I haven’t posted an update on my Audeo S Smart IXs in a week and I thought I would provide some additional comments.
I had my second fitting on Monday and there really wasn’t too many changes required. I asked the audiologist to remove the sound recover feature from my music program as I like to keep the sound as clean as possible when listening to music or playing the guitar. The other thing that I had him do is remove the ear locks that were attached to the receiver. They were digging into my ears and making them sore and you don’t really need them with the new torpedo shaped domes.
Does anyone know if the torpedo domes can be used on the original Audeo YES hearing aids? I just switched to the instant-fit with the tulip domes and I’m very happy with them. But the torpedo domes sound so wonderful, I know I must try them if I can.
Is there a way to get the tapered domes online? When I received new receivers with the powerdomes (power receivers), the tulip tip was used. They look tulip to me.
So, where can I get the new tapered domes for power xreceivers?
I have an appointment on Tuesday to discuss what hearing aids in the Spice range I am going to trial. I want to trial the Audeo S Yes with the super power receivers but I think from the telephone conversation that I had with my Audie these are not strong enough for my hearing loss and she wants me to try the Ambras. I just hope my expectations of these hearing aids is not set to high.
I love the new tapered domes. I use to wear a tulip dome in my left ear and a modified power dome for my right side. Both ears now get the newer tapered domes. They are very comfortable and the new design at the point where wax could enter the receiver is much better. I have not in more than a month had to change .
So I’m back home after spending 3 days on business in Las Vegas. I had a chance to test both the Phonak Audeo S Smart IXs and the Resound Alera 9s in some of the worst case sound situations. Namely…on the airplane, casinos, noisy restaurants, large meeting rooms with bad amplification systems, large banquet halls with 3,000 - 4,000 people eating at once, noisy bars, people whispering to me during meetings…and a bunch of other situations that cause most of us tons of grief.
So…here is the verdict
The new Spice versions of the Smart IXs are definitely the superior choice. In fact…I would have to say that they represent a step forward compared to conventional hearing aids. I also must say that I am very surprised by my choice. I loved the Aleras and their true wireless capabilities. I had my doubts about testing the new Smarts and I only tested them as an afterthought…after already making my decision to keep the Aleras. Here is why I’m going to go with the Spice Smart IXs:
The one thing I learned the most from my tests in Las Vegas is that we all live in a world with very complex and changing listening environments. No place in the world has more of this than Las Vegas. Think about it for a minute. Home, work, outside, sport stadium, restaurant, movie, casino, restaurant, kids sports practice, concerts, business meeting, cafeteria, theatre…the list goes on and on. Each of these environments presents different challenges to hearing aids. So…what you need is lots of options and hearing aids that adapt to these changing situations. This is why the Smarts are the better choice. The Smarts (Spice family of hearing aids) give you lots of options…and the options really make a difference in challenging environments. Don’t get me wrong…they are not perfect…but the Spice models today give you the best set of tools in your kit bag to deal with challenging listening situations. 5 programs, highly directional mikes that can be pointed in a direction with the remote, strong noise reduction, wireless cross transmission of sound between hearing aids to improve voice recognition in noise, automatic zoom, bluetooth, etc. These features are all tools that are available at the press of a button. The Aleras are really good, but when you take the wireless phone/TV features out of the mix, you don’t have this type of flexibility and you can’t always rely on the automatic mode in really challenging environments.
