This ACT test comes down to 4 levels of noise reduction. But the equipment for this test is very expensive (and from Oticon only?) - it’s just business.
Same with me. I think it depends on where you are (I’m in the USA). Probably anything with oticon.global gets rerouted to Oticon.com for folks in the US.
Go to the other thread on Oticon Intent (the one started by @AbramBaileyAuD with the official announcement text). Some of the folks who can access these links have posted more accessible links for the papers for us to download.
For 138 posts we talk here about bells and whistles - DNN, 4D, BTLE, …
At the bottom a hearing aid is an amplifyer - with a mike and a speaker. So i did, what i use to do first - read the tech data sheet.
As i use the 85rite, i only compared those, but with the other horns it’s quite similar as they all depend on the microphones.
Measured with the ear simulator
my more’s have input noise of 21db [directional 29}
and the intent have 22db [directional 30]
Measured with the coupler
more: 17db [directional 27]
intent: 19db [diectional 30]
So they didn’t decrease the omnipresent hisss - they even create more noise.
Of course - a lot of people won’t notice it, especially those with a flat audiogram, but for me (the typical old-age deaf) it’s there, as soon as i even turn the simple controls to “brighter” or even adjust the curve, so that i can understand a lawyer hurrying down a contract.
I know, this is due to the silicon microphones that in turn are less sensitive to humidity (and are cheaper to manufacture ). But it shows that oticon unfortunately follows the trend to add software based “hitech” toys and neglect the underlying hardware.
No, modern micro accelerometers are all Silicon MEMS based. A 3D capacitive sensing structure that is co-packaged with a sophisticated controller die. So they do consume power, but they are very efficient drawing only µA of current at 1-3V.
Fair enough if they are using discrete MEMS devices: I haven’t seen the chassis (obviously) rather than sensing directly from the mic output, which you’re ’paying for’ already.
Yes, ditto on thanks to @Luga for the links to the new videos.
A few things kind of jumped out at me from the videos that I didn’t see or might have missed in the textual announcement:
The Intent is actually smaller in size that the Real and More.
The frequency bandwidth of the Intent is now from 80 all the way up to 10 KHz in range. I could be wrong, but I thought previous Oticon aids only go up to around 8 KHz.
The new receiver (they call it MiniFitDetect. They’re self calibrating automatically and are guaranteed to be within 1 dB accuracy upon power up. And what’s also cool is that when connected to Genie 2, the size and wire length and other pertinent information stored in the memory of the receiver is transmitted via an 8-pin connector back through the aids to Genie 2. While this is pretty cool, it would make these new smart receivers become incompatible with the earlier versions of Oticon aids. Not that this is a big issue, but you can’t just exchange existing receivers you have on the More or Real (that may become your backup once you have the Intent) with the Intent anymore.
Size 13 rechargeable battery (instead of size 312 like before) gives you 5 years of use, 33% less in charging time, faster charging (a full day charge in 1 hour). Probably because of this faster charging feature, the charger now is a contact charger, not contact-free induction charging anymore. So again, not compatible with previous models’ desk charger and smart charger.