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Is Phonak Audeo Sphere i90 Ultra still a "game changer"?

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Edited

Or do other brands have equivalent or better systems for dealing with “speech in loud noise”?

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To me my Spheres i90 have been the game changer that I needed. But hearing loss is so individual that it depends on you as the individual.

I believe that the Phonak Sphere is one of the best but I would not make any decisions until the new Phonak and Oticon models are introduced, repordadly at the end of this month.

Edited

AFAIK, no other manufacturers have solution basee on denoising, which works good also when using hearing aid unilaterally.

This is why I have chosen to complete my in one ear with Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere 90 on another ear despite I previously seriously considered Oticon due to its better high frequency amplification than Phonak.

Raudrive, Yes, $6,800 is quite a chunk. But! I paid $5,000 for Oticon Real 3 in 2023. (half paid by insurance.) I thing Oticon Real 1 was about $6,200.

With the recent announcements (Oticon Reveal , Resound Sensia ) and the upcoming announcement of the Phonak E-R , it may be possible that other brands can have better speech in noise . But since they are not for sale yet, we will have to wait some weeks to find out.

They won’t be getting anything like the Sphere anytime soon as their sonova product line has recently been replaced. However, you might get access to Roger On Sphere which would give you access to the that way if it isn’t an audiologist (non-costco) exclusive.

I have severe borderline profound deficit in both ears and really embarrassing inability to pick a focal sound from noise. Low hearing is pretty good to around 1500hz, then off the cliff. All of this confirmed by three audiologists the first two quite salespeople for their brands with no overlap between the two though they are 15 miles apart. The third one is at Costco. Notably, the one at Costco was the only one of the three that insisted that I go to an first and get these gigantic plugs of wax out of each ear, which is a lifelong problem for me and which I told the other audiologist about before I got there. To no avail. Both tested my hearing despite the wax plugs such wax buildup has been a lifelong thing for me. I’ve never been able to control it myself at home. It always requires someone else to dig it out.

The COSTCO audiologist did not hesitate to recommend Rexton Reach Plus R-Li. I’m 2 weeks in to the 180 day Return period. We shall see. All I can say so far is that it hears everything. I keep it focused. The first audiologist had sent me home with a trial pair of Oticon hearing aids that were similar behind the ear type. I did 30 years in high tech jobs and am familiar with hardware and software and firmware and bios programming ; a lot of those kind of things. I was appalled, frankly, by Oticons lack of software capability at that time. I thought it was nothing short of awful. I made a whole pile of notes for the audiologist, but she did not appreciate it very well. By contrast, the Rexton has a very simplified app. In fact it looked deficient just in appearance compared to a lot of our modern apps for iOS devices and other things. But after using the app, I’m quite impressed. Assuming it’s already working it’s very quick to use to focus to adjust the levels, the volume and the tone which they refer to is balance. I’m still on the learning curve. I do not know what the outcome will be, and I am using custom ear molds. The left one is not particularly good. The right mold works well. I’m also trying off the shelf domes. Jury still out.

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