Thanks Don. Sorry for late response I hit my newbie reply limit
I have a UP speaker so it should be capable of giving that extra oomph. The audi definitely doesn’t have a lot of experience with the Phonak or the software (at one point he screenshot my settings so he could copy them manually in another program. I had to sit on my hands in horror as it was painful to watch.)
I’ve always had a particular preference for my hearing aids, so it’s also possible that how I like them to sound might not be how they should sound, if that makes sense. Even though I have good range in the highs compared to everything else, I still really like hearing highs, I don’t want them muted.
I believe that the reasons for setting it more linear was to do with squealing and feedback, but the initial set up (before any adjustments were made) also made some speech sound drunk and slurred.
I can take all these suggests back to the clinic. Thank you.
(I can also have a poke around myself but I’m in a weird position where they have to sort my issues due a serious complaint I made so I’m loathe to start changing things myself until that’s resolved.)
I think my issue is more hardware settings, but I also agree that some programs seem to pick up my voice better than others. I sometimes have to adjust where they sit on my ears so the microphone can hear me. I wish these things were a bit more standard!
Gotcha. Semi-linear and linear do sound better but you may actually hear speech better with full compression. I’m going through the same thing with linear, trying to stay with full compression.
I’m not a fan of copying settings from a different model. My free opinion (worth every penney) is to set the new ones up with the standard, “first fit”, and then make changes as needed.
at one point he screenshot my settings so he could copy them manually in another program. I had to sit on my hands in horror as it was painful to watch.
This may actually be a very reasonable approach in certain circumstances. Not all settings can simply be identically applied to another program at the click of a button.
Fellow member from Aotearoa New Zealand here, and not able to offer much more than sympathy (and suggest a (probably impossible) change of clinic/audiologist).
You mention that the issue is with video calls such as FaceTime and Teams. Does it occur with video calls on other apps such as WhatsApp and Zoom? If so, it does sound (ha!) like a switching issue.
And what is the effect on the sound when you switch from BT to speaker?
This is correct - the program you want to look at is “phone all + mic” which is likely used during video calls, as it is using the handsfree profile, NOT media + mic.
Teams can be improved if you have an integrated microphone on your PC (common for laptops).
To do this, you could switch the audio settings within microsoft teams so it uses the laptop microphone and not your hearing aid microphone.
To do this go to audio settings within Microsoft teams and switch to the laptop microphone, and then switch the speaker settings to Phonak hearing aid (stereo) or similar, not handsfree. This means the hearing aids will be receiving the audio via A2DP which is a higher quality sound quality, i.e. the same signal that you receive when watching Netflix.
However I think there is a bigger problem, looking at the screen here. I think the problem is related to a hearing aid parameter called “” or maximum power output. On the screen I can see your hearing aids are set very differently to the default settings predicted by the fitting software (thick lines versus thin lines on the graph). I would guess that this is caused by the audiologist not properly configuring the hearing aid’s fitting formula preset when first setting up the hearing aid (specifically setting the hearing aids to Adaptive phonak digital, but then completing real ear measures using as a guide).
To make a long story short, in order to achieve real ear measurements or because you prefer more high frequency gain, your hearing aids have an extra boost applied for higher frequency gain, much higher than the fitting formula preset intends, and therefore the higher frequency gain channels responsible for clarity of sound are probably being heavily limited by the MPO behavior, which expects the high frequency channels to be set much lower.
Looking at the , you have a substantial hearing loss, so you would be sensitive to MPO limits being too low, and this could be interpreted as being unclear.
To remedy this, have your audiologist check where your MPO is set in relation to the output of the hearing aid (they will have to change the output view from gain - insertion gain to “Output - ”). It’s likely that the output curves shown will intersect closely with a thick black line (MPO) or come very close to it, which means they need to increase the MPO value for higher frequency channels.
The one thing I am a little puzzled about, is that you should have an issue for all incoming sounds, however you only report an issue with the Bluetooth phone signal from facetime. Either way, have your audiologist check this, and even call phonak for additional help if need be.
Hi KiwiJohn
I think the biggest issue is how the video call software handles compression and how the hearing aids are trying to handle the sound. I’ve managed to get them sounding pretty spot-on for FaceTime and Signal but Discord still sounds awful. But I can get around that and I’m happy with it for now.
I’ll explain in another reply what I did so I’m not repeating things.
Nice to meet you and I would actually be keen to have audiologist recommendations if you have them. (I’m in Wellington area.)
Hi Al, you were absolutely right and it was the Phone + mic option, so I have no idea why the Phonak rep told me it was the Bluetooth Media + mic
Thanks to the help of another user here (I don’t think I can tag?) I had a play with the Phonak Target software myself using Direct as a starting point with some fine tuning from there. Right now, I’ve got myself a decent enough set up that I’m happy keeping them beyond the trial period (these are actually funded by the Ministry of Health so it’s worth taking the handout) and I will get my money refunded for the Zircons that I was mis-sold (long story!).
I suspect I will have another play again at some point to see if I can make things even better, but I’m a little shocked that I managed to do in 4 hours what my audiologist couldn’t do over 6 weeks of 5 sessions.
I’m still hitting the edges of what these aids can handle but so far they’re handling it!
I would actually be keen to have audiologist recommendations if you have them. (I’m in Wellington area.)
@Tee I’m in Auckland, so any audiologist recommendations won’t be of use to you, I’m afraid. FWIW, I started out with Dilworth Hearing, but switched to Bay Audiology - and have found that it’s not the provider but the audiologist you happen to strike that’s the critical element. You seem to have struck a dud one. Best wishes for doing your own setting up and tweaking!
Aotearoa New Zealand
so I’m loathe to start changing things myself until that’s resolved.)
