Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio 90's .. another review

Yes the Resound Nexia could be as good as the Phonak Sphere, I had a Situation where I heard speakings from another room, was a bit scaried.
But I didn’t took them because of the jumping in of the voices that are arround me. Sphere is doing this too.

@Ureout said:

audeo sphere infinio 90’s had a problem with left HA shutting down for a few seconds and then starting back up

I had a similar problem with my p90s. My left one was rebooting occasionally. HCP determined it was a defect and they went in for warranty.

WH

@Ureout said:

NEW INFO… Jim Lewis you will be interested in this since I know you also wear Resound’s

Thanks for the Nexia review, @Ureout. You don’t say how occlusive a fit you wear with the Spheres. That can make a big difference. I’m planning on wearing custom molds with no vent, the better to shut out noise going directly to my eardrums and bypassing my HA processing.

There’s a crucial difference in Phonak’s approach vs. ReSound’s. ReSound’s improvement is ~entirely based on directionality. That means if someone to your side or behind you talks when you’re in Ultra Focus mode and a noisy environment, you won’t hear them that well. Phonak’s Spheric noise reduction can have directionality, too, but it can be set to operate in a 360° mode, and presumably, you’ll get improved hearing in any direction.

I also feel it’s time for a change. I feel let down by ReSound. Since at least ReSound One, they’ve been saying, “Buy our brand and future-proof your HAs.” I took that to mean that the Omnias, if not the Ones, would surely get BT LE Audio. Nope. One year later, they came out with the Nexias, orphaning Omnia users. I don’t know whether it’s Apple’s or ReSound’s fault, but I’ve gotten very tired of losing BT connectivity over the “iPhone separation” problem when you’re out of the iPhone BT range for too many minutes. I really liked the Phonak Lumitys but not their rechargeable battery runtime. I also didn’t see the Lumitys getting BT LE Audio, and I thought the Omnias would. I already had all the ReSound accessories, and Phonak accessories for the Lumity would be another additional cost of switching. But no BT LE Audio for the Omnias and continuing loss of BT connectivity through several Apple iOS versions is the last straw for me with ReSound.

I think the Speech Enhancer function (amplifying soft voices in a low to moderate noise environment) was much better with the Lumity than my Omnia performance in the same environment. If the Sphere Speech Enhancer function is anywhere near as good, that will be a big plus, too. My wife speaks very softly and doesn’t bite off her syllables.

The thing I will miss about ReSound HAs is the M&RIE receivers. I have excellent sound localization with the M&RIE receivers. Using those in the 360° hearing mode, I enjoy a very natural soundscape that doesn’t sound processed at all to me compared to my good low-frequency hearing without HAs. With the Lumitys, I was much more aware of Phonak processing, quick changes in directionality and sound reduction. But now, I’m willing to invest more time in Target and if need be just have manual programs with minimal switching for times I want to enjoy that sort of environment; more willing now to go with the flow of Phonak AutoSense 6.0 (switching to the Music program, for instance, might offer me a minimally processed sound environment).

@Ureout, I would be very much interested to hear how things ended up for you with the M&RIE receivers. I know you tried them out but did you switch back to the standards?

@jim_lewis said:

There’s a crucial difference in Phonak’s approach vs. ReSound’s. ReSound’s improvement is ~entirely based on directionality. That means if someone to your side or behind you talks when you’re in Ultra Focus mode and a noisy environment, you won’t hear them that well. Phonak’s Spheric noise reduction can have directionality, too, but it can be set to operate in a 360° mode, and presumably, you’ll get improved hearing in any direction.

Not really, although the Nexia is in full focus, it also recognizes speech from behind and the side and sometimes makes it loud. That irritated me too much.
The Sphere does the same thing, even if it doesn’t come across as loud.

