Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

UK Phonak Infinio Sphere Review/Audiological Science

This topic is closed.

7 replies1.3k viewsLast reply

Link to this topic
Edited

I didn’t want to write too detailed a review as I’ve seen some excellent reviews on here from @JordanK and others. But I felt compelled to for some of the UK readers because of the issues that I think arise when you are shopping around and trying to find a provider.

I had a bad experience with Specsavers recently. I posted reviews a while back. I had an Advance Elite fitted at Xmas and then decided against it and went with the Nadia Lumity SP ( version). My problem is that I am on the cusp of severe to severe/profound loss requiring optimially a BTE. I can wear but the power provided the SP BTE is more comfortable.

Although the Nadia Lumity SP was a good aid, I am now selling it as I have been provided with Oticon Xceed SP 2 aids from the UK NHS. These have been excellently fit with . It does not make sense for me to have both, so I am selling the Nadia Lumity SP with the idea of upgrading to the Infinio Sphere.

Because the Specsavers fit was not good, I have looked around for another provider. Ideally I would have liked to go to a local provider but I have found the whole process of enquiring for a price and whether they do REM very opaque. Some don’t want to reveal the price. Some don’t do REM. Boots didn’t even return my calls. So I looked online and found audiological science, who seemed to be a good fit as the CEO/founders have clinical experience and talk knowledgeably on their website.

I phoned them and had an initial conversation. The first red flag - they don’t do REM. But I was assured that they have experienced audiologists. I decided to go with them on a home visit. The guy duly came and was actually very knowledgeable. Took my impressions and said the the aids would be ready in 2 to 3 weeks.

So, the day of the fitting, which was meant to be a home visit, nobody showed up. I rang their offices and explained that I was expecting their audiologist at 9am and it was now 9.30am. So sorry, there has been a mix up, you were booked in at our London branch. Okay, so I rebooked an appointment the next day at their London office, as they could not see me till the following week at home. I duly went to London and when I walked in, they said, do you have the hearing aids with you? Sorry? No. Ahh, we thought you had them.

Shambles.

No problem they said, we have your receivers, but we can provide you with these aids, not the silver grey you requested, but a champagne colour. They actually looked Okay, so I agreed to have them fit.

The 2 ladies fitted the aids, I had previously mentioned that I had had good success with Adult V5, but they ignored me and fitted 3.0 instead. They told me it was NAL (which I could see it wasn’t when I got home and hooked them up to target).

I was not happy initially with the volume and some adjustments were made, upwards, particularly in the bass. She said that she could not give any more high frequency gain - I was later to discover why.

I left the offices and tried to phone my wife. I could not connect to Bluetooth for some reason. It was a bit frustrating.

I got on to the tube and sat and listened - this is the only good bit so far. Eventually the Spheric noise program kicked in and I could not hear the train anymore, but 4 people opposite me, in almost total clarity. They were speaking a foreign language I could not identify - possibly middle eastern, but what I could hear was clear. The announcements were totally clear, even though it was an old northern line train which was thunderously loud.

I got on the mainline train home and eventually sorted out the bluetooth connection, once I had deleted everything and re-paired. For some reason it took over 40 minutes, which was a bit annoying.

Now I had had the aids on for a couple of hours, I realised that the fit was horrible. Everything sounded unbalanced, there was not enough high frequency gain. Sitting there with my wife, I streamed a video from youtube, and she said, I can hear that very clearly. Sorry, I said. Yes, she said, that is too loud. I had on a normal volume and I was experiencing feedback. I took out the aids and looked at the vent size and it was wayyyyyy bigger than on my previous RIC hearing aids (KS 10s). So there was enormous leakages. I hooked them up to Target and could see that the high frequency gain was only about 38dB from 2k to 4k, whereas in all my other aids, it is about 48dB. So Target was preventing more high frequency gain because of the risk of feedback.

