Today I got to try out the new AB Marvel processor. My audiologist had invited me to try it in exchange for letting her practice programming it. She had an AB rep there to go through the programming options with her. (Clarification: I have not gotten a new implant, nor do I actually have a Marvel. This was just me trying it out in my audiologist’s office while she learned how to program it.)

This is obviously not a comprehensive review because I only got to try it for about an hour and a half total, and that was in a quiet office setting. But still, better than nothing, and I was at least able to get an impression of how it works.

The overall sound quality did seem slightly clearer than the Q90, but of course it still wasn’t nearly as clear as natural hearing. (I know, that’s not something any CI is capable of at present, but I can dream for the future!) It definitely sounded louder, although she set it up with basically the same program as I had on the Q90.

I had downloaded the AB Remote app on my phone, so the AB rep showed me how to pair it with the processor and stream. I was able to adjust the mic/aux balance with the app, which was very nice — this means that I would not need a separate streaming-only program with 100% aux and 0% external microphones. I asked about music, and the rep said that they had added in specialized music settings, so I tried that with a song that I had had trouble with: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The piano notes at the beginning have sounded wrong since I got the CI, so I tried streaming it to the Marvel and it was much closer to how I remember it.

One thing I really liked was how responsive it is – it took only about a second or two, tops, to turn on, as opposed to the five seconds or so my Q90 takes; program switches are similarly much faster. And it has an actual mute button — with the Q90, I have to take it off. (Edit: Apparently you CAN mute the Q90 by holding down the program button for 5 seconds. I had no idea!) And being able to see how much battery is left is another nice feature of the app, as with the Q90 there’s no way of knowing until it starts to get low (in which case it beeps periodically).

The other thing I really wanted to try was their new AutoSense 3.0, which is supposed to help with background-noise situations. But that was nearly impossible to test in a quiet office. I did try doing an iAngelSounds word recognition test with background noise, and I got 88% correct, but then I tried the same thing with my Q90 and got the same score, so I don’t feel like I have enough data to judge how it would work in a real-world noisy situation.

But, I’ve set up an appointment to get my other ear evaluated for a second CI. It hit me again today how bad my non-implanted ear has gotten: my husband and I were both on the sun porch working, and he had a video meeting so I took off my processor and hearing aid so I wouldn’t have to listen. He was maybe four feet away from me; at that distance I used to be able to hear his voice as a low buzz with no CI or HA — I could tell it was him talking but I couldn’t make out the words. Today, however, I couldn’t hear him at all.