Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Oticon launches Opn hearing aids and Velox platform

This topic is closed.

408 replies107.1k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic

In reply to @rkorzep

@rkorzep said:

I am trialing these side by side with Starkey Muse.

I have been told by audis that it takes two weeks or more for your brain to become accustomed to the new aural inputs from and they will sound strange at first. If you are switching back and forth from day to day, aren’t you preventing that process from working?

In reply to @AussieJoe

@AussieJoe said:

If the Oticon OPN Velox processor has 50% more speed/power vs prior model and twice that of competitors (see I do believe the advertising) …that must have an big impact on battery life. If the OPN’s also have 2 comms processors, one for bluetooth and one for inter device comms … that must also impact battery life.

Newer smart phones have had faster processors and greater battery life. Part of the design criteria of new circuit boards is efficiency, so greater power may not necessarily translate to greater power consumption.

In reply to @brucet999

@brucet999 said:

Newer smart phones have had faster processors and greater battery life. Part of the design criteria of new circuit boards is efficiency, so greater power may not necessarily translate to greater power consumption.

He’s got this wrong, the Velox processor is actually 50 times faster processing and a fully in-house product. Hence the speed and power consumption.

In reply to @brucet999

Hello all,

I’ve dropped off the map for a while. Thought I’d check in. My experience with OPN and with Buyhear.com has been excellent! I only needed one adjustment (done remotely) and life is good. If you listen to music, turn off feedback shield, or at least have one program without feedback shield.

I also recently purchased the TV Adapter 3.0. It’s awesome to hear absolutely every word while watching TV; plus, my wife can set volume as she sees fit! One additional plus is that I can mute the speakers while listening through when my wife is asleep late at night. The TV Adapter was easy to setup. I have it in my media closet, so it’s hidden away out of sight. Signal strength is good.

Brucet, buyhear will send you warranty documents for your aids from Oticon. I’m glad I got my aids before they went up on the price (only $200 more now).

So, from my experience, after months of wearing my HAs, I still highly recommend OPNs and Buyhear.com.

Hi everyone,

I’m a long time hearing aid wearer (25+ years), most recent model was a pair of Rexton Insite+ from Costco. Yesterday I was fitted with the Oticon OPN. I was very excited about it because my audi set high expectation with me (she wears the Oticon OPN and really likes it herself). Plus all the readings on Oticon’s marketing materials as well as testimonials here on this forum got me excited as well.

I just want to share some of my initial reactions to it here after having worn it for about a day. Will report more as my experience with it progresses.

My audi had only 1 setting set on my OPN to start with. She said she had it on medium noise management. I was fitted with a single vent dome, although she thinks with my loss, I’ll likely need a custom molded dome for better fitting and to keep out feedbacks.

Initial reaction: the medium noise management my audi put me on does a poor job of recognizing what is “droning” noises (like road noise from tires, fan noise in car, running water noise from faucet) and eliminating them. With my Rexton, I can tell that the droning noises get reduced right away after a few seconds. It makes me wonder why the OPN can’t do the same. Surely it must be easy enough to put in the smart to differentiate between droning noises and speech or other more unique sounds to dampen out the droning noise and bring out the speech and other unique sound. But the OPN doesn’t seem to do this effectively, at least at the medium noise reduction setting my audi has it on. It was disappointing to me and the continued amplification of the droning noises actually makes my hearing becoming VERY fatigued in noisy environment. The marketing bit on the OPN brags about noise reduction so fast that it can be suppressed even between words in speech. I wonder what noise reduction they’re talking about there because I don’t even notice any noise reduction, period. For sure in the next adjustment I’ll ask my audi to crank up the noise reduction up a bit more. Hopefully this is just a setting issue.

Second reaction: the ability for better speech understanding in noisy environment without suppressing surrounding sounds (marketing info says 30% better). I tried it out in my company cafeteria over lunch and I didn’t have this advertised experience at all. The “without suppressing surrounding sounds” bit is true alright. I could hear a lot more surrounding sounds. But I didn’t experience any significantly better ability to understand speech of the people sitting at my table when they talked. If anything, I had to strain a bit more to listen to them because of the cacophony around me that was not suppressed but all allowed to go through the aids now. It was just overwhelming at times because I had to hear everything that I didn’t care to hear (droning conversations around me that I ultimately consider noise). Reducing the volume helped but then it also took away my ability to understand speech of the people who sat at my table. For sure I didn’t experience 20% less listening effort as advertised.

