Author Topic: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.  (Read 57646 times)

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #30 on: June 02, 2015, 10:14:37 am »
Manual control is okay with me.

There should be a manual control button on your hearing aids that are for switching between programs.

See Page 16 of the user guide:

http://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/gc_us/Documents/_Launch/Fall2014/UserGuide/029-0334-03_User_Guide_Audeo_V_V1.00.pdf

Then see the specific instructions for your application.

I never did like the buttons on the hearing aids. When I first got mine I had to use the volume controls on the hearing aids and I was constantly reaching up to change the volume for whatever circumstances. I thought I was playing Simon Says.

Once I found out about the remote control device, I got one, and have been using it for volume and programming ever since.  Very convenient.
3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

NYLady

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 116
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #31 on: June 05, 2015, 12:51:59 pm »
Went to audiologist today for another adjustment and asked about Stereo Zoom Jack.  First he asked me how much difficulty I am having in noisy situations with the Speech in Noise setting I have now.  Actually, I have done quite well.  However, I asked him if that could be adjusted a bit to make it clearer.  He showed me how much more adjustment could be made on this feature and I was about half way to the top.  We bumped it up a bit.  He also said Speech in Loud Noise could be added, which I could control, but he did not feel my situation warranted it at this point.  As I have said, I have had a wonderful result with the Audeo V70 and Bicros II.  So far, so good, so my next adjustment/checkup will be in about a month, unless I experience any problem or difficulty.

Report on vestibular rehab at the one month mark....unfortunately not so good.  Believe it or not, it seems like balance is getting worse at times.  In the beginning, it seemed to be improving, but I have noticed as the exercises are increased, I have more residual effects afterward.  I am also doing some visuals at home.  Go twice a week and from what I was told yesterday, will be going for about three months.  Still have fingers crossed this will help.  The therapists I have are encouraging and really supportive.  All we can do is the best we can.  I will continue to work at home as well.

So, all in all, some good news, some not so good.  I am so, so grateful that my hearing has been helped.  That is HUGE!  Each day really is a gift as is the support, advice and understanding of this great forum.  Bless you all.

Wishing all of us the best going forward....

NYL

Lillygold

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #32 on: June 19, 2015, 08:18:55 pm »
Have not seen any more comments about Phonak Cros II. I plan to test them. Just wondering how they were working.

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #33 on: June 20, 2015, 12:12:03 am »
I've had my CROS II equipment since Tuesday 6/16/15. Here are my observations to date. I'll be reporting more later.

Phonak CROS II and Audeo V90

June 16, 2015

Picked up new equipment consisting of CROS II, Audeo V90, PilotOne Remote Control with clip-on carry holster, eight batteries, 2 plastic cases, cleaning tool, 3 packages of wax traps, 4 domes, small vinyl bag, user manuals.

The audiologist configured the PilotOne to the hearing aids and installed 3 switchable programs: Speech in Loud Noise, Speech in Noise, Comfort in Noise. I had also wanted Speech in Wind and Speech in 360 Degrees but those two apparently weren’t available with the CROSS II. No problem. I can still have two custom programs configured if I need them.

I was a little disappointed that my old MyPilot Remote Control was not compatible with my new equipment nor was there an upgraded MyPilot available for the new generation of equipment. I’ll miss the view screen.
 
However, the PilotOne Remote Control turned out to very easy to use. There are two large buttons labeled + and – for volume control. Volume can be adjusted in 5 increments in either direction. You hear a beep with each increment and 2 beeps when you’ve come to the end of the increments.

The medium sized button switches between the switchable programs.

The small button resets to the default setting which, in my case, is mid range volume and all the automatic features.

PilotOne runs on a single AAA battery. Want free batteries? If you have a Harbor Freight in your area start collecting Harbor Freight coupons. Eventually you’ll come across the free batteries coupon. That gives you a pack of 24 AAA batteries with any purchase and there are plenty of one and two dollar household items you can buy to get your freebies.

