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Comparative Review of KS10, Oticon Opn S 1 & Oticon More 1

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In reply to @Volusiano

The Noahlink Wireless would not see or connect to the More for some reason, even after a couple of reboots. Since there were no issues connecting to the OPN 1 S and KS10, I did not spend much time troubleshooting the More and simply assumed they were somehow locked.

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

It’s interesting that your More demo seemed locked (could not connect to the Noahlink Wireless). I wonder how your audi could have connected his/her Noahlink Wireless to it then? It’s the only interface compatible with the More to begin with.

I can’t be sure, but if the audi uses the Noah database to connect, the demo More’s may be locked to it.
Just guessing here.

@zenon said:

I did not spend much time troubleshooting the More and simply assumed they were somehow locked.

It would have been a problem anyway if the demos are f/w 1.0.0.

In reply to @zenon

I communicated with Joshua Alexander, audiologist and guru. He consulted with Oticon on Speech Rescue. Here’s his quote: “The original low-frequency signal (the harmonics) are retained and only the part of the signal above the ‘cut-off’ is mixed with high-frequency energy. I have actually found, to my untrained ear, that the harmonicity of music tends to be preserved for most of the frequency-lowering algorithms.”

So in short, it sounds like low frequency harmonics are more important. So maybe frequency lowering (including compression) isn’t as bad for music quality as I thought. Music sounds fine to me but I’m essentially tone deaf.

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

I wonder if you’ve tried to use frequency lowering on both the Oticon (either OPN S or More) and the KS10 for listening to music, and whether you find a preference between the frequency compression of the KS10 and the frequency transposition/composition of the Oticon for music listening? The reason I ask is because some folks on this forum who use the Phonak SoundRecover 2 said that frequency compression makes the music sound terrible and they turn off frequency compression for the music program.

I did some additional testing today, listening to the classic Beethoven’s 5th recording with Kleiber/Vienna Philarmonic on AirPods Max while the KS10 were hooked to Noahlink Wireless. With SR2, the music lacks space and breathing, which makes it less dramatic and gives a smaller soundstage, almost as if the orchestra is closer together. The KS10 are definitely for music without SR2.

On a side note, there is a cool iOS app iHearIt that allows you to manually input your into the Apple Health app, and your AirPods can use the audiogram.

One detail I forgot to touch on and is rather puzzling to me:

Program changing using the instrument buttons is terrible on the KS10. You cannot go up or down between programs, but must cycle through them. (The Oticon handles this just fine, and is a no brainer feature that puts your two most used special programs one press away from access.) Additionally, the KS10 chimes are hard to differentiate, the long press confusing, and I end up in the wrong program. I’ve resorted to using the phone to switch programs, which also is terrible as it take too long to connect to . And unlike Oticon, where you can triple press the phone button to change program at once, with the KS10 the triple press screen has not program change option. Since I have never had an issue with Oticon in this matter, I see this as a clear Phonak shortcoming.

Agree that Phonak’s button system is weak. Fortunately for me, I have very little need for changing programs. Signia/Rexton also has a much better system. However, if I had to choose between buttons and being able to stream from any bluetooth device, I’ll choose the later.

@mgnm02: In Canada, we don’t “show up (at the ) for care”: we go to the private audiologist of our choosing, BTW.

In reply to @mgnm02

That seems not to be the case at Audiology in DallasVA. They generally treat me like I own the joint. There are some short comings but that isn’t one of them here. Honestly, the worst problem with Audiology Dallas is that it is almost 2 hours away for me…

In reply to @zenon

I agree that the ability to scroll through programs in either direction on the KS10 would be an advantage, but I have no problem distinguishing the tones: one beep indicates “Public + mic,” two identical beeps indicates “Restaurant,” low-high beep indicates “TV Connector + mic,” four beeps indicate “Automatic.”

