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Spheric Mode - Restaurant Review

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Edited

Although I’ve already tried the Spheric mode in one outdoor environment, I had the pleasure of trying it in a complex, open restaurant environment. Imagine a large restaurant approximately 7500 sq. ft. (700 sq. meters). In the corner, near the ceiling is a television. The section I was in, had about 20 very loud cackling people. Now was the time to hit the Spheric mode.

Immediately, background noise faded away, and I could hear my wife quite clearly sitting beside me. I could hear the words on that television, as well. The server - no problem.

These hearing aids are nothing short of amazing.

20 people in this conversation18 min readJump to latest
Edited

Thank you! Wonderful review.

I’ve followed others. I am impressed with all the reviews, yet see some people that Sphere’s haven’t helped.

So…way-back I got brand new Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s which were the best in August 3-1/2 years ago. My dispensing audi was a gentleman who worked a miracle getting me top grade hearing aids 3 years early from workman’s compensation. Hallelujah!

Except he couldn’t set them up. His best set up was a first fit after he erased my hearing aids, then sent me saying I should find someone who could help me better than he could.

That’s solved now…but the point is even the best hearing aid can be the worst if it’s setup by someone who makes mistakes.

My interpretation is:

Marvel Paradise and Lumity all were ok, with some improvement compared to the previous model.
My concern is that my hearing aids could have been passable for 3-1/2 years rather than the c*ap they were for the first year and a half.

edit: adding…your experience is what we all wish to receive when we find a vendor and buy hearing aids. Congratulations! I’ll keep following to see what I can learn so that my experience improves and I hear better.

We both have a very similar hearing loss and I have experienced the exact same results. The Sphere’s are indeed a miracle product for me. I can now hear quite well in some of the worst restaurants and I’m no longer afraid to meet up with friends in these sound environments.

I’m still trying to figure out why some people don’t get the same results. For sure…anyone with an open fitting won’t see the same benefit. Activent might be a good solution for these people. My audiologist thinks the Sphere’s work for me because I have a relatively flat loss like yours. Could be some profiles of hearing loss don’t do as well. My audiologist also did my test and fine tuning with v5 so maybe that played a part in the equation too. Glad to see you are happy.

Jordan

@JordanK said:

My audiologist also did my REM test and fine tuning with DSL v5

Has he been able to achieve v5 Adult target in highest frequencies (5-9 kHz range) with P receiver and power domes in your case?

In my experience I am probably underamplified in that kHz s range with the same receiver and power domes.

Edited

In reply to @JordanK

Hi JordanK

Your reviews are excellent and were the first I’ve read. You checked all boxes reporting in areas where I had trouble.

My dispensing audi for my Paradise P90R’s said he wanted to know what he had done wrong.

I asked when I first approached my Heraring Instrument Specialst. He said:

  • left Paradise P90R was not setup to talk to the right P90R.
  • wrong domes were checked. Open Domes. I had graduated from open to CLOSED DOMES, then briefly to POWER DOMES, and back. I hated Power Domes. They were unwearable.
    I don’t have the skill to judge that statement.

Furthermore, my hearing tests:

  • Peel Audiology always did good tests
  • CVA (dispensing) with hindsight always reported inaccurately, saying my hearing was better than it had been with Peel Audology.
  • My Hearing Instrument Specialist is still doing hearing tests that show my hearing is 10 to 20 worse than CVA reported. They are in line with what Peel Audiology reported way-back. (Perhaps CVA thought I was cheating.)
    I’m trying to answer your question, Jordan. I think my dispensing audi was an unskilled gentleman. Phonak made good hearing aids. I had blamed them for almost 2 years.

Edit: @JordanK

My first ever hearing aid was a in the ear hearing aid, left ear. It squealed when I ate. So they made a new mould. It was uncomfortable. It hurt. I figured moulds weren’t good.

As my hearing got worse I used domes. I refused to try moulded inserts. People here tried to convince me. I apologize. I’m pretty stubborn

Well I finally got slimtips. Here’s what I learned.

  • they sound much better
  • They fit!
  • I don’t check to make sure they’re in right 20-30 times a day
  • They’re comfortable!
  • And I don’t have to get missing domes taken out of my ear.

I think wrong dome settings, poorly fitting domes and domes plugged with wax may be reasons that some people say Sphere ha aren’t working. And return them

@user490, I guess the best way to explain the “experience” of this is: imagine you’re in a room with a bunch of loud people talking / general noises and all of a sudden (spheric mode kicks in), they are quiet and only the ones you’re intending to hear come through.

Example: the loud cacklers were omitted but when I looked at that TV, I could understand. Likewise, my wife beside me and the server looking at me - no problemo.

Is spheric mode just more aggressive filtering? It doesn’t know what you want to hear but assumes the louder/est signals matter more. It may also use some algorithm but it is a guesstimate. Doesn’t that then remove nearly all general awareness for sounds at a lower volume or is the background still present but reduced - sort of an increased spread between the signal and noise?

Do these hearing aids automatically adjust so you can hear the person near you in a noisy environment or do you need to make the adjustment? Do they offer a push button for different settings that is manual or do you have to use a program on your phone to make the adjustment? I am considering getting them but do not want to have to use a phone to change programs.