Interesting thing about PilotOne. You don’t need to leave it on. Whatever your last setting was will stay that way when you turn off PilotOne so you can leave it off for most of the time to conserve the battery and just turn it on when you need to change your volume or program. Then turn it off again.

The first test in the field today was at a local restaurant. Unfortunately, my friend and I couldn’t go until about 2:30 PM when the restaurant only had a few people in it. There wasn’t a lot of background noise so it wasn’t much of a test although my friend’s voice was clear. There was one point when we were getting out of the car before going into the restaurant. We were about 15’ apart and my friend was talking. I could hear him clearly which (I think) would not have happened with my old equipment. I will have to test that again at another time.

One negative issue so far is that I’m getting a hiss.

June 17, 2015

I had someone come to the house this morning and we spent some time talking outside while moving around a bit. Seems like voice was coming in clearer at greater distances. That’s just an impression. I’ll have to make a quantitative test at some point.

I went to dinner with my friend at about 5 PM. The restaurant was about half full. Not a great deal of noise, but some. It seemed like my friend’s voice came in clearly without the background noise being bothersome.

June 19, 2015

Today I went out to meet my son to pick up some stuff at his friend’s place of business. We were both inside and outside, at times up to 15’ apart and the new equipment brought in both voices clearly.

Then my son and I went to lunch and we were talking while in my truck. My son has a tendency to talk to his chest and with my old hearing aids I would have to look at him and strain to hear what he was saying. Not so with the new equipment. I was able to keep looking straight ahead and still hear him clearly over the noise of the truck and the AC.

We were at McDonald’s at noon. The place was crowded. The noise of customers and kitchen was horrible. While at the counter I had to turn the volume all the way down and I was at the counter for too short of time to experiment. However, when we got a table I was able to hear my son clearly with the volume turned down.

Nothing conclusive yet but a good indication that the latest technology is an improvement over the old technology.

I will do more experimenting.
3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

JerseyGirl2

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 513
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #34 on: June 20, 2015, 05:35:33 am »
Thanks for the update. Please continue to report your impressions!

Jersey Girl 2
Translab surgery and BAHA implant: House Ear Institute, Los Angeles, 1/2008
Drs. J. House, Schwartz, Wilkinson, and Stefan
BAHA Intenso, 6/2008
no facial, balance, or vision problems either before or after surgery ... just hearing loss
Monmouth County, NJ

Lillygold

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #35 on: June 20, 2015, 09:13:50 pm »
Yes, thanks for the update. Hope to hear more

Phillies

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #36 on: June 21, 2015, 07:13:43 pm »
Thanks for the update. Maybe I should go get this new version as well.

NYLady

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 116
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #37 on: June 22, 2015, 02:04:05 pm »
Hi, 

Experienced my first problem with the Audeo V70 and CROS II....

After my last fitting, I noticed the volume beginning to decrease and voices sounded different, sort of like through a can, a tiny echo, and then after a day or so, rapidly decreasing volume until they did not work at all.  Upon visiting Audio, he told me about wax traps.  The hearing aids I wore prior to these, did not have wax traps and I had never even heard of them.  Just a little white thingy under the dome, which is easy to remove and change and I have done it.  They have a little rod that has a clean one at one end and a gizmo to remove the used one at the other.  Made the change and presto, wonderful sound once again.  So far, so good with these aids.  They have been remarkable for me.  Jack, hope you are loving yours too. 

NYL

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #38 on: June 22, 2015, 07:12:41 pm »
Upon visiting Audio, he told me about wax traps.  The hearing aids I wore prior to these, did not have wax traps and I had never even heard of them.  Just a little white thingy under the dome, which is easy to remove and change and I have done it.  They have a little rod that has a clean one at one end and a gizmo to remove the used one at the other.  Made the change and presto, wonderful sound once again. 

The wax traps should be changed about once a month along with cleaning the wax off the receiver surfaces. More frequently if you find wax building up on the unit more rapidly. Also change the domes at regular intervals, not necessarily as often but they do get a little brittle after prolonged use.

