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Phonak ActiveVent Mini Review

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She definitely did change them for the ear molds. As far as the …you are right…theoretically, your supposed to be able to just screw that device in and pop them out. While I have only changed them twice, I found that the tool sometimes has trouble engaging the wax guard and you have to push a little to get it to engage. If you are holding on to the slim tip instead of the base of the receiver when pushing, you could push the receiver right out the back of the slim tip. I am a surgeon and used to using my hands…I would think that some others could have trouble with this. If you had the plastic tool shown in the video you could stabilize the receiver when changing the wax guard.

In reply to @dg1

@dg1 said:

The snapping sound was annoying for only a day for me and then seemed to disappear into a subconscious noise.

Good to know.

Phonak has made a lot of training available, but audiologists are also pretty busy.

In reply to @dg1

Thanks for the tips to change the as I most likely would have held them by the titanium ear piece, but it is certainly safer to hold them at the end of the receivers.
TM

My excellent National Health Service audiologist has heard of the Activents but says they’d only be available via private clinics. So that would be, what, £3,000 for two new Phonaks? Far beyond my budget.
However, for me the issue isn’t speech-in-noise, it’s MUSIC: live and from hi fi speakers. Until recently, to get around the typical lack of hearing aid bass, I have left vents open to admit direct lows, but blocked them (Blu-Tak) for higher gain, whistle free conversation.
Today brought a great change: Audi and I explored that low-note issue. She was able to restore low end - down to about 80 Hz - simply by adjusting the programme. So now music sounds fuller and, for me anyway voices are more intelligible without the stupid 250 Hz rollaway that still seems to be standard practice despite good evidence that it does not always assist speech. No wonder patients so often remark “It sounds tinny!”
If you are a musical type - sympathy! Please disagree if you are advised hearing aids cannot deliver bass. Via Bluetooth - with vents Blu-Tacked - I can hear organ pedal down to 20 Hz. Tiny microphones are also quite capable: just look at the amazing response of an iPhone. Mine registers 16 Hz, no problem.
Anyway, kudos to Phonak for their vent ingenuity. Now remedy the pop-pop!

Anyone know if the does ActiveVents? I have not received my P90 312’s yet (but they’re in the mail - LOL). I know I am getting molds as they are what the VA does and they took new impressions. Before I had the VA I preferred open domes, but they convinced me to go with molds. The molds are OK, but I think I prefer an open feeling and I can still hear (or better hear bass tones with open ones. All I did was ask about the and they said these would not have the standard Paradise ones. I was unaware of ActiveVents.

Hey!

First time wearer here, and a patient as well. I got my Audeo P90Rs last September. Vented domes. No questions about molds. I don’t have a bad loss, but I struggle in many circumstances, and my tinnitus drives me up a tree sometimes.

I asked in December about ActiveVent and the response was “not yet.” In late Jan she said she was going to order for me if I was still interested. I had a couple significant surgeries in Feb, and told her to wait until I felt well enough to travel. I’m scheduled to get fit with them on the 14th. Suddenly her schedule is full, where it was relatively open last summer and fall. I made the appt in mid Mar when it was still a month out.

This page: AV Compatibility20 only has Audeo P-R and Audeo P-RT on the list. Although I had the impression it only worked with the 90 level devices, and this has all performance levels. That wouldn’t be an issue for you either way, but if you want AV you may need to accept rechargables. Maybe that isn’t an issue?

Since you have molds now, you shoul dbe aware of the candidacy checklist. Not hard and fast, as I have tinnitus, and they are letting me trial the AVs. AV Candidacy Checklist37

Best wishes, and thanks for your service!

WH

Thanks for your reply, your service and the great info. I will definitely check them out. My audi is superb. See went above and beyond on my visit visit with her such that I messaged my old Mass General Brigham’s (ex-Army doc) who is now the deputy director of Boston primary care to give her some kudos.

I have a black hat! 1/9th Air Cav LOL Here:

PS: how rural in rural? I am in exile in MA, but live in mid-coast ME for the warm 7 months.

@TambourineMan said:

PS: how rural in rural? I am in exile in MA, but live in mid-coast ME for the warm 7 months.

