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Please help forward this to locate the Widex design team

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Edited

Dear Widex Technical Department,

My name is Jimy.

Hello. I represent a hearing aid community group with 460 members who use the Widex Allure 440 R D and Widex Allure 440 D hearing aids. We are all big fans of Widex’s sound signature, audio quality and brand reputation, which is why we chose your products despite the premium price.

We have previously sent emails to your headquarters to resolve the technical issues we are facing, but have never received any effective response. A large number of our users are experiencing ongoing problems with their devices, and we urgently request your technical team to release a firmware update as soon as possible to address the following issues, which have a significant impact on our daily hearing experience:

1. Automatic Feedback Suppression: We dislike the automatic feedback suppression function. Even when we attempt to turn off feedback suppression, the device still compresses sound output, resulting in inconsistent volume that randomly gets louder and quieter, which seriously affects listening comfort.

2. Lack of S-Power Receiver: The device does not offer an S-power receiver. Many of our users have a hearing loss of around 50dB and love Widex’s sound style, but the sound quality of the Allure 440 R D is unacceptable for them, as it fails to match their mild hearing loss needs.

3. Missing Frequency Shifting Function: This model has been released for over a year, yet the frequency shifting function is still completely missing with no official resolution. As we know, Widex is an industry pioneer in linear frequency shifting technology with excellent high-frequency compensation effects, so we are confused and disappointed that this basic function is missing from the Allure 440 series.

4. Unstable Wireless Phone Audio: The wireless phone call audio has unadjustable gain, and the sound quality is distorted like a damaged speaker. In addition, the Bluetooth connection is unstable. We note that Widex has a dedicated consumer technical support hotline for wireless connectivity issues, but we hope to solve these problems fundamentally through firmware updates rather than temporary fixes.

5. Insufficient Output: The MPO output limit is set too low. We hope a firmware update will allow manual adjustment of MPO output to meet the individual hearing needs of different users.

We purchased the Widex Allure 440 at a premium price and have been patiently waiting and hoping for an official firmware upgrade to fix these flaws and optimize related functions. I believe people with normal hearing cannot fully understand the real experience of those with hearing impairment, so we sincerely hope your technical team will contact me as soon as possible to discuss our feedback and arrange relevant technical fixes.

I represent a large community of hearing aid users who are all waiting for these problems to be resolved with your support. For further communication and to provide more detailed user feedback, please contact me via the following email:

My contact email: dingnianchang@gmail.com

6 people in this conversation4 min readJump to latest

Well your wasting your time, Widex couldn’t care less once the product has been sold, but you not alone, most if not all the big brands have one thing or another “not up to expectations” so a waiting game to see if and when they “fix” things.

I hear you. Every company has its shortcomings, but in my experience they do make a genuine effort to address issues over time. Most people working in the hearing‑health industry are passionate about what they do, and I believe they really are trying to help people hear better. I don’t think its only about the money. I hope you get a reply from them.

Edited

The lack of adjustable is unacceptable. The shift to compass cloud has been a mistake. prefer software that runs locally on machines that they own. Compass cloud has been a limiting factor in the ability of HCPs to recommend and fit Allure and Allure products.

Have you used the new Compass Cloud 2.0?

Any significant improvements ?

Have you tried the Allure ? I’ve heard it is available in some European countries. If so,
are the Alllure AI significantly better in noise than the Allure as Widex claims ?

Compass Cloud is still being brought up to the same level of functionality as Compass GPS. The Allure hasn’t been launched where I am yet, but it will be significant better than the standard Allure and the published internal studies show that is significantly better than 2/4 other manufacturers who are using AI in their chips, and on par with the other 1/4.

Well for one thing, there’s no way anyone would know what’s “better” then the last version or models from any manufacturer, again this is all subjective opinion and most of all pure marketing hype.

In reply to @tenkan

The published studies show 5dB better performance at a level of 90% word recognition than competing devices, which is pretty significant. Most brands are measuring performance at an of 50% which isn’t really that helpful as people have given up listening to a conversation when they’re performing at chance level.

Comparing Natural Processing and AI Approaches in Speech-In-Noise Performance6

A new study looks at how premium hearing aids designed with both natural processing and AI approaches perform under the same noisy conditions.

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