Jim, I’m setup with standard receivers and have silicone vented molds … when I tried the M&RIE receivers long ago I didn’t care for them… but maybe I will try them again with the Nexia’s …
1 question on the MRIE’s … I might be mistaken but if I remember correctly did they have a time limit on the receivers where they should be replaced after a few months or do they last as long as a normal receiver wire??

on the hear in noise program I have 4 settings that I can alter my speech in focus prog. on the app … wide… medium… narrow… and automatic … the noisier the situation the narrower I want the focus… I’ve been set up with wide but tomorrow I’m going to set at automatic and see how that works

@Ureout said:

I might be mistaken but if I remember correctly did they have a time limit on the receivers where they should be replaced after a few months or do they last as long as a normal receiver wire??

I believe you are confusing M&RIE with Phonak’s ActiveVent.

My original M&RIE receivers were still working fine ~1 3/4 years after I first got them. The mic on each receiver does have the tiny filter, which you may have first pointed out. That area of the receiver is always very clean, but nevertheless, I’ve been changing those filters every six months. As I described in another thread, I did have a problem, probably self-induced, with the left HA body mics going out. But in normal, non-noisy environments, the M&RIE mics provide ~all the input to the 360°, Outdoors, and Music program, so I didn’t realize for some time until I went into the Front Focus program that my left body mics had gone out. My hearing was otherwise great, relying in the other programs exclusively on the M&RIE mics!

I had similar experience a few times. The App didn’t correctly show battery amount and gave me false low battery warning. I think that is because the HA was at Bluetooth program or Speech in Spheric Noise Program earlier and didn’t switch back on App. Sometimes I had difficulty to connect in App too. What I did was to swipe out the screen of App on my iPhone and let the App refresh. Then it operates properly.

I just got my Spheres on Tuesday. I haven’t tried Spheric Speech in Loud Noise yet, but otherwise, the HA battery runtime and the charger are working great. With one hour of streaming, I can go 14 hours only consuming about 60% of a full charge - that’s a pretty rough guesstimate since I wasn’t carefully tracking.

I turned off the BT Always Keep Connected option on the Devices tab of MyPhonak. But I also decided that the GPS location was chewing up a lot of battery. The MyPhonak app encourages you to have Location ALWAYS ON, but that seems to chew up battery. Location is used for the Find My HA locator and Health Monitoring. In six years of HA use, I’ve never lost a hearing aid, and I have one ~free replacement for each ear. I wear an Apple Watch, so I don’t need Phonak’s Health Monitoring (don’t think the Sphere has fall detection, anyway). So, I turned Location for MyPhonak completely off. That saves battery, too.

Edit_Update: I tried to look at steps and calories under Health in the MyPhonak app, and the app said health monitoring wouldn’t work without Locations turned on for the app. The smart thing, if the MyPhonak health tallies weren’t working, would be to turn off the HA tallying of steps and step data transmission to your phone. That would help save HA battery power and improve runtime a bit. My battery drain seems less today, but that may be just because I’m playing around with changing settings less in the MyPhonak app, not dictating Voice Memos with my HA mics, or trying phone calls with different BT settings, etc. You wouldn’t think the MyPhonak app needs precise location information to tally steps, but otherwise, it might not be able to distinguish head movements from taking steps!

On my problem with staying connected to my app, I saw my Audi this morning and he informed me that many manufacturers were having the same problem and that it’s a Bluetooth issue not a hearing aid issue and that Bluetooth was coming up with a fix.
We’ll see.

Yep. My VA audiologist is ordering my Infinios to trial along with my Resound and Signia that I currently am trialing. I am hoping the Sphere is the one for me. Else the Starkey Edge AI. We shall see.

I meet with a temp Audiologist next Tuesday to order my hearing aids. My regular audiologist is out having a baby. She did my testing last summer and she agreed with me waiting, although she knew nothing about the Infinio Spheres. She made some comment in the notes about me being knowledgeable and motivated. Also, I’m still the only patient out of that VAMC that uses activevents. Boggling.

WH

Same for me. I had no problems like this with my Phonak/KS10s.

I hope that maybe you can help me with my question. I just ordered mine yesterday and then today he had me come back in to do an ear mold. He says that If you are using the active vent receiver, these have to be worn with an ear mold. You can’t use regular domes with them. Were you told that? Also did anybody give you the heads up that phonak suggests the Pistons in the activant receivers be replaced every 6 months. My audiologist charges $160 per device every 6 months. Thx