GN Hearing first to support direct Android streaming using ASHA

The more closed your fitting is, the better your streaming will be. A closed fitting boosts base and sometimes even the midrange. An open fitting kills streaming and needs much more equalization help. Ask the fitter to show you the streaming equalization screen to see what equalization they have applied. It typically has to be changed manually to get the best sound when streaming.

Thanks Sierra, I appreciate it. I showed my Costco specialist an example of EQ-tweaked settings that I found somewhere else from someone with a similar issue, just to get the subject on the table, and will discuss it again later this week with her and the Phonak rep. The adjustments she made at that time didn’t materially change anything. The thing is, my right ear is not so bad (as my now-posted audiogram should show), and in that ear I can hear streaming at a perfectly acceptable quality. So yes I think this is doable.

I do have open domes which was part of my discussion with my main audi–she said the same thing as you did and by all appearances this is simply reality. But when I then tried a Widex Evoke with her, using the more-closed tulip domes, I sensed no improvement in bass frequencies or overall experience at all. Hopefully I’m just in trial-and-error phase.

This is what the Rexton software would suggest for a streaming equalization on top of your correction for your loss. When your normal correction depends on natural sound coming in through an open fitting, that is all gone when you only stream sound to the receiver. That is why you need such a big boost. And on top of that I find this software underestimates the amount of equalization needed. I asked for more of a bass boost and more of a mid range cut.

That is so thoughtful of you to go to the trouble of working up and sharing! Thanks so much, I’ll bring this to my next session see what they say. Super!

As of now the only ReSound HA product that support ASHA is the Quattro, once it gets a software update. Costco does not sell the Quattro. The only phones are the Google Pixel 3 series and the upcoming Pixel 4. No official word on other phones getting the software that supports ASHA.

@ssa says their Quattros have the update

@TraderGary said:

Very interesting statement, haggis. Do you have a source? I ask because I stream music … and the quality is astounding.

Right. I know and I’m happy for you, Gary. It’s just that mine sounds like crap with open domes. (Perhaps that is my problem.) It sounds like one of those little 1964 transistor radio (and I know because I have one). I’m not talking about wanting booming disco bass. I’m just trying to get some kind of mid-to-lower frequency content where there is nothing right now.

The streaming program started out with the same basic curves as the microphone programs. That’s just wrong. With my open domes there’s no bass reproduction by definition; I don’t believe I need a source to back up that principle. My audi doesn’t understand this and is reluctant to adjust the lower frequencies.

I recall you said you have some kind of narrow domes inserted deeply. Are they open or closed?

I got a variety of domes from my audi and I can’t ANY kind of dome to insert (and stay) in my canal because the wire length after the bend is (1) too short to extend past my outer ear chamber into my actual canal and (2) is bent at 90 degrees away from the direction of my canals and keeps snapping out to re-achieve the permanent bend. But if I push them in, the closed domes give me some bass response.

My audi said there were “different wire lengths” but I just discovered an explanation of this on a Phonak page. The wire lengths adapt to the height of the ear – the distance from the canal entry up to the top of the helix (rim) joins the head (where it goes behind the ear). They do not have longer extensions from the bend to the receiver.

Because of the pre-bent angle, my domes end up pointing right into the skin of my outer ear chamber just behind the tragus. I guess my anatomy extends the outer ear fossa too long to where the canal actually starts.

I’m struggling to understand how any of this can work for me. I will entertain closed domes if they’d stay in. Phonak doesn’t seem to have an alternative that will fit, and my audi is clueless. She said to contact Phonak about it, and I just tried but they just have a recording claiming they’ll call me back. A vendor has never, ever called me back when I have a problem but we’ll see.

I don’t really like the idea of closed domes because they’ll cut out the decent natural hearing level I have at the lower frequencies. But if it’s the only way to get streamed sound, I’ll consider it.

I’m very discouraged but still trying.

(Also my audi can’t use remote adjustment like you did because of Kaiser’s oppressive IT restrictions. I’m getting set up for self-programming but hoping I don’t make a mess of it.)

Here’s a picture of the domes I have. The dome sides are quite thin and have a slit on either side. I imagine this is to allow it to be partly open and give me the excellent bass I have when playing the piano. I would welcome more bass when streaming but streaming does give me adequate and realistic sounding bass. It certainly doesn’t sound like my old Channel Master transistor radio that dates back to the summer of 1958.

Channel Master? Ha, I had a single ear phone for that!

Yes, stereo was still a ways off. And it had FM! It was amazing to have FM in a transistor radio back then!

Haggis,
What’s in the picture is the complete HA I’m wearing right now. I simply took the left one out of my ear and took a quick picture of it to post here so you could see the dome. So of course it has a receiver in there! I trusted my audiologist to set these up and she said that she chose the dome based on my audiogram. She also did REM when she set these up.

I find it quite interesting that our experience is so different with the same Marvels.

But then I’m a first time HA user of just 9 months. Maybe it’s because I have a more severe loss than you do and I’ve been so amazed to hear again what I’ve been missing for so long.

I should add that in college I majored in performance on piano and violin. I’m an experienced classical musician with quite a few decades of experience. The sound that I’m getting with my Marvels both in listening with the “Music Program” and in streaming lossless CD quality with Primephonic is quite good and I certainly wouldn’t describe it as tinny.

I sure would like to hear some direct user feedback regarding how direct Android streaming is working using ASHA on Resound Quattros…

@haggis said:

Those look like the “tulip” domes I had with my Savia Art years ago. Is there a receiver in there? I’ll try some of these next week when I see my audi. She didn’t give me any of these in the domes set I got.

haggis,

I’ve been going through the same issues you’re having, but with ReSound Prezas. The open domes I was fitted with were constantly working their way out of my ear canals, especially when talking or eating. Music also sounded tinny and had zero bass. At my one month recheck the audiologist gave me tulip domes to try.

So far they stay in my canals, and I don’t have to continually re-seat them. Also, either bass response is quite a bit better, or I’m getting used to tinny music.

Let us know if they help you.

Larry

Curious. Tomorrow is the day Google will officially announce the world’s best kept secret, the Pixel 4/4 XL. Over in the thread on iPhone iOS 13.x/ReSound, etc., update problems there is mention that just today there was a ReSound Smart 3D app update in the Apple App Store. So given what’s happening tomorrow for Android, I thought, Hey!, I’ll check out Google Play. From my Win10 computer accessing play.google.com, it says that the Android 3D app was last updated today, October 14, 2019 and the latest version is 1.5.0. Funny if I go to the Play Store on my Android phone, it says that the last update was to version 1.5.0 on August 16, 2019.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.resound.smart3d1 on Win10 PC: