Spheric Mode - Restaurant Review

@ButchNH said:

Jordan,
Your question raises an interesting point and I’m hoping an audiologist will jump in with a clear explanation. Putting aside the people that should really have molds and don’t get the benefit of the spheres that they should because of that. How does an audiologist make sure that the the Spheric program is working as it should be? I understand that real ear testing will make sure that your aids are delivering sound at your prescriptive level. My question is how do they measure the absence of sound that anyone getting a Sphere is hoping to experience? I recall being wowed by the Spheric mold when I was first fitted in the office. I then have had to deal with some malfunctions. While I’m sure the Spheres are helping me much more than the Marvel’s they replaced I still struggle with wondering how to know when I feel like they are not delivering if it is my own fluctuating hearing or if my aids are not working correctly.

Interesting question. The Sphere hearing aids have two chips in them. The Spheric AI chip only operates when the other chip tells it to turn on and all it does is removes noise from the signal before the main processing chip receives the cleaned signal and then does the normal hearing aid processing. Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong but I think the AI chip is basically just an on/off kinda thing. I can tell when it’s on (without checking the myPhonak App) because background noise suddenly drops off and sounds a bit weird…plus…voices start to sound a bit crisp sounding. I think that’s why closed fittings work better because you don’t get unprocessed background noise leaking in through your domes. You only get the clean signal.

Jordan

Thanks for the reply. My Spheres have yet to ever kick in to Spheric mode on their own. I select that mode in any listening situation that has background noise which is pretty much anytime I am speaking to anyone besides my spouse. I’m a “fan” if that is the correct term of real ear measures as it provides an objective way to determine if the aids are hitting prescriptive targets. With noise cancellation programs or the AI of the Spheres “filtering” out background noise my question remains with regard to how is it objectively determined that the program is operating as intended? Sorry if my post is just a restating of my original question but I’d like to know there is a way to test my aids aside from playing kitchen noise in the background while someone is speaking to me and switching the Spheric mode off and on. I have an appointment coming up with my audiologist and I’ll certainly ask for their explanation but in the meantime my curiosity remains. To put it another way how do I (or my audiologist) know the “clean” signal you referred to is as “clean” as it’s supposed to be?

I’m afraid that probably there aren’t any validated way to assess the “righteousness” of the Spheric programme, because every hard of hearing patient has their unique SNR loss. Maybe it can be measured by noise reduction measure in REM equipment, but I’m not sure if it is more for traditional noise reduction measurements.

I can totally hear when noise suppression kicks in on my non-AI Jabra EP20s.

It’s similar to what @JordanK describes, except that it doesn’t make speech any crisper (no AI, after all…)

So if you don’t notice anything, chances are Sphere is not active.

@Olsenbri said:

and I apologize profusely for being that person. I did not perceive any significant increase in comprehension

You don’t have to apologize for your impression. The forum is for troubleshooting and finding the causes of disappointment.

The restaurant program in myPhonak app isn’t an AI program. It can be a bit better than in older generations of Phonak hearing aids, but it’s a rather mild improvement.

What makes a real difference is the Spheric Speech in Noise program, whether in the AutoSense OS program or in the manual program, which setting I recommend from the start when talking in the restaurant.

Do you have that manual program?

Inserting your audiogram in your profile settings could be helpful to give you more accurate advices. Posting about kind of acoustic coupling (domes, earmolds, cShells, diameter of venting) is useful too.

I have no presets for Spheric noise reduction. I will ask my audiologist. I will have to look for an audiogram, I didn’t take one home when they fitted me.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you use the Roger 2 with the Spheres? The spec sheet I just looked at did not have them being listed as compatible. They listed it as working with Phonak Marvel, Paradise, Lumity or Infinio,. Pricey is an understatement- the price I saw was $2229. For anyone that says you can’t put a price on great hearing I think Phonak has. Glad it is working well for you. I’m going to echo others in that my audi has created a couple of Spheric programs in my aids, one with microphone focus on and the other with it off. The Spheric mode never kick on by itself in my experience. I have to manually select it. The “standard” resteuraunt program in my programming is not Spheric so I never use it.