Wireless cross transmission of sound between the hearing aids is a game changer. For those who don’t know what this is, the Spice hearing aids have the ability to take the sound from the right microphones and broadcast it wirelessly to the left hearing aid receiver and visa versa. When you flip the hearing aids into StereoZoom and AutoZoom, the microphones on both hearing aids cross broadcast sound to the opposite hearing aid to improve recognition. This is a huge game changer in noisy situations especially since you also have the ability to set the directionality of the microphones at the same time. There are so many benefits to this new capability. Set the microphones forward when you are in an audience listening to a show or a live speaker, etc. I did this so many times in Las Vegas and I found my hearing was significantly improved. Here is another situation: Your friend then leans over and whispers in your right ear during the event. The whisper is picked up by the right microphone and transmitted simultaneously to both the right and left receiver (because you are in StereoZoom) and you can actually hear what he is saying. Same thing is true in a restaurant. When you are in AutoZoom you hear what the people on both sides of you are saying in both ears. This is a huge benefit. It does come with a downside in that you lose the directionality of the sound. But…I would rather hear what someone is saying than hear where it is coming from in these types of situations. To sum it up…this wireless cross transmission feature makes the Spice hearing aids better. It doesn’t always work in all sound situations but as I said earlier…you now have another powerful tool in your kit bag to deal with noisy environments.
The StereoZoom and AutoZoom and ZoomControl are all worth the extra money. They work and I ended up using these features quite a bit during my stay in Las Vegas. In particular, StereoZoom is a huge blessing. I found that I could flip it on during conversations in very noisy situations and the only extra thing I had to do is to increase the volume slightly (one click) using the remote to get excellent results. We had quite a few networking events over the last few days and these events were typically held in bars and in large meeting rooms with hundreds of people milling around. StereoZoom with a bit of a volume tweak worked wonders. Rarely did I find myself asking people to repeat themselves. These features work and the Smart IXs did not suffer from any of the other voice distortion in noise issues that I experience with the old versions of these hearing aids. Whatever Phonak has done to improve these hearing aids they have certainly addressed the voice in noise issues.
The final thing that pushed me over the edge was that I took off the Smart IXs on the third day and wore the Alera 9s to my morning meeting. The meeting was held in a large conference room in the Venetian and I was in the third row of seats up at the front. The speaker was a woman (my manager) and she was wearing a microphone connected to two Bose speakers on either side of the room. As she spoke, I was close enough to hear both her natural voice and the sound from the speakers. The sound from the speakers was also bouncing off the back wall of the conference room and there was a bit of an echo. I couldn’t understand her at all. I tried flipping through my four programs in the Aleras to see if there was an improvement and nothing seemed to help. She was only about 15 feet away from me but the combination of her soft voice, the speaker system, echos, etc, were too much for the Aleras. I kept wishing that I had StereoZoom and/or ZoomControl to focus the hearing aids forward. As soon as we had a coffee break, I hurried back to my room, put the Smart IXs back on and switched remotes. Once the meeting started again, my hearing was much better. It still wasn’t perfect, but StereoZoom and the Smart IXs were significantly better than the Aleras. Once again…challenging situations like this are best dealt with by having lost of tools to work with. You still have to fiddle around to figure out which settings work best…but the Smart IXs have far more flexibility to deal with challenging situations.
So thats my report from Las Vegas. I’m going to keep experimenting with the Smart IXs and I will keep posting my impressions as I figure things out. The Smart IXs definately get the nod. These Spice versions are a huge leap forward. To be honest…I’m quite surprised I am actually admitting this
Thanks, JordanK, for your detailed summary. I have been really interested to hear your comparison of the two different as I’m getting ready to start my own trials. I’m also glad that you had the chance to test the previous Phonak Smart IXs to be able to speak to the improvements of the new Spice platform.
I had originally decided to pursue the Alera 9’s while waiting for the Widex Clear 440s. Phonak wasn’t on my radar as I had read some not so very glowing reviews of the Audeo Smart IX’s (core chip). The Spice chip upgrade really seems to be game-changing.
I’ve been convinced that the Widex were going to be the right choice for me, especially since I’m coming from Widex. Now, I’m not so sure. While they have the wireless communication, they don’t stream audio from ear to ear. This technology seems unique to the Spice and something that you (and the others reporting on the forum) are saying makes a huge difference, especially in challenging environments.
As I’ve previously said, though, I HATE Phonak’s approach to streaming. You have to have the iCom wrapped around your neck AND you also need to carry the remote to activate volume and/or programs. I don’t like wearing a necklace, nor do I want to always be carrying around a whole kit of parts to enable functionality. Widex will be bundling the streamer and remote together in their MDex control which doesn’t need to worn but can be carried in the pocket and then brought out to capture your voice during phone calls. I really wish Phonak would create a similar system.
