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Phonak Sphere vs Unitron?

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I will be replacing my Phonak Audeo P-R/RT ’s early in January 2026 and my hearing specialist has moved from Phonak distributor to being an independent. He has a close relationship with Unitron in Waterloo, Ontario and has always been promoting Unitron. I started with Oticon and was extremely unhappy with the hearing specialist there and the Phonak’s were a massive improvement. But they’re showing there age now and it’s time to move on.

My hearing specialist is extremely good and I’d like to keep with him, but I know he will push hard for the Unitron’s. I really don’t know much about the Unitron’s and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of discussion about them on this forum. What are the most recent ones ( rechargeable) and how do they compare with Phonak? I am only interested in the best ones in each camp.

I have the same complaint as most of you, can’t hear in noisy environments. Plus with the Phonak’s, sharp noises are jarringly cringy - have to to turn them down. Streaming (iPhone/iPad/TV connector) are mandatory.

It’s early to be looking and new models may appear but I want to be prepared. Any help here would be most welcome.

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From what I can tell, Unitron doesn’t have anything equivalent to the Sphere. I would eventually expect them to, but doesn’t seem like they do now. If speech in noise is the priority, I’d go for the Spheres. Their only downside is that they’re notably larger than most (and they don’t yet have but that is less of an issue than I thought it would be)

Unitron are clones of Phonak models, they will definitely be releasing their new platform at some stage, never too far behind Phonak release.

@anon22361496 said:

It’s early to be looking and new models may appear but I want to be prepared.

By Jan 26 unitron just might have the Sphere equivalent.

Does this fitter sell other brands of aids? Most modern hearing aids are very good, with a good filter.

The new Unitron Smiles are looking a lot like the non-sphere infinios. The infinios aren’t the spheres in noise, but they are a bit of a boost from the paradise line.

In reply to @tenkan

While Unitron devices are built on the same hardware platform as Phonak devices (chipset, chip), the OS and software ecosystem is completely different and developed separately to Phonak’s solutions. Sometimes Phonak have introduced equivalents of Unitron-created technologies like soft-speech lift several product generations after Unitron created them. The products themselves are well-differentiated from a software and design point of view.

Sorry but they are exactly the same, the software does exactly the same feature wise as target, only with different names, nothing of substance here.

The signal processing technologies operate differently and are designed separately. Unitron’s wind noise management used a signal low-frequency detector until recently while Phonak’s windblock has used three including one in the mid frequencies for a long time. Unitron’s soft speech lift works in quiet and noise, while Phonak’s speech enhancer is designed for quiet environments only.

Unitron was a company separate to Phonak long before it was purchased by Sonova in the year 2000. It has its own patent portfolio and technologies. They are run as competing brands. Yes, they share the same hardware platform but that is where the similarities end.

@Hearing_Potential said:

Yes, they share the same hardware platform but that is where the similarities end.

Sorry I disagree, that are the same with a different name, I’m well aware of the brands, you might know they also use the same accessories and have done so since the icube, different firmware tho, cheers

You can disagree all you want. The hardware platforms are largely the same for cost of scale manufacturing reasons. The software operates differently and is based upon separate patent portfolios. You can even ask Gemini and it’ll give you the same answer.

Doesn’t change anything, having used both for many years, but anyways doesn’t matter for most people, at least Unitron is the cheaper option and once it’s released to Costco it’ll be even cheaper, for most this is all that matters, cheers

See my reply to you below from another thread. They don’t operate the same.

Unitron with 360 (Spheric doofer)
Soundnav Environments: Quiet: Ideal for relaxing at home or in isolated spaces. Conversation in Quiet: Highlights a soft voice against a quiet background. Conversation in a Small Group: Enhances speech from a few people at a table or meeting. Conversation in a Crowd: Boosts speech intelligibility when surrounded by multiple people talking at once. Conversation in Noise: Specifically separates and isolates speech from ambient background noise. Noise: Suppresses loud, continuous background sound…

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