I currently use Oticon More-1. Generally happy except in noisy places such as restaurants. Previously had Phonak Audeo and was not thrilled with them, I found the Oticaon More 1 to have a better sound for me. Is there any indication that Oticon will have a new product in the near future that has a Sphere like mode? Thanks!
Oticon Intent is supposed to be very good. I wouldn’t expect a new model until late Summer/early Fall at the earliest. However this is just a guess from looking at past patterns. We’ll know when it gets announced.
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I don’t have any objective information to answer your question directly. However, if I may go off on a tangent… In this review it is said that the Oticon Intents and Phonak Sphere deliver very similar results in speech-in-noise. I’ve been wearing the Intents for several months now and have had zero issues in challenging listening situations; but I don’t have a very tough hearing loss compared to many though… My backups are the Mores and I find the Intents a solid good step ahead to use in noisy environments.
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The latest Oticon is the Intents and it doesn’t need a Sphere mode. It has its own noise processing capabilities and like the Infinio Sphere it is based on AI.
I trialled the Infinio Sphere briefly but now wear the Intents. This is not because I found the Intents superior in noise, but because I could not get a good fitter for the Infinio Sphere. In noise the Spheres were probably superior, in that there was a total reduction of background noise. However, the Intents are very very good in noise. I have been out in some really challenging environments and it’s a major step up from hearing aids 2 or 3 years ago. I have a serious loss and I have always had difficulty in really noisy situations. With the Intents, I don’t say they are perfect but I am now a lot more confident in noise than previously. I was out last night in a restaurant and it had high ceilings and about 50 people. I was in a group of seven. I did not hear all the speakers all of the time, but when I spoke to people to the side of me, in front of me and slightly across from me I heard them fine - actually, I’ve said this before on this forum, what is coming across is quite amazing - it is speech heard with a clarity that I would normally hear in a quiet environment - my experience with previous Phonaks would be that the aggressive noise reduction would render speakers inaudible or with my current Xceeds I would hear a bit more clearly, but not as well as with the Intents. The difference between the Intents and Spheres with respect to background noise, is that you do hear more background noise with the Intents (but it doesn’t drown out the foreground), whereas I suspect things are slightly more comfortable with the Spheres.
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I personally think that a dramatic improvement can be achieved on the Oticon aids in terms of a big jump in noise suppression toward the Sphere-like level is if Oticon can come up with the equivalent of the Phonak ActiveVent receiver that can close off the vent when it’s super noisy, either automatically or with a user-selectable option. Even with the Sphere, unless you wear a closed fitting dome or mold, the vent will let all the noise that the Sphere tries so hard to filter out all back into the ear, and it wouldn’t be as effective with an open dome or a less vented, but still vented dome.
I don’t know what kind of patent Phonak holds on their ActiveVent design, though. This might make it tough for other hearing aid brands to come up with their own equivalent.
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Interesting. Thanks. Yes, I suspect the next release from Oticon will trump the Spheres, until of course Phonak release their next model… ha! I saw a quote from somebody at Oticon, maybe the CEO, saying that the big problem is the battery life with the DNN. I think this is being worked on, as it wouldn’t surprise me that what he/she was implying is that there is more room on the table for improvements if more battery life is available. An interesting comment given that I seem to be getting 28 hours out of my Intents, even with streaming 2 to 3 hours a day.
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