Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Bluetooth music is flat sound phonak audeo sphere infinio 90

11 replies955 viewsLast reply

Link to this topic
Reply

The sound of the music is very different between Bluetooth streaming and car audio. I can hear the piano clearly in the car, but the music sounds very flat when streamed. I asked the audiologist to make adjustments, and she modified the fine-tuning curve (raising the mid and high frequencies), but the sound is still different from what I hear in the car. Is it normal for streamed music to sound this way?

10 people in this conversation5 min readJump to latest
@mayuna said:

Is it normal for streamed music to sound this way?

@mayuna to a certain extend it can be normal but heavily depends on your ear coupling (open vs. closed fitting). Audiologist can advice here as the options relate to your hearing loss, unless you go for special technologies such as ActiveVent which gives you the richt streaming quality even for “open” fittings.

Edited

I’m no audi, but my question would be: What’s the sound system in your CAR? F’instance, if you’re driving around in a Porsche, you’ll have Burmester - not shabby! Compare that to what you’re streaming audio on cellphone-wise with your Spheres…

I think my Phonak Lumity Life aids (power domes, not custom-fitted) sound very good streaming music on my Android Samsung Flip-4 phone.

Also consider the source of music: is it highly-compressed MP3, CD, service like ROON or Quboz, or direct off Astell Kern device?

Perhaps others more knowledgeable can chime in here.

I think my Rexton’s streaming music sounds great but I did tweak it both the music program and the streaming program

It needs a lot of tweaking and effort to program the music streaming in a satisfying way but you’ll get there.

First of all, make sure that, with your kind of loss, you have closed moulds or power domes.

Then focus on a song (possibly arranged with many instruments) that you knew well when you could hear better, and write down the differences compared to your memories and what you were expecting to hear.

Finally, report those differences to your Audi,

It will take multiple sessions but you’ll get there because your hearing aids can provide a satisfying Bluetooth music experience, especially if you claim you can hear music well enough in another contexts.

This has always really confused me about Phonak. They make such a big deal about their streaming, but BT streaming is the only program to my knowledge where you can’t use the app to eQ the sound. If you could, you could make manual adjustments via the app to your own music and the whole experience would be that much more sattisfying. I really do not understand why this hasn’t been implemented. For something like Widex you can do this easily and you can adjust the music to your dome type and your particular listening preference by tweaking the bass mids and trebble. I personally find the streaming quality terrible and very middle heavy, but I want to be able to adjust it myself not sit in an office with the audiologist doing this.

I have the same problem of rather thin tinny, sound when I am listening to classical music played on my Iphone. I wish that there was some way to use an equalizer within the P90 Sphere aids. I am trying to do the same with the app PowerAmp that plays the music on my Pixel 7 phone. But I don’t know enough about why the music sounds tinny to be able to use the adjustments correctly.
I’ve tried asking this question in other forums, but no-one so far seems to have much experience with this particular combination of problems.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Jim

Your particular hearing loss and type of domes or molds will have a big impact on your results. But in case it helps:

While streaming, the MyPhonak app does have and “Ambient” slider available. Moving it towards Audio rather than Surroundings can greatly increase music clarity. That said, your aids can’t process sound reaching your ear canals directly through relatively open fittings (dome holes, vents etc).

You may also be able to adjust the e.q. through whatever source you’re using to stream before it hits your aids - in the source streaming software. I use Spotify most often, and it has e.q. sliders that allow me to increase the lower frequencies that aren’t usually processed much with a common “high frequency loss but stronger natural low frequency ability” situation and a speech-oriented fitting.

I eventually moved to Power Domes to gain better streaming and speech in loud noise results. I personally feel that I’m getting much more value out of my Spheres with Power Domes and a revised fitting to account for them.

It seems from your description that you’d generally want to boost lower and low-to-mid range frequencies while also lowering upper mids and high frequencies in your streaming software for a more “natural” streaming result.

Thankyou very much for the detailed reply. I am using custom fitted domes and the streaming sound does not change when I cover my ears completely with my hands (Saw that as a suggested test on one of Dr Cliff’s videos). So I think the fit is good.

I did some more tests after posting the question and found that I could get better sound from my desktop computer, using my headphones without my hearing aids than I get from using my Pixel 7a through my hearing aids. I was able to get an eq setting for the headphones that took my hearing into account. So I am beginning to wonder if getting a good mp3 player to use with my headphones might be worth it. But good mp3 players can be costly.
Thanks for the tip about the Ambient setting in MyPhonak. I’ve did not see such a setting in that app. But unfortunately that app does not work with my Pixel7a phone. If it does connect it disconnects immediately. But my phone itself works with the aids.
Thanks again,

In reply to @Oston

@Oston said:

I am trying to do the same with the app PowerAmp

PowerAmp’s good (I use it as my in-car Bluetooth audio player, since it can do “album shuffle”) - but if you want the best audio control, and you’re every-so-slightly nerdy, try Neutron. It’s got amazingly powerful and flexible equalizer options.

Evaluation version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mpeval6

Full version (which is what all the genuinely cool people use): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mp4

Enjoy!

Related discussions