Unitron with 360 (Spheric doofer)

The only change I see is in the design. Phonak sphere has been on sale for 2 years, is this Unitron any improvement over the sphere? I looked at the details, there is no mention of Bluetooth LE.

@markoo355 said:

The only change I see is in the design

Yes that’s all, as they are the same only with a different name, so until Phonak comes out with a new platform or updated version of sphere..so now that this has been finally released next would be a Costco version?

@markoo355 said:

The only change I see is in the design.

They seem to be physically smaller which would link with a reduced battery life (24 hours vs 56 hours for the infinio Sphere Ultra)

Note after posting: Apologies seem to be in order…the ‘smaller size’ & ‘reduced battery life’ seem to originate from AI generated ‘information’ that I failed to double check (I really should know better!). I suspect it actually relates to the Moxi S-R and not the Moxi S-RX

Given that a number of negative comments have been made about the size of the Sphere, the Unitron version might prove to be popular.

They forgot to change the AI chip name from Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere in the picture

Funny, funny

They use the same chips with the same names that Sonova has given both brands, e.g. both also run on the ERA chipset and the deepsonic chip is shared between the brands. The operating system, software ecosystem and physical housing design is what differs between the brands.

They use a similar classification philosophy of detecting a variety of different environments and blending the settings for these (except for music) but it is more similar to Widex’s sound classifier than the Phonak one. They use soft speech lift in a much broader range of environments to boost soft speech components whereas Phonak uses its soft speech enhancer only in quiet situations. They have a multidirectional beamforming microphone system whereas Phonak stereozoom only focuses in the direction you’re facing.

Neither Unitron nor Phonak currently have auracast. Both support Roger unlimited which is a better way for Sonova to sell hearing aids to you and your friends as you can share one transmitter with unlimited Sonova-brand hearing aid users with Rogerdirect compatibility (all products sold since Marvel) and Roger delivers a more consistent and better speech in noise experience than what is currently available with auracast.

Like are we talking about AutoSence, they use the same classification as SoundNav.

Soundnav Environments:

1. Quiet: Ideal for relaxing at home or in isolated spaces.
2. Conversation in Quiet: Highlights a soft voice against a quiet background.
3. Conversation in a Small Group: Enhances speech from a few people at a table or meeting.
4. Conversation in a Crowd: Boosts speech intelligibility when surrounded by multiple people talking at once.
5. Conversation in Noise: Specifically separates and isolates speech from ambient background noise.
6. Noise: Suppresses loud, continuous background sounds.
7. Music: Adjusts for the richness, dynamic range, and complexity of musical instruments.
8. Loud Noise (Vivante-specific): Reduces highly intense background interference

Autosense OS Environments:

1. Calm Situation: Optimized for one-on-one conversations in quiet indoor settings.
2. Speech in Noise: Suppresses background noise from behind while dynamically focusing on speech from the front.
3. Speech in Loud Noise: Activates narrow-beam directionality (like StereoZoom) to isolate a single speaker in crowds or restaurants.
4. Speech in Car: Reduces low-frequency road, engine, and cabin noise to stabilise the speech signal inside a vehicle.
5. Comfort in Noise: Attenuates loud environmental sounds when no speech is present to reduce listening fatigue.
6. Comfort in Echo: Identifies reverberant acoustic reflections (like in churches or tiled rooms) and softens them to improve clarity.
7. Music: An exclusive, non-blended program that expands the dynamic range and gain to capture the rich texture of live or recorded instruments.

The number of environments and their description and use differ between the brands, as do the settings. The only thing they have in common is streaming speech and streaming music.

Do the Infino models have the longest time since release without Auracast-capable becoming enabled? Waiting as long as they have seems risky for class-action and anti-competitive issues.

These distinctions seen odd. Why would echo or car be an issue for one buyer and not the other? If one digs deeper into the software, are the settings similar but names different?

Only one roger transmitter unlimited can be used with unlimited Sonova hearing aids with Rogerdirect. They aren’t any more expensive than competing manufacturers. It just depends if you like them or not. They’ll come along when auracast is more widely available. Loop systems barely exist in my country and auracast is the same.

Unitron and Phonak have uniquely different approaches to classifying sound and patent portfolios. The same is true of most brands. Oticon, Unitron and Widex don’t have echo cancellation algorthims. Their respective sister companies Bernafon, Phonak and Signia do.

Some features are shared, such as the base frequency lowering strategies used with are shared by Sonova brands (though Phonak’s is a more well developed version) and Demant Brands (though Bernafon’s is more flexible) but others aren’t with Widex and Signia having very different frequency lowering strategies and signal processing in general.

Even when it comes to brands like Resound and Beltone there are still some differences in signal processing arising from different patent portfolios when the two brands were separate companies. While most of the differences are marketing alone, not all of them are. This is not true of Phonak & Unitron, Bernafon & Oticon or Signia & Widex. They may or may not share hardware platforms and their signal processing is quite different which gives users a broader range of choice.