Phonak L90 vs P90 - is there a big difference?

@tenkan should be able to steer you in the correct direction with regards to software, if you PM him there is plenty help from fellow DIY’ers whom frequent this forum, in the Hearing Aid Self-Fitting and Adjusting (DIY) category section of this forum, is sort of hidden, but you can find it if you look hard enough Good Luck, Cheers Kev

Edit;

Hearing Aid Self-Fitting and Adjusting [DIY]

This forum is a place for consumers to discuss fitting and adjusting their own hearing aids.

You need to get the Noahlink Wireless on eBay and here you need to go to the DIY forum and ask for the fitting software.
I brought mine for $185 dollars. Stay away from the China copycats.

You can also buy these at lower prices, got mine at Amazon.fr4 for 143 EUR. Those on offer at AliExpress are similarly priced (I do not believe these are copies, however there are risks with unscrupulous sellers from this source).

Note that the manufacturer plans to release an update:

"Noahlink Wireless 2 is an updated version of the Noahlink Wireless programming interface, expected to be released later in 2023.

Noahlink Wireless 2 product will be a drop in replacement for the current Noahlink Wireless product, and have the same capabilities as the current Noahlink Wireless. This means that Noahlink Wireless 2 will initially offer Hearing Care Professionals the same capabilities as Noahlink Wireless does today. In the longer run, Noahlink Wireless 2 will offer updated BLE features for Hearing Instrument Manufacturers."

https://www.himsa.com/distributor/noahlink-wireless-2/3

more expense for self programmers in the longer term

Jordan, a Consumer Reports April/2023 Article on Hearing Aids disagreed with your characterization of satisfaction with Costco hearing aids and service. That report, based on responses from 26,788 Consumer Reports members who provided them with information about their prescription hearing aids, rated Costco as having the highest level of customer satisfaction. My personal experience, just having purchased hearing aids from Costco also disagrees. For $1600 instead of ~$5000 offered to me from an AuD at Duke Health, Costco sold me a set of “Philips HearLink miniRITE T R i” hearing aids which I assessed to be essentially providing the same functionality as the “Oticon Real 1 miniRite-R hearing aids” offered to me by the AuD. That is, these two sets of hearing aids are made by the same manufacturer and advertise essentially the same set of advanced options and functionality. The instrument specialist at Costco was excellent, using very sophisticated, computerized, equipment to program and measure the performance of the hearing aids with instrumentation positioned in the ear canal to assess and adjust that the enhanced sound there was correctly presenting sound based on what my audiogram from the AuD indicated was needed for me. I don’t know if you had any personal experience with Costco, but my experience has me in complete agreement with the results of that Consumer Reports report on hearing aid providers.

I just read the Consumer Reports article. The article mostly focused on over the counter hearing aids and the date of the survey was December 2021. The survey you referenced only included mass market retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club, Hearing Life, Miracle Ear, etc. Basically the results show that Costco was the best of the mass market retailers which is probably true. What the survey ignored was the thousands of private clinics that probably dispense 90% of the hearing aids sold today. I’m not knocking Costco. They definitely address a market segment for those on a budget and many are happy with their service. My point is that their service is hit and miss, their product line is very limited, their audiologists come and go and their mass market approach doesn’t meet the needs of people with very challenging hearing loss issues. You basically get what you pay for and for some people…that is ok.

Anyways….glad you got good results. It’s nice to read about happy experiences vs people who are struggling with issues.

Jordan

Jordan, thanks for reading the CU report. Just wanted to add a couple of hopefully clarifying comments that seem appropriate based on your observations of the CU article.

According to the Hearing Aid Buying Guide6 section of that CU report it indicates that it was “Updated April 24, 2023.”

Also, the following clip from that Buying Guide seems to indicate that the satisfaction responses from the 26,788 Consumer Reports members who responded to the survey did include all types of hearing aid providers not just mass marketers with Costco being rated with the highest level of satisfaction.

“On the other hand, overall satisfaction was lowest with name-brand hearing aid stores. Various types of clinics—hospitals or clinics, ear nose, and throat (ENT) or otolaryngologist clinics, primary care or other medical doctors’ offices, and freestanding offices or stores—scored higher than name-brand hearing aid stores but lower than the VA or wholesale clubs.”

@user990 said:

To get back on track. To the original poster, if you are interested in Phonak, then using a hearing aid provider that programed Phonak hearing aids on a regular basis makes some sense to me.

It seemed to me that the audiologist he is currently seeing is not familiar with Phonak.

Thanks for the tip!

Bob

I think this is vital, due to Phonak’s aggressive feedback management (words from my audiologist)

Peter

I am using starkey genesis ai20 channel RIC but had difficulty in group conversation…would phonax paradise help me

@DaveL said:

But. I’ve heard that Sphere are set with pinpoint narrow microphone setting for speech in noise. Straight ahead.

Depending of the settings. You can also change microphones focus in myPhonak app.

Spheric Speech Clarity program can be set not only with focused beamforming, but also omnidirectional.

@DaveL said:

I’ve heard that Sphere are set with pinpoint narrow microphone setting for speech in noise. Straight ahead.

No. My first restaurant meal after getting the spheres, I could hear a guy in the booth behind me as loudly as the waitress or my wife. It was a bit disconcerting, actually, as I only heard half of that conversation. I didn’t think to try changing speech focus at the time.

WH

Little voice on my shoulder. Hearing aids are essential medical equipment

They should just work

My Paradise P90Rs weren’t setup right. I was lying on a gurney in Trillium Hospital fora heart procedure. I couldn’t hear a word the cardiologist said. In front of me.

Not fun

I read so often that we all have different needs. I accept that now. But it’s taken so long

I told my dispensing Audi that I thought there was something simple wrong.

He was a kind man.

He set up my old quite basic hearing aids so they were spares. They were better than the Better hearing aids he provided. He fired me.