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Returning Phonak Infinio Sphere I90s

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In reply to @RogerBill

You might want to sign up with Audiology Online to take some courses on how to use Target. You can audit courses for free. You only pay to earn CEUs, which only a hearing professional can do. A list of available Phonak courses is available through the following link:

Audiology CEUs | All Courses | AudiologyOnline14

Online continuing education courses by on AudiologyOnline.com. , , IHS, CAA, CASLPA, BAA and other offerings available.

(to see the link, copy it to a text file; if you substitute “resound” or “starkey” or “intent” etc. in the link text for Phonak, you can find courses for other OEMs.

I’ll try to find links to the two courses I found useful for learning about Target and the Spheres and add the links to this post.

See the following post for the two aforementioned courses that really helped me:

My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout
@Abarsanti, @jeffpa, how long after you placed your order did the Spheres ship? I ordered the Graphite Gray, which I thought would be a common color choice, but I wonder if color choice affects order time. My audi was very understanding about ordering online and my financial reasons for doing so: insurance coverage not renewed yet, my wife, an MD, essentially paying for my splurge (and grudgingly so!). My audi is happy to make molds for me but prefers I send the HAs back to Direct Hearing for…

In reply to @jim_lewis

To induce a switch to spheric mode while in automatic i used my stereo system. Putting on some noisy channel on YouTube turned up loud, i put another you tube talk channel on my iPhone and held it close to my ear. So the background was obviously noisy but it also seemed like someone was talking to me. Once switched to spheric i saved the setting so i could switch into to it manually.

However, walking into a noisy bar or restaurant with someone close by to talk to you also will work.

@Advisor said:

However, walking into a noisy bar or restaurant with someone close by to talk to you also will work.

Testing/adjusting is always better in real world environments/conditions, nice you got it sorted.

Now I’m a little worried as I wait delivery of my Sphere Infinio 90s. I’ve been using Lumity 90-RT along with a Roger On mic. My high frequency loss isn’t as severe as yours, but it’s up there.

I was hoping the Sphere Infinio’s would give me a better experience with less dependence on the Roger On. Time will tell.

My thought. It looks to me like Lumity hearing aids were a slight improvement over paradise. I have Paradise hearing aids and thought Lumity might be a cure.

Since then I’ve found the most important part of delivery is set up.

So please consider talking to someone who had Lumity hearing aids, and bought the new Sphere.

Marvel and Paradise and then Lumity all had some improvement. Sphere is a big jump ahead.

I’m struggling to find resources to retire. Money. I’m extremely lucky to have the hearing aids I have. I’ve read all the reviews I could here. If I could I’d get Sphere today

That includes other brands.

Time will tell if influence is real. After20plus years of hearing aid use I don’t trust marketing to tell the truth. I do trust reviewers and Audis here.

So find someone good to setup your hearing aids.

DaveL

I’ve gone from Marvel 70s to Lumity 90-RT so looking forward to the Sphere Experience.

At home, I am fine listening to TV without the TV Connector. In the real world when it gets to 70db background, I get in trouble. In a grocery store I can’t hear the cashier even though she’s arms length away.

I had performed once in the past, I wasn’t impressed to the point it improved my experience vs conventional fitting. Probably won’t bother with REM again. Post REM I was out of the country for two months. Still struggled at airport check in, hotel checkin etc. Clearly my issue is background noise.

I did notice a bigger difference when I switched from to Adaptive Phonak Digital Contrast. Streaming music sounded better.

I will post a write up with my experience with the Spheres.

In reply to @orgullodemexico

@orgullodemexico said:

I was hoping the Sphere Infinio’s would give me a better experience with less dependence on the Roger On. Time will tell.

I also went from the Lumity 90 RL to the Infinio Sphere 90. I found a very significant difference when in the spheric mode. The Lumity is not very good in noise. I find that I use the Roger On much less frequently with the Infinio but at times it is still very helpful.

In reply to @orgullodemexico

@orgullodemexico said:

I had REM performed once in the past

Maybe consider in another place. I’ve just read the book about that and I see that there is many points that can be done wrong or inaccurately.

In addition, I have heard of cases of who told patients that they had done REM-based fitting, but in fact they did REM (only measurements), without appropriate changes in the gains of individual channels to match them to the fitting algorithm compatible with, for example, or 5.0.

isn’t a wave a magic wand tool. The fitter needs to know how to use it. Like many other things. A very useful tool. But not magic.

