Upgrade from KS10s, worth it?

(1) Starbucks is in the coffee business. It would make sense for them to license (or legally keep) the name.
(2) 2 years. A short term transitional move to the other company just for brand familiarity. But the “real” owner kept the name.
(3) Perhaps Sennheiser is like Sharp here. Sennheiser sells the consumer audio business to Sonova and use of the name. Sennheiser keeps their name for their higher end products business line. Now Sonova wants to sell that business. Do they also let go of the name? Why wouldn’t they? They would no longer be doing consumer audio. Or maybe the Sennheiser brand can’t be held separately contractually.
(4) Name licensing, sure. I’m familiar with Luxotica, they’re massive.

I would venture to guess that Sonova would not need the brand. The brand MEANS wearable, external audio. Not hearing aids (not counting OTC which is in Sennheiser). When I hear Sennheiser I think headphones. Period. That’s the brand. I thought it quite peculiar to think of that brand on hearing aids.

Yes, Phonak currently have their latest technology in the Infinio Ultra and the Infinio Ultra Sphere models with the difference being the Sphere’s use of the Deepsonic (DNN) chip for the Spheric Speech in Loud noise mode. Both of these use the ERA chip for basic processing and control. There are several advances in processing between the Phonak Paradise and the Infinio Ultra which means that most users will perceive significant improvements in performance under typical environments. I can confirm this to be the case from my own experience.

For other users, perhaps due to their particular hearing loss or their regular daily environment being particularly noisy, the further performance improvement provided by the Spheric mode might be highly desirable or essential.

The Sennheiser Sonite Rise available from Costco is essentially the Phonak Infinio Ultra i90.

Phonak claim “up to 31 hours of battery life” for the Infinio Ultra and “up to 56 hours of battery life” for the Infinio Ultra Sphere - both of these have the caveat “the maximum battery runtime is determined by battery condition, hearing loss, environmental sound classification, streaming usage and activated feature set”.

My experience is that the Infinio Ultra with near constant streaming (of various sorts) will provide around 16 to 18 hours of use without reaching the level that requires a re-charge (i.e. a full day for most people). For more ‘normal’ use (mixture of typical domestic, a bit of streaming, phone calls, TV, occassional cafe or restaurant etc) my experience is that the 18 hours would easily stretch to around 30 hours if necessary based on the battery charge level at the end of the day.

According to Phonak, the Sphere i90’s have a battery life of "up to 56 hours”

My hearing aid day is between 15 and 16 hours. Around 6 hrs of that is in the Calm Situation program, 6 to 7 hours of streaming TV or the phone and 2 to 3 hours in the Spheric Speech in Noise mode. When I put them in the charger, the battery indicator is between 40 and 50%.

Spheric Speech is the biggest power draw because the aids are using both chips. However, I’ve never worried about Spheric Speech use and running the battery down.

Likewise, when I trialled the Sphere’s last year & on a day to day basis, at the end of the day the battery level was around 40% to 50%.

I had to return the Sphere’s because of a significant Bluetooth fault & I decided the Sennheiser Sonite Rise (equivalent to the Infinio Ultra i90, non-Sphere) would be a satisfactiory solution until a new Phonak solution becomes available, perhaps later this year. Whilst not having the same speech in noise performance of the Sphere’s (definitely a ‘wow’ factor), they are a significant step up from my old P90s.

On a day to day basis, I have not had need to recharge them before the end of the day - including early attempts to explore the battery life with many hours of streaming per day (I couldn’t stay awake long enough!). On a typical day, the Sonite Rise battery level would probably be around 30% to 40% at the end of the day, suggesting that the Phonak claim of “up to 31 hours of battery life” might be reasonable.

The Sphere i90’s were purchased from an authorized Phonak dealer Genesis-Hearing-Healthcare. (The parent company is the authorized dealer.)The warranty is the standard 3-year Phonak warranty with service provided by Phonak. There’s 3 year L&D policy from Phonak also with a $300 deductible per aid. The trial period is 30 days. C-shells were $150 a pair, including shipping and tax. The price included remote fittings.Genesis has an eBay store, an online store and a retail audi clinic in Colorado. All three stores have exceptional reviews. The audi clinic has been in business 20 plus years. The price of the Sphere i90’s was less than $2350, including tax and shipping. I had them in four days.

I bought the c-shells now even though the EasyGuard domes are working really well. My molds were still current with Phoank, so I didn’t need a new impression.

Thanks for sharing, this is good information for others, again I have to say the price is very good and is competitive with Costco for those who can’t get into a store or just don’t want to deal with Costco for whatever reason.

I see that there are also Ebay listing for the trial versions of the Spheres for even less. Good to know. Sample listing. https://shorturl.at/evYme16

@Elderly : that was a reply to the ad that user Dusty linked just above.