I lived in MA more than 35 years. I served at Hanscom and stayed, working for years as a contractor after I separated and now as a civil servant. We acquire electronic based technology for weapon system use, from AWACS and Joint STARS to a ton of computer based things you’ll never hear about, but without which we just can’t fight. My current program is hiring! Kessel Run Careers4

From our newer home, it is an hour to any real medical care or shopping. Groceries a half hour, unless you count any of a half dozen little stores I would have eschewed when I lived in a city and big stores were 5 min away. But the town is like family. We planned this move to be near my daughter’s family for a year. Two months after the move, my son-in-law died from covid, and then we saw the truth of how little towns pull together. They have and continue (coming up on 5 months) to provide real, palpable aid and care. Including people that watch various of the 5 boys at times. If has been a blessing to watch in the midst of our sorrow.

WH

Sorry for your loss WH…… It is nice to live in a caring community, whom look out for each other, big cities and towns, do not have that warmth, and feeling of belonging, perhaps this is why I prefer rural living, as opposed to city life, more expensive to live the rural lifestyle, but ultimately it is a more rewarding existence… I could not imagine or envisage me living a city life ever again, I prefer the easier pace of the rural setting. As for Covid, as you have borne witness, tis a extremely nasty infection, and even if you have been vaccinated, if your immune system is below par or compromised, it can kill or leave you with “Long Covid”…… I have been fortunately to just recovered from Covid, about 3 days ago, I resumed back to a negative test. The first 5 or 6 days where hellish, constant headache aches, flash fevers, aching from head to toe, severe runny nose, constant sore throat, shallow breath, heavy chest, wobbly legs, and constantly tired, it was 12 days before I had a completely negative result…. I think the worst thing is the mental aspect Covid has on you, you are very unsure for the first few days, and keep asking yourself, “am I going to pull through, or will I just keep on getting progressively worse”? It is with immense relief when you gradually start to improve, that first negative test is the icing on the proverbial cake…. I have friends that made a very rapid recovery, others afflicted with Long Covid, others like me just ill for few days, your own immune system is key to a good recovery, and being vaccinated will most certainly improve your chances of a favorable outcome…… My condolences to you and all the family WH……

Thank God, you are better!

We had a wave roll over us back in November. We think my son, son-in-love, and their friend were all exposed while out shopping for a door for the garage at our new place. We didn’t recognize my son’s illness as potentially covid, so he was never tested, but he probably exposed the rest of us in my house. The friend got covid and was sick a while. When S-I-L died we received people at the house not aware we had been exposed. The friend was home unable to come as he’d tested positive. When the rest of us came down positive, it forced us to postpone the services. But people brought food to my daughter’s house and my house. BIG Boxes of food! In one instance, a big tray of deli sandwiches. We had to freeze some to keep it from going bad. A friend from church was still giving me boxes of food to take to my daughter last month.

I had the monoclonal anti-body infusion at an emergency room. My doctor’s nurse called me all scared that I get this treatment, which made me feel insecure all in itself. After the treatment I got the first good sleep in days. I hear it isn’t effective against the more recent variants. That’s a pity.

I hope you don’t face any long-covid issues. I know two couples where they’ve each experienced issues. One couple both had tinnitus as a symptom, showed up and hadn’t gone away more than six months later. A little hearing loss, but nothing worth treating. But the tinnitus!

We’re all better from the physical illness side. The kids are all having a hard time in one way or another except the baby. He just turned 9 mos, a happy little tyke.

WH

I was fit with activevents yesterday with the silicone slimtips. She wants to be sure I can adapt to the AVs before we make the titanium tips. The initial sense in the office was a much cleaner sound.

The tips in my ear make it feel stuffed! A little uncomfortable. One ear has a tendency to feel closed off to the hearing aid output, like the business end of the receiver is pushed against the ear canal, or something pinches the ear canal off? If I wiggle it around it gets better. I hope to adjust.

And the other thing I should have been able to foresee is that when talking on the phone, it is in closed mode and my ears are occluded, making my own voice as I talk on the phone seem weird. I hope to adjust to that, too. This applies to zoom/google meet, and conversation in noisy places, etc.

The sound is good in general. I went for a walk in the wind listening to podcasts streamed via the Roger On. I turned the ratio of mic/Roger mic all the way to the Roger. Good isolation.

What others have described as popping noises when it changes I would say are a little more drawn out and muddy sounding thuds. Fwip. Or thwaap. When she did the feedback tests on first putting them in my ear, it made those noises before starting each side and it sounded very strange. Now I am beginning to use it as an attention signal. Something has changed… Why?

