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Background noises interferes with phone calls

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Good day Folks.

I have a pair of Phonak Naida P-UP bought in March 2022. The fitting was done reasonably well. I still need to tweak for optimal music listening.

I have one really frustrating issue during phone call situations. The Target software do not have a way to suppress the background noise totally when I am in conversation. The noises interferes alot, even though the sound level is reduced by a default of 6db, which isn’t really of much help. So I try to accept calls in a quiet environment.

However, listening to music or watching videos is such a pleasure, as the background noise is totally eliminated.

I tend to prefer to use the Resound Enzo 3D which I had a few years ago, but this works via a streaming device. So the telecalls are easier, as the background noise is eliminated.

SO I wonder if there are ways to fix Phonak to do like what Enzo is doing, without the streamer. Are there any settings that can reduce the background noises completely? Or at least, very substantially?

Thank you for your help in advance. M

7 people in this conversation6 min readJump to latest

I now wear the Phonak Naida P70 UP and it’s exactly the same.

Things are a lot louder with doing this.

Also on my iPhone, selecting Mono Audio will also massively increase volume which I’ve noticed.

My Dad can hear me better through my Phonak Marvel when features are off
I have the Phonak M70 hearing aids. I’m also a self programmer. Something I’ve noticed is when I activate NoiseBlock, SoundRelax and WindBlock, my Dad struggles to hear me when on the phone. When I turn off all those features on the Phone Call program and call my Dad in the same situation (on a very noisy bus on the exact same road) he can hear me SO much better. Just thought I’d post in case it helps anyone else. (Please note, that we have all different hearing loses etc and it may not work…

Phone Calls is -6dB.
Music / Audio is -10dB.

There’s only a -4dB difference in Mic attenuation which sounds like it makes a lot of difference with you.

Maybe I’m missing something, and although I don’t wear Phonak aids, I thought that while you’re streaming content for phone calls or music or videos, you should be able to just manually mute the mics on the hearing aids so that it doesn’t pick up any environmental noise around you and mix it in with the streaming audio, no? Then all you would be hearing is your caller’s voice and nothing going on around you.

Or are you talking about the background noise on the other end of the phone call where your caller 's microphone picks up the noise around him/her on their end? If that’s the case, then it’s really up to your caller’s microphone circuitries to filter out their background noise and emphasize their voice over their background. There’s really not much you can do on your end because the streaming audio content is what it is.

@Volusiano said:

I thought that while you’re streaming content for phone calls or music or videos, you should be able to just manually mute the mics on the hearing aids so that it doesn’t pick up any environmental noise around you and mix it in with the streaming audio, no?

You can’t mute Mics for phone calls. Max is -6dB due to the Mics needing to be on for picking up your voice. Impossible to mute Mics.

Ah, OK, thanks. That’s what I’m missing. On Phonak the mics are used to pick up your own voice so that’s why it’s not possible to mute the mics. I think that’s a drawback of using the ’ mics instead of the phone’s mic.

But is there an option to choose to use the phone’s mic instead of using the HAs’ mics? If so, then at least there’s a choice there to compromise and use the phone mic so you can mute the HAs’ mics.

In reply to @Zebras

Yes, that is correct. There is no software setting even in Target to do the mic muting.

7 Years ago, I used to have Phonak Naida V that was paired with Compilot II. That was a beautiful combo and works so beautifully. And mistakenly thought the same concept should work with the new Phonak model without needing a streamer. I was sorely disappointed for that aspect.

This is something that Phonak absolutely failed to grasp the importance of phone calls. How did they not get this right?

@miku said:

This is something that Phonak absolutely failed to grasp the importance of phone calls. How did they not get this right?

How Phonak Marvel and onwards work is very differently to the older Phonak Venture which I also used.

Phonak also use Classic Bluetooth so all theses features of also won’t be there.

Have you tried the settings I explained in my first posts?

Regarding phone calls, I pick up no background noise but I was explained about where lows over power the highs from the hospital. @PeterH knows what this issue is actually called. I have no issue with background noise at all but then I’ve had an audiologist who saw me 30 years ago when I was a baby so is experienced.

In reply to @Zebras

Thank you for the reply. I happened to be the Android guy.Unless I get an Iphone with Dual SIM support (physical SIMs, not eSIM). Not particular fond of IOS’s file management limitations. Let’s see how IOS 17 progresses,

In reply to @Zebras

@Zebras said:

Regarding phone calls, I pick up no background noise but I was explained about where lows and over power the highs from the hospital. @PeterH knows what this issue is actually called. I have no issue with background noise at all but then I’ve had an audiologist who saw me 30 years ago when I was a baby.

@miku see this post.

In reply to @miku

@miku said:

I happened to be the Android guy.

My Dad has a Motorola Android Phone and it is so so loud compared to my iPhone. Have no idea why. None of my iPhones have been anywhere near as loud with the volume control.

In reply to @Volusiano

The background noises is from my side, when I answer the phone call. And it is the hearing aid that picks up the background noises as well a my voice. When in fact, it should be the phone picking up my voice. But then I realise that it defeats the purpose of hand-free communication.

In reply to @Zebras

@Zebras
Upwards masking

Just increasing volume, often doesn’t improve speech recognition as ALL frequencies, not just the ones you want, resulting in lower frequencies overpowering speech. In my limited time of self programming Marvels, if I increase gain on speech frequencies, I reduce gain in the lower and mid frequencies to compensate

@PeterH said:

Upwards masking

Just increasing volume, often doesn’t improve speech recognition as ALL frequencies, not just the ones you want, resulting in lower frequencies overpowering speech.

YES!!

Thanks.

@miku This is what I mean.

20230907_134705

This is my Phone + mic settings page for my Paradise. I’ve not altered this from default and it works just fine. The aids are also set to “Adaptive Bandwidth” in Device Options. This can be done in the MyPhonak app too. People can hear me fine, both indoors and outdoors, and I can hear the caller clearly. I find this an improvement over the Compilot II and Compilot II air systems I had with my Ventures

Peter

I have all my fancy features like WindBlock, NoiseBlock and more turned completely off and I can’t hear any background noise but my Mics are also set at 0 .

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