WH

In reply to @OcramSagev

When I tested the Spheres they were power domes. I did not upgrade and am still wearing Lumity L90-RLs.

I’ve since upgraded from the power domes to custom molds - vast improvement.

So, I will likely wait for the next iteration of the Spheres and hope they will then work better for me in the Spheric mode.

In reply to @Bimodal_user

Here is what is frustrating, and not one audi has been able to answer this - if is the gold standard in fitting, why isn’t there an industry standard of procedure and equipment to use? It’s the wild wild west in my opinion.

Most of this have read and discussed this at length, but what about the new HA wearer that has no idea of what REM is or is supposed to do? That patient becomes the lab rat, and may end up with a negative experience and will have a negative experience.

I had a long discussion with a local audi who uses REM. My question was, will REM allow me to hear conversations better in challenging environments? The answer was no. At home, I am fine listening to TV and radio without REM, but in the real world, everything is a challenge. My Lumity 90s don’t have enough noise cancellation to help me. That’s why I use a Roger On.

I studied my detailed fitting report of both REM and non REM. At certain frequencies the difference at most was 2 db, which doesn’t appear to be a great deal. REM may help someone hear more clearly in quiet environment, or streaming audio - but for someone like me who hears mumbling in a restaurant, REM won’t do much.

In reply to @orgullodemexico

@orgullodemexico

I believe the gold standard is having someone do setup that knows how.

Great respect.

i was a patient at Peel Audiology for 8 years. Two partners. The older one was nagnificent. Then she retired. I said, “next” and switched to the other partner who now ws the owner. She would shunt me to recent graduates. They had great training but no experience. I got Power Domes that didn’t fit. I was told I needed new hearing aids. Every setup included with a number of people watching. When they sold me new hearing aids I was almost hit from behind on construction sites 3 times. Excavators and such. I couldn’t hear them at all.

My dispensing audi for my current hearing aids had equipment that was very very old. He always did REM.

When you mentioned the ‘detailed fitting report’ you were spot on. I get that now. It;s so helpful.

DaveL

In reply to @orgullodemexico

@orgullodemexico said:

why isn’t there an industry standard of procedure and equipment to use? It’s the wild wild west in my opinion.

It is standardised! More info free on e. g. “Speech Mapping and Probe Microphone Measurement” textbook by Mueller.

Hearing aid also are a bit standardised - e. g. / form factor, two mics, directionality, wireless connectivity… They are achieved sometimes by different way, but ťhey look like similar.

@orgullodemexico said:

Most of this have read and discussed this at length, but what about the new HA wearer that has no idea of what REM is or is supposed to do? That patient becomes the lab rat, and may end up with a negative experience and will have a negative experience.

The questions are:

  1. Did that patient has gradually increased gains or 100% targets immediately?
  2. Did he/she had long-term hearing loss in high frequencies? If so, his/her brain connection are rearranged so ťhey could perceive proper fitting as awful, terribly and tinny. Meanwhile, he/she should wear those to rearrange brain connections and acquire the ability to analyze high notes, which he/she has not done for a long time.

Depending of patient, The process of getting used to it takes from a few weeks to a few months.

@orgullodemexico said:

My question was, will REM allow me to hear conversations better in challenging environments? The answer was no.

It is not necessarily true. Look at the Hear Advisor reviews and see the score of speech in noise before and after . In case of Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere 90 it improves from 2.5 to 4.6 after REM:

Screenshot_20250626_005316_Chrome
Screenshot_20250626_005334_Chrome

What is your in quiet?

@Bimodal_user

I really appreciate your post. I believe the Sphere’s I90’s are a big jump ahead. Setup is so important.

I also believe there have been fatal flaws in the way the last two of three pair of hearing aids were provided to me.

I was skunked by people that should have provided better setup. That takes real skill. They thought they had it.

Our community is so wonderful. And it’s multinational. That’s good.

When I find a magic lantern my first request will be that spirit find a way to truly improve hearing for us all.

My dispensing audi had a book of excuses why my hearing aids didn’t work. Guess what? They work now with the help of a caring Hearing Care Provider. Same hearing aids. Good setup, that s getting better with each step ahead.

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