Last night after the first half hour or so, I kinda wanted to go back and change to the old receivers. But I will try to adjust and see how it works out. Today I am halfway mixed. They aren’t so amazing that I’ll be crushed if it doesn’t work. But I have yet to go to a noisy restaurant with them. That may be cool. We’ll see. We have big family get-togethers at my house this weekend. Those have been hard times for my to carry conversation since our house is a huge echo chamber for little-one’s voices & toys. Even older people when they feel they need to be loud to be heard, fill the whole house.

WH

Hi Whitehat.
I also had problems with my tips (titanium) causing discomfort in one ear canal at first, but the discomfort went away after a few days.
As far as using the phone, I paired my cell phone to my aids which is a great improvement for me plus the vents open when using your cell phone. My son and one granddaughter speak very soft and I can now understand them when their voices are streamed into my aids. For family calls, I just make them a conference call so that my wife can join in.
I have my TV Connect, hooked up to my laptop so all the audio gets streamed into my aids with open vents. Works great for Zoom and streaming music and it also does not disturb my wife as I always had the volume turned up to be able to understand someone on Zoom.
My GUESS here is that the popping sounds when the vents open might be different with the silicone tips as the tips might absorb some of the sound.
In any case, I will keep my titanium tips with or without the Active Vents as they do not itch or smell like the other tips did.
I hope everything works out for you.
TM

I see Phonak estimate the life of the active vent receiver at 6 months……

How much have people paid for them?

Trying to work out if I want to give them a go.

In passing alongside the ability to vary the ratio of microphone to stream (using the app or the aid volume control) you can also have the aid volume control set to mute after a ‘very long press’. Any subsequent press or pause in streaming un-mutes. I always use this if walking by traffic or whatever.

@SteveCh said:

I see Phonak estimate the life of the active vent receiver at 6 months……

This doesn’t mean that they expect them to start failing in 6 months, it just means that Phonak has probably tested them out to 6 months and is confident in their performance. They recommend replacing regular receivers every six months, too, but they often go longer with good care and cleaning.

In reply to @SteveCh

Hi Steve,
From all that I have seen about the Active Vent warranty, it seems like Phonak has put a 6 month warranty on them because wax can get into the vent and disable it from working. It is important to make sure that you keep the clean so that ear wax does not reach the moving vent. The regular receivers are covered under the 3 year warranty. After having my Active Vents for about 4 months, I am thinking about switching back to my regular receivers as I don’t see that big of a difference in the sound when streaming from my laptop and I still don’t like the loud popping sound when the vents close. Of course everyone’s experience will be different and if you are really into music, then it most likely will make a big difference for you.
TM

I had an issue starting on Sunday almost a week ago where my flipped out, stopped communicating with the MyPhonak app, and began acting as if there were the conventional receivers back again. The custom program with the tinnitus masking noise which was silent after installing the AVs suddenly made the noise again. The popping noises disappeared regardless of program changes. Phonak support said when you get the error I got on the app, you need to return to the for reprogramming from target.

I saw the audiologist yesterday and she reprogrammed my HAs very quickly. Re-performed the feedback tests. Quick testing with the app worked great.

She also took impressions for the titaniums. She said the isn’t doing the electronic laser scanned impressions yet. She asked me what I knew about them. She doesn’t really know much about it.

I’m so glad to be back in business!

WH

I received my ActiveVent a couple months ago with titanium ear molds and like other have said, the popping is annoying. Same about the issue when in loud places the ActiveVent will open and close constantly adjusting to the sound and I find that annoying as well. You can use the “speech in loud noise” program and it will stay closed, but I can’t say I like the sound or that it’s any improvement hearing when in closed for loud settings, so I typically use a different program like restaurant which will not close the vent.

For me, what makes ActiveVent worth it is the audio and phone streaming. I stream much more than I used to, although it does annoy my wife at times when she thinks I’m listening to her. An adjustment I would like to see added is to control how much hear through you get when the vent is closed. It makes sense as default the ActiveVent passes some sound through for safety reasons, but I would like to be able to close off all external sound at times when I’m streaming.

I to had the #2 wire fitted, but on my way today to the Audi to get #3 wire put on as it has been cutting into my ear.

Have you tried sliding the mix to the right on the details page for the program when streaming? You can mix in more or less mic in some of the streaming programs. I do that a lot with the Roger.

image

Hope these images help. That mix screen isn’t available for things like speech in loud noise, but I think it is there for bt streaming, tv connector and Roger mic programs.

WH

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