Very little is written here about Starkey hearing aid users. I have some questions I’d like to hear
1 - if you were to compare Starkey Evolv and Phonak Paradise, I mean bluetooth and other features, are they equally stable? Can the microphone on the hearing aid be used on starkey when we have calls?
2 - are the receivers on Starkey hearing aids of the same quality?
3 - are Starkey hearing aids as reliable in quality as Phonak?
4 - Is there something that bothers you about Starkey hearing aids that is not discussed here?
I have no experience with Phonak, but have had Starkey Evolv ’s for the last seven months. I have had no issues with them and am quite happy. I can receive phone calls via bluetooth.
Starkey is actually my go-to brand. Originally I was a Sonic Innovations (now just Sonic) user because of their natural sound, but I think the company fell behind in technology at one point. I tried several brands and landed on Starkey which I’ve been happy with for a long time. I’m using the Starkey Evolv as well as the Oticon Own 1 , both have Bluetooth and ear-to-ear wireless. So far I much prefer the Starkey, but the two pairs were set up by different audiologists. I’m going to give my Starkey audiologist a kick at the Oticons and see if they can be usable.
Anyway, to answer your question, yes the mics can still pick up the ambient room sound while you are on the phone via Bluetooth. Probably in both cases you can mute or adjust the level, but I haven’t gotten into those settings yet (via phone app).
English is not my material language, maybe I wrote the question wrongly about calling via bluetooth.
With Phonak, which uses bluetooth classic, it uses a microphone on the hearing aid that captures speech. The smartphone does not have to be next to me, it can even be in another room if there is no signal interruption. At first, the MFI bluetooth did not support this, but a smartphone had to be used as a microphone, otherwise the person would not hear it. Over time, Apple introduced this possibility, but it is unclear whether it is supported on Android. I don’t know how much has progressed in the meantime, I hope that the current generation of Starkeys does not have these problems.
The reason I’m asking these questions is because I’m being offered the option of buying the new Phonak Luminity or waiting for the Starkey Genesis which has impressive battery life and some other features. I would like to get to know more about the impressions of starkey users who use hearing aids, because that way I would get to know the advantages and disadvantages directly from the people who have them.
I’ve learned a lot about phonak on YouTube, I even read a lot here on the forum, but unfortunately there isn’t much for Starkey, you get the impression that they’re not of high enough quality because very little is said about them on the forum.
I’ve been wearing Starkey for the past 10 years, and they have gotten better over time. I just was fit with Genesis 24 yesterday, replacing the RIC Edge AI 2400. The batteries are impressive. - after 13 hours today, with about 4 hours of streaming/phone calls I have 75% battery remaining . I will say background noise management has been really good ( I particularly notices how much more quiet my commute was today, and still heard the radio very well). The 4 click fitting, well, that may need some work, as I need to get adjustments. I am hopeful and excited after my first day…I just need to get them dialed in.
Regarding reliability, over the past 7 years of wearing RICs, I have had to send them in for service 4 times total. My audiologist always have loaners available (I wore for first 3 years of them 10). I have wore GN Resound and Oticon CICs before Starkey and CICs in general I probably sent those in ever other year for repairs.
Thank you. if you can write more impressions about GenesisAI hearing aids. Have you tested in a noisy environment like a restaurant? Do you have difficulties when talking in a noisy environment?
And what is it like to hear the sound of the TV and the radio, I mean, without bluetooth.
So additional feedback on the Genesis 24: I really love the battery life. I have yet to get to less than 60% on a day (longest day: 5:30am to 12:30am the next morning, which a few hours of streaming…19 hrs off the charger). I am still undecided on the sound clarity/quality as I think my audiologist is still trying to figure out the new software and he is fairly new to the craft. I can tell the processing speed is A LOT faster. Noise reduction “feels” more seemless, although I have yet to truly test these. I feel like I need to have the adjustments and new molds before I can truly assess overall sound performance (clarity - so far, I have been disappointed). Car rides are way better than before - road noise cut significantly and I can hear the radio pretty well.
Regarding the Bluetooth connectivity, I am disappointed. I use iOS devices, my connectivity is not as good as the Starkey Edge AI I had previously. Also, I am finding the range less than the Edge which has surprised me. I will be connected to my iPad and get a phone call. I will turn off my Bluetooth of the iPad as the “hand-off” to phone did not happen and the iPhone still would not pick up the Hearing aids. This was very frustrating and has happened twice. I hope this can be fixed with a firmware/software update. I am not sure what to think about the range, other than disappointing.
I will also share, the Edge+ is great - very effective.
I will continue to provide updates from time to time and answer any questions anyone has
If you can, test hearing aids with Android that support Asha. Maybe borrow a mobile phone from a friend for a short time?
Regarding your iphone, try removing the protective case from the iphone, maybe the bluetooth reception will improve. Just an idea. I had a similar problem a long time ago.
speech quality has been very good so far and the noise reduction options are great.
I’m getting occasional sharp sounds that seem to come out of nowhere…
iPhone connection has been crappy.
