Phonak Audeo Spheres I90 -- Not loving them

@user114 said:

I checked my Phonak Infinio Sphere Firmware and it is 1.0.12.0 and Target said that this is the latest firmware for my HA. I am puzzled that you have a newer one.

1.0.13.0 is newest version.

Thank you, everyone, for your responses and suggestions. I met with my audi, who made some changes. We will meet this Thursday with someone from Phonak.

To answer some of your questions and give you an update: Turns out my receivers are UP. Audi did some tweaks that seem to have resolved the slurred voice issue, but it’s also made voices a bit hard. I made a custom program based on Autosense (dubbed “Calm–Less Noise”). That seems to be better. The Music program somehow got much, much worse – I can’t even recognize classic hits on the car radio. (A nice irony: couldn’t recognize the Stones “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”.) But that is somewhat less important, and I can fiddle with it later.

The battery drain seems to have been mostly resolved by turning off Find My HAs.

Finally went out to a noisy restaurant last night. My decible reader app showed 80+ DBs, even spiking to 90. It was awful. Autosense did nothing, so I manually selected Spheric – and still had no improvement. I was shocked. I tried Restaurant, with no appreciable effect. So I made a custom program based on Spheric (I dubbed it ‘Spheric-Extreme’). I moved Speech Focus slider all the way to the right (Narrow) – as I was sitting across from my husband. And I slid Dynamic about 2/3 to the left to Decrease Loud. That helped.

But the app is beyond crazy making. It is so inconsistent – in behavior, in connection. I hate how long it takes to connect; sometimes a HA refuses to connect, which means functions like ‘adjust’ aren’t available. So many issues that I won’t bore you with.

I also hate the design: if you’re moving sliders, there should be some sort of marker or counter to tell you how much of a change you’ve made; for a small step, my finger blocks any view of the slider button. I have not found any way to delete a custom program or to edit the name.

I admit that I hate the reliance on the phone – I was at a memorial service today and was very self-conscious pulling out my phone to fiddle with settings. I want to be able to adjust volume and programs with the buttons on my HAs – I was able to do that, but now I can’t adjust programs.

Those kinds of inconsistencies are driving me batty.

@seaduck said:

. I want to be able to adjust volume and programs with the buttons on my HAs – I was able to do that, but now I can’t adjust programs.

I agree, I picked up a Phonak remote on Ebay and I can easily change the program and volume by pushing a button on the remote control. Good luck

Oh-ho! Thanks for this. Are you using your remote with Audeo Spheres? I just searched, and the Phonak website says “The Phonak RemoteControl is designed to work with Phonak Lumity, Paradise, and Marvel hearing aids with Bluetooth® connectivity.”

If I keep them, I’ll definitely spring for a remote. Thanks!

I don’t know. There Sphere program is only coming on part-time, and the main gain parameters should be largely the same.

You can flip it into Sphere mode while programming. I have no idea whether REM with no other noise would look all that different than the regular speech in noise program–I’ll try to remember to try it on my next set.

When I program/REM here, I use (my) normal speech over a background cafeteria track.

It’s not ANSI or ISTS, but it’s more realistic in my book if the test stimulus speech and noise don’t come through the same channels from the same speakers. IMHO: Any mechanism that claims to deliver effective test results by running a stimulus over noise signal using the same speaker set is inherently flawed - as the real-world sound field isn’t like that.

Our REM machine allows for dmic testing with an accessory speaker for separated background noise. But we’ve also been using a separate BT speaker and live voice for demos. It’s less controlled, but we’re can get up and walk around and talk.

Comfort in Echo

Since you mention the Media programs, there are also the TV Connector, Roger, acoustic phone, and if your aids support it, t-coil. Probably a few more I’ve not experienced or heard about. Like the media, they are initiated by outside devices (or activated manually, like acoustic phone).

WH

Thanks so much! This is very helpful.

Are those 7 programs subsets of Spheric?

Right now, my app shows at the top: Auto, Spheric speech in loud noise, Restaurant, Music, TV – plus the 2 custom programs I set up. If I stream something, I’ll Streaming will show, too.

@seaduck said:

Are those 7 programs subsets of Spheric?

No. Spheric Speech in Loud Noise is the new Spheric AI program in these new Infinio Sphere I90 hearing aids.

