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Phonak Infinio Sphere I90 Review (Another One!)

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@nursebill48 said:

That may be because I’m old and not fashion-conscious any longer…

I’m still classed as young and I don’t care what size the hearing aids are, as long as I can still hear.

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Hi Ryan,

Thank you for the fabulous review, much appreciated.

I currently have the Signia Pure Charge & Go 7-IX with . Do you know and/or experienced the difference between the Phonak Infinio Sphere?

I feel my are awesome and does a great job. I am able to understand in group settings, outdoors, etc. But I am now wondering how do they compare to the new Phonak, am I missing big time?

Thank you,
Karla

In reply to @PeterH

Sorry, Peter, I didn’t know either way. I don’t have a self programming option. A previous pair of instruments, very basic Signia, could be adjusted via iPhone but the feature was utterly minimal. There was no way I could choose to limit the painful overshoots (a design shortcoming) when someone sneezed or dropped a spoon.
Soapbox: With some shining exceptions, the industry (and the training) has still some way to go in terms of the basic audio and musical insights common in any sound studio or even among hi-fi enthusiasts. So the user experience may be a bit of a survival course!

Edited

In reply to @billgem

Should I repeat what I wrote, just louder? :smile:
As I said, the hardware is identical, and that is undisputable. There are proofs.
With software it is not entirely known to what degree they differ, someone woould have to test them side by side.
From te tech person point of view I doubt they differ much, it would actually cost them more to differentiate than just slap different UI.
Same goes for firmware, it just too closely bound to hardware, and often not entirely made by the hearing devices manufacturers. You have to remember that they do not make/design their own chips/socs. That’s why all of them suddenly have gyro inside, and some movement related features. Same goes for receivers which all are (with a small exception) from Knowles.

So no, in their entirety, they’re not identical.

In reply to @Karlajustme

@Karlajustme said:

I feel my HAs are awesome and does a great job. I am able to understand in group settings, outdoors, etc. But I am now wondering how do they compare to the new Phonak, am I missing big time?

If you feel your current hearing aids are meeting your needs then you are not missing out. Don’t worry. The sphere meets a very common need, which is better speech in noise support. However, there are individuals with various degrees of hearing loss who actually do quite well in noise, and the sphere may be overkill for them. You may be one of these people.

@Reginald said:

You have to remember that they do not make/design their own chips/socs

Oh. Yes they do though. Wait, do you mean that hearing aid manufacturers don’t design their own chips at all, or just that manufacturers with the same umbrella company share chips? (Mind you, the latter isn’t always true either from what I’ve witnessed, although they may share the printers.)

@Neville said:

However, there are individuals with various degrees of hearing loss who actually do quite well in noise, and the sphere may be overkill for them.

I’m one of them. I have Phonak and Oticon and find background noise very muted on Phonak P30 and P70 so I feel I won’t ever need the Sphere.

I do want the Phonak I30 for better Bluetooth / .

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

Oh. Yes they do though. Wait, do you mean that hearing aid manufacturers don’t design their own chips at all, or just that manufacturers with the same umbrella company share chips? (Mind you, the latter isn’t always true either from what I’ve witnessed, although they may share the printers.)

I don’t know what made you believe this, but that’s simply not true. The ones I’m sure about (which is most of them, except one) all use various generations of microchips from onsemi.

There are actually efforts to build an open hearing devices out of the same or similar components that manufactures use.

Well we have this problem now, because ya know if we’re gonna say that if the chips are made and supplied from a certain manufacturer to most of the manufacturer’s, then we say they are the same HAs, so now we can call the Bernafon and Sonics the same as Oticon because they use the same chip, but wait the same chip (or older generation ) is supplied to say Signia or god forbid ReSound we are going to say their actually the “same” only software/firmware is different, I’m disappointed (in fact disgusted) that my beloved ReSound’s are actually really an Oticon from the Oticonians!

In reply to @Reginald

@Reginald said:

The ones I’m sure about (which is most of them, except one) all use various generations of microchips from onsemi.

Follow up question: Which one are you not sure about? This is interesting, I am/was not familiar with Knowles or Onsimi. I just read Knowles financial report which was interesting to a long retired financial guy and was looking at onsemi’s web site and the section dealing with chips for hearing aids. Very interesting cuz I don’t know what I don’t know.

Edited

That’s not what I’m saying nor what it means. It’s a common thing to do in the tech world everywhere because it’s cheaper. Only the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google and so on, can afford to design their own chips.
Good example of this are various Android phones, which often have run of the mill Snapdragon or Mediatek SoC inside.

The differentiating factor is of course software/firmware, the operating system, the app ecosystem.

My point was to dispell the notion of some magical hardware inside of hearing devices which warrants the price and often way overblown marketing.
And to show that yes, the hardware in the Intents and 9050 Is the same, but that’s nothing special, and the pricing is mostly arbitrary to get into all levels of purchasing capabilities (using the same device), which is again a common business tactic.

It is ALWAYS about money and staying competitive, if they can do something cheaper, they will.

In reply to @nursebill48

For me it’s about comfort more than any fashion statement. I LOVE showing off my 312s in Precious PINK! But the gigantic Sphere beans are just too big and heavy for me to have with my headbands and eyeglasses competing for space behind my child-sized ears on my tiny head.

I’m getting fitted with the Infinio Sphere 90 hearing aids on Monday afternoon and I’m looking forward to doing a detailed comparison between Sphere and my Phonak Lumity L90-RT’s. The colour my audiologist ordered for me hasn’t arrived yet so he is loaning me a blinged out pair in Sienna Red :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. I’ll post pictures and detailed comments shortly thereafter. I’m dying to try out the noise reduction to see how good it really is in bad restaurants. Also curious about battery life, AutoSense 6.0 and improved Bluetooth connectivity.

I’m very excited!

Jordan

In reply to @Reginald

I think that well-known manufacturers of hearing aids make their own chip, and push the same chip for all types of hearing aids from, for example, phonak 30, 50, 70, 90. It is the same chip, only it is blocked by software so that not all features can be used, for example in lower technology level. The same chip is on the Paradise and Lumity versions, I think the same chip is on the unitron Ubitron Blu and Unitron Vivanta, , Costco KS10 and other variants of other brands produced by Sonova. If we look at the difference between Paradise and Lumity, the chip is the same, only Lumity has some features unlocked on the chip that provide additional features. It means that everything has already been done on the chip in advance and they want to sell the same chip as long as possible. So we can expect that the next version of phonak audeo sphere will have a new name, with unlocked features and software-enhanced features.

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