First Impressions - New Samsung S25+, Comparison Between Jabra Enhance Pro 30's and Philips 9050's

Life is busy for this alleged retired old guy and I haven’t posted in a while.

First, I upgraded my Android phone to a Samsung S25+. It’s a great phone. When I connect it to either my Jabra 30’s or the Philips 9050’s (more below), the BT connection screen shows LE Audio connected for both hearing aid brands.

I’ve had my 9050’s for about 2 months now and the bottom line is that I don’t like them very much. So I went to Costco and asked to trade in for the new Jabra 30’s. They suggested a loaner pair of Jabra’s before returning the Philips and I’ve been wearing them for a week.

First, in terms of fitment: The Philips HA’s are fatter than my old KS9’s or the Jabra’s and don’t fit behind my ear as well. The receiver wire does not stick close to my head. The Jabra’s are over all smaller and closer in size to my old KS9’s. Second, the in ear receiver on the 9050’s is bigger than either the KS9’s or the Jabra’s. The 9050’s are not as comfortable because the domes are compressed against a larger receiver in my ear (and one of my ear canals is not round, further exacerbating the problem). So, the Jabra’s are the winner in terms of physical characteristics.

What I really dislike about the 9050 HA’s is that when I’m in the normal “General” program, the music I listen to flanges and distorts, particularly sounds like a violin playing or high notes from a flute or harp. It’s a pain in the ear to have to switch to “Music” to make this go away.

Now, someone here mentioned that this was the noise control settings in the 9050’s and maybe this could be adjusted away. But my Costco tech doesn’t know about this and had no particular solution for this problem, so if anyone can tell me what I need to tell him to stop this distortion, I’d love to know what it is.

Overall, the Philips app seems more limited. I can adjust volume, set a 3 band equalizer for streaming and hearing, and change between 3 programs… General, Music, Speech in Noise, which doesn’t seem to make much difference at all. However, the 9050’s seem to sound better when streaming to headphones… more depth and better bass… the Jabra’s sound “tinny” and like a dollar store transistor radio… BUT…

I’m wearing a pair of loner Jabra 30’s. Fit wise, they are much better, more comfortable for my ears. The Costco tech spent about half an hour setting them up with what I guess is a pretty standard program for my hearing loss. But, the HA’s are WAY too “bright” to the point of painful if I don’t turn them down. And, I’m getting feedback like crazy when I enter into a small room… the bathroom, for example, with tile and mirrors… I turn on the water and the feedback is impossible. Again, turning down the HA’s stops the feedback at the loss of higher pitch volume.

Other than setting the equalizers to as low as they will go, I cannot sufficiently control this “brightness” and thus, I must ask, “Is this a configuration artifact?” My Costco tech says that the Jabra’s are louder in the higher frequencies but does this mean that they can’t be adjusted down to sound more like the 9050’s?

If I had my druthers, I’d keep the Jabra’s but unless I can deal with the excessive amplification at high frequencies and the intolerable feedback, I’d going to have to stick with the Philips.

I’d appreciate any suggestions. I’m not saying that my Costco tech doesn’t know what he’s doing, but just like there are drivers, pilots, and magicians, it seems that this guy is all “by the book” and is perhaps missing the essentials.

FWIW, the domes on both the Philips and the Jabra’s are the same diameter, double dome setups. Perhaps because the receivers are smaller in the Jabra’s I could go up to the next dome size…

Thanks for any observations and suggestions.