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Oticon launches Opn hearing aids and Velox platform

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In reply to @robysue

@robysue said:

Can I ask where you got the link to download the software? Thanks

I simply googled “Oticon Genie Software.” I think I ended up having success at http://www.oticonsupport.co.uk/Downloads.htm1

— Updated —

@robysue said:

Can I ask where you got the link to download the software? Thanks

I simply googled “Oticon Genie Software.” I think I ended up having success at http://www.oticonsupport.co.uk/Downloads.htm

In reply to @arbywon

@arbywon said:

I also have a few concerns: battery life is one. My right aid died on the third day; the left a day later. I think these need the bigger size 312 batteries.

Update on my battery issue: Seems to be my fault. The battery door on the OPNs has a slight catch before the OFF position is reached. I was leaving the aids on all night. Last batteries lasted 5 days for right and 6 days for the left but I hadn’t noticed the aids were still on due the premature “catch” on the door. I’ll update my battery experience after this set dies.

Still pretty impressed with these although my experience in a local casual restaurant was not that much better than the Trax I am also trying. Should have another restaurant test this week.

I have had mine for two weeks or so. Overall they are a huge improvement over the Oticon Alta’s I used for 3 1/2 years. How does everybody find feedback? Better, the same or worse than previous experiences.

The first 5 days with the Opns have been very successful. They preformed well in a variety of challenging social situations. At a BBQ this weekend, I was sitting in the kitchen beside the screened sliding door. There were 2 different groups talking out the deck, 8-10 feet away, and I could switch focus and participation between them and the others in the kitchen very easily. At a lunch with 8 people around a table in a room full of talking, laughing people I could hear and understand the person across the table from me. Very different from the week before with the Junos. On my morning walks, localization of bird calls, barking dogs, and approaching runners is much improved.
Right now the only program I would want to add is one to cut back on road and tire noise in the car.
I haven’t used the phone very much but so far the connection has been stable.
The iPhone app is telling me that I have 20-30% battery life left. That’s after 5 days with about an hour a day music streaming. The Audi did turn on the bass boost for the phone and the music (folk, jazz, light rock) sounds fine to me. However I am told that I’m tone deaf and have a tin ear.
Returning the Junos I was trialing to Costco was quick and painless. Since they no longer have a relationship with Amex I walked out with a check in less than an hour! For service and value for price Costco was really amazing. If the Opns weren’t such an upgrade or if we couldn’t stretch to pay for them, I definitely would have stayed with Costco and the I was working with.

Week one update. Pretty much what others have been saying. Very good speech recognition. Out to dinner last weekend with a table full of overly loud people behind me. I carried on a perfectly understood conversation with my wife and ordered for both of us, something I have not been able to do for some time as I could not understand the waiter/waitress. I am trialing these side by side with Starkey Muse. I have done testing in restaurants, grocery stores and hardware stores back to back with the two and I understand speech at least as well with the Oticons. The advantage over the Starkeys is the quality of the sound. The Starkeys have a mechanical, artificial sound which I think does help with speech recognition but brings a harshness. The vacuum cleaner is more annoying, crumpled paper bags are unreasonably loud, even loud speech can be unpleasant. The Oticons have none of this. My sole issue is adapting to the grip tip domes. I am using the smallest ones but I am still getting used to the feel and the way my own voice sounds. I will have to see how much less I notice these two concerns as time progresses. I have not used any of the phone functions or alternate programs but will if I feel it is the better .

I’m a week into my trial of the new Oticon Opn. The instruments are set to my , but with no adjustments except for louder/softer. I would have liked to see what a directional mode would do. My assessment at this point.

Positive: The sound is very nice. Smooth we would call it in the audio business.

Negative: I had some critical tests for these devices, report as follows.

  1. Understanding a table partner in a noisy environment. Fail. I can adjust my Agil Pros using the directional mode and reducing the volume a bit and understand my table partner much better than with the Opn.

  2. Understanding a speaker in an auditorium. Fail. Nothing other than a personal listening device tuned to the radio channel of the sound system works.

  3. Understanding a passenger in my auto. Fail. The loudest sound is the road noise and that is what the Opn picks up, same as my Agil Pros.

