My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

Thanks for your review.

I’ve had my workman’s comp Paradise P 90Rs for 3 years 4 months.

I have great faith in Phona. they provided 2 new hearing aids and a new charger. Battery life is better than it was.
My new 5.0 power receivers work much better for me. The original 4.0 Receivers were terrible for me from first day of use. Again hat’s off and a salute to Phonak

I suspect Lumity was better than Paradise.
Your review of Sphere fascinates me. Thank you

@JordanK
Thank you for your nice updates I’m always interested in.

As using these Spheres, also from the start of the pre-ordering, I am happy to have the exact same experiences as you have. It makes me happy hearing you telling how happy you are.

My two pairs of Paradise P90 are a misinvestment compared to these Spheres and I more or less regret having invested in them if I look back now. I bought the Virto’s and the BTE P90’s to see if it would make any difference and then the Roger On’s to it which extra helped a lot. But now I mostly get along with just my Spheres and have the others laying and getting old in the cupboard.

I got back my social life also as I couldn’t understand a word and finally because of that decided to change my lifestyle. And now I have to change it again as I can visit noisy places as in former years.

And the BT is indeed the second best thing to have in these HA’s. Having multiple devices connected and the longer range and fast coupling is great. I’m between home automation multiple BT and WiFi constantly, connections can be instable which I recon to be a interfering problem not from my HA but from the protocols defined by BT itself also.

Enjoy your Spheres

Hi Jordan
I am also in love with the Phonak Infinio Sphere. It took 3 adjustments to get it right, but I can now actively participate in conversations in all kinds of settings. My audiologist added a spheric speech option as a stand along application in my phone. I also find that the settings in the Calm setting work better for TV, than the one that kicks in automically which seems to be the streaming mode. I do not have a TV connector.

I have a question for folks in this chat about feedback on small rooms. If I close to a wall, I am getting buzzing. I don’t have that problem in any other situation. I will be going back to my audiologist in February for a general tune-up and cleanning and want to avoid getting custom molds. (I have tiny ear canals.). Thoughts please, I have an android phone and have no problems with bluetooth of phone calls dropping. The hearing aids are life changing for me. I will upload my audiogram as others have requested in the past.

Regarding feedback. Your audiogram would help, but several options: 1)If it’s a minor inconvenience, it’s ok to just live with it 2) If you want to do something about it, there’s basically two options a) Go with a more occlusive fitting (like a power dome or double dome) or b) have the gain turned down some in the offending frequency. Depending on your audiogram, a touch of frequency lowering MIGHT help.

@Mimi53 said:

I have a question for folks in this chat about feedback on small rooms. If I close to a wall, I am getting buzzing. I don’t have that problem in any other situation. I will be going back to my audiologist in February for a general tune-up and cleanning and want to avoid getting custom molds. (I have tiny ear canals.).

I have this happen sometimes. When you sit with your back to the wall, some of the sound from the room bounces off the back wall and hits the hearing aids. If your domes/molds are not pushed in all the way, you can sometimes get leakage and feedback. When this happens again, try pushing the receiver into your ear and see if it goes away. I find that the receivers kinda work their way out of your ear canal when you talk and eat. I need to push them back in a few times throughout the day.

Jordan

Thank you for the great reviews and feedback about the Spheres, these have been very helpful for me in making my choice to trial them. I have had my Phonak Infinio Sphere 90s since mid-December and they have been great in general, especially in noisy environments.

However, the Bluetooth connection to audio streaming from my phone has frequently been awful. Even earlier today I had lunch with my phone sitting on my table, maybe three feet from my hearing aids, and audio from Spotify kept cutting out and then switching from ear to ear. Yesterday this happened while out for a walk, with my phone in my jeans pocket. My previous hearing aids were Phonak Marvel 50s, and though they were getting old, I never had this issue with them. I even shelled out to get a pretty nice new phone in anticipation of wanting good Bluetooth technology for my new hearing aids, so I got a Google Pixel 8. FWIW they connect well with my TV and my computer, it seems to just be an issue with my phone.

Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix this issue? My trial ends at the end of January, and I’m not sure if this is a sign I should try another model of HA - especially since they are generally great and just have this Bluetooth connection headache. But I do listen to my phone on walks a lot and it’s turning into quite an inconvenience especially for such expensive technology. Another irritation is that I’m not really doing a “trial” - I’ve paid upfront, and can get a refund after 45 days (end of January). But I’ve also had to pay for custom earmolds for both ears, which are not refundable, and would have to pay that again for any other company I would try to use. So it’s not as easy as simply swapping out another model for free.

Thanks!

Morning my domes are fine. Afternoon I check often to make sure they are in

By 2:00 pm I’m very tired.

DaveL

@idontwantha said:

With Spheres I find I have to actually forget the device first before re-pairing. Any comment?

How many devices are paired to the Sphere’s including TV’s etc?

Biggest trick to avoid issues is to keep Bluetooth turned off on all devices when you are not using them. Keep Bluetooth on your phone always active but turn Bluetooth off on everything else until you need to connect your hearing aids. The hearing aids can only connect to a maximum of two devices at the same time and when you keep everything on, the Sphere’s will sometimes accidentally connect to another device somewhere else in the house.

Made sense?

Jordan

That’s been an issue going back to my P90s. It gets very confusing where I have an Iphone, apple watch and 2 ipads and then the tv streamer connects. I do my own programming and have never found a solution other than to set the streamer to manual. Sometimes the Ipad connects when it goes “live” and other times it doesn’t. Apparently its a problem with classic Bluetooth rather then Phonak. Was hoping it would be better when I get my Infinos next week.

disapointing to read about these bluetooth issues. I’d hoped it would be better in the newer models form Phonak. I wonder if it’s related to whatever the issue is in my old Marvel aids. It’s generally just a weak Bluetooth connection. Streaming while on a walk with phone in pocket.

It works ok if the phone is in my right pocket (same side as the primary Bluetooth aid) but doesn’t work well if in a back pocket or left side. Only a few more inches and a little bit of body between… I even have issue if it’s in the right pocket of my jacket and I put my hand in the same pocket, partially covering the phone.

Meanwhile with other Bluetooth devices I can be halfway across the house and still get a workable connection! I reckon phonak’s antenna or amplifier or whatever is just too small/weak.

I have a MacBook, Mac Studio, iPhone and a Tv Connector paired with the hearing aids. As I understand it the TV Connector does not count as it is on a different protocol. Unfortunately, I cannot keep the Bluetooth turned off on my Macs because there are other devices using Bluetooth that need it turned on. But I have experimented and as far as I can make out turning off the Bluetooth doesn’t always work either. I guess I’ll just have to live with it. Thank you for answering.

Hi Jordan, thank you for this very interesting post, and your ongoing feedback.

I hope this is understandable… One of the issues with classic bluetooth is the inability to separate the audio streams, microphone and speaker are always either both connected or both not connected. If phone calls are routed to the hearing aid, that’s always for both hearing and listening, with the listening being done by the microphones on the aid. In a noisy environment what is picked up by those microphones comes across at the other end of the call as a loud and garbled mess with your voice overpowered by the background noise. MFI aids apparently allow the use of the phone microphone for your voice, whilst listening to the conversation through the aids. That is not possible in classical bluetooth/Phonak. Well at least not on the P90s. Any insight into how that pans out with Infinio, any different?

Yes the receivers on the Infineo are difficult to remove in my opinion - see attached video from Phonak. However, my audiologist has done many exchanges and says it is not a problem once you get the technique. I am also concerned that if you don’t use a local audiologist or you want to do it yourself then the chances are high that you will ruin the receiver.

I don’t think Phonak will re-design this for the Infineo - perhaps they will have second thoughts with whatever new model will replace it in a year or so.

How to remove an Audéo Infinio receiver30

Thank God, I was beginning to think I was the only one! I am beginning to see that the issue is not as uncommon as I first thought. My position;

I had a pair of Phonak Audeo M90-R hearing aids for about 5 years and a 1-year-old Moto g84 5G, Android 14 with Bluetooth 5.1. The Phone has 12GB Memory (RAM), 256GB Internal Storage, of which 12GB is used to boost the RAM, effectively 24GB RAM. Bluetooth worked without any significant issues.

