Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

999 replies59.6k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
Reply

In Target, I play around with whistleblock to help with feedback, but I also now trust the feedback/realear, which I didn’t when I started self programming. All a long learning curve.

In reply to @JordanK

I accidentally discovered that Unitron power domes are much better than Phonak ones in terms of leak tightness and having the highest possible feedback threshold.

This is probably because the Unitron domes are made of stiffer silicone.

I have them right in front of me, and the differences in stiffness and feedback threshold are substantial in favor of Unitron ones.

One advantage of molds relative to domes, IMHO, is that they are substantially easier to clean. Also, easier to change the Cerustop . I do find that the wax can leak very slightly between the outside of the Cerustop filter plug that goes into the mold receiver opening and the mold receivre opening itself, so I wonder over time if enough mold debris will fall into the inside of my cShells to cause problems with receiver output. It’s a very, very small amount of wax debris that makes it into that opening, but pennies make dollars over time. The problem with cShells is that they have to be sent away to Phonak to fix anything about the way the receiver works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be).

Another benefits from the cShells/earmolds compared to the domes is the former stays always in the same place, which is especially important during and after the -based fitting.

It’s annoying that even with my quite good dexterity I am not sure if I place power domes exactly in the same place each time as in REM testing.

Advantage of the power domes? You can push it really deep, so that you can get additional “free” gain due to smaller ear canal volume between receiver outlet and eardrum.

In reply to @tph

Hello from another /forum newbie!

I’m also a tinnitus sufferer - in fact, that was more than 50% of my motivation for getting hearing aids, even though the healthcare system here bases its decisions about paying for HAs strictly on the level of hearing loss. (I guess it’s hard to expect them to shell out for a completely subjective, essentially unverifiable symptom.)

In the few weeks I’ve had my Spheres, I have not seen (?) my tinnitus disappear. I do note that while I’m wearing them, the tinnitus, even when it’s still there, is a good bit less intrusive. My hope is that giving my brain the frequencies it was missing will actually reduce the tinnitus - but even if that does happen, apparently it can take months.

I haven’t (yet?) gotten into self-programming, but I was able to get my provider to set up the “Calm” and “Comfort in Noise” automatic programs to have less noise filtering than they normally would, so I get a bit more high-frequency ambient sound than might be “natural”. This helps mask the tinnitus most of the time, and will maybe help beat my auditory cortex into submission. (CORRECTION: “encourage neuroplasticity”.)

Good luck, and welcome!

@DonRadlauer said:

In the few weeks I’ve had my Spheres, I have not seen (?) my tinnitus disappear

Yeah you won’t unfortunately, there’s no “cure” for this, you can as you notice, mask it, Phonak tinnitus controller nowhere as good as some others, Signia, ReSound, even Widex have better.

Indeed - but I really need the Phonaks’ Bluetooth connectivity, for work as well as for the rest of my life. I’m hoping that just getting the treble boost to make up for my hearing loss will do the heavy lifting, and I figure I should be able to make up the difference with tools like the Widex Zen app.

I wonder if Phonak has any plans to improve their built-in tinnitus capabilities…

In reply to @JordanK

Excellent.

I appreciate the time you took to review the review the spheres

when I was disappointed I read everything I could about Paradise, Lumity and then the sphere. I checked out other brands. I bought books about Compression and setup. Watched videos.

I was a sucker for marketing. Your reviews were the first that gave me hope.

In reply to @DonRadlauer

@DonRadlauer said:

I wonder if Phonak has any plans to improve their built-in tinnitus capabilities…

Good question, and they should, but tinnitus treatment is really not a “big” thing in the world of from the manufacturers, they know the majority of people don’t need it, so not a lot of dollars going into this, however let’s see what can come up with,who knows possibly something in near future for us…

@Bimodal_user said:

There is also Roger microphones, but they’re expensive, unless you consider used one from eBay (must be In version - i.e. “RogerOn In V2” or V3).

