For me sound quality is very important. Because of this I’ve been a Widex user for the past 10 years . Being able to hear in busy social situations is also important to me, but not at the expense of pleasant rich sound…
I tried a Phonak 5 years ago and it sounded terrible to me, though I really like the bluetooth features of the current Phonak Paradise model. So I wonder if sound quality has improved…
I’m interested in the Signia AX because I read several forum comments about its great sound quality and speech legibility which makes it a good possible contender to Widex for me.
I wonder what the experience of others is with these 3 devices, especially comparatively.
I’m trying the Widex Moment at the moment and am considering trying the Signia and Phonak as well. Phonak for its superior bluetooth + hopefully better sound than 5 years ago and Signia for potentially better speech legibility.
Please share your experience with any of these devices of you have it, thanks
Don’t have any experience with Widex and the latest Signia.
What I would say about Phonak is that their Marvel and Paradise aids have really flown off the shelf - maybe primarily down to their direct bluetooth connectivity but also good sound quality. Whether you take to it is down to your personal preference. Some people don’t like the Autosense and noise suppression and prefer the open sound of the Oticon.
Oticon should also be a big contender for you, based on what you wrote in your post.
Oticon should also be a big contender for you, based on what you wrote in your post.
Based on which specific things I wrote do you mean? Like, what are the things that I’m looking for that the Oticon More does well?
I do like an open sound scape (and I hate it when a suppresses sounds I actually want to hear), but from reading comments throughout these forums I got the impression that the Sigma AX is better at keeping a good background sound level and improving speech legibility at the same time. I’m curious, what’s your view on this?
Here are some comments I saved in my notes from people here talking about the Signia AX (I didn’t find such glowing comments for the Oticon More):
Signia (before Resounds user): I absolutely hear dialogue better. One complaint with my Resounds was everything I streamed sounded harsh and tinny. These have a full, rich sound that is beautiful, and music is awesome.
An example of how the Signia affected hearing experience: I NEVER watch tv without close captions. Ever unless it’s sports and the captions are showing up in an obtrusive spot. So we turn on a movie on HBO and after about 15 minutes a character says something I struggle to hear and look at the captions and realize they haven’t been on, and I’ve been tracking what they’re saying. That was very cool.
I have now been using the Pure C&G 7T AX for about 2 months. It has helped me most with conversation which is something that did not work well for me with Signia Styletto 7X, Oticon More 1, Resound ONE with M&. It took me about 3 months to find a solution for my needs. Dialog is the most important part of sound that is preferred. Previous HAs seem to pick up much of the background sound and numerous refits had to be dome. My first choice now after all the “trials” of HAs is C&G AX as first choice and ReSound ONE for my next choice which I hope will be refined in the long term.
I have been wearing Signia AX demo aid for about 3 weeks and am VERY impressed with speech in noise. I basically have stopped attending functions where there will be more than about 8 people because I could only “nod and smile.”
However, I attended a large “pot luck” dinner with the Signias and deliberately sat in the middle of a table of 10 - 12 and by using the “focus” feature, I could understand any speaker I was facing!!! I also attended a party of about 70 in a large room with seating at tables for 8 and again, with focus feature had good success at understanding everyone at my table!!
I myself like the Signia X7, I tried them against the Widex Evoke, which for me just couldn’t quite match the 7X.
The specific things were that you wanted something pleasant sounding but to be able to hear in a busy environment. That to me characterises the Oticon OPN or Oticon More.
I personally would not take note of one individual who had success with one aid. Yes, it sounds like the Signia AX is good in background noise for that individual but I would be sceptical in concluding it is superior to any other aid without considering anecdotal reports of other aids, starting with the Oticon More and Phonak Paradise. In my view as well, some reported success here comes down to the fitter and whether was used. People go away with the wrong impression.
If you look at historical surveys, the clear winner in terms of clinical outcomes reported by patients (and audiologists) is Oticon, followed by Phonak. That is not to say that success with an aid cannot be achieved by a Resound, Widex or Signia model.
With respect to the specific question I have no idea if the Signia AX is good in noise. I hope that it would be as we do need improvements in this area. The only anecdotal report at the moment seems to be from the trialist in your post.
Ok thanks for your comment and pointing the things out which you did. And yeah I realize going off of a limited set of shared online experiences which all also have their own unique hearing loss and fit done is far from an ideal way to judge how good a is.
I do try to make use of experiences shared here and other info sources online to narrow down my choices and so I appreciate that you point the things out which you did, and will reconsider adding Oticon to the list of HAs to try.
I do wonder if the hearing aid store I use will be happy and accommodating if I tell them I want to try 4 different HAs though.
No worries. I am not trying to win an argument or anything. I have been wearing hearing aids for 43 years. In my experience the best experience is actually when you get fitted with something in a professional set up, and recently, with .
