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Philips 9050´s, Apple kit - what do you think?

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I have had KS9’s and KS10’s and I am now trialling the 9050’s. I have real difficulty in speech recognition without ’s so I am on the lookout for any technical improvements especially if I can get them at the lower price level that Costco offers. The Infinios are an attractive proposition (at twice the price of the Philips) but actually speech in noise is not my primary problem. What I am looking for is an HA that picks up and amplifies the subtle nuances of everyday speech, those times when I feel the other person is muttering or mumbling when in all likelihood they aren’t (all that much!).

So I am on day 11 of using the 9050’s and I’m still getting used to them. The way they connect to the iPhone is a bit baffling. I have both iPhone and iPad which I use all the time. As others have noticed its not at all easy to switch streaming from one to the other. Right now, for example, they are connected to my iPhone but I want sound from my iPad. I switch the phone off but under accessibility/hearing devices/ on my iPad the 9050’s are still showing as connected to the iPhone! If I want sound from my PC I have to wrestle with the Hearlink. The instructions are very poor and the lights are confusing.

These hearing aids would have to be pretty good to persuade me to switch with this level of everyday hassle. They also lack what Phonak call Autosense, sensing one’s hearing environment and switching to the appropriate program.

They seem pretty good as aids generally but I need more time to assess them.

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If the Phillips work in the same way as with Oticons, you need to be careful that you switch off bluetooth completely. I have only recently started wearing Oticon Xcceds and I have found that there are issues if my iPad bluetooth is switched on and I then start to listen to something on my iPhone. It may not connect, or only connect in one ear. The only safe way I can avoid this is switch off the bluetooth on the iPad.

With respect to Autosense comparisons, that is an interesting comment as a few people complain about the operation of Autosense. You shouldn’t really need to switch programs, unless to a dedicated speech in noise program for example, or a music program. It should be picking up the environment. My Xceed works quite well as it has the opensound navigator, which means switching to a noise program is not necessary. What are you thinking should happen - are you having to switch manually to a noise program?

My KS 10’s never connected reliably, if at all, to the Easyline app, even though there was no problem connecting to Bluetooth. So I never manually switched programs and frankly it seems a lot of trouble, getting your phone out and waiting for connection with the Philips too. The beeps it makes between the programs are set way too loud too - I suppose that can be altered. Yes - I think they should sense when there is a high level of background noise and react accordingly. That seems kind of basic.

I switched off my iPhone but the iPad still won’t connect.

If it still won’t connect, then I found that after making sure bluetooth was off on the other device, I would then switch the hearing aids on and off, and failing that, reboot the iPhone and/or iPad. Eventually it would work - so long as bluetooth is only switched on on one device.

Yes you can do all that but it’s kind of unacceptable.
It reminds me of the early days of computers and phones before they ‘just worked’

I think I’m going to hang on to my trusty KS10’s until they expire lol. Never had a problem with bluetooth using my Android phone, connecting to tablet (Android) or PC etc. Stuggling with the 9050’s, dropping connection. In my opinion for myself, they are a retrograde step. Still some problem with speech in noise using the KS10’s, maybe there is some improvement with the Philips but not enough for me to hang on to them.

Occasionally, my 9050s will not connect to the audio stream from my iPad. When this happens, I temporarily switch off Bluetooth on my iPhone. Once they are connected to the iPad, I turn the Bluetooth on my phone back on. Other times, even when my iPad is not within miles, my 9050s will stream from my iPhone, but the app will not connect. When this happens, I restart the phone and all is well.

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