What I had thought/hoped would happen is that the OPN technology would be smart enough (and fast enough) to recognize and suppress all the chatterings of people around me (that in my opinion has essentially become just droning noise), and be smart enough to recognize and differentiate and bring out only discrete/unique noises that only present themselves at times. For example, if people around my table speak, the OPN would bring it out to me. If a waiter approaches and speaks, the OPN would bring it out. If somebody drops a plate in the background, the OPN would bring it out. AND I hoped that I wouldn’t have had to hear the constant and droning noises made up by conversations carried out by dozens of the tables around me. Unfortunately, I’ve had to hear everything. It’s just like the OPN doesn’t (know how to) suppress anything. I expected but don’t see any intelligence from the OPN to process and decipher and categorize and manage sounds in an effective manner like I was hoping it would.

This is only my initial reaction after only wearing the OPN for 1 day, and I know that I’ll also have to allow my brain to adjust to the differences between what I’m used to on the Rexton vs the new OPN as well. And it may very well be that the noise reduction feature is not set properly to my taste by the audi yet. So there’s still a lot more tweaking around to be done.

Some of the pluses is that the amplificiation on the high frequencies seem to be much stronger than my Rexton. And in less noisy environment the OPN seems to perform fine. Feedback suppression seems to be good and effective. Music listening (from loud speakers) is enjoyable. I haven’t had a chance to try music listening through streaming because I don’t own an iPhone (I have a Samsung Note 4). But I just found a good deal for a new TV Adaptor 3.0 from eBay for only $125 (just single item sale by an individual), so I’ll report back on streaming later. I’m used to hearing a little bit more mids from my Rexton that seems to be missing from the OPN. But I think this is because I had more mids boosted on the Rexton on purpose, and also the stronger highs on the OPN may overpower and take away focus on the mids.

Some final notes, because I’ve been wearing hearing aids for so long now (6 pairs so far, my first pair was 100% analog, and my 2nd pair, although digital, had no processing abilities like noise reduction or anything), I know exactly what I want and I no longer have that honeymoon effect (of first time wearers in wonderment of being able to hear everything), so I’m a lot more critical of what I expect from each newer generation of . So maybe I set my expectation too high on the OPN to begin with, what’s with all the marketing stuff they did on it. And it’s also very likely that I still need a lot more time to adjust to the OPN as well as tweaking it a bit more to my liking. After all, it’s only been one day on the OPN for me. But on the other hand, because of my experience on wearing HAs, I know what I want, I don’t need to take too long to form an opinion of it.

Will provide more updates on it in the future. This is only initial first day reaction so far!

A couple of other things that really have nothing to do with the Oticon OPN but I thought might be worthwhile sharing anyway is how I came across getting fitted with the OPN.

I had a pair of Rexton aids I bought from Costco that went bad almost 4 years later, almost 1 year past the 3 year warranty period. I thought I would have had to pay the $270 Costco repair cost, but luckily the Costco specialist told me that AmEx usually provides an extra year of warranty as a benefit for their members. So I was able to get AmEx to pick up the $270 repair bill. Too bad Costco no longer accepts AmEx. But this was a nice surprise to learn. Thought I’d pass this knowedge on in case somebody in a similar situation can benefit from this knowledge.

Moving on to how I came about acquiring my OPNs. I recently saw some ads online about how newer aids can be much smaller than the CICs I currently have that would make them virtually invisible because they would fit much further into the ear canal (my CIC is still visible when looking straight at the ear). Out of curiosity I contacted the online company to learn more, and they offered a free hearing test with a locally affiliated to see if I could be fitted with the newer/smaller CICs or not. Considering that my CICs from Costco are almost 6 years old, and it’s been a couple of years since my last free hearing test from Costco, I took up on their offer for a free hearing test. I was also curious to find out how much these newer/smaller CICs cost, and the only way to find out was to get this free hearing test first.

As part of the info they collected from me, this online company asked for my medical insurance info. I gave it to them but I thought nothing of it because all of my previous medical insurance companies in the past had never covered hearing aids. But after my hearing test, I was told that they called and checked and found out that my new insurance company that I just changed to this year actually offers 70% coverage on hearing aids for out-of-network providers, after the deductible has been met. So that was a nice surprise to find out. It also happened that I already met my HDHP deductible for this year already due to some bigger medical bills earlier in the year. So all of a sudden, I learned that I was in a unique position to be able to take advantage of this benefit. So of course I signed up for it. My HIS recommended the Oticon OPN to me, however, instead of another pair of CIC, because she thinks it’d be a better fit for my loss, and it just came out last summer with lots of new technologies behind it which I may be able to benefit from.

So I went home to read up more about the OPN and got really excited about trying them out due to all the great marketing and great testimonials on this forum. I also read up more about my insurance coverage and learned that if I went with an in-network provider, my coverage benefit would go up to 95% for the instead of just 70% for out-of-network providers. I called my online HA company and they said they wouldn’t be able to match the 95% because they’re out of network. They could only do the 70%. So I was ready to contact some local in-network audis for service when the local HIS who did the hearing test for me learned about this and called and told me that she’s willing to work with me directly and match the 95% coverage, even though she’s still out-of-network and can only collect 75% from my insurance company. So a week later, I’m now trying out the Oticon OPN, and will only have to pay 5% of its cost. The moral of this story is that don’t always assume (like I did) that your medical insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids. It’s worth the time to look it up or call them up. You never know. I got lucky here that the hearing aid dispenser looked up this information for me.

