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Phonak Feedback Problems?

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I am trialing the Phonak Audéo V90 and it seems to be prone to feedback problems more so than any of the others I have tried. My audi had set it up a little more aggressive than the standard settings and I noticed it immediately so he dialed it back a bit and it cleared up in his office. But after a day of wearing them I am finding that they have a tendency to produce feedback when certain frequency sounds are present or when they are cycling in and out of audio steaming mode. I cannot increase the volume at all without producing feedback. The others I have tried (top of the line Oticon, Widex, ReSound and Siemens) did not have that problem even with increased sound settings. The Siemens would not give feedback at all and the other three only if I cupped my hand over them or brushed over the microphones.

Is this a known issue with Phonak hearing aids, or is it possible they are defective in some way?

6 people in this conversation5 min readJump to latest

Did your audiologist run the feedback manager when setting up the aids? Mine work just fine with open domes. Only get minor squelched feedback if I forget and try to lie down on them.

I will check with him my next appointment on Wednesday. He does not fit a lot of Phonak, mainly handles Siemens so it is possible he left out a step. Also a strange thing happened this evening, the Phonak app stopped responding and I had to uninstall it and reinstall it and also set a fresh Bluetooth pairing to my phone. Now the feedback problem seems to have diminished and the overall sound is improved. I don’t know how there could be a connection but it seems so.

I also suddenly realized a solution to another problem I have had with this and other streamers I have been trialing. When I scroll through my Facebook feed the streamers (all brands) connect in and out of audio streaming which can be very distracting especially if there are loud chimes notifying of the changes in and out of streaming. A simple solution… on my phone’s Bluetooth connection (Android Samsung Galaxy S5) I can set the Bluetooth connection for phone calls only, or audio streaming only, or both. Simple matter to set if for phone calls only until such time as I really want to hear the audio through my hearing aids (such as steaming music or YouTube) and the phone call part still works fine.

I have had the Audeo V90 for a couple of weeks and I have had no feedback issues. I actually find them to work much better in terms of feed back and other self generated sounds in response to various noises compared to my old Q90. It must be a setting of some sort. Mine are set to the factory mode or whatever it is called. I do have to turn up the volume a little bit (I am going to get that fixed at my next visit), but I still get no feed back or any other weird sounds. I have .

Dear all,

I also bought Phonak Audeo V90 - 10 recently. Have two questions:

  1. How did you announce to colleagues? /first aids for me, could be irrelevant to you/. Still afraid to do it, so support would be appreciated /I know I have asked for this before in older posts/.

  2. I cannot imagine using any streamer and prefer to use the phone the normal way on my ear /right ear - open dome there/. Is anyone using the phone like that and do you feel certain reduction in sound quality as opposed to your ear without the dome?

THANK YOU!

Just wear a knit hat pulled down over your ears.

@HearAgainNow said:

Dear all,

I also bought Phonak Audeo V90 - 10 recently. Have two questions:

  1. How did you announce to colleagues? /first aids for me, could be irrelevant to you/. Still afraid to do it, so support would be appreciated /I know I have asked for this before in older posts/.

  2. I cannot imagine using any streamer and prefer to use the phone the normal way on my ear /right ear - open dome there/. Is anyone using the phone like that and do you feel certain reduction in sound quality as opposed to your ear without the dome?

THANK YOU!

Skinnerd,

One more thing. Get your Audi to turn off Sound Recover on your Phonaks. Mine did that and it seemed to eliminate the secondary sounds, I was receiving.

Just had a 3-hour long fine tuning session with Audi on my Phonak V90 - considered switching off Sound Recover but it seems this lowers results in the high frequency zone where my main loss is - on left / open dome on right.

An answer on my questions above would be appreciated…

In reply to @HearAgainNow

Why do you need to announce it at all? I worked in my office location for 12 years and didn’t have hearing aids. Now I work from home primarily and rarely go into the office. The last time I went in was the first time since getting my hearing aids. I didn’t say anything and nobody said anything about them to me. If they did say anything I’d just say I prefer to hear rather than not hear. Nothing to be embarrassed about.

Regarding the phone I have t-coil automatically turn on when it senses the hearing aid magnets for my receiver. I also have a headset that activates my t-coil automatically. Works great for me!

@HearAgainNow said:

Dear all,

I also bought Phonak Audeo V90 - 10 recently. Have two questions:

  1. How did you announce to colleagues? /first aids for me, could be irrelevant to you/. Still afraid to do it, so support would be appreciated /I know I have asked for this before in older posts/.

  2. I cannot imagine using any streamer and prefer to use the phone the normal way on my ear /right ear - open dome there/. Is anyone using the phone like that and do you feel certain reduction in sound quality as opposed to your ear without the dome?

THANK YOU!

In reply to @HearAgainNow

@HearAgainNow said:

Dear all,

I also bought Phonak Audeo V90 - 10 recently. Have two questions:

  1. How did you announce to colleagues? /first aids for me, could be irrelevant to you/. Still afraid to do it, so support would be appreciated /I know I have asked for this before in older posts/.

  2. I cannot imagine using any streamer and prefer to use the phone the normal way on my ear /right ear - open dome there/. Is anyone using the phone like that and do you feel certain reduction in sound quality as opposed to your ear without the dome?

THANK YOU!

  1. I just told them I had an appointment with an audiologist to find a solution to some hearing problems. Some were interested and asked a few questions but most just wanted to know when I’d be back from the appointment. When I had the Linx aids many people thought it was pretty cool that my phone connected with them and had direct streaming. Occasionally someone picks up my remote control from the communal desk and wants to know what sort of beeper that is. I keep it turned off so they don’t accidentally turn the aids up or down.

  2. I refuse to wear a clunky streamer around my neck. I much prefer my usual jewelry! Women’s clothes don’t really hide the streamer from view and I don’t want to explain it to everyone all day as that would get annoying and boring very quickly. I have reasonably good lower frequency hearing so I use domes and just use the phone as normal hearing people would. If a lot of people are talking around me this can be a little difficult at times especially when talking to someone with a strong accent. I have tried the duo phone option with either or acoustic phone options activated by the small magnets you can attach to the phone. I find there is too much interference at home or work for the Tcoil option and using a very communal work phone just doesn’t work because the magnets kept disappearing. I have found that knowing how to turn up the phone volume quickly helps. I don’t have any problems with my iPhone as it has heaps of volume to spare. I do have the easycall II but don’t use it much because I don’t really need to for calls and prefer to keep it turned off so my phone will automatically connect to the Bluetooth hands free in the car. So to answer your question - yes, it is possible to successfully use a standard phone but I think this varies between each individual depending on their hearing loss level and ability to discriminate speech. I don’t think it is any worse with my in than without. Some people find they can position the the phone so their HAs pick up the sound from the phone but I have found this just does not give me adequate volume/balance of the frequencies and finding the sweet spot to hold the phone is a pain.

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