I came across a deal for the Oticon More 1, and bought some. I still have the KS10, which I’ve worn for about 6 months. I will do some additional side by side comparisons as I tweak settings. If anyone has questions about either, let me know as I plan on keeping both.

I’ve used Oticon Opn S for about three years and had to send them in for repair recently. The audiologist loaned me a set of Oticon More 1’s. I originally bought them because my hearing got bad enough that listening to music through my home stereo sounded awful. I’m a critical music listener/audiophilish kind of guy. I only had the More’s for a week or so, which isn’t really long enough for me to make a hard judgement about which sounds better with music.

When I listened to music with the Mores’, I could hear the little details in the music better - the way a guitar reverberated in the background, the way a bass player’s fingers slid off the strings rather than just a crisp, plucking sound. Rhe Opn S sounded fuller to me but the space between the instruments sounded more defined, like I had upgraded my stereo equipment. But, my Opn S seemed to have a better bass, while with the More’s I felt they were noticeably light in the low end and I increased the bass using my preamp’s tone controls a bit.

Supposedly the More’s were programmed the same as my Opn S’s. I’m suprised at the difference in the sound. I’ve read Oticon’s marketing hype about the More’s but was skeptical, thinking it was probably mostly b.s. But now I wonder if there’s something there after all.

Does anyone else listen to music critically and have compared an older model of the Oticons (like my Opn S) with the More’s? I’m wondering if the More’s sound “thinner” (less bass) but more detailed and allow you to hear into the music more, or if there is just some setup difference between the two aids.

You should post your in your profile so we’d be able to understand the kind of hearing loss you have. Have you tried the More’s My Music program? Oticon lauded it as a revolutionary advancement for music, but many of the More users in this forum didn’t like it at first (@SpudGunner and IIRC @flashb1024 ?). But they made adjustments to the MyMusic program, primarily to minimize/optimize the compression ratio, and that helped change their mind about the More MyMusic program. I’ll leave it to them to chime in and share more here.

My understanding of the More’s approach in using neural network training is to separate out sounds so that they can be more distinct and more recognizable in general, and as a by product, help improve speech clarity as well. Perhaps what you’ve been observing is the manifestation of that attempt. I don’t know why that may make the sound a tad thinner compared to the OPN S, but perhaps if your fittings are different between the OPN S and the More, it may explain some of that bass loss if your More fitting is more open compared to your OPN S. Again, knowing what your hearing loss looks like may explain some of that better (or maybe not).

In reply to @devicktimothy01

@devicktimothy01 said:

Does anyone else listen to music critically and have compared an older model of the Oticons (like my Opn S) with the More’s? I’m wondering if the More’s sound “thinner” (less bass) but more detailed and allow you to hear into the music more, or if there is just some setup difference between the two aids.

Are you referring to the OPN S Music program vs the More MYMusic program?
If so, here is the link 9 to Oticons fitting rationale for the new MYMusic program.
There is a very distinct difference, for sure, and as @Volusiano points out, many of us were quite disappointed in the MYMusic program.
Your audi can easily adjust it to suit your needs, and I’ve become quite happy with it. YMMV!

Edited

Several people have said they don’t think the Oticon More’s sound ruight with music. Can someone explain in more detail what sounds “wrong” or “off” listening to music with the More’s? Were you listening to recordings on your home system, live music, or something else maybe?

Also, Oticon says the More 1’s souund better than the More 2’s. They’re targeted towards different audiences it souhds like. Are the complaints about the More 1’s or More 2’s?

I’ve been happy with my Opn S, but when I trialed the More’s for a week, background details in the musid on well-recorded CDs was significantly more noticeable. On another, older CDl I didn’t notice any difference. My audi says the More’s had the same programming as my Opn S. I found rhe extra detail in music quite seductive.

In reply to @prodigyplace

I foumd the page you mentioned, but it only has a “fill in the blanks” form for the various frequencies and a few other things. I thought I could just post a copy of my hearing loss as a jpg/bmp/etc. I’m definitely not excited about entering all that data manually.

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