The other thing you need to very carefully consider is that it is very difficult to assess whether one person’s success in background noise will be the same for you. Even if you have a similar in terms of your pure tone audiometry, your ability to hear in noise may be worse (which can be measured by a sin - speech in noise test,), which means that you can’t really compare.
The only way to know is to trial the aids. At the moment I wear Oticon Dynamo 8 NHS aids, a 2015 superpower model and Phonak KS 10 aids (Paradise). The clearer aid? The 5 year old Dynamo. Possibly because of the linear gain. But according to some of the websites I’ve seen, the Dynamo 8 is ancient technology, superseded by superior technology. I think it shows that you should not believe the hype and be very careful.
Good luck, if you do have any positive experiences with the Signia AX it would be great to hear about them.
You might want to try the new Whisper Hearing System, if it’s available in your area and your hearing is within its fitting range.
I’m one of the two people on this forum known to be trialing it (the other user actually signed the contract already, at the discounted $99 or so per month), and I’m impressed with its performance. Compared to a pair of ReSound Quattros (3-year-old technology, but my current pair is factory-fresh), I’m hearing more of the sounds around me, in a not-unpleasant way. As for speech in noisy places, my reaction to how I hear store clerks and restaurant cashiers (some with masks and/or behind plastic) with Whisper isn’t just “I’m hearing them better”, but “Wow, I’m hearing them speak. These people have voices of their own, and they enunciate their words, they’re not just mumbling.” Maybe my reaction is over-the-top, but Whisper speech performance is a big improvement over what I’ve gotten used to.
I just took a walk outside in the wind (12 mph gusting to 25) and I heard environmental wind sounds, but nothing from wind blowing on the hearing aid microphones.
Whisper is still a work in progress. Media streaming isn’t available yet. I’m having a problem with listening to music, and my audiologist’s (actually, intern’s) contact with Whisper support ended up with their chief audiologist being involved. I’m happy to be part of it, because I see it as the best hope for the hearing aid improvements we need. But something uncertain, at $99/month (while that price lasts) and with a separate device to carry around at least some of the time, isn’t to everyone’s taste.
I do wonder if the hearing aid store I use will be happy and accommodating if I tell them I want to try 4 different HAs though.
Well this your right to do so, if you do find that they give a bit of grief over it, it would be best to find one more accommodating depending on your situation.
As has been stated already you absolutely need to trial them yourself, because only you can make the decision about which brand or model work best for you. Don’t read to much into all the technical aspects yet, do the basics first, your loss is pretty easily fixed by just about any from the big 5 manufacturers.
You might want to try the new Whisper Hearing System
As a first time user, I wouldn’t recommend anything outside of the mainstream just yet, Costco is the better bet, just for providing the long trails and for price.
As a side note, I’m following your post on the wispy with interest.
Hi, first post here. I have experience with the Signia AX, specifically the Pure Charge & Go T-AX. I got them because I lost one of my venerable Oticon Alta2 Pro’s. My UHC advantage plan covered almost all of the cost and I didn’t have the extra cash to go the latest and greatest high end feature set (although I gladly would ). Had to get a new audi and everything. Moderately severe to profound hi-z loss, worst in left side. Wore the Oticon for almost five years.
Signia sound is full and rich, rivalling and sometimes exceeding the Alta2 Pro’s. Adaptive noise reduction is better, guess they’ve come a long way in 4 1/2 years. I can hear better in stores, restaurants, etc. Sound quality when I play my acoustic instruments is accurate and not tinny.
I believe they’re not super expensive, but I dunno. I lucked out and got a good audi, she gave good deals and her fitting was thorough and spot on.
I can’t directly compare them to the others mentioned in the OP. But they sound good to me, charge lasts more than a day and, I’d buy them again.
I found the Signia’s to be a very good beam-forming , and I like that it’s automatic switching was not perceptible as some people experience with Phonak’s Autosense. But the Oticon open paradigm appealed to me, and I’m just now finishing my trial with the More 1, which I will keep.
Forget your Phonak experience from 5 years ago. The HA’s I just retired are 5 yr old Phonak’s, and they performed reasonably well for technology at that time. But this technology is moving at ever increasing speed; there are several generations between what you tried and the Phonak today. This comparison is of little if any value now.
Similarly, the Signia NX and Signia X platforms which preceded the AX, were widely perceived as meh. But the AX changed the chip architecture and introduced independent parallel dsp processing. The much greater chip density in this platform and it’s new architecture translates into significantly greater performance in speed and function.
It is changes like this that result in HA brands leap-frogging one another, and make performance comparisons quite difficult for users. At any given point in time, trialing HA’s may involve one model at the front of its lifecycle and another at the end of its lifecycle (currently, these are approx 2 year cycles in the premium brands). The difference in the user experience may simply be due to no more than the former is twice as fast as the latter.
