My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

One very interesting thing about the Audiology Online course introducing the new Infinio line and the Spheres is the discussion around 7:30 into the On Demand course video discussing what’s new in the Phonak fitting formula APD 3.0.

The presenter said Phonak got to wondering why high-quality headphones sound so good to listeners and decided to borrow the sound shaping done by Harman curves from their Sennheiser headphone line and apply it to the frequency output of their fitting algorithm. Their initial goal was to improve non-speech streaming sounds, but in playing around, they found that listeners liked the new speech sound.

So, @JordanK might remember back when I was trialing the Lumitys vs. the ReSound Omnias, I thought that the Lumitys with APD 2.0 delivered more of a jazzed-up sound, whereas the Omnias, if a soundscape was just flat and dull, left it that way. So, I would take Phonak’s New Era course to indicate that Phonak does pay attention to the psychoacoustical landscape and delivers shaped sound that sounds better than what we might hear straight. We all hear a different sound reality in different environments with different head and body shapes. We put hearing aids in our ears that try to remedy different hearing losses in differently shaped ear canals, etc. So, now that I’m into Spheric speech, I say bring on all the processing that makes the sound that finally gets to my brain sound better and clearer!

The Audiology Online course I’m referring to, from which the quote below is taken:

@jim_lewis said:

The second course is more of a promo for the Infinio line and the Sphere in particular, but it brings the user up to date on what’s changed between the Lumity and the Infinio lines. In particular, it discusses the controls for Spheric Speech in Loud Noise and the control options.

Welcome to a New ERA | 39815 | Hearing Aids - (audiologyonline.com)

A beginner’s introduction to Harman curves and how they shape sound to “improve it.”
https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-the-harman-curve7

Page 4 of the New Era course transcript where the presenter discusses APD 3.0 sound-shaping:

What we wanted to do in this next step was to look at what the developers of high quality
headphones do to maximize sound quality. Because I know you’ve all heard it before. I’ve heard it
that patients get these headphones and they just love the sound quality. So how do headphone
manufacturers get there? And they use something called Harman curves.

And the Harman curve is a theoretical target sound signature that is said to produce the best sound
quality that the majority of listeners prefer.

So we took that idea and ran with it, and we did some research looking at implementing the
Harman curve, those targets to maybe improve upon certain sound qualities. Initially, we actually
looked at it when considering streaming sound quality. But what was actually found is that the
information that we got. So, bringing in some of the offsets of the Harman curves, we found that it
could benefit hearing aid wearers. So the result was that some of those offsets were applied to our APD 3.0 targets.

So we built a prototype and we tested it. And the graph here is showing the targets for APD 3.0 and
how they differ from 2.0 for the acoustic signal. We can see that we didn’t need to adjust APD very
dramatically, but the changes have made a big impact. So depending on what the acoustics or the
coupling of the fitting is, will basically determine whether or not how big the offset is going to be. But
what we find is that for a vented or more occluding fit, we are going to have a little bit more offset
and there will be a little bit less for an open fit.

Now, these offsets are applied in Infinio devices, and what we find is that patients are really, really
happy with it.

So the research that kind of helped us to make this decision in implementing the offsets was
looking at patients who were wearing both the original APD 2.0 and now the APD 3.0. And they
were comparing things like overall comfort, how intrusive the background noise was, and overall preference. And as you…

@jim_lewis ,great links you gave. I’ll look at them soon.

@jim_lewis said:

For example, some people have claimed that Stereo Zoom went away with the Spheres. No, it hasn’t. Even in Spheric Speech in Loud Noise, there is directionality, and the default value can be set in Target, but the user can also control the amount of directionality and the amount of noise reduction in the MyPhonak app.

Indeed. I think Phonak is master of hiding useful informations about their products. For example, I wouldn’t know much about myPhonak frequency adjustment range without this forum.

Audéo Sphere™: Advancing speech understanding with AI | Audiology Blog12

Phonak introduces the world’s first hearing aid with a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) chip that addresses the number one client need - speech understanding in noise.

