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Do Phonak’s Noise Cancelling Options Affect Streaming Audio or Only Mic Input?

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In Phonak Target, there are program options like NoiseBlock, WindBlock, and SoundRelax that are applied in non-streaming programs (i.e., they act on the hearing aid’s microphone input). However, what happens when using these features in streaming programs such as Media Speech + mic, Media Music + mic, Phone call + mic, or RogerDirect + mic?

Does the streamed audio itself undergo the same NoiseBlock / WindBlock / SoundRelax processing, or do these features only process the sound coming through the hearing aid microphones (i.e., environmental sounds picked up by the mics)?

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@zoomba1600 said:

Does the streamed audio itself undergo the same NoiseBlock / WindBlock / SoundRelax processing, or do these features only process the sound coming through the hearing aid microphones

Yeah that’d be through the microphone, no need for those features in a streamed source as such, you do have microphone attenuation, so you used to be able to mute the mic’s, I think the minimum is 6dB or something now.

@zoomba1600 said:

Does the streamed audio itself undergo the same NoiseBlock / WindBlock / SoundRelax processing, or do these features only process the sound coming through the hearing aid microphones

I actually find these to affect sound coming through Bluetooth.

They also affect the Phonak Roger sound as well.

I had all features turned off on everything but my main program and Bluetooth and Roger was much louder.

Thanks for the reply,
I’m not sure why these features are necessary for streaming audio, since it’s already high-quality and clean. What noise exactly being ‘filtered’ out of Bluetooth audio? I can see it being useful for phone calls, but otherwise it doesn’t quite make sense.

@zoomba1600 said:

What noise exactly being ‘filtered’ out of Bluetooth audio?

It reduces the loudness of the Bluetooth streaming.

NoiseBlock to max and try it in a noisy area. Then set NoiseBlock to 0 and go back to a noisy area, you will notice the loudness of the steaming is much better when the settings are all set to 0.

I could imagine this was intended to ensure situational awareness: reduce the streaming volume to hear an approaching car, for example.
However, I don’t think it’s as pronounced with the Spheres as it used to be with my Paradises.
I did a test with the Spheres and set the NoiseBlock to the maximum possible for today, but I could hardly notice any reduction in road traffic, if at all.

@sterei said:

I could imagine this was intended to ensure situational awareness: reduce the streaming volume to hear an approaching car, for example

Maybe but when you’re sat on a noisy bus for one hour, you can’t listen to anything for the whole trip.

I totally agree, it was annoying. I need to verify and repeat the same experiment with my Paradises. Some time later…

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