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More than one Bluetooth Connectivity

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Hello Everyboby

Are there any other than the Phonak Paradise that can support 2 connected bluetooth devices at the same time?

16 people in this conversation21 min readJump to latest

I think not yet, new unitron should be like marvel. Didn’t check, just remember what I talked with my fitter, that phonak’s flagship go to unitron with one generation wait. Since paradises are the latest, and recent, with new chip that supports 2 connections, I doubt they’ll release that with unitron anytime soon.

Just checked, unitrons latest discover next platform uses sword 3.0 chip, so, marvels.

Hello SkX,

I have customers calling through both the laptop (MS Teams) and the cell phone all day long. I currently have a easytek , it such a hassle to keep unpairing then repairing to the device they call through on. I tried the marvels, great aids but again only 1 connectivity, so I didn’t buy them. Now that the Paradise are out, I just wanted to double check there was no other aid out there that can stay connected to two devices. I could have then done a comparison, but by the looks of things it is only the Paradise that can do this. So I will probably go for those. They also have the motion sensor too.

@deanvowden said:

I just wanted to double check there was no other aid out there that can stay connected to two devices.

Both the Marvel and KS9 can now do this ( it’s just a firmware update that brought them up to 2 devices)

They can pair to two different devices but not connect to them at same time. Paradise can connect to 2 devices at same time and pair to 8 I think.

I guess if one is a dyed-in-the-wool Phonak customer, one might want to spring for the Paradise’s for specially engineered classic Bluetooth connectivity. However, if one waits just a little bit longer, multiple hearing aid brands will have multiple connectivity possible, plus a lot of other things you won’t get with Phonak if it sticks to its present route of just going with modifications of classic Bluetooth. So any “it’s the only hearing aid that offers it…” will be relatively short-lived, IMHO. I hope that Phonak gets on board with and LE Audio also supplants connectivity on the iPhone as well as Phonak hearing aids are great and it would be wonderful to get maximum battery life out of a device that employs some form BT LE like most other brands for direct, as efficient as possible connectivity and doesn’t try to squeak the last gasp out of classic Bluetooth connectivity with a proprietary solution. It will be interesting to see if BT LE Audio opens up real competition in accessories or whether every brand tries to hem its users into proprietary remote mics, TV streamers, etc. Hopefully not, but it’s probably way too much to hope for.

Just a reminder:
What Is Bluetooth LE Audio, and Why Will You Want It? (howtogeek.com)13

In reply to @jim_lewis

Jim, what you mention should take quite a time (at least months, if not a year or two), and if your needs are now and for the work, like OPs, you can’t afford waiting :slight_smile:

@deanvowden
I wonder, are you sure you need to pair/unpair every time?
With marvels only thing needed was to just disconnect the bt on the source you don’t want now. So, no touching aids, just turning on and off the bt on phone and laptop depending where I needed it. It took a few seconds, but compared to pair/unpair hassle it is almost in an instant.

However, that works for aids which are capable of being paired to more than one device.

Just wanted to point that out if that helps to any degree (eg if money is an issue - I’d go to costco and take KS9, you cannot beat that price, like 1500 usd for a pair, if I remember correctly what people said here)

With paradises it can be tricky. I had the marvels for several months then switched to paradises (mainly because price difference wasn’t big, initial price is imo huge) and I was utterly frustrated with paradises when I got them.

Sometimes this turning off unwanted source is the fastest. And if you look at the aids, then it takes eternity to connect to the laptop.
My solution was to don’t look for a minute or so into bt connection on the laptop and then be positively surprised when I see it’s connected. Because they just refuse to connect fast to two sources.

Once connected it stays like that as long as you’re in the range, so that’s a plus. But switching from one to another can be tricky. If I remember correctly, for youtube, phone stream has precedence. So if you’re playing on the lap, and start on the phone, phone will take aids. If you stop video on lap and start new one, phone will still have aids. For switching, video has to stop on one, then start on the other device, and then 8t behaves as expected.

