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Costco/Philips 9050 – low audio qualifies during phone calls

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I am experiencing difficulty hearing clear conversations during phone calls on my Philips 9050. The incoming call audio sounds muffled and lacks high tones. I am curious if anyone else has encountered this issue. My smartphone settings are listed below:

Screenshot 2025-02-20 122908

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It might help is you posted what model of phone you are using. In addition, you didn’t say if you are directing your call through your hearing aids or if you are using the traditional phone placed on the ear.

Edited

I regret that I omitted the information that my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. The issue occurs when phone calls are connected to the Philips 9050 hearing aids via Bluetooth, not when the phone is held directly to my ear.

Additional observations include:

  1. When the same Samsung phone is connected to Jabra Enhance Pro 20 hearing aids via Bluetooth, the audio quality during phone calls is acceptable.
  2. The audio quality of the Philips 9050 via Bluetooth for multimedia (YouTube, news apps, music, etc.) is acceptable, except during phone calls.

I am uncertain whether I have a defective 9050 or if the settings are incorrect. I would appreciate it if anyone could share their successful Philips HearSuite settings.

Well you’ve got low frequency enhancement turned all the way up. That’s the first thing I’d change. Change and test.

I guess you’re aware that the streaming experience will vary with the program you’ve got selected.

I haven’t had issues. 9050. Pixel 8 pro.

I have ‘low frequency enhancement’ turned off, as well. In fact, I’ve experimented with various settings for this feature, but the sound quality remains unacceptable.

I have the same problem with Rexton Reach. I’m getting fitted for the Sennheiser at Costco today. Should fix it. Better old school Bluetooth.

If possible, I would try to borrow a newer high end smart phone to see if it’s a phone/app issue or the hearing aids.

If you haven’t tried this yet, reboot the phone to see if there is an app that is causing issues.
You might want to try removing every app that you can, reboot the phone and then add the apps back one at a time. Test between each app added back to see if this is an app issue.

Of course, you can always go back to Costco. Perhaps they have a 9050 that can be used to verify whether it’s the phone or hearing aids.

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. I’ve tried everything, and I’m exhausted with options, but still no success. I’ve tried different settings in:

  • “Sound Perception”
  • “Low Frequency Enhancement”
  • “Phone Level”
  • Clearing the cache and data of the Samsung phone app.
  • Different settings in “Adapt sound” under Samsung’s “Hearing enhancements.”

Eventually, I borrowed a Pixel 7 for testing. Surprisingly, the phone call sound quality is fine. Now I’m confused. I had a pair of Jabra Pro 20 earlier, and they had no problem with phone calls on the same phone. So why are the 9050s not compatible with my S20 FE only on phone calls, when they’re fine for everything else? I’ve spent enough time on this issue. I’m going to decide soon whether to upgrade my Samsung phone (in a few months) or return the 9050s to Costco, even though I still like them.

@Lamcom said:

Eventually, I borrowed a Pixel 7 for testing. Surprisingly, the phone call sound quality is fine. Now I’m confused. I had a pair of Jabra Pro 20 earlier, and they had no problem with phone calls on the same phone. So why are the 9050s not compatible with my S20 FE only on phone calls, when they’re fine for everything else?

I don’t have an answer to why the s20 has the issue, but I’d say the Pixel 7 has a much better bluetooth codec, which makes a night & day difference.
The 9050’s support the latest , and the Pixel 7 has that feature, so that would certainly account for an improvement.
Your phone is near end of life, right? Security updates won’t be forthcoming, if at all, so maybe look into updating to an S23 to S25 which has LE Audio, or a Pixel 7 to Pixel 9.
Bonus, you get hands-free phone calls, too!

I purchased the S20FE in a closeout sale 26 months ago. It’s got a fantastic camera and AMOLED screen. The battery’s still going strong right now, and I bet it’ll be fine for another 10 months.
I’ve been checking out this forum the last few days, and it looks like newer Samsungs have hands-free support for some hearing aids. Pixels are even more friendly for hearing aids, almost like iPhones (?). Plus, I saw that new Samsungs get 5 years of software updates, and Pixels get 7! I’m considering switching to a newer Samsung or Pixel when a good deal comes along, since my S20FE is stuck on Android 13.

The Pixel 9a is due later this month.
It’s basically a light version of the 9 series, but with a different camera setup. Looks like 499USD.
Android 16 will be released very soon, too, with huge upgrades to the Bluetooth LEA feature set, where it’ll have a hearing aid control panel that does everything the Philips app does!
Good times are coming!

Thank you for the heads up! I always enjoy the helpful information in this forum.

I realize it’s an older thread, but I just got the 9050’s, and I’m experiencing the same awful phone call audio, and streaming audio sound; it’s terrible. I’m using an iPhone 15 Pro with them. My Oticon Opn S3 sounds nice and clear on both audio sources, so much better that I was shocked at how poorly the Philips performed. I’ll be going back to Costco in a week, but I doubt the fitting agent will be able to improve them to the quality of the Oticons. With the Philips, phone call audio is muffled, like the person is covering their mouth with a sweater, and streaming audio is scratchy and strained, just terrible.

I changed from the 9050 to Rexton Reach and a Samsung S25 3 months ago. Now I enjoy hands-free calls in good quality. For some reason, the 9050 doesn’t work well with some phones.

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