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Can Phonak Partner Mic help with public spaces interactions?

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I’m new here. To help with my progressive hearing loss, I have been wearing bilaterally for almost 20 years, since I was a kid. Being now in the severe to profound range (dropped some central frequencies), I changed from to HAs (Phonak Naida Lumity 90). After about 1 year, I think it is a solid needed update. I’m overall very happy with these new HAs and their current fitting. Specifically, I am hearing enviromental sounds I never heard before, and the regulation (and my phonak app setting) is very useful for both 1 to 1 conversations and streaming.

The huge problem is speech with more than one person or in public spaces, like postal offices, university and so on. Specifically, I can observe how clarity really peak down (drop) and I get almost lost. It get a bit frustrating to lose most of my solid results in such instances. This week I was at the postal office. There were 2 operators working nerby, operator 1 assigned to me and operator 2 doing its own work. I had a really hard time in the moment they consulted with each other to try solve a problem that came up.

I’m aware of how it is a classic difficult listening scene, and both difficulties in putting useless sounds in background or keeping track of multiple people speaking over each other.

I guess some directional microphone could help?! The “famous Roger Mic” from Phonak for now it’s too expensive as I would end up paying it entirely by myself. So, my question would be – can Phonak Partner Mic help with “public spaces” interactions? I’m thinking of various situations – most importantly front office services’ situations. Maybe even 1 to 1 speech in crowdy interactions (at a outdoor open air setting), one side to the other side of a tennis court etc… where a really calibrated and solid HAs performance showed its limits.

Anyway prior to any further thoughts on this, it would help to get some technical information confirmed (or denied)

  • does Phonak Partner Mic work with the 2023 naida “Lumity” hearing aids?

  • from purchase to full use – does it need a techinican or you can do it ? This question relates to “prices”. Within Europe it seems overall more pricey, online it costs like EUR 290 on Amazon – up to EUR 470 in a specialized reseller online store.

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PartnerMic can be very helpful in one on one situations in noise IF speaker has it within 8 inches to a foot from their mouth (either held or held in place by a necklace (included) around speaker’s neck) It should work with 2023 Naida. Cost can be considerably reduced by buying used (less than $100 US) I see no advantage to buying new as they only come with 1 year warranty and chance of failure is fairly high. No big deal to buy another used one. Setup requires no special skills or equipment.

I’d say no for the situation you are describing. If the PO employee you were primarily dealing with would wear the Partner Mic, then you would hear his voice clearly, but it wouldn’t help with the others speaking to him. Also, if someone wearing it turns their back to you, you can’t hear them, and if they’re right beside you, you may not hear them. The Partner Mic projects the voice it’s attached to via Bluetooth, so it can’t be in a position where a body blocks it.

All that is from my experience getting someone to use one.

In reply to @MDB

@W.S

As alternative you could try this first:

  • have your fitter setup a seperate program for spech in loud noise , with StereoZoom2.0 directional microphone to the front.

  • in difficult situations switch to this separate program. Adjust the volume as desired.
    You can also change this program to your liking via the MyPhonak App

Capture

In reply to @firenzel

Thanks for this additional technical imput. Question is: this would result in a new setting avaiable? It is not generally part of the regulations put in the “main Automatic” setting?

In reply to @W.S

If you and the Partner Mic wearer are walking in the same direction, my experience is it depends. Perfectly side by side it may work, but if you get behind even a little, no. You don’t have to be exactly facing the other person, but there’s a tipping point for how much they can face away. That’s from my experience, which was two of us moving around in an arena.

In reply to @W.S

1 on 1 conversations, you don’t necessarily need to be facing the person, but it matters up to a certain distance. If you’re walking side by side or the same direction, it should be fine, but it may feel weird because they could be behind you and your hearing aids are amplifying their voice as if they were in front of you.

Edited

Guessing it’s because signal can bounce off the inside of a car but it works fine if person is sitting behind you in car.
I’m guessing wireless signal would not have an issue getting through plexiglass as it can get through walls (although not multiple walls)

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