Sonic Enchant 100: Understanding the Enchant technologies, and subsequently, a review

It’s been a week since I last wrote up my initial review on the Enchant 100. I’ve now had another week with it so I’m adding some more comments to my initial review.

Probably the best way to structure this is via the 4 programs I have set on the Enchant.

1. P1 Universal:
   The SVP setting is Phoneme Focus (instead of Envelope Focus). Most folks would be on Phoneme focus except for older folks with high hearing loss (see earlier posts that talk about this).
   SmartCompress is set to Max Audibility (on a sliding scale of Audibility next, then Balanced, then Comfort, then Max Comfort).
   Gain Control for Noise Only Environment is set to Max (Off, Min, Medium are the other settings).
   Directionality: SPiN (automatic between True Directional, Fixed Directional and Omni), with High Performance (other value is Medium).
   SPiN Noise Reduction is High (vs Off, Low, Medium).
   SPiN Engage is High (vs Low, Medium).
   Impulse Noise Reduction is set to ON (this is to keep sudden loud sound more comfortable while preserving speech audibility).
   Frequency Transfer is ON (this is frequency lowering like Speech Rescue).

Other settings are on like Soft Noise Reduction, Wind Management, Binaural Noise Management.

This is supposed to be the universal mode that should work most of the times. In general, it does seem to work well in most environments. However, you can tell when the Enchant hunts in and out of different directional modes when there are sounds around you, especially in a simpler listening environments where it’s more noticeable. I personally find it a little distracting because as it zips in and out of different directionality mode, sometimes you hear the background static noise, some times you don’t.

2. P2 Noise (Built-in program)
   I have P2 almost the same as P1, except that the SmartCompress is set to Max Comfort (P1 is set to Max Audibility).

Speech in noise feels a bit muted in a car ride, compare to P1 where SmartCompress is set to Max Audibility and speech for P1 is not as muted and more normal. This is the most noise reduction of all I’ve seen. Even at freeway speed with the car fan on high, the road sound is pretty serene. I would use this only if I don’t expect to talk to anybody.

3. P3 Automobile (built-in program)
   SmartCompress is Balanced on this program (between Max Comfort of P2 and Max Audibility of P1).
   SPiN directionality is Fixed Omni,
   SPiN Noise Reduction is High. No SPiN Engage option.

Although this is the built in program for car mode, you can probably hear more road noise in this mode than P1 and P2 above. I’m guessing that it’s because the Fixed Omni (which they choose I guess so you can hear everyone in the car talking, including those behind you) picks up everything, not just speech but also noise. The Balanced setting in SmartCompress actually sounds better when I talk or sing (I was alone in the car) compared to the Max Audibility setting in P1. I would only use this Automobile program if I have passengers in the car with me and we carry out conversation.

4. P4 SmartMusic (built-in program)
   SmartCompress is OFF, SPiN is OFF, Directionality is Fixed Omni.

The difference between the built-in SmartMusic program vs the (regula) music program is that SmartMusic is intended for live music, where (regular) Music is intended for listening to pre-recorded music in a HiFi system.

This is one weird cookie because in most other HAs, their Music program just opens up eveything, because no Noise Reduction nor Compression setting is enabled. Although the settings for SmartMusic is the same (no NR, no Compression), I don’t notice that the sound opens up at all. It still sound quite muted. So I don’t get it. But I don’t get a chance to hear any live music to see if at least it can handle the loud volume or not. I also tried the regular Music built-in program and it sounds the same as the SmartMusic program to me. It sounds a bit muted on the speech despite no NR and no compression. But then this is a music program so I can’t judge it on how it sounds with speech.

Some last notes:

I’ve had a chance to use direct streaming music (from music videos) from my iPhone extensively this week due to driving long distance for 3 days in a row in my minivan. For the most part the streaming from the iPhone works well. But because I used it for hours, there had been times when the left or right connection dropped momentarily but then would reconnect after a minute or so all by itself.

Overall impression after the second week is the same as the first week. For somebody who just hates noise, they’ll probably like the Enchant a lot. I used to be that person who hated noise a lot. But after 10 months of the OPN, I begin to appreciate the value of the fullness of being able to hear everything, noise included. So now going from the OPN to the Enchant, it’s a constant reminder that I have a hearing loss and this hearing aid is helping me hear better. With the OPN, after you’re adjusted to it, sometimes you forget that you have a hearing loss because everything sounds so normal and natural and full of everything.