Price on Oticon OPN

Thank You Rasmus. I am new to so I was seeking help. My insurance pays only $2500 and the out of pocket will be hard on the budget.

Well these are the facts - I found OPNs for online $1850 ea, online $2495 ea and my local office wants $2730. My only connection to someone that has HAs is a close neighbor who started his adventure with less expensive ones and after 4 sets tells me that the newest top of the line HAs are far superior and he recommended I do not go through the less expensive ones to learn that lesson. My insurance only pays $2500 every 3 years so I really don’t want to learn that lesson and spend 10 yrs to get good ones. I have asked the online price guys (not sure I should posts names, I will have to look at the forum rules) how exactly do I get service and warranty. Not really a clear answer yet. The office has to be in the BCBS network in order to file the claim for $2500. To even further complicate things on one office is close (8 miles) and it is Beltone only. Closest other HAs brand offices are 100 + miles away.

Thanks

KenP

NW Indiana

Most of the info you are looking for has been actively discussed already. In network requirements don’t seem to give quite what is indicated. It somewhat looks like a private discount or finders fee is a component you wouldn’t see shared by the clinic with the insurer.

“Quality” of aids are somewhat misleading. The cheapest aids and the most expensive use the same hardware. Eliminating problems in noisy situations is what the premium seeks to provide. The middle level provides some of that and works for a lot of people who want to upgrade from basic platform.

RForbes

I’ve been on a journey looking to get the Oticon Opns. I’ve worn Oticon Agil Pro for 6 years and like them. I’m ready for something new. I trialed Oticon Alta Pro 2 and like them, but during trial became aware the Opns were being launched. I returned Altas. I’ve looked around at pricing quite extensively. Local Audi quotes $6,900 for 2, Discount Hearing Aids of America quotes $4,990 for 2 (go to local audi and order through Discount Hearing Aids of America, and buy hear sells for $3,598 for 2! You send buyhear your hearing test. They order them, program them, and sends you packet (including aids, of course) which allows them to adjust remotely over internet. They offer 60 100% money back guarantee. I ordered them and look forward to seeing if this works out. buy hear is probably not for everyone, but I feel confident enough to give it a try. I’ll post my experience after they come in.

InVisionAuthor

Thank youForbes looking forward to your experience.

JustinHIS

Opns are awesome.

Just replaced my Alta2 Pros yesterday. Its hard to describe exactly how they are better. I just have so much more awareness of sound details and where it all is, and how people sound is so much more human. I thought it was good before, but now it is just better. Music sounds better to me, more alive and rich. My glass windowed office does not reverberate at all…

When I wore Alta Pros, I could whistle and cause a warble at one frequency.

When I got my Alta2 Pros, I heard better, but I could hear that warble in a small range of frequencies.

With the Opns, to compare against Alta2 Pros is like comparing Alta2 Pros against nothing. And I hear absolutely NO warble at any frequency.

I know as well as anybody that every time a new product comes out, we think it is so much better and we wonder how they could ever top it. And I know that they always do. But it is hard for me to imagine how they could do better than this.

After live , my gain settings are lower than they have ever been, which results in a more natural sound quality for me, but there is no reduction in clarity. I still score essentially normal in aided sound field testing. I lowered the gain on my Alta2 Pros to mimic the gain in my Opns and my aided score dropped by 7%. That may not seem like much, but it is statistically significant.

Psocoptera

Australia

Jun 11, 2016

Justin,
What is the connectivity like with these? Do you have direct connection with your devices and how is that going?

RForbes

Jun 18, 2016

First some background: I am an Oticon Agil Pro wearer for 6 years. I went to local audi through Truhearing.com26 agreement. I trialed some Alta Pro 2 Ti and liked them very much; but during the trial I became aware of Oticon Opn upcoming launch, so I returned Altas. (Altas costs $4,400 for a pair through TruHearing.) Audi was not very familiar with Oticons, so I decided to look elsewhere. Found another audi (45 minute drive) that was familiar with Oticon. He suggested I try Signia Pure 7x while I waited for him to get Opn demos. I liked the Signias ok (4 days), but while waiting, I came across buyhear.com85.

I sent buyhear.com my . They talked with me on phone about Opns and whether they were a good fit. I purchased Opns for $3,600 for the pair. They received the Opns a couple days later, called me and discussed how they should program the aids. I received the aids 3 days later (7 days after initial purchase).

Opns are great. The fluttering or warbling of some tones that I experienced with Alta Pro 2s is much less with Opns. I expect after one adjustment, I will be pretty good to go. I am a music minister, so I need to hear in many different settings to be able to let buyhear know what I need. For the adjustment, buyhear will send me something for a couple of days, so that they can adjust remotely. Next week, I will be around a ton of different musical groups, so its a good week to give Opns their first big challenge. The staff at buyhear have been great thus far. (I’ll continue to update during my 60 day trial period.)

I am an andriod user. Opn ON app for andriod is yet to be released, so the jury is out on connectivity with android. I do have a TV Adapter 3.0 on backorder as well.

By the way, I did speak with hearingrevolution (also known as Hearing Care Solutions). They have Opns for $2,100 per ($4,200 for a pair). You can go to local audi and purchase through hearingrevolution.

Jun 18, 2016

In reply to @Psocoptera

@Psocoptera said:

What is the connectivity like with these? Do you have direct connection with your devices and how is that going?

Hello Carol, I thought I’d give a brief answer to your question based on the last three days with the aids. I do have direct connection with my iPhone 6s. With calls so far there have been no problems. I leave the phone on my desk or very close by since the microphone is at the base of the phone. I can hear perfectly through the aids and the callers tell me they hear me with no problem. The Live Connect feature where someone else has the phone and is talking into it I tested inside at 25-30 feet and it did not loose connection. I listen to audio books and the iPhone is direct streaming to the aids. I lost connection yesterday in the house at about 30-35 feet and a couple of walls and it reacquired it when I was 20-25 feet away and coming back. On the next visit this coming Tuesday to the audiologist I want to see if I can get a music listening setting added. Right now the bass is lacking. Also when streaming I detect some possibly clipping or a clicking sound at points in the playback that do not always seem to be at louder parts. The BIGGEST issue is at times I think the phone is doing some unknown activity and the connection alternates back and forth from one ear to the other for maybe 4-5 seconds and then it’s over. Not during calls or just wearing them but only when streaming. I’ve replayed what I was listening to and it is not on the audio track. I can’t make it happen and when I’ve tried to time how often it just seems random. I’ve tried changing from stereo playback to mono on the phone but it made no difference. I have not tried getting away from any external signal that might be causing interference yet to see if that is the issue. I also have not been in any complex listening situations with multiple conversations happening at the same time so I can’t address how well that feature works.

RocketmahnUSA

Jun 20, 2016

In reply to @RForbes

@RForbes said:

I am an andriod user. Opn ON app for andriod is yet to be released, so the jury is out on connectivity with android.

I know “some” of the Oticon literature claims that the Android compatible Opn ON app is supported - but I found that it wasn’t in the Google Play Store a few weeks back, and as you state it appears that it’s not released yet.

In your discussions did anyone provide an estimate of when it might be available??

JustinHIS

Jun 20, 2016

I was on a rant last week and my internet went down so I did not complete my rant.

gpsgrandpa - It is not the bass in the hearing aids that is lacking. It is the treble in your ears. So as the hearing aids address your lack of treble, your brain is hearing things closer to how they really sound. It is just different than what you are accustomed to (Nearly normal bass, and significantly reduced treble). In the long term, you would be better off to let your brain re-learn what music really sounds like.

psocoptera - I am an android person, myself, but I finally had the opportunity to play with the ON app with a 17 year old patient today. It seemed to work pretty smoothly, with no glitches, but I am a minimalist. I don’t believe in putting a lot of programs and extras, so pretty much, we just tested phone streaming which worked flawlessly, and music streaming which also worked flawlessly. We even found a use for the IFTTT capabilities. He now gets a voice warning any time his mom leaves work.

Jun 20, 2016

It does seem challenging to keep a good rant going with a lengthy interim break.
Listening to music from my external source sounds great to me. I gave any and all my audiophile gear to my boys years ago so critical listening is a long past endeavor. I now have some nice, simple, desktop mid-range+tweeter speakers and a small floor sub that satisfies me. The lack of bass is strongly noted when streaming from my iPhone via to the OPNs. I have an appointment with my audiologist tomorrow so perhaps more will be revealed.

In reply to @JustinHIS

@JustinHIS said:

gpsgrandpa - It is not the bass in the hearing aids that is lacking. It is the treble in your ears. So as the hearing aids address your lack of treble, your brain is hearing things closer to how they really sound. It is just different than what you are accustomed to (Nearly normal bass, and significantly reduced treble). In the long term, you would be better off to let your brain re-learn what music really sounds like.

JustinHIS - I was at my audiologists office yesterday addressing a few issues. When we were looking at the streaming settings the Power Bass was turned on but I couldn’t detect much bass/low end at all. She called Oticon support and was on hold for a very long time. (It seems they are overwhelmed with support calls.) Support suggested some other settings but I couldn’t detect much happening. I will be interested to hear if other folks notice streaming issues. I don’t stream music, just audio books. I had only tried the music playback as a test. For audio books lack of bass is not much of an issue. I had never tried streaming when I had the Alta2 Pro aids so I can’t compare them.

Um_bongoProvider

Wales, UK

@gpsgrandpa said:

JustinHIS - I was at my audiologists office yesterday addressing a few issues. When we were looking at the streaming settings the Power Bass was turned on but I couldn’t detect much bass/low end at all. She called Oticon support and was on hold for a very long time. (It seems they are overwhelmed with support calls.) Support suggested some other settings but I couldn’t detect much happening. I will be interested to hear if other folks notice streaming issues. I don’t stream music, just audio books. I had only tried the music playback as a test. For audio books lack of bass is not much of an issue. I had never tried streaming when I had the Alta2 Pro aids so I can’t compare them.

If the seal of the domes is well vented then you will be losing the Bass too. More occluding domes will help mitigate against this.

Musician_72

Hearing aids have no bass. Period.

With open domes, you have no real gain below 500 Hz (or maybe below 250 Hz, but around that).

Even with , aids have no real gain below 150 Hz (which makes sense, as speech has no energy below 100 Hz).

A good hifi system has a linear frequency response down to about 50 Hz, good systems even down to 30 Hz.

So while streaming with aids may sound good to people who are not used to a really good hifi system, it will never sound really good for people who are really into hi-fi.

Use your aids for audio books, use speakers for really listening to music with bass.

By the way, the oticon power bass works like this: instead of amplifying the bass itself it enhances the overtones of the bass to make the bass more audible - but the lows are still lacking.