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My first hearing aids... Phonak Audeo Sphere

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Last Friday morning I picked up my first set of hearing aids…

At the moment we only have them set at 80% of my prescription. When they first went in and they were set at 100% I was super concerned. Everything sounded super tinny - but the audiologist explained we’d back off and work up to that. Is that really what the world sounds like?

As instructed - I’ve been wearing them the whole day. When I’m working from hom eI don’t really notice much of a difference. Watching TV (I don’t have the TV box connected yet) I boost them up a bit and it seems to help with clarity. I have long found Netflix a problem and almost always have the captions on - the other night I found that I wasn’t relying on reading the captions as much.

Saturday I went out to dinner at a pub with friends - noisy environment - lots of people around - and it did make a significant difference to me. I was able to listen to conversations without having to concentrate as hard, or watch mouths to try and read lips. It was a relief for sure.

Other impressions:

  1. Keeping the “Find my Hearing Aids” on is a significant drain on my phone’s battery. I turned it off right away. I discovered that if they lose bluetooth connection to the phone the feature doesn’t work anyways - so what’s the point?

  2. My right battery seems to run down faster than the left. Only by a few percentage points - but couldn’t figure out why? Any ideas?

  3. Audiologist told me to clean them daily with baby wipes. Does everyone do that? I have been - but I feel like it’s going to be like flossing…you know you should do it but sometimes it’s just too much hassle.

  4. I curl - and had a game yesterday afternoon. There are 8 sheets in our club and all were in use. I was really worried about how loud it would seem with the rocks hitting together and people yelling. I was very pleasantly surprised that that wasn’t the case.

  5. This one is hard to explain - I was out to dinner again last night. When we first sat at the table - which was kind of close to a window it felt like I was hearing my own voice a lot louder than I had been. Almost felt like an echo - was wondering if it was my hearing my voice bouncing off of the glass? Is that a thing? I turned them down a bit and it was fine - but was wondering why it was happening.

  6. I wear glasses - I’m having a tough time figuring out where to put the glasses - the outside of the HA? The inside? On top of? On top make the glasses somewhat angled. Inside feels the most comfortable - but it kind of pushes my ears out a bit. Has anyone gone to their eyeglass shop and had them adjusted to accommodate the HAs? Can that be done?

Sorry if I’ve used incorrect terminology - I’m pretty new to the game.

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I too am new, like maybe a month now. I’ve found I have never had to boost volume up anywhere on the ’s, but streaming services seem to differ on their db outputs, so I have to adjust sound system volume.up and down when changing services. Including even my Tivo. But other than those scenarios, I’ve never in a month ever changed my HA volume.

I clean my ears using a Japanese tool that gets the wax out. Have never yet cleaned by ’s.

As for glasses, my HA’s are on the outside. My complication is when I go off roading at altitude, as I have to wear O2 due to Covid Pneumonia damage, and how I have glasses, HA’s and cannula. Take the O2 off, off comes the HA’s as well :slight_smile: Fortunately my hearing loss isnt so bad, so I just dont wear them when off roading. I also bought extra year warranty for my 90’s as well.

as to the percentage difference you see, thats an analog representation of voltage/state of charge.
These batteries arent matched, so each cells discharge curve may be different.

With the imbalance of running down, do you use Bluetooth at all? When my Spheres arrived, the right aid was acting as the made Bluetooth classic connection to other other devices, so this ran down a little faster (not by much over the day).

As only my left ear needs aid, I asked the audiologist to switch them over, so I can wear just the left aid and still stream Bluetooth.

While wiping them down make sure the battery charger connections at the bottom of the aids are clean, also brush the microphone ports. I wear my glasses on the inside of the aids.

In reply to @AlexE

Have to use , as running myPhonak app requires it. For audio/Calls, thats the higher output BT and will consume more power

LE BlueTooth is very low power consumption

@tph said:

Is that really what the world sounds like?

No, you don’t perceive it that way forever. That is, you don’t just ‘get used’ to it. Your brain readjusts (ideally) and it sounds more natural over time and then it no longer feels “tinny” is just feels “clear”.

As others have said, wear your glasses inside of the hearing aids. You will probably find that the aids develop scuff marks from the glasses eventually.

You will want to select a frame with slim bows the next time you buy new glasses.

And FYI, for different battery life on each side, besides what AlexE said, if one ear needs a lot more amplification, the battery on that side will run down faster. In your case, you have a very symmetrical , so this does not apply to you.

@tph said:

My right HA battery seems to run down faster than the left. Only by a few percentage points - but couldn’t figure out why? Any ideas?

Is your right is main Bluetooth aid? The battery of main aid for Bluetooth runs down faster.

So I have now had the hearing aids for three weeks. At first we set them to 80% of full prescription while I got used to it a bit. After a week we went to 85%. Yesterday I went back and we are now at 93%. That was quite a jump. Suddenly I am hearing all sorts of things - both good and bad. Screaming babies - wow can they be loud!

I was at a hockey game - wondered how that would be when the team scored and there was a horn, loud music - screaming fans etc. but I feel like they did a pretty good job of not amplifying what clearly wouldn’t be needed.

I have also played a couple games of curling - and was thinking with 8 sheets in our rink it would be really loud with the rocks hitting, the yelling etc. But again - it feels like they do a good job of filtering and only giving me what I am missing.

I went back to a restaurant where previously I had a horrible time hearing anyone. I’m sure the waiter gave us the specials because his mouth was moving - but I didn’t hear a thing. Went back last week and guess what - I still couldn’t hear anything. It’s just a very loud and echo filled room. I wasn’t the only one having the problem.

In two weeks I go to Mexico - it’ll be the first time traveling with them and looking forward to that experience.

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