Then add in the subjectivity factor. Users with the same do not necessarily have the same experience with the same HA’s due to subtleties in the auditory process and in the brain.
And finally, there is the difference in how the HA’s are fit and how long they are tried. There can be great variation between providers, and users often feel differently after sufficient time to acclimate.
The short answer is, individual opinions are just that and vary widely, being very much subject to the factors above. So there is no way to know what is best for you individually except to try to alternatives, preferably fit by the same provider (and hopefully, a good one). That is no way around this reality.
But the Oticon open paradigm appealed to me, and I’m just now finishing my trial with the More 1, which I will keep.
Thanks for your reply. Any chance you explain in a bit more detail what it is exactly that appealed to you in the Oticon More over the Signia AX?
I mean, how did you experience the Oticon in practice comparitively and in which situation/s was its open paradigm appeal most noticeable? I’ve read about the open concept but curious to understand better how it works in practice.
I found the Signia’s to be a very good beam-forming HA
With beam forming do you mean direction focused hearing? like focusing to speech in front of you or to your right when you’re sitting next to someone etc
Yes, beam-forming is directionality, front-facing or a bit broader. Re the open paradigm:
I prefer to hear as much of the detail in my surroundings as possible. For some - particularly those who have worn traditional ’s for quite a while - this can be overpowering or distracting or annoying (or, I suppose, all three). For me, open is the most natural and comfortable.
I like that I don’t need to switch programs for different environments nor contend with the automatic switching which may not be fast enough or accurate enough. The design intent of the Oticon More is to expose all sound to the user and help the user’s brain to largely control where it chooses to focus for sound, as happens with normal hearing. Beam-forming is about suppressing surrounding noise other than speech, to facilitate understanding it specifically. The More’s definitely do noise suppression (in a very different way), but the soundscape heard still remains more open to the wearer.
My audiologist tells me that while the More uses the most open approach and the Paradise probably the strongest beam-forming approach, a couple brands do some combination. IIRC she mentioned the Widex Moment specifically as being one of the latter.
I think the Signia AX is kinda closer to the Paradise. I could clearly hear it doing beam-forming which it did well, and the quality from very clear. If I hadn’t decided to go the open route, the AX would be on my short list.
Thanks a lot for that detailed explanation, insightful.
I very much prefer an open sound too.
In fact, when I first got my current Widex they would be “smart” and suppress “noise”, or rather sound I actually wanted to hear.
For example I’d be talking to someone and a car drives by. The Widex would think: “oh no! noise! let’s lower the volume”. I’d then be like wtf is this pos HA doing, I wouldn’t be able to understand what the person next to me was saying anymore and the world would sound like I just stepped out of a submarine prematurely - before it surfaced from the water.
That has since been fixed with program adjustments, but a HA that has a fit philosophy that does this right from the start would probably work better for me.
Considering your comment, I’ll most likely add the Oticon More back to my shortlist, thanks
There is an older (and fairly long) thread where someone trials the Paradise, Mores and AXs. Spoiler alert, the user ends up picking the Paradise, but if you’re looking for input on her (I think it’s a her, sorry if I’m wrong) experiences, you can read through it: Ready to upgrade from Oticon Opn 1. Should I select Oticon More or Phonak Paradise?
I’m also in the middle of getting my first pair of hearing aids, and am trialing a number of brands. I originally hadn’t considered Widex because until a few weeks ago, they weren’t compatible with Android streaming. But it sounds like from the other thread you posted on, the bluetooth is no better than other brands for non iPhones, unfortunately. I have already trialed the Oticons and currently have the Phonaks, and will be getting demo Signias next week.
Overall, sound itself with both are good. I have some issues with some flutter/warbling with both, and funny enough, it happens with near opposite frequencies between the two . It sounds like with some feedback adjustments, that issue is fixable though.
With Oticon, given their open sound methodology, you simply hear more. As soon as I put them on, I get almost this white noise in my ear, almost as if there’s a waterfall in the distance. While initially it seemed a bit much, and I actually turned down the volume of the HAs, after a week or so, I stopped noticing as much, and after a few weeks, altogether. I get the impression the open paradigm would be a little more overwhelming if someone had a more severe loss and has gone a while without being accustomed to a lot of noise. There are times I do wish sounds were a bit more attenuated though, such as buzzing refrigerator noises at the store, hood fans while cooking, etc. The good thing, however, is even though there is more noise overall, I am still able to distinguish speech through it very well. If there are 2 sources of noise, I can hear one through the other, albeit not always perfectly, but it’s still distinguishable as to sourcing where the noise is coming from. As for the Bluetooth, as mentioned in other threads, it’s awful for Android. The platform is simply better established.