I was out and about today by myself at Pei Wei restaurant for lunch (half full restaurant) and Sams’s Club. Was also alone at a 1/4 full Taco Bell and Costco last night. Generally the same experience -> minimal noise reduction from the OPN, which makes amplified droning noises tiresome to hear after a while. The advertised improved sound location seems to work OK at restaurants. I could tell where the sound sources come from. However, at home in my office, I have a laptop on a laptop support with built-in fans. It’s right next to me on my left on the desk, yet that fan noise seems to come from all around me and not just from the left. Go figure.

The trips to Costco and Sams’s Club were better than at the restaurants because their environments were not as loud. But still annoying without any noise suppression. Can’t wait to see the audi on Monday for new adjustment.

I wish I had the equipment to make my own adjustment at home instead of having to wait for audi appointments. It’d be so much more convenient. The Oticon programming device is wireless so you don’t even have to take your out of your ears to connect it to the adjustment device like on the older HAs. I heard somebody mentioned that buyhear.com said that it may be available for HA owners to purchase in the future. I wonder if there’s any more news on that. If it’s only for a couple of hundred bucks, I’d definitely go for it. I saw it at the audi’s place and it looks very compact and simple, like a USB dongle of some sort connected to her laptop. I already downloaded the free programming software, but it’s useless without the programming device anyway.

One gripe I have about the Costco audi booths I’ve been to, and my current audi booth, is that they don’t have any test speakers installed to play sample sounds while making adjustments. It would be a so much better experience if they have that set up in their office. Otherwise, how would the patient know if the adjustment is effective or not if there’s nothing to listen to, to compare the before and after? It’s just so lame that the only thing they do in their office is to use their own voice, or hand clap or wrinkle paper, as test sounds. After all, they do this day in day out for a living. How much does it cost to install a couple of speakers in their office to play a few pre-recorded sound tracks?

Anyway, to get off my rant, I’ve also tried to use my Bose QuietComfort 15 over the ear headphone (the kind with noise reduction) to listen to music and movies on my laptop. The feedback suppression works well with the headphones on, but not without letting out an annoying and VERY loud shriek first when putting the headphones on or taking them off. This is a little disappointing because the OPN marketing boasts about how OPN’s processor is 50 times faster than the previous generation. Apparently still not fast enough to nip that horrific feedback shriek in the bud. Other than that, the sound comes through nice and clear.

I have a Plantronics Voyager headset (with mic) that I use a lot for conf calls at work. This is the more open, on-the-ear design, unlike the fully enclosed over-the-ear design of the Bose QuietComfort. So this over-the-ear headset design is useless for type HAs, but that’s to be expected. I guess I’ll have to continue to use my Rexton for conf calls on the Plantronics headset for a while until the ConnectClip option becomes available.

Can’t wait until my TV Adapter 3.0 get shipped to me to try out. The pricing on this device is kind of confusing. Buyhear.com1 sells it for $325 from $399 (is $399 list price?). My audi called Oticon directly and they quoted her $200. Not sure if that was list or cost at first. But then she said that she can order it and stack on $25 for shipping cost, so she’d be selling it to me at her cost at $225. So I assume that the $200 quote from Oticon is the dealer cost. However, I found a new one listed on eBay for $175 with a Make Offer option. So I offered $125 and the seller accepted right away.

I don’t know if it’s the same TV device you are talking about, but when I bought my OPN’s, a TV device came with the aids.
I really like it other than my Hipstreet tablet cannot connect to my wireless if the TV device is on.
I have three different makes of wireless routers and non of them work when the TV device is on.
My PC however does work with the TV device on.

Edited

Wow, that must be so nice that it was included in your case. It must be the same thing we’re talking about since only that 3.0 TV adaptor works with the OPN from what I understand. I don’t think the older ConnectLine TV adaptor works on the OPN.

I wonder if Oticon sells the OPN in different packages or something, like premium (which includes the TV adaptor) and basic (which does not)?

I think the TV Adapter 3.0 stream 2.4 GHz signals to the OPN. If your tablet’s wifi runs on the same 2.4 GHz band and your TV adaptor happens to have the same address as your tablet, it may cause a conflict and prevents your tablet from connecting to the router. Your PC probably has a different IP address setting than the TV adapter so that’s why it works OK with the TV adaptor on.