You might try the Roger Pen (model before On). They can be set up for multiple people to each wear one tied into your hearing aids. So you could hand them out to your fellow hikers. Also cheap as a much older model but still available in the used market.

In reply to @IGZO

@IGZO said:

There was an article I read a few years back, explaining why today’s movies have such poor dialogue clarity. I will try to find it again.

LOL!!! So absolutely TRUE! Look at classics from the ‘40s even (e.g., “Mildred Pierce”, “Key Largo”, “Gaslight”, “The Big Sleep”, on and ON!). Dialogue is CRISP and CLEAR - as if it was the soundman’s passion to make it so! I think it’s two things: the older movies didn’t rely on LOUD, SHOOT’EM UP action at the expense of good dialogue or character development. And the dialogue had a purpose, with every word carefully crafted.

By contrast, today’s movies are filled with muttered repartee that’s not essential to the story! I’ve also read that movies of today try to create a chaotic, heart-pounding scenario with lots of noise: background music, explosions, etc., to force viewers to hunch forward and catch the dialogue. The script is rapid-fire muttered with the characters across the room from each other or backs turned on each other. HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?

Good dialogue has been replaced with sassy, off-the-cuff wittisisms that we are supposed to relate to. It isn’t JUST movies/shows in the USA, even video entertainment from overseas suffers the same MUTTERING dialogue against the backdrop of ambient noise. I actually welcome the subtitles some times!

It isn’t just me with my hearing aids either. Hubs, with normal hearing, will often ask ME what was just said. With my Roger streamer, I can answer most of the time, but even with that, I still miss some of the muttered dialogue.

Well that was my rant for the day. SO GLAD to have an excellent streamer that feeds that sound into my ears directly. But even with my setup (Phonak Lumity Life 312s + Roger On IN V2) when the explosions get really obnoxious, my aids just dampen down - even while streaming! - so I have to strain to hear the dialogue going on in the midst of all that HARD ACTION NOISE.

Edited

I think forum is the place to help with making more conscious decisions. It’s up to you what you do with that information. In my individual case I would prefer to be informed and not regret to e. g. buying too early by a few months. Indeed, YMMV.

@Bimodal_user said:

I think forum is the place to help with making more conscious decisions. It’s up to you what you do with that information.

Oh, no question.

In my own case, I was thinking within the bounds of my particular healthcare system - which provides hearing aids with full fitting service at an extremely advantageous price (especially for non-Sonova aids :sob:), but on a 3.5-year schedule - so I’m not eligible for my second pair until Spring 2029. OTOH I’m nowhere near using the full capabilities of my Spheres anyway, so I shouldn’t really worry. Or at least I shouldn’t worry specifically about new-model envy!

Edited

That’s indeed okay and reasonable, especially seeing differences in our .

For me, Sphere was life-changing. I was in the party 2 days ago and managed to participate in talks even with traditional (non-Spheric) programme in automatic mode. With manual Spheric Speech in Noise program was even better (yes, I have lowered the threshold of engaging the Spheric mode in AutoSenseOS 7.0).

One day earlier I have had family gathering and I found that I can participate despite 25 people in one restaurant room even when my better ear was in the worst place possible (I was unfortunately sitting on the far edge of the table, with my worse ear turned towards the others).

Despite less favourable hearing conditions I managed to heard much what people say and what’s more, I could translate to English much talks to the German husband of my father’s cousin who sits on my left! With the rarely used LiveTranscribe in my Android phone when I didn’t understand his English response!

That was surely impossible before having the Sphere or even less possible before firmware upgrade. Why? Probably because after firmware upgrade I have got possibility to get much more gain in high frequencies! ~+6 “” in 4000 Hz are gradually more to even +12 “dB” in 9000-9600 Hz!

I still wait for the last chance with titanium cShell with UP receiver instead of the current P (with 0.6 mm vent).

I’ve had a pair of sphere hearing aids for over a year and I’ve been very underwhelmed with the spheric mode. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong.

Related discussions