Problem with bluetooth on Phonak P90 hearing aids

I have now been back to the audiologist and things are worse than before.
The audiologist says that for the streaming, she cannot adjust the suppression of the microphones more than 6db. The software will not allow it and she confirmed that with Phonak. The streaming to the Phonak remote can have microphones shut off but that doesn’t help for the TV issue. Turning down the volume with either the app or on the aids themselves turns down both the streaming as well as microphone volume equally so that is useless.

After adjusting the settings, the app is worse than ever. Instead of 10-20 seconds to connect to hearing aids while connected to the TV, last night it took about 15 minutes and I had to constantly hit the RETRY button. Worse, when connected, I can adjust the balance to make all sound come from the mikes but when I move it to the right to set it to completely suppress the mikes, it does not suppress them at all.

It is obvious to me that the app is a piece of junk software and Phonak has no idea how to write apps and should have either paid someone capable of doing an app or not using an app at all. It has all sorts of “features” but they forgot what the app is supposed to do - provide the ability for the user to customize the settings of the hearing aid. In that, regard, they have failed. Promising a fix in the future means that they are just pushing out junkware to impress their customers without providing a quality product.

So now my choice is to skip streaming to the TV or to go back to using the V90s with their bluetooth to telecoil converter. It worked!

I now have to decide whether to return the P90s as not being an improvement to me or to carry two sets of hearing aids around - one with rechargeable batteries and one that works best for me. I’ll give the VA one more try and make yet another appointment for sometime net month or the next (depending on their availability) and drive the 2 hour round trip to see them.

At this point, I’d like to meet the Phonak reps responsible for the app and the overall bluetooth design so I can shove both down their throats.

@MeLittleMe said:

Turning down the volume with either the app or on the aids themselves turns down both the streaming as well as microphone volume equally so that is useless.

This statement is incorrect.
When using your TV connector you should be able to switch ambient and streamed sound by adjusting the toggle on your aids. Very nice control in my opinion.

You might try not using the phone app. Use the toggle on your aids to make program and volume changes. This approach sure worked well for me. I rarely if ever used the app on the phone.

Good luck

@MeLittleMe said:

Turning down the volume with either the app or on the aids themselves turns down both the streaming as well as microphone volume equally so that is useless.

@Raudrive said:

This statement is incorrect.
When using your TV connector you should be able to switch ambient and streamed sound by adjusting the toggle on your aids. Very nice control in my opinion.

It is NOT incorrect - unless you mean that the P90s are not working as they should. That is the way my hearing aids are working.

And I have tried them both with and without the app.

@MeLittleMe said:

It is NOT incorrect - unless you mean that the P90s are not working as they should. That is the way my hearing aids are working.

I think I understand what can be done to change your aids to do as I mentioned.

In the Target software under fitting…device options… you need to select volume under button functions. This will enable the toggle to do as mentioned below. Picture attached.

What is supposed to happen is when you are streaming a TV show for example, by pushing the hearing aid toggle up for instance, the TV streaming volume should go up and ambient sound should go down.
If you push the toggle down the TV volume should go down and the ambient sound should go up.

If your aids are not doing this please talk to your fitter. He/she should be able to correct this.

The VA audiologist agreed with me that the new Phonaks didn’t work out and provided me with a Starkey. She said it was the only brand (of 5) that the VA carries that allows one to completely shut off the mike when using bluetooth. So far, they are working out fine for me.

@MeLittleMe said:

She said it was the only brand (of 5) that the VA carries that allows one to completely shut off the mike when using bluetooth.

I don’t think this is correct. I had the Phonak M50 for a while and I could turn off my Mics.

I’ve had V90s and B90s and both had this capability. The P90 does NOT per the manufacturer. The audiologist can only reduce the mike volume a maximum of 6db when connected to hearing aids or streaming devices. Only with the Remote Mic is this different.

The app can do more but the app at this time will not retain the settings because the manufacturer decided cool features are more important than customer usefulness and only promise to fix it “in the future”. There is no commitment by the manufacturer to fix this so the audiologist can make it the default setting.

Got a Phonak message the other day saying that up to 10 custom settings can now be saved in the app.

Does anyone know why I can stream a phone call, music and video on my HA but not facebook video call?

Your reply is offensive, insulting and demeaning. I have an MS degree in EE and consider myself highly technical. I spent a lot of time trying to get the hearing aids to meet my needs and found it was just not worth the effort. The audiologist who also spent a lot of time talking to the manufacturer agreed and found me a hearing aid from another company that was far superior for me and I haven’t even begun to investigate its app to see if it can do even more!

I suspect you determined the shoe fits.