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My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

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Makes sense. However, when I was tested in quiet in my ear in January 2024 (my first time generally during CI use), I also only had 10 words.

The first time I scored 70%, but this was with the hearing aid turned off on the right side (2-3 mm AOV vent in earmold).
Then I protested, stating that my earmold wasn’t sufficient to mask sound for my hearing aid side, so they put audiometry headphones on me. They said it attenuated sound by 50 .

For the second set (other than the first) of 10 one-syllable words, I scored 80%, which could confirm your post about WRS variability.

I understand this is probably because of many patients and to make appointments more streamlined.
I know that it is more important to draw conclusions and see trends from multiple year-to-year WRS tests than from a single test.

In reply to @DamonHill

Not dead as such @DamonHill but to all intensive purposes, probably as good as? I get very little contextual information from that ear, thank you for your concern, in truth, I will try not to dwell on it, there is no point! No, I never got a copy of the new , only a quick glance, everything was above 90db on the left, with several frequencies with “No response”… Cheers Kev :wink:

In reply to @JordanK

Thank you for all of this Jordan! Well done and much appreciated. For perspective Iv been a user for 18 months … my first were a set of Opticon Real 1. Then a set of Lumity L90’s. And now a set of Infinio I90 Spheres for 3.5 months. They do have custom moulds and were verified with and with a test box. I also have a Roger On 3 as well. Overall my experience with the Sphere is much like yours. Overall very good … especially the Spheric Speech in Loud Noise programs and where is found by AutoSense. The Bluetooth connective is also exceptional in all ways. Im now getting closer to reach REM targets … and dealing with “loud” gain. But still struggling with speech clarity. Meaning the kind of “tinny/blown speaker” distortion. And am wondering if you have made some kind of adjustment beyond “first fittings” on overall frequencies or with other specific changes or modifications to “fine tuning”? Thanks for all …

Edited
@Bluemoonbob said:

And am wondering if you have made some kind of adjustment beyond “first fittings” on overall frequencies or with other specific changes or modifications to “fine tuning”?

Hi @Bluemoonbob,

The biggest improvement I experienced during the various adjustments came from my audiologist changing my M (Medium Power) receivers to P (Power) receivers. The P receivers are a bit bigger than the M receivers inside your ear but the improvement in speech and music clarity was huge for me. The audiologist also re-ran the testing after switching over to P receivers. Not sure what you are wearing now but you may want to check which receivers you are using and whether they are close to the limit and warrant moving up to more power.

Jordan

Thanks Jordan … That was a conversation with my audiologist … at this point he felt the “M” receivers were correct for my current hearing loss. As you can see on my it’s pretty ok in the lower frequencies … but worthuy me bringing it up again. It would require a new set of custom moulds too. I wondered if there were other tweaks can be done with Speech Clarity, etc. And as you know, its a process … Bob

In reply to @WhiteHat

Thank you WH, but it’s not the end of the world… If I look at it from another perspective, I just saved £3k, which I can spend on my camper van, which I am just about to start to fit out, in earnest, every cloud has a silver lining… I am aware, I am full of platitudes, my apologies for that, I have probably my late mother to blame for these, she probably had a saying for every day of the year, and they stuck in my psyche… My mother was extremely religious, she went to church every day, on a Sunday perhaps 3 times a day… But she never imposed her beliefs on me, I was the exact opposite, I disliked church going with some venom, by the age of 12, I point blank, refused to go, in my eyes, or the eyes of a 12 year old, it was full of hypocrisy, I never did go back, apart from weddings & funerals… I try to live the way of the Buddha, not a religion as such, just a way of life, I try to live the “Middle Way”, not too good, and not too bad… Cheers Kev :wink:

Edited

@kevels55 Also, now that smart glasses with live captions are coming out (and they’re relatively cheap, too!), future looks a bit brighter for all of us!

Cross posting as COLOUR me IMPRESSED

I’ve had mine now since mid November, I’ve worn hearing aids for 26 years and I have been through 8 pairs in that time. Mostly when I have changed it’s generally been a bit better each time with the amount of different channels and programmes each time. My hearing in that time has deteriorated from Moderate to Severe and now I am on the edges of Profound.

I have recently had KS10s, Paradise, Lumity and now Infinio Spheres. All the Phonak devices have been fitted by the same audiologist (and the KS10s reprogrammed too). You probably all know him as he is Matthew Allsop from Hearing Tracker. Prior to this I have had Sigma, Hansaton and Siemens and I trialled and returned Jabras.

The Infinio Spheres are without a doubt the biggest groundbreaking things I have ever experienced in my life. The Sphere is quite frankly game changing. In the time I have had them I have travelled across Scandinavia, flown, cruised and trained. I have used them at football matches, in pubs, restaurants and work situations. Autosense is better, all the programmes are better but Sphere AI is another level good. It is like someone turned off all the noise and left just me and whoever I am talking to in the room at times.

