Phonak Infinio Sphere I90 Review (Another One!)

When I switch to Sphere mode using the app, background noise drops noticeably.

Keep in mind that the data that comes out of manufacture labs showing how many dB SNR improvement there is for a particular hearing aid is average group data. Variability in individual users in clinically feasible SNR testing (i.e. not hundreds of words) is just not precise enough to support comparisons between hearing aids, although it can provide gross unaided vs. aided data.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of choices for audiologists near me, especially those that take my insurance. The only other one relatively nearby that takes my insurance had a six month wait for an appointment.

@viffer said:

Jordan, I have been trialing the Spheres for two months now, and I have tried open, vented, and now power domes.

I found power domes in the same ballpark as cShells, enough to let me appreciate the noise-reducing capabilities of the Spheres; cShells are the best! Keep in mind that you may need to use a different size power dome for each ear. Your ear canals may not be the same size. Your audiologist should be able to tell from your feedback profile how well the power domes are occluding your ear canals. With good low-frequency hearing, if you don’t have an occluded fit, noise will leak directly to your eardrums, and you won’t get the maximum benefit of Spheric noise reduction.

My cShells block external noise much more completely than power domes do. First, they are made to the shape of my ear canal, and second, the outer side of the cShells totally blocks the opening of each ear canal. I’m used to occlusion and insisted mine be made with no venting. They work great. YMMV if you’re sensitive to occlusion. Your HCP can adjust somewhat for occlusion in the Target app, and amplifying soft sounds in the MyPhonak app using the Dynamic sound slider helps overcome that (playing with the equalizer may help, too; haven’t analyzed my MyPhonak adjustments in detail, but I have custom programs that lessen occlusiveness relative to AutoSense; did not adjust for occlusion within Target).

A view of what cShells look like in their entirety is available in the following post:

Great Official Phonak Carrying Case, $10 on Amazon, Fits Spheres with cShells Well

I didn’t get a carrying case with my order of Phonak I90 Spheres from Direct Hearing. Amazon is selling an official Phonak carrying case on Amazon that works very well (traps HAs from sliding around with central foam cushion in lid). Here’s a picture of what it looks like with my Spheres with cShell receivers in the case. [IMG_1219_Edt_CRp]

Thanks so much, Jordan, for all your answers to questions about the Phonak Spheres.

How do you like the activevents? My audiologist’s brother tried them, and found them annoying because apparently they constantly make noise opening and closing. I want to try them, but not until my trial period is over (since I may return the Spheres if we can’t overcome the poor speech in loud noise issue).

I love my activevents. They do make a noise. I think of it as a squish sound, not the more commonly reported click. Turning off audio notifications on your devices paired to the HAs is critical. You lose the ability to hear what is going on around you when the activevents close to stream content from your phone or tablet. They die relatively often ~ 6 months or so. My receivers don’t cost me anything, but if you pay for your receivers there will be a significant expense. I think my failures are from earwax getting past the wax trap. It gums up the mechanism, i think.

The sound streamed through activevents is a lot better than the ordinary receivers. The sound you hear in speech in loud noise program is isolated from the noise in the room quite a bit more.

I wish the p90s did better with noise but the activevents give me as much as the HAs can do with the sound that comes out of them. The tips are very comfortable.

WH

I have a dedicated Sphere mode, which I select manually in the app for trial purposes (could be going into it in automatic mode but this way I am sure). With the power domes I tried this mode in a restaurant over the weekend. The noise reduction was noticeable but not extreme as some have indicated. Can’t really try to many other options at the moment because I am still battling with my insurance company, which is trying not to pay any part, or only a small part, of the cost of the HA’s. Right now, if we can get the insurance company to pay what the plan says they will pay I will probably keep the Spheres and then experiment with things like the activevents. If I cannot get the insurance company to budge, I will probably return the HA’s and get something at Costco.

I like this description but so much is variable in the software.
Right now I am trying to decide what I should set in the software, as a discreet new program, and what I should leave to be varied in the field while in use via the app. The phone app, is still very confusing to me, I thought I had PDF of the app’s user manual, but unable to find… for anyone who really wants to be in control, really should use the Target software. One thing, though, in some cases, if you create a program that you LOVE in your phone app, you will lose it, when Target software saves new changes that you decide to make or that the Hearing place does. So you may want to make a bunch of screen shots on your phone of the app screen - scrolling all the way down, so you have the slider values to recreate later.

@IGZO said:

as a discreet new program, and what I should leave to be varied in the field while in use via the app

You can vary settings in the discrete app as well, it doesn’t have to stay the way you program it. When in that program hit the Adjust Program button at the bottom. It will only change it for a while. When you change to another program, the changes are gone. Low risk way to experiment. To keep settings you need to save it, either as an additional program or over that one.

WH

Your audiologist should be able to replace the receiver in the office unless you have receivers permanently fixed into molds. Should still be able to put in a different receiver for test purposes in that case, but then you’d know whether it was the body of the aid or the receiver.

WH

@Carla said:

Also with the sphere technology…is this something that needs to be turned on or is automatically on when the aids were given to my son

Sphere is a part of autosense and will come on automatically when noise levels exceed a threshold set by your audiologist. They can also create a dedicated sphere program that can be activated when desired, say noise levels don’t break the threshold or vary back and forth and you’d like it to stay on.

WH

I started an entire thread on the edited names reverting back some time ago. Phonak claim they can’t replicate it and that no other users have reported the problem. But you have and others on the thread I started have also. It’s been at least a couple of years and Phonak don’t think it’s a problem and are therefore not trying to fix it.

Would be helpful if you reported your experience to them.

Glad you support speaking up. Most on this forum, don’t - seems like 99.9999999% to me do not complain, or are willing to complain repeatedly!
I pointed out a bunch of issue… in calls to them.
Then got tired.
I should resume… but I know my greatest chance of success, is not my emailing them, but in convincing any Phonak users ( Hey! are there any Phonak users here?) that read my threads to vociferously, and repeatedly call, email and motivate others to do the same, and complain to their dealers and service professionals.
THAT IS THE ONLY WAY THINGS WILL BE CHANGED !