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KS10 bluetooth spoken word sound quality is bad

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I think they said “radio.” The device that sends out the bluetooth signal. They are suggesting there might be something wrong with your hearing aid’s bluetooth radio and that you should return them for repair or replacement.

Edited

Oh yes. my mistake. Is that likely? It would be a big faff being so far away.
In any case, I think it is the fitting that’s not right as I am still getting a lot of lisping for example.

My intermittent bluetooth problems with spoken word (i.e., I like to take walks with Audible books and courses) has forced me to use my Apple Airpods when I’m walking). If I hold the phone in front of me it works. If I put in my pocket I get pausing and skipping. Frustrating because Bluetooth is a well known and reliable communication protocol. Don’t know why they have this problem.

Relative to the quality itself it has seemed okay tome.

In reply to @Joaqui

Thanks, I tried it and it made a significant difference but music still sounds awful. I asked the audi to put a program with no frequency shifting and I so I am experimenting with that now.

In reply to @dhthinker

@dhthinker said:

Frustrating because Bluetooth is a well known and reliable communication protocol. Don’t know why they have this problem.

This is not a problem of communication protocol or its implementation. But sole physics. For BT a frequency of 2.4Ghz is used. Our body dampens the signal too much. Outdoor use is problematic since there are no walls to rebounce the signal.

Edited

I am a KS 10 fan and the only minor drawback for me is the two device connection at a time limit.
Out of curiosity, I listened to audio books from my library’s Libby App with my hearing aids as the Bluetooth audio device on my Windows 11 desktop, my Samsung phone and my Samsung tablet. My hearing aid settings are Automatic. The sound quality using each device was perfect. I have never tried audio books before…they would probably put me to sleep.
Because of my severe hearing loss, I have custom ear molds.

Anyway, I would guess leucurus’s problem is not his KS 10s. I would try streaming from a different device.

In reply to @dhthinker

I’m no engineer but I think at least part of the issue is that KS10 is trying to do streaming while conserving battery life. I believe AirPods only last a few hours on a charge? It seems to me it would be easier to create a more robust connection if one wasn’t concerned about battery life.

@leucurus:
Back to the OP’s post. As I understand not the intermittent loss of connection in outdoor environment is his problem.
I have played with different settings for the streaming program in Target (Phonak’s fitting software) and found several possible reasons leading to distortion while streaming:

  • gain curves not correct for some frequencies
  • Try disabling the microphones on the . If this fixes the problem, it’s not the phone or the Bluetooth connection.
  • Some of the “blockers” (like NoiseBlock) can have a adverse effects. Set all option sliders to 0.
    You should ask your Costco fitter about these topics.

I managed to find my way to the program in Target and used the automatic fine tuning which has helped. I will persevere with Target I think. The Costco audi suggested reducing the low frequencies but I don’t think that’s right.

In reply to @sterei

I’m having trouble understanding speech when on the phone and using bluetooth. When I am on a phone like just now I cannot open the phone app to see what program is streaming. In target it does not show Bluetooth streaming. So don’t know what adjusts to make in target to get better speech understanding. I read these posts and still don’t what changes to make in regards to better speech understanding with Bluetooth streaming to the phone. Any ideas?

In reply to @sterei

Thanks for these suggestions. I tried a different pair of KS 10s (one of the demo pairs but programmed with my settings) and they had the same distortion. I also tried connecting from a couple different phones and the distortion is present with all. I’ve tried with the bluetooth program set completely to Audio and the distortion continues.
Is there a way for me to get access to Target so I can adjust settings as you suggest to see if I can fix the distortion? When I’ve been with the “fitter” working on it, they seem to be at a loss and we quickly run out of time.
Thanks again,
Dave

In reply to @godavid_d

@godavid_d said:

In target it does not show Bluetooth streaming.

Actually it does, but that fine tuning seems to be a bit different from the norm, I see AutoSense streaming for

Media speech + mic
Media music + mic

I would attenuate the microphones for a start.
and then click on

Gain & , here you will be able to make the necessary adjustments for music and speech. As to what exactly needs adjusting, you’ll need to describe exactly what the issues are, for everyone to offer solutions.

As for Phone calls you have streaming programs, click on this and choose

Phone calls+ mic

and then click

Open program options

And then Gain & MPO

Bonjour, j’utilise des ¨Phonak P70 (KS 10). C’est vrai que le son du télephone est nettement meilleur sur mes ipods. Ca grésille un peu, on a pas la profondeur du son.
Mon audioprothésiste ne sait pas mieux les régler…
Je pense que la technologie Airpod et Phonak 70 est différente. Les airpods ne durent que quelques heures…

Hello, I am using ¨Phonak P70 (KS 10). It is true that the sound of the telephone is much better on my iPods. It sizzles a bit, we don’t have the depth of sound.
My hearing care professional does not know how to adjust them better.
I think Airpod and Phonak 70 technology is different. Airpods only last a few hours

In reply to @Doggit

Dawn - I have the same issue as you - streaming video or music sounds horrendously distorted. My $30 set of bluetooth earbuds sound much better than my $1700 KS 10s. Costco fitters (as much as they want to help), haven’t been able to address the issue other than “maybe these are not the hearing aids for you”. I’ve just switched to a cheap $15 wired headset and get much better quality.

Did you (of anyone) ever find a resolution to the low quality bluetooth streaming issue?

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