  4. Understanding a speaker outdoors. Fail. No better than the Agil Pros.

  5. The Opn does just what the Agil Pro does - it focuses on the loudest sound in the room, regardless of the source.

I sent this information to my audiologist requesting any suggestions for the second week of the trial. To what extent the deterioration of my auditory nerve and the auditory processor in my brain dominates my assessment is not clear. At last test, my word recognition score was 72% but those tests are made under ideal conditions - headphones and in a sound booth. Hardly realistic, and same for listening to a live speaker in my audiologist’s quiet office with only the puny pre-recorded crowd nois

George Werkema

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Hello, my name is James. This is my first post to this site, though I’ve been reading it for a couple of weeks. I’ve already learned a lot, so I plan on being a frequent visitor. My hearing loss developed due to a genetic disease called Alport Syndrome, mostly known for causing kidney failure. My hearing loss has been a slow progression and the year I started dialysis is also the year I did my first hearing aids trial, which was 2009. Those were Costco and I have not tried again until late June of this year. I don’t remember which brand I tried at Costco and it’s been too long to really remember enough to compare. I returned the aids primarily due to discomfort with itching and a plugged-up feeling. After dealing with strained relationships, I decided to find a way to get past the issues I had then and met with an audiologist on June 17th. I was given Oticon Opn hearing aids to trial. They have been much less of a problem with discomfort and, from what I remember, they sound much better also. Today, I met with another audiologist from a local chain who does free hearing tests and evaluations. I was less impressed with this audi than the previous one, but he was going to give me some Starkey/Audibel A4i HAs to trial. So, he programmed them to my test (same as the first audiologist) and they sounded awful. Very tinny and sounded like someone coming through on a cheap walkie talkie. I’m thinking it was not the HAs, but the audiologist that was the issue, but I don’t really know. I didn’t take them with me, since the sound just wasn’t acceptable.

I’d like to find another set of HAs to trial and do a comparison, since the cost is going to be very high and completely out of pocket, since I’m on Medicare due to End Stage Kidney Disease and not because of age. Since I’m on daily dialysis, I had to go on disability and my resources are going to be an issue. But, I will find a way, since I really am set on improving this part of my life. I’ve read a lot on this forum about the online vs. local purchase and I’m ambivalent, especially because I’m pretty new to this. Cost, though, will have to factor in.

Any suggestions?

In reply to @TCB

For the first time, each of my Opn’s rebooted today, seemingly randomly).

@TCB said:

The only problem I have is that they randomly reboot and I hear the startup chime. No particular time or side. Sometimes both, most of the time just one side. I’d be interested to hear of anybody else having this problem

@chatteremail said:

For the first time, each of my Opn’s rebooted today, seemingly randomly).

I’m guessing it’s not because you are east of the Cascades. Knock-on-wood mine have not done that. I think if they did I’d be heading for an exchange.

I did have a couple of noisy environment experiences in the last couple of days. Monday we went to a July 4th Bbq. Some soft spoken people I had difficulty hearing. This evening my wife and I went to The Fishermans Market for dinner. It is very noisy with people and refrigeration units. Usually we don’t even try to talk. Tonight I could hear her sitting across from me just fine. I didn’t even try to hear other tables. Being able to hear in a noises restaurant was great.

In reply to @GWerkema

@GWerkema said:

I’m a week into my trial of the new Oticon Opn. The instruments are set to my audiogram, but with no adjustments except for louder/softer. I would have liked to see what a directional mode would do. My assessment at this point.

Positive: The sound is very nice. Smooth we would call it in the audio business.

Negative: I had some critical tests for these devices, report as follows.

  1. Understanding a table partner in a noisy environment. Fail. I can adjust my Agil Pros using the directional mode and reducing the volume a bit and understand my table partner much better than with the Opn.

  2. Understanding a speaker in an auditorium. Fail. Nothing other than a personal listening device tuned to the radio channel of the sound system works.

  3. Understanding a passenger in my auto. Fail. The loudest sound is the road noise and that is what the Opn picks up, same as my Agil Pros.

  4. Understanding a speaker outdoors. Fail. No better than the Agil Pros.

  5. The Opn does just what the Agil Pro does - it focuses on the loudest sound in the room, regardless of the source.

I sent this information to my audiologist requesting any suggestions for the second week of the trial. To what extent the deterioration of my auditory nerve and the auditory processor in my brain dominates my assessment is not clear. At last test, my word recognition score was 72% but those tests are made under ideal conditions - headphones and in a sound booth. Hardly realistic, and same for listening to a live speaker in my audiologist’s quiet office with only the puny pre-recorded crowd nois

George Werkema

I should demo OPNs late this week or early next week. I plan to do my own evaluation. This review is the 1st that I have seen that was negative. It kind of crusted my hopes of OPN being outstanding. I will make up my own mind. I have only tried Oticom Alta 2 Pro MiniRites and Siemens Pure 7px. I will report my findings.