To be able to have a conversation in a packed football stadium with my son is something I have not been able to do for a few years now. With the Spheres I can talk to him without even thinking about it.

As for the battery, I have never been below 30% in a day and some of them have been 18 hour days. The battery life on these things is magnificent, if I don’t use the sphere stuff I reckon they could go for two days easily. I have had days when I have put them in the charger on 66%! They are crazy.

The charger has three charges of battery life anyway so for weekends I don’t even bother packing a plug if I go away.

I will still get a few tweaks, mainly because I enjoy chatting with Matthew but overall all I can say is WOW and I am not easily moved by generation to generation usually.

I am finding I am using my Roger On v2 less and less as the hearing aids do the job so well. I stream loads, both to Roger and Bluetooth. Remarkable. Phonak have lifted the bar FAR beyond anything I have experienced before. As a Gen 1 this stuff is only going to get better too, marvellous.

I wrote about them here on LinkedIn

linkedin.com20

Mark Wilson on LinkedIn: Infinio! It’s a new magic word. It is quite honestly…

Infinio! It’s a new magic word. It is quite honestly real magic. As a severely deaf person working is tiring. The aural overload of noises especially when… | 11 comments on LinkedIn

Phonak picked it up and ran with it too :joy:

Edited

Read through most of this thread as it’s become the defacto thread for talking about great Phonak Infinio Spheres.

I am trialing them now and posted my own topic about it

Phonak Infinio Spheres: Long time Oticon user on trial, need info and help
I’ve been a long time Oticon users, and first time trying Phonak due to all the hype of the Infinio Spheres. I’m on Day 2 and haven’t yet had chance to be in a really noisy situation, but will be within a few days when I hope on a few flights and have business meetings. Sphere mode and programs My audiologist during my fitting setup my programs that I can toggle to: “Automatic” “Speech in Noise” “Spheric Speech in loud noise” “Music” She asked me which programs I wanted and I had no idea, …

I’ve had some useful answers there but figured I may as well ask some questions here:

I was using oticon before with varitherm custom molds. My audi got silicone molds this time and I hate them so far.

So much harder to put in and they feel massive. They feel more occluded and they stick out of my ear canal more. Even after 4 days I despise them.

IMG_4340 Medium
IMG_4346 Medium

  1. Does anyone know if I can get oticon molds made with their varitherm with Phonak receivers?
  2. I’ve learn that Phonak has titanium molds which sounds super interesting and maybe a solution? What downsides are there?
  3. I’ve also just learned about this Active Vent thing. Did some reason and one downside is about earwax and cleaning but it’s not clear to me how much of a problem it is. I have dry ear wax and wondering if that applies here as I haven’t hear a mention of dry vs wet wax as it pertains to active vent. What I do know is in my oticon molds, I would often need to clean the vent as my ear wax would fill the vent a bit.
  4. I realize I’m very confused about the various type of custom molds and which “type” I currently have based on my photos above. I’ve read terms like slim tips, cshell, half shells etc. I’ve even seen the Phonak order form which didn’t help. Based on the photos, I think I have half c-shells, am I correct? If so, it seems like these are the smallest cshells you can get, so I would have to go with slimtips to go smaller to match my Oticon?
  5. Am I wrong in thinking that the oticon is more compact because it doesn’t fully contain the receiver like the Phonak ones?

If it helps my profile has my latest .

Appreciate any input to help me here.

@bobbydigital16 said:

Does anyone know if I can get oticon molds made with their varitherm with Phonak receivers?

I don’t know the answer to that. But there are 3rd-party companies that make earmolds. My experience is with Microsonic. I love their super-soft silicone molds which are Shore A23 hardness level, really soft. Another company is Westone.

@x475aws said:

I don’t know the answer to that. But there are 3rd-party companies that make earmolds. My experience is with Microsonic. I love their super-soft silicone molds which are Shore A23 hardness level, really soft. Another company is Westone.

My varitherm were quite hard, they got softer after they warmed up. I think this is why they are so much easier to put in, yet comfortable while wearing.

So your love for super soft may not match what I’m ultimately looking for but I may be wrong?

How does ordering molds from other companies like those work? Who would do the impressions?

Also I wonder if titanium molds are worth pursuing. Everything I’ve read indicate:

  1. Harder (obviously)
  2. Can be built much smaller
  3. More difficult to get right

However my Audi doesn’t do digital ear mold scans and I’m not sure if that’s required for titanium molds

For easier insertion, earmold that are harder are better. It is also good to have ones with a smoother surface, but only if you do not have a problem with protruding earmolds off auricle throughout the day.

Titanium is a good, although costly, option. You can obtain it from traditional silicone impressions; digital options like OtoScans are not necessary.

Make sure that impression is long enough - it’s good to reach a few milimeters past second bend of ear canal.

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