Amazon has decent prices for wax traps and domes:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=phonak

If you have any difficulty inserting the units into the ear canal or if you find that your ears get scaly after a while, I find that applying Neosporin or Cortizone cream relieves that problem and clears up the scaliness.

3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #39 on: June 22, 2015, 07:13:50 pm »
June 21, 2015
My friend and I went to breakfast. The restaurant was crowded and very noisy with the Father’s Day breakfast crowd. I brought both the old and the new hearing aids for comparison. The old hearing aids were barely adequate with the Comfort in Noise which had always been the best I could get in noisy restaurants. The automatic features of the CROS II and audeo V90 worked slightly better. I was able to turn the volume down which lowered the volume of the background noise but I could still hear my friend fairly clearly. However, not perfect. Unfortunately, when I tried the three switchable programs all they did was abruptly increase the surrounding noise volume without doing anything for the speech of my friend. I don’t know what that’s about.

June 22, 2015
Met another friend for lunch at a diner today. Moderately crowded with lots of kitchen noise. Again the automatic features worked OK but the switchable features did the same thing as yesterday. More testing needed along with an eventual discussion with my audiologist, perhaps in a few weeks.
3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

NYLady

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 116
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #40 on: July 02, 2015, 07:46:18 am »
Hi Arizona Jack,

How are you doing with the new Phonaks?  I was to an affair this week and did find a bit of difficulty with background noise, but to be honest, even if I were a normally hearing person, with no hearing issues, I think it would have been difficult in that environment.  Since I have never used bicros before, I have no way of comparing the new technology to the old, but overall, I really love them.  Do you think they are better than the older ones you used?  Hope you enjoy the 4th.  Think we will all have to shut them off for awhile :-)  Stay well.

NYL

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #41 on: July 02, 2015, 08:57:17 am »
I'm still having some difficulty in noisy environments but I've been experimenting with the three switchable programs. It'll be a while before I can report results and may have to have my audiologist create some custom programs.

Other than that, the new equipment is an improvement over the old equipment.

As I mentioned earlier, I seem to be able to have conversations with people at a bit more of a distance than before.

3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

NYLady

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 116
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #42 on: July 03, 2015, 06:56:02 am »
Arizona Jack....

When you say "custom programs"  what do you mean?  Are there things that can be tailored to an individual more than just different added features?  Still learning....

NYL

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #43 on: July 03, 2015, 02:18:28 pm »
Arizona Jack....
When you say "custom programs"  what do you mean?  Are there things that can be tailored to an individual more than just different added features?  Still learning....

Yes. Check out the following brochure on the next to last page. Your V70 has 4 automatic programs and is capable of having 4 additional switchable programs from the list although, like mine, some might not be programmable because of the CROS.

http://www.phonakpro.com/content/dam/phonak/gc_us/Documents/_Launch/Fall2014/B2B/027-0173-03_PI_Phonak_Audeo_V.pdf
3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0

arizonajack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1140
  • Arizona - It's a Dry Heat
Re: Phonak State of the Art CROS II Announced.
« Reply #44 on: July 12, 2015, 02:07:40 pm »
July 12, 2015 Update.

This morning I went to a swap meet. Some of you might call it a flea market in some other parts of the country.

I was walking around looking at stuff on peoples' table and had my hearing aids turned on.

I could clearly hear conversations that people were having a good 20' to 30' away, something I could never accomplish with the old equipment.

3/15/18 12mm x 6mm x5mm
9/21/16 12mm x 7mm x 5mm
3/23/15 12mm x 5.5mm x 4mm
3/13/14 12mm x 6mm x 4mm
8/1/13 14mm x 5mm x 4mm (Expected)
1/22/13 12mm x 3mm (Gamma Knife)
10/10/12 11mm x 4mm x 5mm
4/4/12 9mm x 4mm x 3mm (Diagnosis)

My story at: http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=18287.0