Widex Allure vs Costco offerings

I currently have the Widex SmartRIC 440. I also have Infinios (equivalent of Costco's Sennheiser Rise) and I have tested the Rexton Reach.

I love the Widex sound. I did notice a significant different in sound (specially for music) vs the Costco's ones. For me, the most significant difference is their PureSound program (only for mild to moderate hearing loss) and their music program. Their Puresound (universal) program sounds ok but nothing outstanding IMO.

Only way to find out is to try them. That's what I did and, when I tried the SmartRICs, the difference in sound blew me away. I do not think they perform better for speech than the Rexton I tested at Costco but, for music, the difference was very significant.

It also depends what level of Widex are you getting. I don't think the 220s or 110s are worth getting (long story).

Widex announced a new version of the Allure called the Allure AI. Get the latter and, if your audiologist doesn't have it yet, I would wait. It is supposed to be a very significant upgrade.

(1) Everyone says Widex has the highest sampling rate, but is there documentation of the actual values for Widex and other brands?

(2) I imagine that distortion at the user’s desired listening loudness would be more important. Any documentation of distortion vs frequency vs SPL?

(3) In any event, the effect of these factors on our perception is very complex, further complicated by recruitment, so actual experience as reported by @OcramSagev is likely more useful than manufacturers marketing claims.

All companies obviously update their chipsets enormously over the years, so there is no reason to believe that a distinction that was true decades ago remains true today.

I don’t deny the possibility that Widex is good for music, but there is no reason to believe this results from a decades-old difference in sampling rate. I think people should stop citing sampling rate superiority if there is no recent evidence to support it.

There is a difference between "manufacturer's don't publicly provide this information" and "there is no recent evidence." Just because something isn't in marketing documentation doesn't make it insignificant. No other manufacturer uses sampling rates as high as Widex, at least up to prior to the most recent releases of the past month. They are focused on things other than music quality, because this has a lower priority. Widex have always been focused on fidelity and many of the changes they've introduced first such as wide input dynamic range have been adopted by the entire industry because they also allowed for better speech in noise understanding.

Higher sampling rates don't necessarily improve speech in noise recognition for hearing-impaired users because their hearing systems have impaired frequency and temporal resolution that is unique to each individual. But that doesn't mean that a system with a significantly higher sampling rate won't give you the best chance of achieving the higher music fidelity possible. They're two different things.

If you don't want to learn about the differences so that you can make a more informed choice for yourself, you don't have to. These are things that most audiologists don't even pay attention to and they're the people making the recommendations to the end user But for the people who do want a deeper understanding or who work with sound, this is helpful information.

I find the easiest way around all the technical aspects and marketing hype is to actually try/trial the different brands/models, and then judge yourself which is the better one for your situation, hearing is so subjective that what works for one is not necessary the "one" for you, just learn the basics between them and then let your ears do the talking, one thing that's definitely causing quite the issues on the forum is bluetooth, if this is important to you then your gonna have to dig deep into the tech specs, not just HAs but your phone and PC all need to be on the same page!

Another question. Given l had a hearing test performed with an audiologist and there is an app that allows me to configure the HA, why should l pay more to buy from a brick and mortar store than online?

@troelsner said:

I do wear glasses and l like the idea of being able to do my own programming and tweaking

Then forget the Allures, you cannot DYI programming with them. The last model that can be DYI programmed is the Widex SmartRIC.

The SmartRIC 440 has an option called the high-frequency boost that works super well (for me) for augmenting high frequency sounds (the programming software has a little bird singing icon for it). The Allure does not have this feature (but it is something that the AuD can do manually). They both use the same receivers so they have the same hardware capability for this.

@troelsner said:

why should l pay more to buy from a brick and mortar store than online?

(1) Widex does not allow the sale of their products by someone to does not conduct face-to-face diagnostics. In fact, Widex is the only brand, that I know of, that cannot be programmed remotely without special hardware (and this hardware is not available fo the Allures). On their web page they say:

Widex does not sell products to online retailers that do not require a licensed professional to conduct face-to-face diagnostics, fitting, counseling, selection, and maintenance of our hearing aids.

(2) When you buy local, you are not only buying the aids but also bundled services. There are things that you cannot do online like REM, mold/dome optimal fitting, etc. plus you are paying for an expert healthcare professional that will ensure the aids are optimally setup for you. I like doing my DYI programming but I am nowhere close to the knowledge the experts have.