So I phoned them and have explained this. They are going to do a phone consultation. To be honest, I am at this stage, almost hopping mad. I was expected to be put in front of experts. The whole thing from start to finish so far has been almost shambolic. At the moment there is a 90% chance I will be returning the aids and looking elsewhere. Sorry audiological science. I didn’t want to write a bad review, but it has to be out there. If you want to make claims on your website about clinical excellence, then it has to be put to the test.

4 people in this conversation12 min readJump to latest

If they won’t invest the time and money on equipment to ensure you get the most out of your hearing aids, why invest your money in them. Harsh but I sincerely believe it.

Hmmm, thank you for your review. I had a somewhat similar experience today with the same company. I had a home visit from a guy employed by Audiological Science; he turned up half an hour early and seemed surprised when my husband explained I was on a conference call for work so he would have to go and see if I could finish my call early (which I did).

I was rather surprised when my husband showed him in and he sat down without introducing himself. He seemed knowledgeable (but I’m currently on a steep learning curve so can easily be blinded by BS). He immediately got out a pair of Infinio Sphere 90s as if these were already agreed on. He said he knew from a conversation I’d had with the phone operator I’d booked the appointment with that I wanted Phonak brand HAs to pair with my Roger equipment for work. I then asked him if I really needed the top of the range Infinio Spheres as another audiologist had recommended Lumity would be fine for my needs, and might be more comfortable as I have quite small ears. He insisted Spheres are my best option, told me about the Spheres having 2 chips and being much better for speech then told me to try on the Spheres.

I asked him how much they were and he said on sale at the moment for £3250. I told him the Audiological Science website says they have 5% off all sale prices at the moment but he said, “That doesn’t include these Phonak Spheres as they are so new.” I replied, “It’s a shame the website doesn’t specify that then,” but foolish as I now feel, I carried on because at that time this was still the cheapest price for Spheres I’d seen. For the record, I’ve since found out from another poster on here today that SpecSavers are doing them for £2,995.

I explained my hearing loss was mild-moderate in higher frequencies and showed him the I’d had done at my last NHS appointment on 30th July, explaining I was worried my hearing is getting worse as I’m having increasing difficulty understanding speech but this may be linked to a recently diagnosed blocked left sinus. Even with the TV turned up really loud, there’s not enough clarity for me to understand half of what’s being said. :pensive: However, I was slightly perturbed when he took one look at the audiogram and, without asking me any other questions about my hearing loss, my health conditions (I have several other relevant health issues including Intercranial hypertension, a blocked sinus, tinnitus and labyrinthitis) or what I hoped to achieve (other than connecting to Roger) proceeded to set the Spheres up for me! I was a bit surprised and asked him if he should do another hearing test just to check the NHS one was still accurate but he said, “I can do one if you really want me to but this one’s only 3 months ago so should be fine.”

He then carried on setting the spheres up while I tried to explain the issues I have had with different domes because none of the different domes NHS audios have given me are comfortable in my right ear. My left ear is fine but the dome in my right ear feels sort of itchy/uncomfortable and keeps popping out, even with a retainer in. All the 4 different audiologists I’ve seen in the last 6 months have said I don’t have any wax or observable problems in either ear, although all agree my ears and ear canals are on the small side.
He just continued to program the Spheres and told me to try them. I tried them and told him that, as usual, left is fine but right is irritating me. At no point did he even look inside my ears, just glanced at the aids and said they looked fine and were sitting well. I asked about a small tip instead of a dome. At first he said this would cause too much occlusion as my low frequency hearing is fine. However, when I made it clear I wasn’t happy with the feeling in my right ear, he fitted a narrow tip, which immediately felt much better.

I asked about the receiver - he’d fitted a medium which he said was right for my level of hearing loss. I explained I’d read several people on this forum had said their audiologists had to swap mediums for Ps because the clarity of soft speech in calm mode wasn’t very good with Ms but much better with Ps. As soft voices are a major problem in my work, this is really important to me. However, he insisted Ps would be too powerful and could overamplify sounds, causing damage to my hearing. I have no idea whether or not this is true or not. :woman_shrugging:

I asked if there were any other colours as I’d been hoping to have silver ones. He said I could do my trial with the sand colour he’d got but if I really wanted grey he could order those in and swap them later.