The features of the Phonak aids are far superior. Stable , hands free calling, and as someone who streams a lot, the tap feature for pause/play (and voice assistant if you use it) is really quite convenient. I found myself missing it a lot more than I thought I would when I had the Oticons on. And the app itself is incredibly comprehensive. If you’re someone who likes to tinker and adjust things for yourself, the app allows for quite a bit of customization, though to do it effectively takes some time in learning and understanding what you’re really doing with adjusting each setting. These features do come with some pains though, such as tap sensitivity and the connection time every time you open the app. All in all, they are small annoyances, but they exist. In terms of sound, I personally find some of the higher frequency sounds to be a little off, and also oddly loud. The creaking of the old wooden floor, clicking of dogs’ nails on the ground, or when he’s licking his lips, footsteps on certain floors are unnaturally loud for me, to a point of distraction and annoyance. Some of this might be alleviated by adjustments by my audiologist (or myself once I learn all the different sound setting combinations better), but for me, still a noteworthy initial observation/experience. The biggest issue I had with these was that I could not separate out competing noises. While I think the aids do a great job suppressing background noises, I had difficulties if there were competing louder sounds. If several people were speaking at once (like a loud table nearby at a restaurant), and there are also sudden louder noises (i.e. a door slams, or some sort of alert or chime goes off), I just get a wall of noise in my ear with no real way to pick out one sound from another, rendering it near impossible to understand anything. The Oticons did a much better job, for me, in similar situations.
I’ll gladly report back once I’ve had some time with the Signias, but just my personal experiences so far. I’d reiterate that while it’s nice to gather feedback (which is what I have been also doing), it’s best to really try it all out for yourself as our experiences will be unique to our personal hearing losses. There will be those with opposite feelings about how the HAs perform for them.
My experience is with the Signia 7AX and Widex Evoke (not the Moment) so take it FWIW.
I am new to the world and I trialed both the Signia 7AX and the Widex Evoke 440. My Audi had great things to say about the Signia and said that all her patients that have tried the Signia have loved it. Also the fact that the Signia has dual processors () and is able to process noise and speech separately. I later found out that this is not unique to Signia and other major brands are able to process noise and speech separately as well albeit in their own ways and not necessarily like Signia does.
Anyway, I loved the design of the Signia and the fact that they were so tiny and disappeared behind my ear. I loved the Bluetooth connectivity and streaming capability. I was extremely impressed by the battery life of the T-Coil version. A charge gave me almost 2 days worth and it was incredible. All good right? Unfortunately there were two things about them that I could never get past. First was the speech recognition. I have a 95-100% work recognition score with sufficient amplification (I have mild to moderately severe loss) but with the Signia on, I had a very difficult time understanding speech. Even though I could hear my wife, I had to constantly keep asking to repeat herself. My 9 year old daughter was virtually impossible to understand. In fact with the Signia off, I could understand her perfectly as long as she spoke louder than normal. Second they sounded tinny. I read a lot (including this forum) that tinniness is something your Audi can tune out of the HAs. My Audi and I tried many many times to tune it out of the HA but we simply could not get past it. Everything would sound tinny and often times the comb filter effect was obvious too. It was maddening to use the HAs and left me with a headache almost every day.
Due to my dissatisfaction with the Signia, my Audi had me try the Widex and I was immediately surprised by how natural everything sounded. Usually it takes a few days to weeks to get used to new hearing aids but the Widex improvement was instant. And there was virtually no comb filter effect. The amplification wasn’t as strong as the Signia and frankly the tech and the chargers were a downgrade but the sound was incredible and my speech recognition was massively improved. My wife even commented that I rarely ask her to repeat things once I started using the Widex. I decided to stick with the Widex and have ordered the Moment 440.
Ah Interesting that you very much preferred the Widex. I’ve tried other devices in the past too. 10 years ago I tried Oticon, 6 years ago Phonak.
Oticon experience was ok but I choose Widex still. Phonak was horrible and so Widex was the clear choice then. Tech changes though and it seems since the last 6 years a lot so I figured best to give things a fresh look…
But still interesting you also have had such a contrastful experience with Widex after first trying the Signia. To me Widex also was an instant hit. No time needed to adjust apart from kneecapping the dumb “smart” program which was trying to “intelligently” adjust volume and whatever.
From all of the comments I’ve read on this forum now it also seems that indeed experience is very subjective and while one may love a certain HA, another may hate it. Interesting how that works, but good to be aware of that.
Still interesting and valuable to hear other people’s experience I think as it at least gives you some idea of what a devices strong and weak points may be.
Eagle Mountain, Utah
). Had to get a new audi and everything. Moderately severe to profound hi-z loss, worst in left side. Wore the Oticon for almost five years.
