Starkey Evolve AI to Genesis AI

Has anyone switched from Starkey Evolv Ai to Genisis Ai? Wonder if the difference is positive? I have the Evolv now and have the choice to upgrade to genisis… Thank you for your thoughts.

@user427 Excuse my ignorance but I am just trialled the Starkey Evolv AI as Genesis is not out in the UK yet, but the point of my post is I was only referred to the Thrive app by my Audiologist, please don’t tell me that there is a Starkey app as well lol.

I have the Genesis AI 24 RIC on a two week trial. I’m three days in. I began wearing hearing aids less than a year ago and have only worn Evolv 2400 RIC until now, so my ability to compare either to other options is nil. I’m also just learning the vocabulary.

My initial observations and experiences with Genesis:

1. The geometry of the wire and receiver is unchanged. The geometry of the piece behind my ear is different. I’m wearing the micro rechargeable style and it is more angular and slightly larger than the Evolv with battery model. The difference makes Genesis a little easier to handle and to put on, as it doesn’t have the tendency to roll t like Evolv.
2. My understanding is that the Genesis 24 RIC with battery is the same size as the regular rechargeable Genesis 24. My micro size has one button. The regular has two.
3. The G24 and E2400 are comparable in quiet settings, although for some reason my tinnitus is less in quiet settings with G24. I have not used the tinnitus features on either model. Watching TV, for example, in a quiet room is similar between the two models. I don’t have the Genesis TV streamer to compare with the Evolv streamer.
4. G24 is clearly superior in noisy settings and in quiet settings with sudden sounds. For example, kitchen noises from handling pots, pans, plates, etc. that made me jump with Evolv are easily tolerated with Genesis.
5. The My Starkey app is easier to use and more adaptable than the Thrive app. I have much better control of noise reduction and shaping with G24 and MyStarkey than with its predecessor. Using Edge plus the first time in a noisy setting (traffic sounds) was a surprise; much better reduction of noise and amplification of voice than I’ve had with E2400. That’s not surprising, as the Genesis samples the sound characteristics of the environment and tunes the Edge plus accordingly.

That’s it for now. If anyone reads this and finds it useful, please let me know.

10/22/23 Update:
After trialing Genesis I decided to make the switch. I had no serious complaints about Evolv, but I had had them for only ten months and was offered an opportunity to trade up. I decided that using tech that Starkey would support but no longer develop was best avoided. The audiologist that manages my care even swapped out the TV streamer and Table Mic at no additional cost.

To date, my time wearing Genesis daily has been a positive experience punctuated with weird technical hiccups. Thankfully I’ve had good support from my audiologist and Starkey. The problems were the result of a corrupted profile in the programming of the hearing aids (my audiologist transferring my profile from Evolv to Genesis rather than starting from scratch, a procedure that’s supposed to be seamless but wasn’t.), Starkey updating the MyStarkey app twice in the first few weeks of my use, and my stupidity in failing to leave Apple’s Beta Tester Program in a timely way (as a result, we were trying to diagnose and resolve hearing aid and app issues while I was running beta OS on my iPhone. It made isolating the source of the problems more difficult by a factor of 10).

Happily, the issues are 90% resolved and I suspect that lingering issues are just as likely to be user errors as anything else. I’ve been told that I tend to push the tech to the limits of its capabilities, so I’m sort of a canary in the coal mine. Honestly, my attitude is that tech should function nearly 100% of the time if all I’m doing is asking it to do what it’s been advertised to be able to do. By and large, Genesis has met the challenge.

As reported in my first post, Genesis shines in noisy environments. The AI does a much better job than the previous generation sampling the sonic environment and adjusting accordingly, I have found the BT connectivity to be more stable than with Evolv. I believe that the user experience will continue to improve as Starkey updates the app. It does much more than the Thrive app, but some of the functions that should be a the top level of the interface presently require working through a couple of menus. I recently had the double-tap feature tweaked so a tap-tap on my right ear changes the mode (personal, outdoors, TV, restaurant, etc.) and a tap-tap on the left switches input between the mics and the TV streamer. It’s much better than using the app to make those changes on the fly.

I just had the opposite experience. I have trouble understanding speech in the presence of background speech and music. I purchased a set of G24 RIC with custom molds and gave up on them in two weeks because the slimmed down MyStarkey app is missing the directionality control of the bloated, busy, Thrive app. I ended up with the older Evolv aids. IMO: Starkey made a big mistake in not providing the following user control features in the MyStarkey app:

1. The Thrive MUTE button on the master volume screen allows you to mute the hearing aid mics when loud noises suddenly occur or you need to hear streaming audio from a phone or Bluetooth mic without losing any temporary settings that you want to return to. To get a MUTE, you have to give up one of the 4 audiologist presets which is a huge waste for people like me that NEED 4 presets (normal, diminish left background, diminish right background, and crowd).
2. Directionality control exists in the Thrive app. In noisy environments with lots of competing talk, I never know which setting will turn out best. Not having this control in the MyStarkey app was THE deciding factor.
   The original poster is RIGHT ON in terms of the Genisis being the far superior to the Evolv; however, I’m stuck with the shortfall of the Evolv units because Starkey decided that directional control was seldom used and not worth cluttering up the MyStarkey app with it. BAD CHOICE for me.