizes your voice, and the other party hears your voice only and not other extraneous sounds.

Sounds like you are having one of two issues:

1. Your TV Connector volume is cranked up, so it is significantly louder than your environment. Try turning that down first.
2. The default balance between environment and the TV connector was set up heavy on the TV Connector side. This should be customizable by your fitter. I had mine set to default at very close to 50/50.

Anybody know if there have been any firmware updates to the KS9?
Has anybody tried using the new Phonak app with the KS9?
Anybody tried connecting to a KS9 with Target programming software?

Q: Anybody know if there have been any firmware updates to the KS9?
Response: My Costco was still running the old version of Phonak Target to program my HAs when I was in last week. I don’t know if or when they may update nor do I know if they will update the HA firmware if/when they update the software. So… We shall wait and see.

Q: Has anybody tried using the new Phonak app with the KS9?
Response: I have tried. No joy. You need to have the firmware update to use the new app. To get the firmware update you need to work with the latest Phonak Software. Also, no guaruntee that KS9s would work since the app is for Phonak Marvels.

Q: Anybody tried connecting to a KS9 with Target programming software?
Response: I’d love to hear from someone who has tried connecting the KS9s to the latest version of Phonak Target too!

I don’t find the battery drain to be significant. The batteries don’t last as long as non Bluetooth HAs, but the benefits of having Bluetooth outweigh the extra battery usage.

If the bluetooth phone connection works well 90% of the time and you can take a hearing aid out and speak into it as a workaround for the few times it is having issues, you are still better off than having MFI and always having to speak into your phone. [shrug]

I have yet to have anyone complain, but I have custom molds and someone hypothesized that the issue might be related to feedback issues.

You are so correct.
So much flaming by people who don’t even own these aid or understand how they function. The pros have said it more than once that the feedback controls need to be properly set for the phone to function correctly. It still comes down to aids being set up properly.

I’m going to my audi tomorrow to tweak the settings on my M70-R’s for better phone connection. I have heard from someone to ask for “fixed bandwidth”. I haven’t heard anyone talk about feedback controls and phone functionality. Any more information?

Much easier to hold the phone closer than to take hearing aids out.

True, and if you always had to take a hearing aid out to use the phone that would be a deal-breaker. From what I understand, it is only an occasional issue in certain environments though, so then it is more debatable whether occasionally taking a hearing aid out is more of a pain than always taking your phone out.

All I know is I love being able to answer and talk on my phone without having to dig it out of my pocket.

Had my follow-up appointment. Had the fitter add a manual program for speech in loud noise and had him turn off the “Beep when it sees the TV Connector” setting. That was super-annoying. Now it requires me to manually switch the program (long-press on up button for me) when I want to connect to the TV connector. I think I’ll like this best, rather than auto-connecting or beeping.

PS: The software was still version 6.0.2.

Very helpful, thanks for sharing your experience.