Phonak Sphere or Oticon Intent?

@cvkemp I have never worn Phonak, so obviously I have no basis for comparison. If you say Phonak works better than Oticon, I will certainly give them a try when I buy new hearing aids in about 7 years time! Obviously things have changed and Oticon is no longer the king for speech discrimination in noise. However, I am not a fan of this bubble effect, so that will affect any future purchases I make. My only real hearing issue (which I am hoping that my new audio can fix) is soft voices where their voices don’t project - i.e low energy.

@glucas I don’t want to derail this thread discussing Vac+, NAL-NL2 and Adult DSLv5 as the focus of the topic should remain on Oticon vs Phonak. But I will make one comment because I am obviously not understanding something you have said and I am very confused.

What confuses me is your statement about Vac+ being ok because Adult DSLv5 increases higher frequencies far more than NAL-NL2, and NAL-NL2 increases higher frequencies far more than Vac+. So to my mind, if you are saying that NAL-NL2 is insufficient for boosting high frequencies, then obviously Vac+ is even more insufficient than NAL-NL2.

Anyway, I didn’t realise that you were using Adult DSLv5 prescription, so my comments about NAL-NL2 are not relevant in your case. However, my underlying point is that the default prescription for Oticon is inadequate for most wearers and I now recommend people drop Vac+ and start with NAL-NL2 or in some cases Adult DSLv5.

I will leave it at that now, because I want to get the discussion back to the original topic of phonak vs Otion. Thanks

This discussion of NAL-NAL2, DSLv5, and Vac+ is a bit confusing. Reading the white papers on each of these methods is also a bit confusing.

Can I or should I ask my audiologist to try each of these methods on my hearing aids?

You are probably right. I concede that NAL-NL2 will boost mid and higher frequencies compared to VAC+, but I am actually not hearing anything at all in these situations. I am uncertain that changing the fitting formula will help, which is why I am looking at the spheres. But thanks for your input. If the trial goes badly and I stick with the Intents, I will change the fitting formula and see if that helps.

In 7 years who knows what hearing aids will evolve into. But for now Phonak Spheres wins for me. And that is saying a lot for someone that swore by Oticon for 15 years.

Hearing aids are changing greatly. Also who knows what our medical research my come up with to even eliminate the need for aids in the future. At my age I have depend on what the Veterans Administration provides for my hearing loss

@Roberto said:

ac+ fitting rationale intended purpose is acceptance of hearing aids, whereas NAL-NL2 fitting rationale is about maximum speech comprehension.

This is interesting. I never heard that. My audiologist fitted this and left it at that. I have googled this and it seems that Vac+ is closely aligned with the “brainhearing” concepts of Oticon. Not wanting to split hairs, but this is interesting. Again, don’t want to derail the thread!

what does “Brain Hearing” actually mean in terms of the frequency response? less filtering?

It is all very interesting.

That said, I am going to purchase the Phonak Sphere 90.

Thanks for all the help!

I speak under correction, but I thought the Oticon brain hearing was their open paradigm listening experience where they allow the brain to naturally filter sound like every normal hearing person does, instead of trying to get the hearing aid to filter sound for you in a bubble like Phonak etc do. I could be wrong though, but I thought it was this.

I am not sure where I found this out - it was after extensive research whilst troubleshooting my hearing issues - but yes Oticon (and other hearing aid manufacturers) program their hearing profiles for acceptance to reduce the number of hearing aid returns. The problem with maximising speech comprehension is people don’t like the unnatural sound, at it sounds artificial, tinny or any other word you care to use. So they return the hearing aid because they dislike the sound. The problem with making things sound natural to reduce hearing aid returns, is that you lose some speech comprehension and most hearing aid wearers don’t realise this.

I have to say, I would be interested how I would fare with the Phonak.

That is great if what you hear is just lower volume and all of the sounds are there. What if you have dead spots in your hearing like I do? Sure with lip reading it helps.

thanks for the explanations but im still none the wiser! like which frequencies are brain hearing affecting and what are they doing to them differently?

let’s say my audiologist programs a phonak and an oticon, both set to nal2 and verified with REM. they both have AI powered noise reduction and speech enhancement ; how will the oticon aid provide “brain hearing”?

There is a volume control on the Phonak streamer. Did you adjust that?

YEP. Had no effect on the sound quality issue.

@Roberto said:

ac+ fitting rationale intended purpose is acceptance of hearing aids, whereas NAL-NL2 fitting rationale is about maximum speech comprehension.

@glucas said:

This is interesting. I never heard that.

I would venture to say that most, if not all, of the proprietary fitting rationales aim at reducing returns rather than actually helping you hear better. It is common when new to hearing aids to say that it sounds too sharp, and loud noises are too loud, where your brain usually adjusts in a period of time to these sounds to the point that you wonder if you haven’t grown more deaf since getting the aids, as it seems harder to hear when they are out. Yet my tests are consistent to a large degree. I think a lot of people are unwilling to accept that their brain adjusted to the hearing loss, and it will adjust back, but it takes time.

WH

There are two streaming programs that are invoked when the Phonak TV streamer is used: Streaming Speech and Streaming Music. Autosense switches between while streaming. They each have a profile that your audiologist can tune using the Target software.

How have you got the streamer hooked up? TOSLINK is best for quality.