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Oticon Real 1 vs. Widex/Signia

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I might get the offer to exchange my Oticon Real 1 for a Signia or Widex of my choice. I would not call myself audiophile, and the main issue I experience is understanding speech in noise, especially soft children’s voices (which is a very frequent scenario). Any advice?

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It depends on which Signia/Widex model. They are both made by the same company (WS Audiology). The Widex owners I know, they love them but everyone is different.
The only way to know is try them and see which one you like best. If you are interested in doing your own programming now, or in the future, Widex does not allow that now (from what I read in this forum)

Hm, I guess my question is: Is there a Signia or Widex that would be better than an Oticon Real 1 when it comes to speech in noise? Real 1 is a good HA, but it’s now over two years old and there have been developments like the Phonak Sphere or the Oticon Intent which focus on speech in noise. Is there a Signia/Widex model that would be a real upgrade from the Real 1, like the Intent 1 seems to be a real upgrade from the Real 1?
Interesting to hear that Widex does not “allow” - because the fitting software is now in the cloud? What about Signia?

The Signia Connexx fitting software is a standalone app, you can do your own programming with Signia

In reply to @OffendedOtter

@OffendedOtter said:

Is there a Signia or Widex HA that would be better than an Oticon Real 1 when it comes to speech in noise

You’ll need to trial them to know this for sure, no one else can possibly tell you which is best for you, you be the judge!

@OffendedOtter said:

Is there a Signia/Widex model that would be a real upgrade from the Real 1, like the Intent 1 seems to be a real upgrade from the Real 1

Again you’d need to trial between them to know which is better, Signia/Rexton have the Pure IX/ Reach models are these are just as good as any others.

@OffendedOtter said:

Interesting to hear that Widex does not “allow” DIY - because the fitting software is now in the cloud? What about Signia

Only for the allure models for now, it might not stay this way tho, it’s received a luke warm response so far, both Signia and Rexton Connexx software have windows based software so no problem there.
Have you got a Costco nearby, you could pop in and check out what they have available, cheapest deals in town for sure.

@tenkan said:

Signia/Rexton have the Pure IX/ Reach models are these are just as good as any others.

… meaning basically on par with the Oticon Intent or the Phonak Sphere?

@tenkan said:

You’ll need to trial them to know this for sure

That would obviously be the best, but I am not sure to what extent this will be possible.

Well all are basically the same, only Jabra and Phonak “seem” to stand out in the “how do they do” in noisy environments, but unless your in these types of environment all the time, it becomes a moot point, you can’t try the sphere just yet at Costco, but the Jabra Pro 30 with is available, i had a short trial on these, they were good but I didn’t find the “wow” factor, I believe with a project I could get them working much better, you keep mentioning Oticon, Costco only have Phillips and it’s very debatable which model they are, Bernafon/Sonic or Oticon.
So Costco would be willing to let you trial in the store which of course is very short period, otherwise it’s 180 days you can return and swap it you don’t believe they’re suitable, but only the once apparently, if you try returning a 2nd time it can be problematic.

Interesting you say that about the Jabra 30: I asked the Costco fitter about the Jabra 30 and he was not enthusiastic about it (he said , excellent in paper but I’m getting different types of feedback ) and neither Matthew Allsop in YouTube (the latter was about the Resound Vivia). Definitely not the same you hear about the Spheres

@OffendedOtter, seeing your , you probably have open domes.

In that scenario, even the best noise suppression can only do so much. It’s unlikely that you will notice a significant improvement, even with the Spheres.

In reply to @OcramSagev

Yes this is true, Phonak and ReSound have a different approach, one thing to remember is sphere is like maximum 3 hours in that mode, the Jabra Pro 30 (are rebranded Vivia) they don’t have a time limit as such either.

In reply to @OffendedOtter

oticon reals are good hearing aids and I doubt that swapping them for new hearing aids after only 2 years will substantially improve your speech in noise performance. I would rather suggest to improve the acoustic coupling of your existing hearing aids (e.g. custom molds instead of open domes). this would be a much cheaper solution with a higher likelihood of success.

In reply to @wtolkien

@wtolkien said:

open domes.

In that scenario, even the best HA noise suppression can only do so much.

One thing that is possible with the spheres is activevent receiver technology. I get mine in a few hours. In very noisy environments they close, giving you best of both worlds. At the cost of clucking noise and more frequent replacement. Not the whole aid, just the receivers. I go around 3 months in one ear and 9 to a year in the other. I like them a lot on my p90s.

WH

As a ’er I finally got my Widex Moments to work better with speech in noise when I switched from open domes to the Oticon’s Minifit Open Bass domes. They work better than the Widex/Signia Vented Sleeve domes, at least for me.

I LOVE the Oticon OpenBass domes , I use them with my Phonak Infinio (non-Sphere), they do provide the best of both worlds (open and vented )

As others suggested, do trials to see how they sound for you. For me, when I was comparing Real 1 and Signia (I think it was 7 Pure, but could be mistaken) 2 years ago, Real was significantly better, hands down. The difference was surprising because Signia’s representative was obviously more experienced in tuning and spent quite some time finetuning it for me, while Oticon’s representative barely did anything.

Edited

Given the mild degree of loss in your left ear you’d probably prefer Widex devices using their puresound program in terms of sound quality vs the signia devices.

I’m guessing it’ll be an for your left ear so noise reduction features will in practice have minimal effect.

The asymmetry in your hearing will limit your ability to use interaural loudness and timing difference cues to separate speech from noise. Widex devices using the puresound program will preserve interaural timing difference cues that between your two ears better than other brands due to their very low internal processing delay. For your loss this could significantly improve your access to interaural timing difference cues and your ability to separate speech from noise following an adaptation period.

A might be a better option for managing hearing conversations at long distances in busy restaurants. The widex sound assist seems to be more versatile than the signia equivalent as it offers a table mode.

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