Phonak announces Naída Marvel, the world’s first super-power hearing aid with universal Bluetooth connectivity

Stäfa, Switzerland, January 15, 2020 – Phonak, the most trusted name in power hearing aids, announces Naída Marvel (M), a fully-connected, multifunctional super power hearing aid for those with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Naída Marvel delivers rich, powerful sound and directly connects to virtually any Bluetooth device including smartphones, TVs, tablets, PCs and much more. Integrated Marvel 2.0 technology like RogerDirect gives wearers the flexibility to stream the Roger signal directly into both ears, resulting in almost 10x better-than-normal hearing in noisy situations and over distance.¹

Naída M: Power meets connectivity

Naída M is the world’s first super power hearing aid that directly connects to both iOS® and Android™, or virtually any other Bluetooth enabled audio device. It’s also the world’s only super power hearing aid to allow hands-free phone conversations as well as the classification of streamed audio signals.² With Naída M, super power wearers can use their hearing aids like wireless headsets while receiving the power and sound quality they’ve come to expect.

“Since the release of its first power hearing aid in 1978, the Phonak brand has been dedicated to creating powerful hearing solutions that deliver excellent hearing performance,” said Jon Billings, Vice President of Marketing at Phonak. “Now in its sixth generation, Naída M builds on this legacy with award-winning Marvel technology. The result is Naída becoming the most powerful Super Power³ multifunctional hearing solution that allows people with severe-to-profound hearing loss to connect to everyone and everything around them.”

Extending Marvel and increasing accessibility

Per the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss.⁴ Left untreated, these individuals have extreme difficulty communicating with others, often relying on lip reading and/or sign language.⁵ One study found the societal costs of this degree of hearing loss in the U.S. alone to be nearly $300,000 over the lifetime of each person, most of this attributed to reduced work productivity.⁶

Naída M’s combination of power with unmatched wireless connectivity was specifically engineered to address the unique communication needs of people with severe forms of hearing loss. StereoZoom reduces listening effort in noise by 24% versus a non-directional program and even enhances memory recall with 10% more words recalled in noise.⁷ Naída Marvel directly connects to Roger microphones to help improve speech understanding in noise and over distance¹ while remaining 15% smaller and 14% lighter than previous versions that required an external receiver.

Finally, the myCall-to-Text app provides live transcription of phone calls from the other party in more than 80 languages. This is an ideal solution for people who would like to benefit from additional visual captions when using the phone.

Naída Marvel will be available to the public end of February through licensed hearing care professionals. For more information, please visit Cochlear Implant Hearing Aid - Naida Link M | Phonak95

1. Thibodeau, L. (2014). Comparison of speech recognition with adaptive digital and FM wireless technology by listeners who use hearing aids. American Journal of Audiology, 23(2), 201-210
2. Rodrigues, T., & Liebe, S. (2018). AutoSense OS™ 3.0. The new & enhanced automatic operating system. Phonak Insight, retrieved from www.phonakpro.com/evidence9.
3. Phonak Naída M, Datasheet17 (2019) Technical Data, accessed 13 January, 2020.
4. World Health Organization (2019). Deafness and hearing loss. Deafness and hearing loss2
5. European Group on genetics of hearing impairment. Martini A (Ed.), European Commission Directorate, Biomedical and Health Research Programme (HEAR) Infoletter 2, November 1996, 8.
6. Mohr, P., Feldman, J., Dunbar, J., McConkey-Robbins, A., Niparko, J., Rittenhouse, R., & Skinner, M. (2000). THE SOCIETAL COSTS OF SEVERE TO PROFOUND HEARING LOSS IN THE UNITED STATES. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 16(04), 1120-1135.
7. Winneke, A., Schulte, M. & Latzel, M. (2019). The effect of spatial noise processing in hearing aids on neural correlates of listening and memory effort: an EEG study. Manuscript in preparation.

Bluetooth® word mark is a registered trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such mark by Sonova AG is under license.

IOS is a trademark of Cisco Technology, Inc.

Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

It’s a SP, pretty weak for me. No UP will be developed?

Looking at the dB graph it shows fitting with HE11 680 which has a bit lower dB than the standard HE11. I suspect the fitting graph for the HE11 would be basically the same as the previous Naida UP aids.

Maybe the new SP Naida Marvel aids fit the losses of the old UP aids?

Time and maxed out resources; their RITE models have been selling like hotcakes so this is where their attention is.

My sources tell me this is it for Naida M, no UP model planned for this platform. The peak gain of the SP is only a few dB shy of the previous UP model, so the real limitation is battery life.

Bit of a strange call by Phonak because they have always been known for high powered devices!