To be fair, he did then spend about half an hour trying to get the Spheres to pair with the Roger On receiver but he couldn’t get it to pair. He made several phone calls to various people to ask for advice and looked on Phonak’s YouTube channels too. Phonak technical support weren’t answering his calls (message said call back later) so he called another couple of people (no idea who they were) and, as they conversed entirely in a foreign language that I don’t speak, I have no idea what was said. Eventually, he said he would take photos of the serial numbers of all my Roger Equipment and go away to try and sort it out. He said he wouldn’t leave me with the aids to try after all but would be in touch to arrange another appointment to come back with the silver ones when he had found out how to pair them with the Roger On. I asked when I would have to pay for the aids and whether, given the 60 day trial period, it was possible to pay a deposit, then pay the balance on keeping them after the 60 days is up. He said, “Well, you can do that if you really want to but the company really appreciate it if you pay in full when they are fitted,” which I thought was a slightly strange answer for a company who say they are one of the biggest hearing aid suppliers in the UK. When I pressed him, asking how much deposit would they accept, he ignored me at first then, when I repeated the question, said 50%. I really don’t know why but something about the way he said it made me doubt I would get my money back as promised if I decided within the trial period these aids were not for me. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help being a little sceptical that a company who advertise discounts on all products then rescind this on the specific product I want to buy, might find all sorts of reasons not to refund my £3,250 within the 60 days. I’m not for one minute saying they would do that as I haven’t ever been in a position to try, just that I was left feeling unsure about it. I asked if he had a business card so I could contact him but he said they were being printed. He gave me his first name and mobile number. I pressed him for an email address as I don’t hear well on the phone! He gave me his company email but said it would be better to text him. I ended up feeling as if I was being a difficult customer.

Now, especially after your review, I can’t help wondering whether I will ever see or hear from Audiological Science again!

image

Hi Nenen,

I have read your post with disbelief. The fact that he did not take a hearing test is just unbelievable. Yes, you can put faith in another provider, but it just shows to me that they do not have a consistent clinical procedure. If I had a hearing test, why didn’t you? He should have taken the test and then confirmed that it matches the NHS test. What a joke.

I can see the 5% off headline on their website. It does not seem to exclude the Sphere - it says clearly “Want a further 5% off our sales prices?” - so that means an additional £162.50 off of £3250.!!!

I had my followup consultation with them yesterday. They could not connect to my hearing aids via my phone. They said they would E-Mail me with an appointment at one of the branches. I have not received an E-Mail. So I have taken the decision to return the aids. I have just rang them, and nobody can answer the phone. Which says it all.

Hi Glucas and thanks for your reply.

I really wasn’t sure whether I was being difficult or expecting too much but it all just seemed very odd. It’s interesting that in both your and my experience with this company they couldn’t connect the to what is supposed to be a superior hearing aid for doing this.

Not only do they have a headline banner on their website advertising 5% off sale prices, if you go to the page for hearing aid prices a pop-up appears saying “5% off ALL sale prices” (my capitals but clearly seen in the screen shot in my previous post).

I’d be really interested to hear your experience of getting your money back.

I haven’t paid them any money yet, thank god!

They were supposed to contact me and extract half the money on one payment and we were going to set up a direct debit for the remainder.

I am still trying to contact them to return the devices.

This is uncomfortable reading - what regulatory levers apply to such companies? Can anyone set up as a supplier? Or does there need to be some registration with the appropriate regulatory bodies?

I’ve been tempted by online audiology providers before but having a more challenging prescription (so I’m told) I’ve always been chary.

Very much hope your refund is straightforward.

Edited

Thanks. They have just accepted that I am going to return the devices, and understand I haven’t paid anything so far.

With respect to your questions, I’ve no idea. There used to be the hearing aid council, but I think they are long gone.

I am going to make some phone calls now and try and find another provider.

Related discussions