High frequency hearing loss & Phonak Spheres

I too have trialed the Phonak Infinio Sphere 90’s and regret to say I returned them at the end of the trial period. I have a mild to moderate hearing loss at higher frequencies and struggle in noisy backgrounds and so I had high hopes for the Spheres given the apparent success of these aids to help in such environments. To sum up my feelings:

1. For me to see any appreciable benefit I had to use a mould with no vent as otherwise the background noise (un-amplified) drowned out the amplified audio from the hearing aid. I tried the active vents which then gave me an open vent in quiet environments and a closed vent in noisy environments. I found this did help (but not as much as I had expected !!) but the problems I was having (as well) with Bluetooth were increased and I found that the vent didn’t reopen correctly in one ear leaving me with in effect a blocked ear !! When closed I also suffered from the occlusion effect which I didn’t like.

2. For a hearing aid that is meant to be so strong on Bluetooth I was disappointed beyond belief. They kept dropping connection with the app and it was difficult to reconnect them. On one occasion (after having turned bluetooth off and on again on my phone, closed the App fully and then completely turned off my phone and started it again - all with no success) I had to put the aids back in their charger and leave them on charge overnight and then the next day they decided to connect with the App. This problem was with the aids and not my phone as I found that they would not talk to each other at this time (trying to change the program via the button on the aid changed the program on the aid that I was pressing the button on, but did not change the program on the other aid. I also experienced problems with connecting to Apple Car Play and also losing the audio on a streamed phone calls for approx 5 seconds !! When returning the Phonak Audeo Infinio Spheres to the retailer I was told that Phonak had had bluetooth issues with early production devices. Why hadn’t I been advised about this during the trial ? All in all I was extremely disappointed with the Infinio Spheres.

I am now waiting to trial the Starkey Edge AI 24’s which I hope I will have more success with.

I don’t know if this has helped you or not, but I wish you well in your trial. If you’re not happy with them though, don’t feel pressurised into taking them !

In case my experience helps.
Ihave older hearing aids. Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s. Model was brand new when I got them.

My thought–the person setting them up is the most important part of the purchase.
I don’t think my dispensing audi had ever set this model up before. He was a gentleman. We parted 1-1/2 years after he ordered my HA’s for me.
Every time I visited he called Phonak Canada. I would sit and listen as he asked questions…such as "how do i pair the ha’s with his iPhone.

Every time I left I had to pair my HA’s with the APP.

The person I chose to replace him is an expert.
He found the dispensing audi had not connected the L and R hearing aids within Target. And he had set the wrong domes.

So my understanding is that the "connection? L to R is critically important and must be done in Target by the setup expert.

Thanks DaveL. I am beginning to realise how important the Audiologist is in all this. I have used the same one for 10years and been very happy with things. They set up the Spheres and all seemed well. They would “talk” to each other, etc. Whether or not the fine tuning to my ears was correct I do not know, but it has been in previous aids they have fitted (both Phonak and Widex). My major frustration is that the Bluetooth was awful - and this issue seems to be known about on the early production Spheres. Maybe Phonak needs to sort this out

@Andy_B

Andy we are very lucky to have experienced pros here who provide guidance and answer questions.

There are two types of hearing aid shops

Quick fit and go. They sell more hearing aids

And, passionate experienced folk who do excellent setup and are passionate about helping us hear

I think there are problems in how we are served.

DL

Did you have REM?

By the way, try these:

1. Closed domes —》Power domes

2. Trying to slighly reangling receivers, when they’re deep in ear canal - maybe their outputs are directed to ear canal wall, not eadrum, which can be detrimental to sound quality.

3. Woman speeches - hmm, you have M receiver? Maybe P receiver helps. If not - consider changing prescription to DSL 5.0 (a bit more amplification for higher frequencies), if without success - maybe active feedback cancellation is often activated due to leak around domes and you can’t reach proper high frequency amplification.

Admittedly is SoundRecover2, but that is rather for patients with no usable response from high frequency stimulation.

4. In case of no success with power domes I would consider deeply placed cShell (past second bend of ear canal) with smaller vent than suggested by Target Software. I have no problem with occlusion, so I’ll have pressure vent, YMMV.

5. Reconsider lenght of receiver. Maybe it’s too long and you lose a bit of directivity? Read link here:

Question for users of Phonak Sphere Infinio

Yes, I’ve found that even traditional (non-AI) noise reduction and directivity (Speech in Noise program) are excellent in Sphere, even with a dome instead of an earmold! I have Sphere since 4th March and compare it to the Paradise 90-RT. What’s more, I use Sphere only monaurally, so I do not have access to StereoZoom 2.0 and the Speech in Loud Noise program. So the directionality of Spheres could be even better in binaurally fitted patients. The only drawback I see is that the feature is very…

Thanks @Bimodal_user for all that really useful and interesting information. The articles on directionality are especially interesting so I’ve started expermenting with rotating the HAs round so the microphones are more horizontal. Also at my next appointment I need to have a discussion with the audiologist about alternative earpieces.