Also, I was convinced that marvels were behaving as a headset on my laptop while paradises so far are not (I have to use lap mic or I haven’t found the correct way to use aid mic, maaaybe if I disconnect from phone bt, didn’t try). But what is possible is that I just don’t remember correctly my lap settings at a time, I didn’t test much for video calls. So, definitely pay attention to that when trialling.

When you get to know what to do to get what you want, both are great. They just need a bit different approach.
Paradises have a better bt stability outside when commuting, crossing roads.

Both take ages to connect to phone app, paradises longer, especially if you’re currently using bt on aids for something and want to adjust sound. Learning to use aid volume buttons is helpful :slight_smile: (they don’t increase volume of stream, they decrease the amount of ambiental sounds coming through)

Curious if the Paradise’s have had any Firmware upgrades and if so if you noticed any difference?

In reply to @Blacky

@Blacky said:

Jim, what you mention should take quite a time (at least months, if not a year or two), and if your needs are now and for the work, like OPs, you can’t afford waiting :slight_smile:

OTH, it’s not correct to say that the Paradise is the only that can connect to two devices at the same time even now - I guess it depends on what you want to call the connection. But, for instance, with the Phone Clip+, I have set the phone connection to be my Android phone, I have set the media connection to be my iPhone (and could presumably set it to any other device like my PC). I previously checked and posted that I could play a podcast on my iPhone and take a phone call on my Android phone at the same time - the phone call interrupts a podcast but after I hang up, I go right back to playing the podcast where I left off. Quote out of the Phone Clip+ manual:

You can pair up to 8 Bluetooth devices with the Phone Clip+, but
only 2 Bluetooth devices can be connected/active at a time.

The PC+ uses classic Bluetooth to connect to devices, so anything a Paradise can connect to, the PC+ can connect to, too, via classic BT. So it’s just not right to say that Phonak has the only hearing aid that can handle two simultaneous live connections at once. Undoubtedly it’s true that Phonak is unique and special in quite a few ways but having an active connection to more than one device at a time is not one of them. And when one might be spending up to $7K or more on an HA model and its accessories, it would be silly to make the “connects to more than one device at a time” the crux of a buying decision, especially when it just ain’t a Phonak exclusive. What Phonak could do, and it would be a great selling point for me as a potential future Phonak user, is to keep the great special classic BT connectivity but also add BT as another device connectivity option. Then Phonak would offer the best of both worlds in one device and that would be really hard to beat and a real bragging point.

I’ve had my set of Phonak Paradise P90Rs for two weeks. Paired to both my work & personal iPhones. Works great for phone calls, although I haven’t tried the simultaneously yet as that never happens IRL. As for streaming my books from Audible & music it’s a crapshoot as to which iPhone is going to pick up using the tap feature on my . If I start from one of the iPhones that works great, too.

I was Android but by sept this year I started using iPhone se 2020 because the new Resound Preza Costco, soon I figured out I am having problems because time to time I need the Costco Preza connected to my Android Chromebook.

I got on eBay a Resound Unit Phone Clip+ and it work wonderful, with this Clip+ I can be Bluetooth to my Chromebook, but, to my surprise my iPhone se still keep the connection to the Preza Costco.

In reply to @jim_lewis

@jim_lewis said:

OTH, it’s not correct to say that the Paradise is the only HA that can connect to two devices at the same time even now - I guess it depends on what you want to call the connection.

Feature of to directly connect with something.

Not feature of its accessories.

At least that’s how I make the distinction when someone asks which aids can do something.

And there paradises are still the only one with 2 bt connection.

To some people accessories aren’t a feasible option.

However, sharing info about other solutions is useful, because that gives you more options!

@SkX said:

I am using my P90’s microphone while teleconferencing on Microsoft Teams on my Windows machine. You need to change your voice input device.

Thanks for confirming! I didn’t have time to tweak around it, I assumed something there was mixed up, but I couldn’t make it work then with a few clicks back then and I never tried again. I’ll look at it sometime… I use phone for video calls (wapp, skype), friends and family only.

@MDB said:

Curious if the Paradise’s have had any Firmware upgrades and if so if you noticed any difference?

So far no updates.

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