So, while I’m waiting for Widex to gain approval to release the Clear 440s here in the U.S., I’m going to start trialing the Phonaks in early December. I’ve really appreciated all the effort people here are putting in to reporting their experiences, so I promise to do the same. Perhaps I’ll be able to do the first comparison of the Phonaks vs. the Widex. . .
One question for you - will you be asking your Audi to bump the volume on your StereoZoom program one click since you’re constantly using the remote to adjust it that way?
One question for you - will you be asking your Audi to bump the volume on your StereoZoom program one click since you’re constantly using the remote to adjust it that way?
I may have the audiologist bump the volume a bit on this program. My next appointment is not for a couple of weeks. This will give me enough time to understand if I am always bumping up the volume on this program setting or if I am just doing it the odd time.
What configuration are you using for talking I’ve an acoustic phone?
I use the telephone in three different ways. Both my cell phone and my home phone have bluetooth functionality so I generally use the iCom with these two phones. When get caught having to use a phone without the iCom, I have found that you can position the telephone speaker near the hearing aid’s microphones and it will work ok if there is not too much ambient noise. The Smarts have a “DuoPhone” program that streams the sound from ear that is using the phone to the other hearing aid. I tried it a bit with the old Smarts and it worked okay. I’m not using it this time around because the Smart IXs only have 5 program slots and I don’t have an extra slot available once I asked the audiologist to program in StereoZoom and AutoZoom into the 4th and 5th spot.
The one thing that is worth investigating is whether you really need to have AutoZoom programmed into one of your 5 slots. The reason I say this is that holding down the center button on the remote seems to activate the AutoZoom program (its a shortcut). If the remote can activate AutoZoom without having to have AutoZoom as one of your programs, this should free up an extra slot that could be used for DuoPhone.
Hi Jordan,
Thanks so much for this detailed report. It’s both very exciting and very frustrating for those of us who bought the earlier Smart IX versions that have so many limitations.
Obviously it would be great if Phonak did right by the many of us that bought the earlier versions and provide us with at least a discount on the new ones with Spice. I bought mine in January so it’s not even been a year.
Does anyone have any insight into a potential discount from Phonak for upgrading? Perhaps I’ll send a note to the CEO or lead PR person and give them the link to all the negative comments of the early Smart IXs on this forum.
Even now after all the many, many, many adjustments and changes with my Smart IXs I have the same problems I’ve always had.
I only know the new Spice - YES IX, same chip like the smarts. I do not know the former Core platform.
But speech in noise is much more a problem for me with the Phonak than with the oricons agil pro. The Oticons are very good in noise. The Phonak (new Spice-) YES are playing a concert in a restaurant.
Zooming may help. I did not zoom. May be it would be difficult, because I do not have one speaker in one direction.
The loss of the direction ist a bigger problem with the Phonak. Just before 5 minutes my son opened the door to my room and I looked around where the noise came from (wearing the new Phonaks).
Without the zooming it might be difficult in noise. Even with the new Spice generation. But in calm situations they are great.
It was very helpful in the beginning to make a learning programm (I learned to hear again) with speech in increasing noise.
My Audio says: You do not only hear with your ears, you hear with your brain.
And my brain is sometimes confused with the transmitting in both ears (Phonak) , because it is not natural.
As I understand it (and I may be wrong here), you can turn off autozoom (i.e. move out of the program) and the hearing aids won’t stream the audio into both ears. This might make it easier for you to locate the source of sounds.
I think that “zooming” audio into both ears is a function enabled only through AutoZoom or StereoZoom.
Maybe something to try? You can always turn the function back on when you might need it.
I only know the new Spice - YES IX, same chip like the smarts. I do not know the former Core platform.
