Q: Re: starkey halo

I have Resound hearing aids that work seamlessly with the Apple Watch. I can control the sound level, treble & bass and have a number of different context settings (outdoors, restaurant, etc.) that I can do from my watch. And, it streams phone calls just like with my iPhone. I can hear the phone conversation very well, but the sound quality in not hi fidelity.

George

Hi Doug.

I found that using the iWatch does not work with hearing aids. It sends the sound through the watch and does not, and according to Starkey will not presently send to the aids. Starkey says they are working on it.

Your Audi has solutions to your two isseus:

     1.Restaurant noise: The audi can select Restaurant as a Starkey preset. There are other possible presets. The problem with presets is that they seldom fit you exactly. I do find the Restaurant suitable and helpful. Since I do not have my audiologist in the restaurant he cannot adjust that, but for me all I have to do is triple click the home button and bring up the apple assistant and the settings are there. Yes, you do have to take out the iPhone or have the trulink app for the iWatch which is about as reliable as standing on a plank in water. I deleted it from the watch and seldom use it on my phone.

  2. Stream boost: YOur audi can fix this. It takes time and patience and an audi really interested in service. Mine had adjusted the old streaming preset and it was perfect for me. Good bass and treble mix with excellent volume. Then Starkey destroyed it with Stream Boost because we could not get the old preset to be the default for streaming. When I visited the other day, my audi called to see if he could copy the settings from the old preset to the Stream Boost. "No!" Go figure! He patiently switched back and forth between screens until he got Stream Boost set as the old preset was.

With your iPhone and the Trulink App, you can create your own settings for special situations, although the possibilities are limited. I find the whole process somewhat convoluted, but it can be helpful. You can even have the setting GPS specific meaning it will automatically change the setting when you get to that GPS location. I almost never use the Trulink APP.

I cannot use my HAs and pair to more than one device. Despite telling my iPad to forget my HAs, it causes problems with streaming if the BT is on. I've told Starkey about this and Apple. Almost everytime I try playing a movie of an audio track on my iPad, it says it is trying to connect to my HA's from another device. Really! Did I ask it to do that? NO! Do I want it to? No! Maybe eventually we'll see these thing sfixed. All I can say is we've come a long way since i bought my HAs in September.

The one thing I can say that is most important. I can hear better in almost all situations than I could with my old Oticons.

Not sure how much it helps but apparently some if you go to Apple.com/feedback and write a note about your problems and then go to the Starkey Blog and they'll get back to you. The problem with Starkey is I had three people asking me the same question. They also want you/me to do all kinds of experimenting and know precisely the circumstances of the problem. I'm very busy. Just because I am wearing HA's does not mean I've checked out of life. The reason I have them is so I can stay tuned in.

Hope this is helpful.

Parrish Jones

Thank you everyone for info on the Starkey Halos. For me, the hearing aid function is great, but the streaming quality, in "Stream Boost", not so great, although functional. I use streaming for phone calls and listening to audio books using an iPhone 6 Plus.

Stream Boost has distortion and sound artifacts like clicking and popping noises while listening to speech.  I experimented with various settings to see if I could reduce these annoying artifacts. I discovered that this is probably caused by cross-talk between the two bluetooth signals. The reason I say this is because if I turn off streaming to either the left or right ear, and listen with one ear only, these artifacts seem to be reduced. (You can do this under Settings/General/Accessibility/Hearing Aids/Your Hearing Aids). But, it would be much better to use both ears.

I am wondering if this is a fault of my individual HAs, or if everyone else has the same problem. Is everyone else hearing this same thing?

Kevin

I have an issue in restaurants.  I have a restaurant setting but it seems to highlight conversations going on behind me at another table.  Has anyone had a setting created whereby the audiologist shut off the real Halo microphones and created a setting where just the front (top) mics worked?  If so, was that successful. 

I find it difficult to fathom that Starkey does not allow for more user input and adjustment.  I realize they want to keep the audiologists in business but a little more freedom for the folks who actually use the devices would be appreciated.

I am now having problems getting my left aid to pair with phone. The prob began with 8.4.1. Maybe something else. I've tried pairing routine in 7 or 8 locations with no luck. Wondered what others are experinecing

Parrish, I dont think it is the OS. I have Resound HAs and they work as well now as before the OS update. I haven't been aware of any difference.

George

I had the same problem, I could hear people behind me better than the people at my table! I had some settings tweaked, but I continue to have problems in restaurants. At least before the tweaks, I could hear 'someone's' conversation clearly. Now I just eat, and mostly smile, and hope I catch enough of the conversation to follow along. Restaurants are still my downfall.

I started with the Siemens HI's (non BT) and decided to try the Halo 110's particularly because the streaming (Siemens required a separate box) very poor, but the 110'a were not much better.

Hopefully the Siemens has a newer BT device.

I'd appreciate your comments if/when you try something else.

In a different thread, I commented that I have had unacceptable reliability and BT performance with the Halo's.