I wouldn’t be surprised, if third column is about Infinio 90 R (Non-Sphere).

@jim_lewis said:

Since I don’t have Phonak hearing aids just yet (but will have Spheres soon), I can’t check to see if there is any control over Speech Enhancer in the MyPhonak app

Probably not. There is only the feature of increasing quiet sound/decreasing loud sound, which I understand is somewhat of a simplified modification of the G50 or G80.

Agree that Speech Enhancer is a great feature. I wonder if the “Whisper” feature in the Nucleus sound processor is a similar thing.

Regarding APD 3.0, it’s a pity that it’s impossible to set separate Music program with APD 3.0, and other programs on e.g. NAL-NL2.

By the way, I heard a rumor, but I can’t find any confirmation of it, that NAL-NL3 is about to be introduced soon. The information is from one of Dr. Cliff’s comments under one of his videos.

I am seeing my HCP today and I am going to ask for ActiveVents. I cannot see how to get a good music experience with open domes, and yet like the open domes for day to day. How long does it take to get the custom titanium tips for the AV? Glad to hear that the AV are now available for the Infinios.

@jim_lewis

When I first got fitted with Sphere, I felt that music sounded way better on Lumity. Sorta what you are describing…more jazzed up, deeper bass, fuller sound. Weird thing is…after my audiologist swapped out the M receivers for P receivers, the Sphere’s sound just as good as Lumity.

Not sure why this is the case but this is a big relief for me. Maybe the larger sized receivers (the P receivers are fatter/longer) are providing a bit more occlusion and this is giving me more bass, etc.

Jordan

They are available, I received them at the same time as the spheres. Been using activevent for over a year and love them. Even better with the spheres

Another thing I learned from the New Era course in my post to which I’m replying (linking) is that Comfort in Echo has been removed from the Infinio line (both the I’s and the IR’s). From page 6 of the New Era course transcript, here’s the explanation:

Now you may notice that Comfort in Echo is no longer available with Infinio hearing aids.

And this was actually because of some updates that were done with APD 2.0 and 3.0, specifically
those adaptive compression speeds. The research showed that they actually improve the
perception of reverberation. So it’s not that your patients are losing a benefit, we’re just addressing
it differently and we no longer need to have that program as part of AutoSense.

Edit_Update: I see @bigaltavista noted that removal and others back around August 8, 2024, without further comment on the rationales. Phonak Audéo Sphere - #236 by bigaltavista

You can have yours programmed to add the Spheric Speech program, so you can go direct to it.

Otherwise you are using autosense, and most likely will rarely ever see it in spheric. In addition, there is a limit on the time in Spheric Mode, but that also can be removed.

If it’s too aggressive to be annoying, can that be adjusted manually in the app?

@JordanK said:

My audiologist also added a separate program to allow me to manually activate the “Spheric speech in loud noise” program.

Jordan, after your audiologist adjusted your hearing aid, did he need to reset the manual programs he added? I remember I had to delete the manual programs I created in app every time after my adjustments with audiologist in target for Lumity.

@Michelle_L said:

Jordan, after your audiologist adjusted your hearing aid, did he need to reset the manual programs he added? I remember I had to delete the manual programs I created in app every time after my adjustments with audiologist in target for Lumity

Actually…I didn’t have to do anything. The program were just there after the adjustments.

Jordan

Ha! No, it was other stuff, including one of my ears being non functional for hearing because of Ménière’s disease. Nonetheless, in hindsight, I would have worn earplugs during some of those shows back then,

@HomerSimpson said:

And now your hearing is FUBAR… Go figure!

Certainly the reason I am, although probably my own guitar, as it was nearer to my head

@JordanK said:

My audiologist also added a separate program to allow me to manually activate the “Spheric speech in loud noise” program.

@Michelle_L said:

Jordan, after your audiologist adjusted your hearing aid, did he need to reset the manual programs he added? I remember I had to delete the manual programs I created in app every time after my adjustments with audiologist in target for Lumity.

This happened automatically after saving the new setting, can’t remember if they were deleted or just resetted to the new data.