Stepping up from Phonak Marvel to Paradise (Long)

https://www.amazon.com/Phonak-Hearing-Aid-Drying-Capsules/dp/B00DZW2EI645
This may help explain.

It does! As always, you are a wealth of information. Thanks.

Wow Clark, this sounds worth checking out! I am a reasonably happy camper with my Phonak Marvel aids, but if the newer Paradise improves that clarity of SPEECH, it could be just the ticket. Also impressed by its improved speech clarity, noise suppression and bluetooth stability.

I use power domes on my current aids cuz I am allergic to any plastic used for the receiver “skeletons” that sit in the ear, connecting to aid with a tube. I do find that when I press my domed aids INTO the ear canal, it seems to add an automatic 10-15% boost in volume and clarity. Trouble is, the domes work their way OUT of the canals in a minute or so.

Thanks for taking the time to categorize all the improvements with the Paradise aids. Like you, I’d definitely go for 13-batt option over rechargables. I’ve been in situations when I need the aids ON for longer than a day even.

@Clark said:

… so I can take cell phone calls by just tapping my ear.

I no longer do that with my own new Paradise P90s, since discovering a caller was a scammer. The hands-free calling is great, but now I first check my phone to see who’s calling. (My son suggested that maybe Phonak could implement a three-tap feature that first gave an audio caller ID )

I just got the same HA’s but at present I struggle hear people talking as the direction detection is not doing a good job. These also do not block environmental sounds especially in the car. I hear the tires on the road and the wind but not my wife talking.
I spoke t phonak and they say they are not setup correctly and I have a feeling my audi is struggling with this part. They do not seem to know and I find it hard to express what I am hearing and not hearing.

I hear a ring tone of my choice via the P90, feel a vibration of the phone proper, followed by the spoken name of the caller (or an alert that the call is potential spam, or just a recital of the number if it is not in the address book but not a spam candidate). Basically almost everything that I could know if I had the phone in my hand and could see the screen. And all this overrides streaming or volume being turned down to a minimum because I am on a tractor or whatever. Not too shabby IMO.

Okay, that got my attention! I agree that that is not in the least bit shabby. None of that happens for me, and I’m jealous!

I get that the spam detection is a function of the carrier (I have Verizon and won’t pay extra for spam filtering, so that’s on me), but the spoken caller ID has to be done by the phone and/or the aids. I’m guessing that the phone could do it by passing the caller’s name as (part of) the ringtone sound. Not sure how the aids could do that by themselves. And (despite having tried REALLY hard) I can’t find anything in the Target software to enable a feature like that.

Which Android phone do you have?

Galaxy S10e. Frankly, for my use case since I don’t care for a phone defaulting to speaker mode, the implementation using the P90R is BETTER than if my hearing were ‘normal.’ Assuming that I did not use a hearing aid equivalent headset. The system switches between phone calls, notifications, my workstation BT connection and the TV Connector in the theater seamlessly. Just like having normal hearing. And it is discreet which I value.

Many thanks, @VinceJ, for such a detailed and helpful response to my question about what you actually hear. Not too shabby indeed! I can now use that info to get onto my provider about providing a similar service.

Hmm. As others have indicated, spoken caller ID is available (or not) via the phone software, and not the provider, as I’d wrongly concluded. However, my Galaxy A5 (2017) Phone app doesn’t offer such a setting. The Google Phone app does, but that requires Android 9 and my Galaxy doesn’t support that OS upgrade (well, it can be made to via what seems to be a rather risky hack).

Clark you have made my day so much better posting this!

I am using Phonak Audeo B70-312’s. They’re about 2-1/2 years old. I’m miserable with them!

My audiologist is helping. Long story…

I have trouble understanding what I hear.Spoken. TV. I’m so far behind in the conversation, and I make assumptions. Frankly I feel stupid.

I hope that I’ll be able to move to Phonak Paradise HA’s. Soon.

I have Paradise P90-R’'s. Oddly enough, my phone (Samsung J8) connects to an incoming call instantaneously, no tapping needed anywhere. It’s quite weird suddenly hearing a ringing tone, then someone asking if I’m there! My audio is puzzled, and apparently Phonak in Auckland (New Zealand) haven’t come across this either. The same occurred with the Marvels, so it must be a peculiarity of the phone.

@iandd888 Well, I too have P90-Rs and I too have a Samsung phone (Galaxy A5 (2016)) and I too am in Auckland. But I do need to tap when I get a call (either double-tap on the ear or tap and swipe on the phone). So it does sound as though it might be a peculiarity of your J8 model. Or just possibly phone provider? I’m with Spark.)

I pretty much agree with everything positive here about the paradise aids. Except for one thing. The goal of hearing aids was never to fix anything. And they don’t. The goal was to help or enhance the problem areas or to try to make better. If your goal is to fix your loss this is not the place for that. At least not yet and maybe never