Thanks @RobHooft for another positive recommendation for the DIY possibilities with Noah and Target software.

One question: Is it realistic to expect something like the speech in noise effect demonstrated in this Phonak video: https://youtu.be/jcd3jKE9Oxs5

@RogerBill said:

One question: Is it realistic to expect something like the speech in noise effect demonstrated in this Phonak video: https://youtu.be/jcd3jKE9Oxs

From my VERY SHORT, from 4th March experience with Sphere (monaural) - yes, I think this is definitely possible. Keep in mind I tested it in my room, where I intentionally turned on noise source. I didn’t tested it in restaurants, but there are many post describing very positive experiences:

My Phonak Sphere Infinio I90 vs Lumity L90 Shootout

[IMG_2697] At Duff’s doing the Spheric noise reduction torture test. HOLY SHITE! It really works!! I’m speechless… Jordan

(Yes, “HOLY SHITE” was keyword during searching that post ).

Phonak Infinio Sphere I90 Review (Another One!)

I’ve had my trial Sphere 90s for a few days now and been able to try them out in a wide range of settings. I’ve taken them everywhere from driving with and without people in the car, being at home in the quiet, a party with inside and outside elements and many people talking around me, and a very noisy bar. My wife has been kind enough to be the test dummy in all of this and talk at me from different angles with as much noise going on around us as I could find. I’ll try to summarize what I’ve fo…

Another Phonak Sphere observation

There has been a lot of reviews but I thought I would add one more experience. I finally got my Sphere 90s after a long delay waiting for the correct cshells from Phonak. Last evening which was a Saturday, my wife, grandson (12yo) and I went to a local sports bar/restaurant for supper. The place holds about 75 to a hundred customers. This place has concreate floors with no sound deadening decor. It was jam packed with families, many with small children and teenagers. Adults were drinking b…

However, there are many variables that can change someone’s experience, such as:

@RogerBill said:

At the start of my trial the audiologist said I could swap to Oticon Intent

Reportedly, Oticon receivers are better at high frequency gain. However, I do not think any receiver will give you adequate gain if it reaches feedback threshold due to leakage around the domes. So I think there are acoustic coupling issues that need to be resolved first.

I once read an opinion (expert OPINION, not inviolable fact) on Hearingreview that with a loss of more than 70 - 80 dB, there should be more closed couplings. However, it depends on how you would feel about (perhaps) occlusion and other potential drawbacks. I do not have this problem, but many people with similar audiograms might.

You/your HCP should also not rely on active feedback cancellation alone.

@Bimodal_user said:

I once read an opinion (expert OPINION, not inviolable fact) on Hearingreview that with a loss of more than 70 - 80 dB, there should be more closed couplings.

That intuitively makes a lot of sense to me.

I wish that I and other hearing aid users could hear speech in noise better

I was a stereophile years ago. If I couldn’t hear the music I turned up the volume. Our HA’s are much more complicated.

Our suppliers are the care practitioners who set up our hearing aids.

If the HA’s aren’t set up right we just can’t hear

Hmmm… I’m also a tinnitus sufferer (which was actually the main reason I went ahead and got HAs), with a somewhat similar audiogram to yours. What tinnitus program are you using? I don’t have “Tinnitus Balance” enabled on my Spheres, but I have them configured so that I get a fair bit of treble “noise” in quiet situations to get some real-world masking. I’m still not confident that I have everything worked out tinnitus-wise, so I’d welcome your insights!

It was the standard tinnitus masker over a comfort in calm program. I can’t tell you more as it was removed before I got the noahlink wireless.

WH

If you have NoahLink, can’t you put it back on? I was given to understand that NoahLink made you omnipotent.

I would want something I could specifically trigger, not something that came on all the time - even in quiet. We have a backyard pond with waterfalls at home, and that works pretty well as a “masker”. The problem is when I’m at my non-home office, where I’m sitting right now - a bit of pinkish noise from the air conditioning, but other than that the only noise is my keystrokes as I type.

I did manage to install the Widex Zen app on my phone, as well as some other masker apps - so I do have options. Really, I’m hoping that over time the HAs alone get the tinnitus level down without needing additional masking; it’s too soon to tell if this is going to work, as I’ve had the HAs only since late September and got two programs (“Calm” and “Comfort in Noise”) adjusted just last Thursday to reduce the noise reduction so more treble gets through. (I got the Ultra upgrade at the same time.)

So what (if anything) do you use instead of Phonak’s Balance program? The way you described it, it sounds like your tinnitus is (or was?) at least as annoying as mine, and likely worse.

@DonRadlauer said:

If you have NoahLink, can’t you put it back on?

Normally yes. But my activevent receivers are incompatible with the masker program. When I got the activevents, the masker was disabled in that program.

WH