My right keeps disconnecting from my phone. When they are both connected, streaming audio is basically unusable because it fades in and out between the ears.
I’ve tried unpairing and repairing them to my phone and that helps for a few minutes.
This is so frustrating for $7000 devices when $30 Bluetooth earbuds can do this without issue.
I have an updated iPhone 14 pro max and am a tech savvy 37 year old.
I had Starkey for more than 10 years, specifically my current model is from 2016 (Halo 2) and recently I got to try Evolv for a month. I never had Phonak in recent years. Prior to give my subjective opinion, I do want to premise: regulation and being able to give indications to the fitter-audiologist makes such a difference.
My opinion: best part of most Starkey HAs is construction quality, never broken part such as receiver, microphone or else. Mine has fallen to the ground a couple of times and no problem with that. As for most model of HAs I’m extremely cautious about water – I don’t want to risk that and I don’t wear them near sand nor in activities where they may fall from my ears.
About wearing them: my current model is a bit heavy on the ears, I get some aches after a couple of hours. This part has been improved in more recent models, I can say the Evolv Ai is way lighter.
About Bluetooth. My opinion is: introducing Bluetooth has been a massive improvement with HAs, I use it a lot. Starkey’s Bluetooth is not the strongest to me. It often gives me some problems and without accessories it’s very limited. Also, it may change for the newest generation (Genesis), still up to Evolv Ai the Bluetooth accessories has been the same for more than 6 years.
About sound. This is strictly linked to each regulation. I’m very used to how Starkey sound after all these years. I can’t compare to other brands or natural hearing. The sound I dislike more are metal-sound, water-sound and car-sound.
In general, I had many issues with: whistles – got partially solved with getting encapsulated receiver, still anything in proximity to the microphone can get a loud whistle (other people can hear that too). It can be annoying with car-seat-belt or a person sitting very near to me.
App and regulations. In more recent years, it has been possible to adjust a bit with a couple of apps. For what I understand, up to the Evolv Ai model it’s possible to use “Thrive” while for Genesis only there will a specific app. I use it to create some programs. To me the result you is very similar to the standard ones, still it’s possible to enhance a bit the comprehension in noise and microphone sensitivity/direction, eventually you can try to use Edge mode and other settings. To me it’s ok to have this options. Also, specifically on a Iphone or Ipad you can do a lot with this HAs. The feature “Live Listen” is useful to me in noisy places, especially speaking with someone on a table or positioning near a pc audio output. I need to specify that to me it works better if you shut down your own HA volume and use the phone’s microphone only. A plus: Starkey has made available a tinnitus app “Starkey relax” that makes calming sounds and to me the guitar one is really a nice touch.
Other mixed considerations.
I would say that to me it seems like Starkey is a solid brand, that is strong in RIC models. So, as I’ve lost some more hearing, I grew out of their optimal target.
I say this because when I tried the Evolv AI RIC model I think it was struggling with my level of hearing loss and this impacted my trial to the point that I considered my older model more reliable and I struggled to see evident improvements. On the side, you can regulate it a lot, so I can ask for more power if I work a lot with regulation.
This leads to another point that I’m living first person as someone from Europe. In my experience, in Europe there is a delay in making Starkey models available, they always arrive at least a year later. RIC are the easiest to get, I do think even the newer model will be here sooner. While, if like me you are expecting to try a different model (es.) you will have no real info about deliveries. Also these delays are frequent for models. I’m not totally sure, still my audiologist told me that the main European Starkey Base is in UK (where most earmolds get done), so there has been some long waiting time. Another “commercial” point – here where I live there are not many centers that have Starkey, and some of them are quitting the collaboration with Starkey in favor of other brands, like Signa or Phonak, you may want to take this into consideration.
To me overall I’m good with it, at the same time I haven’t signed any pact with this brand so I don’t see reasons to completely ignore other brands.
Quick update with music on the radio in a car. These continue to struggle like most hearing aids in my opinion. Genesis is very good a reducing unwanted road noise when dealing with just road noise. However, the music and road noise seems to still be too complex and the music is “distorted” or “dampened”. Hard to explain in words. Best is to turn off any noise reduction features…however, the road noise comes back in as a factor. Tough trade offs. Edge + is not able to resolve either.
don’t lose hope. Here’s an example for unitron, I found a tuning wizard, and among the options of the wizard is that you can amplify or sharpen the sound of the radio. I saw that only one part of the frequency increased, I forgot which one. Well, maybe it is possible to create a separate program that you would just switch on when listening to the radio, and then the noise reduction options would be turned off, but the frequencies that are for listening to the radio and TV would be amplified. This is just an idea. I don’t know if it can be created as a separate program. Maybe you should ask the audiologist about that option.
Croatia
SWMichigan
. I will say background noise management has been really good ( I particularly notices how much more quiet my commute was today, and still heard the radio very well). The 4 click fitting, well, that may need some work, as I need to get adjustments. I am hopeful and excited after my first day…I just need to get them dialed in.