Edited
@montieth said:

Do they offer a push button for different settings that is manual or do you have to use a program on your phone to make the adjustment?

As always, there is rocker switch button, for volume adjustments and program changing.

You can swith easily to manual Spheric program. However, I found that after lowering the threshold of activation, Spheric mode in AutoSense works good.

Keep in mind, that Spheric program is only in styles (Audeo Infinio Sphere 70 or 90).

In reply to @montieth

Hard to describe what the Spheric Noise Reduction mode sounds like. It basically pre-processes the sound with an AI chip/model that removes a bunch of the noise before routing the sound to the main hearing aid processor. The net effect is that the background noise is quite subdued and voices are clear. It’s a bit of a weird experience because the background noise sounds quieter but can be a bit weird at times. That being said, voices are sharp and easy to understand.

The strangest thing about the whole experience is that after a while, you forget you are in a very noisy environment (i.e. you can’t hear the noise) so you start to talk in a quieter voice. Eventually, the people you are with (that have normal hearing) start asking you to speak up because they can’t hear you through all the noise. You quickly figure out that you can hear better with the Sphere’s than they can hear with normal hearing. Funny but true.

Jordan

Edited

@montieth
Yes, these hearing aids can be set to automatically go into spheric mode depending on the environment. This setting can be done by your audiologist. My audiologist told me that according to Phonak, statistically, having the need for the spheric mode automatically is a small percentage vs what you need on a normal day. I had my audiologist turn off ALL automatic settings whereas I can switch between mine at will. Additionally, I have the physical buttons on my hearing aids set custom (only volume and nothing else).

These ears are completely customizable. IF I remember correctly settings for the physical buttons can be set to volume, presets (normal, spheric, etc) and completely off (do nothing).

Edited

Also, speaking of Sphere’s “settings,” I’ve noticed a few quirks (or not):

  1. During the bootup process (after removing from charger), if you change to one of your customized presets too quickly then hit Spheric mode before going back to your preset or default, it may come up with a battery drainage indication on one hearing aid (16 hours one side, 5 hours other). I corrected this by deleting the suspected custom preset and remade it.

  2. I guess this isn’t a quirk very nice…now you can actually access MyPhonak during calls to change the ambient background noise during actual calls!

  3. Any type of default presets your audiologist puts in CAN be accidentally deleted in MyPhonak…be careful when deleting corrupted presets!

  4. You don’t have to remove your hearing aids to reboot them. You can actually accomplish this in MyPhonak under PROFILE-HEALTH PREFERENCES-DELETE HEALTH DATA. Of course, all of this is dependent on being logged into MyPhonak and you don’t care if you’re synched to any health data app (I’m not).

In reply to @DaveL

I have just try had a trial of Phonak spheres and the sphere setting (which I could switch to manually) made absolutely no difference in noisy environments. I did really like them otherwise but they are so big that by the afternoon they hurt my ears by pushing them out so a no goer. Now I am trying the Resound Vivia. I am not enjoying them at all, the sound is tinny, Bluetooth connectivity poor forget listening to music. I don’t find these make any difference in noisy environments either. I have asked for a but the audiologist doesn’t do them. I am new to higher end hearing aids and now thinking I should hand the resounds back and find another audiologist. I have mild to moderate age related hearing loss so the higher frequencies are affected. It seems strange that neither of these makes is helping in noisy environments given some of the amazing reviews.

What Coupling (Open or or molds) are you using … and also what is your hearing loss (post ) .
The coupling seem to make the most difference with hearing in noise … seem to not work well with open fittings .

Edited

In reply to @JordanK

@JordanK said:

I’m still trying to figure out why some people don’t get the same results.

Keep in mind that two people with very similar hearing losses can have big differences in their deficits. There’s probably a middle sweet spot for sphere benefit. If someone’s SNR ability is still very good despite their hearing loss, having extra noise reduction may not really add much, and then on the other end someone might have such a severe that even the sphere just can’t do enough to help them.

I have seen severe losses with normal speech in noise performance and normal hearing with severe speech in noise deficits, so it really can be quite disconnected from hearing thresholds.

In reply to @Saltmac

If you liked the Infinio Spheres but did not find they made a big difference in loud noise and were too big for your ears, you may want to try the Infinio R which are smaller, without the noise cancelling chip and a little less expensive.

In reply to @Saltmac

I had one Widex in the ear hearing aid, followed by my first pair of Phonak that were great…and two pair of Phonak that were awful

Started about ‘02.

What I know now: the person doing setup is key.
What I don’t know: how can I find them.

My current hearing aids are Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R and they were Phonak best when I got them.

I used domes for 20+ years. I’ve just had moulded inserts made. They are so much better!

I wish I had discovered my hearing instrument specialist years ago. I’m grateful I watched his interview on a local tv station.

Hope this helps.

In reply to @Saltmac

@saltmac
Click on your “S” icon in the top right of the screen >> scorll to bottom “person icon” >> Preferances … then , and enter the numbers for left and right, for each frequency.

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