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Retired musician Day 1 demoing Widex Allure — comments pushing me back to Phonak

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My Phonak 70s are dying and recording and mixing music in bedroom studio is frustrating. I was/ am sold on Widex Ha because of the testimonials by musicians. My volume is no loud but the music mix is always muddy. My hearing drops to bottom of moderate for higher frequencies.

Commenters on the forum remark that pure sound is great until the music ends and speaking begins. I read there is sable to counter feedback in pure sound mode. Well that scares me. Money aside, quality of life is key and for me so is my acoustic and John Mayer- like music.

I’m demoing the Allure 330s. Didn’t realize there is a 440. Does the 440 provide more quality. I read 90% of Allures sold are 440 v. only 9% for the 330 model. Originally, I wanted to get the SmartRic but I hear similar complaints with these plus the technology is old

So my question here and theme: WHAT AM I to do?

Nothing is perfect in this world and seem to possess a fair share of not being perfect”?

Everyone’s 2cents welcome to comment

Last issue: I have tinnitus and I thought my Phonak positively reduced or eliminated the ringing. The Audi in Arizona gives a subtractive treatise on the Allure. A major minus is that Widex eliminated the Allure’s capability to eliminate or greatly reduce tinnitus. Why would they do that?

Thanks to all for making this forum great

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I own the SmartRICs and absolutely love them. I also have the Infinios, but I find the sound of the SmartRICs significantly better. Their PureSound makes me feel as I’m not wearing any aids at all, yet I can hear much much better.

Can you share your ? You will get better answers if you do .

Yes , Widex has not enabled the Zen program on the Allures but they may enable it in the future . It seems the Allure was released with fewer features than the SmartRICs but widex has been enabling more features after the release. I really like the Zen program for tinnitus

Thank you for your response. When you indicated they are working on an update does that mean firmware update that I can download to my ha or do the mean a new model will soon be released

This evening I will post my

also, these 330s have “flower pedals “ on the app so I can touch the direction I need to focus my hearing. Doesn’t this allure model automatically adjust to where my head is focused?

Aldo played acoustic guitar today to test the tone on the music quality switching between the Widex and my phone 70 s. Widex wins by a large Marge. However I did get a few nanosecond instances of feedback surprisingly when I plucked the low E string sometimes

I am a musician, piano, and use Phonak, presently Virto R. But, I still need studio monitors for music work, Airpods Pro 3 for the gym, and headphones + amp for serious listening. Bit of a nuisance all that swapping but necessary for me. The really good thing about Widex is they do cater to musicians and the network audiologists all seem to be somewhat understanding of our issues and needs. I’m partial to Phonak because of the accessories, the world-wide support network - I travel a lot, and the support I can get when I tweek my settings. YMMV.

Yes, post your . That’s how you are known around here.

In reply to @birdcountry99

@birdcountry99 said:

Wonder if @flashb1024 would like to drop by with some insights!

Well, thanks for including me. I’ve been off-net since you posted, but back on-line.

As far as @22ndfret is concerned, it seems like the Widex is doing well with music, but general programming is off. Idk much about the Widex line, or their current update plans, but according to @jimy it should be forthcoming.

The only negative thing about widex, is their decision to go cloud based with their software, which I understand shuts out the DIYers. Most of us audiophiles/musicians rely on self fitting, so that’s a real downer.

The feedback issue should be addressed in the fitting software. I suggest you take your guitar to your next appointment, and try to duplicate the instance, and have the feedback settings, and acoustics looked at.

Most of us deal with tinnitus, and tbh, I’ve never used the feature on my oticons, but you can download many masking apps for your phone.

In reply to @22ndfret

Access the Widex Allure mobile app to switch your hearing aids to PureSound mode. This mode is designed to optimize sound clarity and reduce background interference, delivering an enhanced listening experience tailored to daily communication needs.

My first ever were Widex Allure 440s that I trialed in August. I hated them. The first pair I received were defective but I didn’t know it so suffered through. Got second pair and still hated them. I have low frequency hearing loss and the highs were just way too high. I kept walking around saying “I know I’m not this deaf.” Lot of feedback and intermittent performance. Lot of frustration on my end.

After that I purchased Jabra 700s the day they were released. After some tweaks I’ve been very happy with these overall especially at home. However speech in noise could be better so I’m trialing Oticon Intents and like them way better than Widex. But I’m still working with audi on fine tuning and don’t know if I’ll keep them - they are almost “too good" for my type of hearing loss.

FYI I’m not a musician but “they" say Widex are best for them. There probably isn’t that much difference between 330 and 440s. Maybe some more programming capabilities on audiologist side.

Sorry one last thing to add to my comment. My audiologist wouldn’t turn on puresound for me because she said it makes speech sound terrible. It also uses up the battery faster. There was a UK video I found online where the audiologist describes the pure sound difference while at the pub. See if you can find that. It’s how my audiologist described it to me.

Edited

That’s the opposite of my experience with PureSound: speech and music sound phenomenal, the battery lasts a long time (I’ve never seen my aids drop below 60% after a 14-hour day), and I have no issues with feedback (and I use openBass domes).

The problem with PureSound is that it offers minimal sound processing in noisy environments, so in those situations, I switch to Universal. PureSound has the best sound of all the aids I’ve tried (Oticon, Signia/Rexton, Phonak) but it does not work well in complex environments. For those, I switch to Universal.

PureSound isn’t relevant for the OP because his doesn’t fall within the range shown below. Does your audiogram fall within that range? Maybe that’s why your didn’t recommend them.

Attached is a doc that shows the differences between the 330 and 440

PureSound

9_502_6203_001_06_ARRD1_M-REC_SCREEN.pdf (376.5 KB)

After years of mixing with inadequate hearing, I’ve realized that what works for me is
a) Send my mix-down track to someone who has real ears, and they can mix it to studio-quality. OR
b) I like this one better, because I’m cheap… My mastering software (Izotope Ozone) has a feature that uses a reference track of my choosing to polish my track to similar EQ levels.
Either way, even though I have Phonak Infinio Spheres, which I love, I don’t know how I can ever trust my hearing to be like “normal”, so I don’t.

Thanks for your response.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I use the Izotope Mixing and Mastering Suite and I’m familiar with the plugins you speak of and I certainly agree that regardless of the make of aids, hearing will never be “normal”.
I’ve thought about sending track to a professional mixer with “ears” and perhaps I can do this is I limit my recording to 1 song a year.
The reference track is something I haven’t fully put energy into. What I believe I would be doing would be mixing "visually.
Last, I just bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 490 Pro headphones for professional reference studio headphone mixing and listening. I can hear a quality difference at all frequencies – much more than when using my Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 ohms.

Again thanks and certainly would like your feedback on my comments. How much would an outside “mixer” person with moderate experience cost for a song?

22nd Fret

I found a friend who had much more time in the chair than me, and he did it for free. Not wanting to take advantage of him, I switched over to the Ozone reference track. I record so little these days that I wouldn’t consider anything else.

I also use “pro” quality headphones, right over my . They work great for my initial mixes.

There are online companies such as Landr that do mastering, and from what I’ve heard, are not too expensive.

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