Wind noise with Phonak Marvel

@Neville said:

Wind sucks through hearing aids.

Really? I thought it blew.

FWIW, I’m wearing a pair of IICs and wind is never an issue. I can even comfortably drive with the windows down

My lockdown exercise walks were disturbed by wind noise when I was wearing my NHS Danalogic hearing aids. The only solution I found was to wear a hat with a flap that came down over the aids. A hood also worked but with the disadvantage that the movement over the ears caused its own noise. The Ear Gear covers did not stop the wind noise.

I also had problems hearing dialogue on some TV films so I decided to spoil myself by buying Phonak Audeo Paradise P90-R hearing aids. After reading the marketing material, webinars, youtube vieos and all the glowing reviews online I thought all my hearing problems would be over. During a walk in medium wind I found the top-of-the-range Phonak aids were no better than my free (to me) NHS aids. Having read about the wonders of AutoSense OS 4.0 and all the other programs I was dissappointed that the whooshing noise was worse on the Phonak.

After watching the “Speech in Wind” webinar on phonakpro.com I decided to contact Tech.Support@phonak.co.uk.
I asked if they could send me a link or some advice that I could pass on to the audiologist so we could get the latest “Speech in Wind” program added to my aids? The reply I received was as follows:

“As the manufacturer we rely on a network of audiologists and hearing professionals in the UK who are fully trained on our products and software. Your audiologist will already be familiar with how to improve your hearing instruments for use in wind. Please contact them to arrange this. If they do need any assistance this would be at their discretion, and we would be happy to advise them during your appointment.”

I ended up sending 2 more emails and received two more similar replies. I could not see why they advertised an email address for support if they were not prepared to answer a technical question. If my audiologist knew the answer I would not be contacting them. The following quote came from their second reply “Our mission at Phonak is to change the lives of as many people with hearing loss as possible, and we achieve this by creating and supplying ground-breaking hearing technology to Hearing Care Professionals on a wholesale basis.” It was like questioning a politician.

For basic everyday use I have not found the Phonak aids any better than my NHS aids and there is no difference in understanding TV film dialogue without using the TV connector. The definite advantages of the Phonak aids are:

1. The connectivity, allowing 8 bluetooth devices to be paired and 2 to be connected at any time. Streaming music from my phone is excellent and streamed phone calls are very clear.
2. The TV connector is the only reason I have not returned the aids because the sound is exceptional with much clearer dialogue.
3. The aids look much better with the wire instead of the earmould tubes on the NHS aids (The only type available in Wales).

Their tech support link is for hearing aid professionals. That was the pro website that you were on. They want to be nice to you, but they don’t really want to talk to you for a lot of reasons, the primary one probably being that they don’t have the manpower to start answering consumer questions. It’s a big company, but also not a big company.

But yeah, wind sucks for all hearing aids. I like the widex wind noise management the best right now, but It’s still not great. Wind is acoustically really hard to deal with.

Before I bought my Marvel Aids a couple years ago now I trialed Oticons. For whatever the reason, probably just the setting configuration, but this is the one area where they won out over the Phonaks for me.
They were absolutely great in the wind. If it got really bad I would notice just a burp of wind noise then it would be silenced. She’s adjusted these marvels a few times after I’ve complained but never like what I remember from the Oticon aids.
They’re not horrible and I just live with it…

I also experienced that the wind blocking of my old oticon was far better than the phonak paradise.
I now use a bandana for cycling (I think that’s the correct english term for a sports headband, right?)
Works great

After wearing Phonak aids for many years, the Cochlear processors I wear now are terrible with wind noise. I can not turn my head a little to stop the wind noise as I could with the Phonaks.

Since I can not self program them I can not say if it’s a programming issue. There are times I wish I had gone with AB.

what does CL programming look like? Is it much harder than HA?

I was about to ask this, how hard could it be, I know the software isn’t available around the usual places, do they use the Noahlink or HiPro or something special?

My Audi uses wired connections. He has a Noahlink Wireless sitting on his desk too. I asked about wireless programming and he said he prefers the wired.

He does turn the monitor around for me to see at times. It looks to be be very simple but I am sure it’s like many things, it would take time to learn. I would love to get my hands on the software! My Audi has gotten frustrated with me I believe. I keep asking for things he has not been able to fix.