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Anyone else with ISSUES with Phonak Audéo Infinio (Ultra) Sphere

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My apologies for rambling on before.
Concise issues now.

I have 2 repeating and 2 intermittent issues with my new Phonak Audéo Sphere I-70 hearing aids ()
working in conjunction with my iPhone running iOS 27.

———— FIRST ————

Prioritizing ambient versus a streamed program, by choice, and immediately.
When I'm listening to a program and an ambient sound occurs,

(E.g.:  Spouse speaking to me, or loud truck)

*  I should be able to raise or lower the ambient sounds,
*  And, lower or raise the streaming program,

Per my instant preference.

Why not?  My 4 YO Signia will do this.

———— SECOND ————

Last night I was successfully streaming from my iPhone to an external Bluetooth speaker.

Suddenly, my HAs stole the signal.
I went to System Settings / Bluetooth, and disconnected my HAs.
Public listening to the program continued through the external speaker.

Suddenly, my HAs stole the signal.
I went to System Settings / Bluetooth, and forgot my HAs.
(Bad move.  Apparently I had to go and re-introduce my HAs to my iPhone.)

Finally the program streamed, without theft, to the public speaker.

———— THIRD (INTERMITTENT) ————

I use speech to text quite a bit. and it generally works pretty well, if I speak clearly.
My HAs are somehow foiling this process.

I was at Starbucks last week, (empty but for me and no music), and noticed the problem and successfully repeated it.
I spoke the following sentence:
"Now I am speaking just as I had before I had turned off the hearing aids and it is working perfectly fine"

The above was captured after I turned off the HAs.
With the HAs on, gibberish came out:
"Three or four"   <—just not there in what I said.

That failure is intermittent.  It happened again.

Another example:
I said, "In mathematical terms, that's if and only if"..
"knock knock" <--- what iPhone interpreted from what I said.

———— FOURTH (INTERMITTENT) ————

Tap Tap fixed one version of this, but not the second.
WORKS:  Pressing PAUSE on the App's window Fails.

Whenever I paused Audible, or paused iPhone reading a Safari page to me,
it would take 8 seconds for the HAs to resume amplifying my environment.
Tap Tap fixes this.

HOWEVER:  While I am listening to a streaming program on my iPhone,
if I type anything in the Notes and Mail apps on my iPhone, all ambient noise disappears for 8 seconds.

Eight seconds, and it shouldn't have happened in the first place!

IN FACT, just this second, typing on my <MacBook Air>, ambient noises just cut out for 2 seconds.
Only 2 seconds, nice.

BUT WHY at all?

4 people in this conversation6 min readJump to latest
  1. This is a longstanding annoyance of mine. I have found recently that the "tap control" will switch the hearing aids much faster...when it works. holding down the program button to switch out of the streaming program would also do this. If your issue is adjusting the balance...the volume buttons on the aids will do that.
  2. You can disconnect the aids temporarily. No need to unpair.
  3. Sounds like it is using the hearing aid mic which may not pick up as well. There is a way to override this.
  4. Don't really understand this one.

#1 why don't you simply use the rocker buttons? It's called ambient balance, and immediately gives you a different stream vs. ambient mix. Maybe your audi did not set it for you?

#4 yes because if you pause from the mobile, it is the MOBILE to decide how long a stream is kept active. No way for a hearing aid to know that! So don't blame the :-) With taptap it is the HA to decide, therefore quick.

Hi Michael_ch

My insurance Co. lowered my price from $3,300 each to $1,250 each, but I have to go through HearUSA.

Their responsiveness is lacking. They were just not replying or putting me off. Until I threatened to go with my complaints to HearUSA national and the insurance company. NOW I have a two follow ups before my keep or return date.

—— —— ——

So, I have not yet been back to the audiologist.
I didn't know at all what the buttons do when I left after receiving them,
other than raise and lower the volume. Left different than right? Etc.
This are my 4th .

I did just get a reply from a Phonak online assist.
S/he said, regarding the ambient/streaming trade off, it is entirely automatic.
No separate adjustments like my Signia have.
HOWEVER, on my own I found out that toggling the right HA's front button, streaming DOES get louder, and ambient not so.

I just feel I haven't been educated enough on these things.
The quality of sound is AWESOME, I can now participate in conversations again!
However I still l have a list of issues, and just requested the eMail support for a way to address these all at once, rather than one by one.

Thanks for your help!
Ralph

In reply to @libc

Hi libc,

?Maybe? you can read my reply to Michael_ch, who replied after you did to my earlier post. More details there explaining my ignorance.
These are my 4th , and I was pushed out the door with 1 appointment before I have to keep them... and I know next to nothing on their manipulation.

BOTH of you gave me some info different than what the eMail support gave me.
NOT GOOD.

I assume your #1 reply regarding tap-tap, had to do with stopping steaming immediately and immediately giving me ambient sound access.
Tap-tap also allows answering the phone.

#2: Disconnect the HAs.
Turn them off? I won't hear the ambient sounds...?
How disconnected them?

Your words: "...holding down the program button to switch out of the streaming program would also do this."
No clue about 'program button'.
The left HA I assume, but front/right/middle?

Your words: "If your issue is adjusting the balance...the volume buttons on the aids will do that."
Didn't follow.

#3: Really? That would be awesome.
Just last weekend I was in the back seat of a car going down the freeway and tried speaking to my phone. It did not hear word I said, but it picked up perfectly what the two people in the front seat were saying. Not cool.

#4 I solved by turning off haptics, (clicks when I strike a key).
The key strokes were 'streamed', so the HA's took 8 seconds to return to ambient amplification.

Thank you!

Ralph

Your words: "If your issue is adjusting the balance...the volume buttons on the aids will do that."
Didn't follow.

This is what michael_ch is referring to as the rocker buttons. These are the only buttons on the aids. I referred to them as the program button and volume buttons because they are multi-purpose, but they are the same physical button. When streaming is active, short pressing up or down like you're changing the volume will actually adjust the ambient balance to give you more streamed sound or more ambient sound. long pressing either up or down will exit the streaming program. The tap-tap is much faster for this though.

#2: Disconnect the .
Turn them off? I won't hear the ambient sounds...?
How disconnected them?

Specifics will depend on what kind of phone you have but you can google "how to disconnect bluetooth headset from ____"

You can change balance between ambient and streaming sound in the companion Phonak app as well. I find that easier than using the buttons as I can select the relative balance. I’ve wear the same aids except I have the tech level 90.

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