I just got my OPN’s in late August and the TV device was replaced in late September to try to address the problem. If these devices have an address I doubt it would be the same. Also, I don’t understand why the TV device would have an IP address as it is never connected to the internet. If I choose to hook it up to the audio output of my PC and then it still wouldn’t use an IP address as it is not connecting through my routers.
Here in Canada, we only have one IP address for each account with our service provider, but the router assigns local IP addresses to each connected unit.
With three different routers tried, it would be really beyond imagination that each would have provided the exact same local IP address to the tablet causing it to not work with the TV device.
When I bought these aids, there was no options, only one package that included the two aids, a remote control (I don’t have a smart phone), and the TV device.
Here in Canada we pay through the nose for hearing aids as this package cost me $3340 Canadian (after the $1000 Government rebate). If I bought today, the price would be $4440 after rebate because the dispensing company no longer has their own $1000 credit they applied to my purchase in order to get some OPN’s sold initially to evaluate.

Edited

3340 Canadian = $2500 USD and 4440 Canadian = $3330 USD, and you get the TV adapter and remote control included, which is worth $325 + $300 = $625 USD as quoted on buyhear.com, so I think you got a pretty good deal. For what you bought, it would have cost $4425 USD from buyhear.com in the US, which is already much cheaper than at local dispensers. My local dispenser charges $6,200 for the pair without any TV adapter or Remote control. But if you didn’t have the $1000 Cdn gov’t rebate and $1000 dispenser discount for early adopters, then it would come out fairly close to the buyhear.com price, I guess.

Regarding the address, that was just a wild guess on my part, because we really don’t know what protocol Oticon uses to connect between the TV adaptor 3.0 to the OPN. We only know that they communicate at 2.4 GHz, which is within the bandwidth the routers use. I’m not suggesting that the TV adapter connects to the wireless routers. I’m just saying that if the TV adapter 3.0 and the OPN uses the same TCP/IP protocol that the wireless routers use, then maybe that will cause conflict somehow. When you had your first TV adapter replaced, did Oticon technical support offer any opinion on what they think the problem is?

In reply to @rayjay

I used the OPN this morning for the first time while playing tennis and got good results with it.

First of all, I can hear a lot more highs compared to my old . I hear more highs on the ball pops, more highs on the tennis shoes shuffling, etc. I actually don’t wear my Rexton to play tennis because the sound compression on the Rexton makes the ball pop sound very unnatural and muted, even in music mode which has no noise reduction and minimum filtering. I actually wear my oldest digital CICs which have no noise reduction or any special sound processing (not available as features back then) when I play tennis because it gives me a more natural sounding ball pop. But this old pair of HAs can’t deliver the highs like the OPN can.

Unlike the Rexton CIC and the Kirkland RITC HAs that I have which can’t process and deliver natural sounding tennis ball pop sounds (I get very muted and unnatural pop sounds from them), the OPN seems to manage it better and deliver more natural pop sounds. I think ball pop sound is a challenge for digital HAs to process because it’s loud and lasts for a very short duration. I guess you need processing speed to be able to compress and recreate the very short and loud sound quickly enough for a more natural pop sound. Apparently my older digital HAs couldn’t do this, but the OPN can.

In this outdoor environment, the OPN also starts to shine as advertised because I can tell that it picks up discrete sounds all around the court very succinctly. Sounds from players in the next court playing pickle ball, sounds from birds in trees, cars in the parking lot, etc. I think that it works out better here compared to restaurant environment because the outdoors is an open space while restaurants are more enclosed spaces. In open spaces, sounds can remain more discrete, while in enclosed spaces, sounds are more trapped and their reverbations contributes to what becomes unintelligible noise, something you don’t care to hear and would rather have the HAs filter out.

tested a audeo B 50, a Naida V 90, have a virto q 90, now tested the oticon opn and can say they do everything better than the phonak did. After the 1st fitting I had 95% and 100% speech recognition at 65db one syllable test. I hear the traffic better i.e. hear cars coming from the direction in a junction, I hear the guys on thbe counter in the super market talking to the customers in front of me which I barely could with the phonaks. Streaming is ALOT better with oticon OPN. They also sound warmer more natural. Friday it is off to colledge and testing them in the class room. But so far clear winner.

Edited

Thanks for sharing your experience with the OPN, Gery. I had my audi add a new program with max noise reduction to my OPN today but I still can’t tell any difference between the new program (with max noise reduction) and the original program (with less noise reduction). So I wonder if you have any noise reduction programmed into your OPN and if yes, how that is working out for you? By noise here, I mean constant droning noise like the fan in the car, tire/road noise, engine noise, etc.

Ok, latest on this, the big patch is coming out imminently to deal with the re-boot issue. In the next couple of weeks take them back to your dispenser, get the firmware patched AND your settings re-installed AND re-pair with IOS - should also be sorted.

Genie 2016.2 is coming on the updater, which initiates this and also gives the 100/105dB micro-mold option.

Related discussions