But speech in noise is much more a problem for me with the Phonak than with the oricons agil pro. The Oticons are very good in noise. The Phonak (new Spice-) YES are playing a concert in a restaurant.
Zooming may help. I did not zoom. May be it would be difficult, because I do not have one speaker in one direction.
The loss of the direction ist a bigger problem with the Phonak. Just before 5 minutes my son opened the door to my room and I looked around where the noise came from (wearing the new Phonaks).
Without the zooming it might be difficult in noise. Even with the new Spice generation. But in calm situations they are great.
It was very helpful in the beginning to make a learning programm (I learned to hear again) with speech in increasing noise.
My Audio says: You do not only hear with your ears, you hear with your brain.
And my brain is sometimes confused with the transmitting in both ears (Phonak) , because it is not natural.
That´s true. I test the Agil pros since the 9. September and the Phonak YES since end october.
The Phonak YES were good in the beginning and my audio wanted to make them better. But she is new to the target software. In the end, the Phonak zoomed worse than before. Then I wanted the original fitting again.
Sometimes, when I went with my dog, I could hear some noise from a distance just as it would be beside me. But I could not tell, from which side it came.
Maybe it is better to get used to the new Phonak without the zoom and add it later.
The one thing that is worth investigating is whether you really need to have AutoZoom programmed into one of your 5 slots. The reason I say this is that holding down the center button on the remote seems to activate the AutoZoom program (its a shortcut). If the remote can activate AutoZoom without having to have AutoZoom as one of your programs, this should free up an extra slot that could be used for DuoPhone…
I think the only reason to have AutoZoom in a program slot is so you can activate it with the program button on the hearing aids.
I have to use an acoustic phone at work. I am unable to get Easyphone to activate DuoPhone. The acoustic phone program accesses DuoPhone, but by default it over amplifies the lows and the mids making it unusable in anything but complete quiet.
I have an appointment on Tuesday to discuss what hearing aids in the Spice range I am going to trial. I want to trial the Audeo S Yes with the super power receivers but I think from the telephone conversation that I had with my Audie these are not strong enough for my hearing loss and she wants me to try the Ambras. I just hope my expectations of these hearing aids is not set to high.
I think if you end up being eligible for the Audeo S YES; why not go for the Audeo S SMART? My audiologist was saying that she was only going to focus on the Audeo S SMART, not the MINI or the YES; the MINI is smaller yes, but they are all small; the YES has less features than the SMART. It makes sense to try the SMART rather than the YES because it has manual controls. I have the original Audeo YES IX because the other options were not available when I bought the YES.
The tapered domes actually have now replaced the old tulip domes … so yes they work.
Also, I almost always cut off the sports lock … but make sure no sharp plastic edges remain!
(Do NOT simply slide off the sports lock - leave its base ring in place!)
Thanks! I actually do have the torpedo domes and I love them!
Are you referring to another type of earmold with the sports lock because I wasn’t aware that the power domes were available with any sports lock. I wouldn’t get it though because these slide in my ear all the way and they do move a tiny bit, but not much.
I am testing the new Audeo S YES IX. The new Smart were not available in October.
Many features with the remote but no manual controls. I get used to that.
I have worn the Agil pro the last days (my other test) and today again the YES. After several days with the Oticon, the Phonak YES had a very nasal tone. Especially with the own voice. Very disturbing.
Soft and loud hearing but bad to speak ( own voice seems very nasal too)
I think if you end up being eligible for the Audeo S YES; why not go for the Audeo S SMART? My audiologist was saying that she was only going to focus on the Audeo S SMART, not the MINI or the YES; the MINI is smaller yes, but they are all small; the YES has less features than the SMART. It makes sense to try the SMART rather than the YES because it has manual controls. I have the original Audeo YES IX because the other options were not available when I bought the YES.
I had my appointment this morning with my Audie and I am now going to trial the Audeo Smart 1X with the Superpower X Receiver. My appointment for my first fitting is in 2 weeks time. I hope that I haven’t set my expectations too high and that I am disappointed.
Toronto, Canada