In November 2024 I bought a Pair of Phonak AUDEO I90 SPHERE hearing aids + TV Connecter.
The Bluetooth streaming fairly quickly became an issue, when listening to the radio or when streaming from websites etc the sound became very “Norman Collier” like, if you are British, you will know what I mean, kept cutting in and out. A further issue I have is that that the aids seem to have a mind of their own, travelling in the car, just walking about, or just sitting watching the TV the aids suddenly and without any apparent provocation play what is like a five note quick tune and almost immediately after playing the reverse of the notes again, (tones going down and then going up) not always for both aids. Sometimes just a single tone. In addition, I have no ability to manually select the Spheric programme in the myPhonak app in the way I can select other programmes.

So far, I have received the following suggestions from Phonak;

If you are within the range of Bluetooth and experience any of the above, we recommend to:
• restart your phone
• unpair your hearing aids from your phone Bluetooth and pair them again.

If the issue persists, please try the troubleshooting tips:
• Bluetooth transmission is affected if too many applications are running at the same time on the connected device. Close applications that you are not using to avoid slowing down the Bluetooth transmission.
• Minimize Interference. Phonak hearing aids operate on frequency of 2.4 GHz – 2.48 GHz. When other devices in your proximity are using the 2.4GHz frequency, you may occasionally hear static or buzzing sounds. It happens because of the activity happening on the same frequency, which overlaps with the connection between your devices. You can try to turn off certain devices that could be causing interference or move into a different area closer to the audio source.
• Ensure your phone is updated.
• Change the Bluetooth connection for phone calls from adaptive to fixed bandwidth. This can be done in the myPhonak appsettings * or by the hearing care professional in the fitting software.
• Keep the audio source device close to you. Bluetooth signals can be absorbed, and performance and range can be reduced if the phone is placed inside pockets or handbags. Obstacles such as people, walls, or furniture may also reduce the range. To maintain a strong connection, keep a clear line of sight between the audio source and your hearing aids.
• Verify your hearing aids are not running out of battery.
• Ensure Power Saver is disabled on your phone.

If the problem persists, contact your hearing care professional to check if you hearing aids need to be serviced.

*myPhonak app: How to change the bandwidth

See Phonak Support Community4

…oooOooo…

1. Before contacting my audiologist, I had already paired, unpaired the aids, remove and reinstalled the app a few times, rebooted the phone etc.
2. I thought the comment about keeping the phone close was absurd, my understanding was that Bluetooth 5.1 quadrupled the range from 50 to 200 meters, I appreciate that this distance is substantially reduced when indoors without a clear line of sight. Notwithstanding that when I have the issue the phone is rarely more than a few feet away.
3. According to Phonak the TV Connector uses their own wireless functionality, Airstream, which is unrelated to and does not affect Classic Bluetooth, which is used for phone streaming, and Bluetooth LE, for the App.
4. The audiologist can set up the Spheric programme as an additional separate program which can be manually selected, I assume via the app.

I have tried the various options including changing the Bluetooth connection for phone calls from adaptive to fixed bandwidth but the issue remains

The latest suggestion;

They have also said that regarding these disconnection alerts - they think that this might be due to the high sensitivity of Hearing Aid finder feature.

Binaural Link/Connection Alerts:
We have observed some irregular connection dropouts with binaural fittings using infinio, which can lead to disruptive signal tones for clients. To enhance connectivity, we introduced the Hi Finder feature in myPhonak, which helps wearers locate their hearing aids if misplaced. While some wearers may receive false notifications due to heightened sensitivity in the connection loss alert, we recommend deactivating these alerts during fitting when appropriate. In the upcoming release of Phonak Target 10.1, these alerts will be turned off by default, allowing wearers to enable them as needed.

They have suggested that the audiologist disables the connection alerts in Signals and Alerts for now?

I have not been to my audiologist yet as I received the above just before the week-end, I guess that is my next step.

Generally, I do like the new aid but the Bluetooth issue is irritating.

I hope this helps.