Jordan

I’m sorry to hear you’re having so much trouble with the new Spheres. I’m on week 3 as of this Thursday and I’ve been very happy with them. All of the audio quality has been fantastic in my experience. In-person conversations, someone talking to me from another room, restaurants, phone calls, streaming audiobooks, an auditorium workshop with 80 people and 1 speaker at the front and being able to hear questions asked from all the way in the back, someone speaking to me from a distance, etc. I am amazed that I can now watch TV with my husband without the need for closed captions and don’t think I’ll need the TV connector. My audiologist fitted me with closed domes. I was able to experience the Spheric Speech in Noise program over the weekend when I went out to dinner with 4 friends and although the background noises weren’t so dramatically muted like Phonak’s demo, I was clearly able to hear everything my friends said at the table and while wandering around the crowded gift shop waiting for our table. I also appreciate having the ability to customize the various programs in the app when I might want to just tweak a bit temporarily. These hearing aids also took little very little time for me to get accustomed to them. I had been wearing my old hearing aids for 6 years before upgrading to these and the comparison is absolutely like night and day.

I have Cookie Bite hearing loss!

I picked up my Spheres earlier this month after having Marvel 90’s for the past 5 years. I have had C shells with the Marvels and have C shells with the Spheres.

After my first appointment everything sounded muffled and my ears felt blocked.

In the car I couldn’t hear my husband but when I went into the app and selected surround setting I could hear him.

Autosense also seemed very slow when it was going through programmes - so much so that I wondered if it was actually working.

At our very noisy supermarket I selected the manual Spheric mode that the audiologist set up for me. I was able to hear the check out lady well even though she was wearing a mask.

My iPhone 16 and phone calls were great - nice and clear.

I went back the audiologist a week later for follow up. He checked the aids and agreed that they sounded muffled. Made an alteration and that seemed to go away and was more comfortable.

I went into a couple of very noisy places - a hairdresser and a cafe where I put them in Spheric mode (he had lowered the threshold for Spheric Mode to come on) - it didn’t seem to make any difference at both the background noise was extremely loud.

My audiologist spoke to Phonak and it was agreed to try another pair of the same aids to see if the same thing happened.

Since Thursday I have a loan pair but with Power Domes (he didn’t want to take the c shells off mine) to see if there is any difference.

The loaners do seem to be going through the Autosense channels now. However I can’t hear anyone on the phone even with it turned right up (possibly because I have power domes and not the C shells).

Has anyone else experienced that muffled, blocked feeling with the Spheres when first fitted and if so was it something that you got used to?

Any help/advice appreciated

@Lorjoh said:

I picked up my Spheres earlier this month after having Marvel 90’s for the past 5 years.

One thought is whether your audiologist is just applying your Marvel settings to your Spheres. IIRC, a longtime Phonak user who bought the Spheres recommended having the Spheres fit from scratch. Did your audiologist perform REM? I was a ReSound user for six years, trialed the Lumitys in early 2023, and have worn my Spheres with both an open fit and a closed fit (power domes) and think they’re great hearing aids, as good or better than the Lumitys with fantastic battery life. I’m presuming from what you say if you switch back to your Marvels, everything sounds much better, so it’s not wax covering your eardrums or anything like that.

On AutoSense switching, I think AutoSense 6.0 switching is smoother and much less noticeable than I remember it being with the Lumitys. IIRC, Phonak even said for early HAs like the Marvel and the Paradise users would complain switching was too abrupt, so they may have just improved the switching to the point it’s hard to tell it’s happening. If you go into the MyPhonak program, click on the Health tab, then click on the right angle bracket beside Wearing Time, then scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the amount of wearing time you’ve spent in different programs. For today, so far, it says 5 hr, 5 min in Calm, 26 min in Noisy, and 4 min Streaming. The switch from Calm to Noisy was mostly through AutoSense. (A number of people report that switching to the Music program with AutoSense isn’t working well except in particular circumstances).

That sounds great. Just to clarify, you rum REM through multiple speakers with speech coming from 0 deg azimuth, them presumable at least 1 other speaker delivering noise? What SNR ratio do you present the speech signal? Do you maintain that SNR when measuring various input levels?