Thanks,

M

In reply to @GWerkema

@GWerkema said:

I’m a week into my trial of the new Oticon Opn. The instruments are set to my audiogram, but with no adjustments except for louder/softer. I would have liked to see what a directional mode would do. My assessment at this point.

Positive: The sound is very nice. Smooth we would call it in the audio business.

Negative: I had some critical tests for these devices, report as follows.

  1. Understanding a table partner in a noisy environment. Fail. I can adjust my Agil Pros using the directional mode and reducing the volume a bit and understand my table partner much better than with the Opn.

  2. Understanding a speaker in an auditorium. Fail. Nothing other than a personal listening device tuned to the radio channel of the sound system works.

  3. Understanding a passenger in my auto. Fail. The loudest sound is the road noise and that is what the Opn picks up, same as my Agil Pros.

  4. Understanding a speaker outdoors. Fail. No better than the Agil Pros.

  5. The Opn does just what the Agil Pro does - it focuses on the loudest sound in the room, regardless of the source.

I sent this information to my audiologist requesting any suggestions for the second week of the trial. To what extent the deterioration of my auditory nerve and the auditory processor in my brain dominates my assessment is not clear. At last test, my word recognition score was 72% but those tests are made under ideal conditions - headphones and in a sound booth. Hardly realistic, and same for listening to a live speaker in my audiologist’s quiet office with only the puny pre-recorded crowd nois

George Werkema

Hz R L
250 55 50
500 55 60
1k 65 75
2k 75 70
4k 100 75
6k 105 100
8k 100 100

Thanks for sharing. I think a lot of us here are hopeful that the Opn proves to be the breakthrough it is represented to be, so can you keep us updated on your experience?

In reply to @InVision

James,
Octicon is a premium aid sold only by clinics. It will be among the most expensive. Costco aids are premium ones without the premium price. But, it is still $1800/pr. They do sell a less expensive aid at $495/ea. I don’t know of anyone that has them though.

Are you sure there isn’t some coverage? Being disabled, I’d guess you were on Medicaid rather than Medicare. Medicaid cover more. Starkey also has a program for free/recycled aids that you might qualify for.

@KenP said:

James,
Octicon is a premium aid sold only by clinics. It will be among the most expensive. Costco aids are premium ones without the premium price. But, it is still $1800/pr. They do sell a less expensive aid at $495/ea. I don’t know of anyone that has them though.

Are you sure there isn’t some coverage? Being disabled, I’d guess you were on Medicaid rather than Medicare. Medicaid cover more. Starkey also has a program for free/recycled aids that you might qualify for.

Thanks for the reply KenP. I’m definitely on Medicare with an AARP supplemental policy. There is no coverage, though AARP has a list of providers that offer a 20% discount with an additional $500 for Oticons. I did try Costco hearing aids back in 2009 and didn’t have a good experience and returned them. I’m wearing Oticon Opn hearing aids now on a trial basis, but not all that pleased so far with the audiologist. I’m willing to go into my 401k to get what I need to improve my hearing, but I’m still not sure about which brand to go with. I’m going to see if I can trial another brand. I have looked at sites like buyhear and, while their prices are good, I’m not so sure about service after the sale. So, I’m leary about going that route.

In reply to @InVision

I recommend a different Audi. You can get adjustments to reduce the background noise. Also there is a selection to use forward direction which can be loaded as a program. But I agree the one disappointment for me with new Opn is hearing talk on radio in a noisy car with full blast. Otherwise excellent results. I heard much better in noisy restaurant last night. My husband said I usually yell to the waiter when noisy, which I didn’t realize. This time I spoke normally and heard clearly.

In reply to @chatteremail

@chatteremail said:

For the first time, each of my Opn’s rebooted today, seemingly randomly).

I went to my Audi yesterday. She had contacted Oticon and they suggested reinstalling the software as they had had this happen with early software. I’ll see if this new install of software fixes the problem. They are going to replace them if this doesn’t take care of the rebooting…
Love them other than that…

In reply to @JustinHIS

I’m new here and really appreciate all the user insight and advice. I tried the Opns yesterday and loved the natural sound, but Oticon told my audiologist there is no streamer compatibility, no options and no t-coil options. So I don’t think they will work in a loop and I can no longer use my Roger Pen. I think they only have t-coil for the left and right aids to communicate with each other. It’s maddening if they can’t be used in a loop system. Does anyone know for sure?

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