Oticon Real

My understanding is that there were several new technologies introduced in the More. A good rule of thumb is to never buy the initial version of a product, especially in software.

The Real allows them to adjust deficiencies uncovered during the customer experiences with the More. The Real would be like an improved version with a couple of new features added.

@tenkan: Tencq - does this mean the next model will be named TheMatrix?

Of course not. It will be Oticon Unreal.

Since it will just have minor differences the Engineering code name will be the Oticon Really?

The Oticon rep was at my friend’s store in Germany. Boy, are they pushing these things and they aren’t cheap to the seller. Pass.

@Musician said:

they aren’t cheap to the seller.

They are the same price as the More. My More 1, without any services were $2820 for the pair. With fitting and 60 day refund, the total was $3865.

The more I read these stories about the industry, the more tempted I am to be the first guy in the lineup to try OTC devices, once they hit Canada.

And, if they’re any good, I won’t be shy to tell everybody that my expensive HAs aren’t worth it … so guys who don’t have my benefits aren’t afraid to try them (meaning hearing aids).

@Musician said:

cost to the audiologist.

It would be less than what I quoted. Of the 3 brands I considered, Oticon was the least expensive and Phonak was the priciest.

@prodigyplace said:

They probably will be but not for your loss.

@prodigyplace: I’m waiting for the Sanyo Oto-Mega-Sono .

(The promo video shows a device in a crystal wine goblet. They play one 4k pure tone at full volume, and the glass explodes!)

Seriously, I hope the FDA slaps constraints on the OTC devices so that the ill-informed can’t damage their remaining hearing by bombarding their eardrums with sheer volume when what they need is precision assistance.

I’m just catching up with the Real because it’s the height of high school and college basketball season and that and my grandkids take up almost all of my spare time these days. So being a month behind, I haven’t yet read all of this thread, so if I repeat anything that’s already been covered, my apologies. I have read all 4 of the white papers linked on the Oticon site. (We’re there more that I missed?)

I was a user of Opn 1 hearing aids for about 5 years. They were terrific for most of my needs. My 2 biggest complaints were wind noise and loud background noise becoming overwhelming at times. Wind noise was such that I couldn’t drive my car with the window open. It was either close the window or take out my left hearing aid.

I find it interesting that the 2 biggest issues that the real is addressing are wind noise and loud or sudden background noise. Kudos to Oticon for doing this the other point of emphasis is speech clarity, which for me is the holy grail of hearing aids.

My current hearing devices are Whisper hearing aids. So that is my point of comparison. What I first noticed about Whisper was no issues with wind noise and a better balanced sound environment while having the same access to the full 360 surround sounds. I could hear better in crowded rooms such as restaurants and I was no longer bothered by loud sounds.

Neither wind noise nor loud sounds were deal killers for me. I could live with those as long as the hearing aid did this for me. Opn 1 had room for improvement in this area. I trialed the More 1 and did not find any significant difference for my hearing. I expected to and so was disappointed, but 4 weeks is really insufficient.

Whisper also has room for improvement in speech clarity. When I trialed them, I felt it was a slight improvement over m6 OPN 1, but not a big improvement. I still missed words occasionally with both. Maybe not quite as often with Whisper, but it’s really hard to say with something that’s occasional. My overall hearing experience, however,
Was better and it was time, so I wanted to try the new technology with the improvements that it did bring and the ongoing updates which Whisper provides.

What I’m hearing from Oticon is they’re offering new improvements in ind noise reduction and loud/sudden noise improvement which Whisper provided a few years ago. However, if their improvements in speech clarity are significant, I would switch in a heart beat because that’s a really big deal. Of course I’m also looking forward t9 the anticipated new generation of Whisper this spring.

Cheers to all.

@billgem said:

I was a user of Opn 1 hearing aids for about 5 years. They were terrific for most of my needs. My 2 biggest complaints were wind noise and loud background noise becoming overwhelming at times.

Did you have the Transient Noise Management in the OPN 1 turned up to High when you were using it, Bill? Of so, did it seem to help as opposed to when you had it to OFF?

Also, when you had it set to HIGH, how did it compare to the Whisper specifically on sudden sound handling?

I do admit that while Oticon claims to have wind handling even back in the OPN days, I find it totally inadequate on my OPN 1. But there’s no option to turn it OFF, so I can’t really tell how much it helps anyway. I just know that I can still hear plenty of wind noise.

@Volusiano said:

I do admit that while Oticon claims to have wind handling even back in the OPN days, I find it totally inadequate on my OPN 1.

@Volusiano: Is that you, Mr.V? is that realy you talking about our Oticon !that way?

It’s interesting the difference that a couple of generations can make:

• I live in a very windy locale, and I’ve never noticed excessive wind noise with my More1s
• I’m a former artilleryman and, as such, I usually react to sharp reports, nearby. I can’t say that I’ve been bothered much by that with my genuine Oticon ™️ brand More1s.

I too don’t notice wind noise but I do notice that when there is wind that my More1 aids reduce the overall sound, meaning that not only do I not hear the wind but my capacity to hear anyone speaking to me. But I wasn’t in a battle zone or even around weapons larger than rifles and handguns, and even then very seldom. My noisy environments was jet engines, and loud equipment fans and AC units. Sudden noise does cause me a lot of anxiety and if loud enough causes me to have headaches.

@cvkemp said:

Sudden noise does cause me a lot of anxiety

@cvkemp: I think this is true for 90% of folks, Chuck, which is why I can understand Oticon prioritizing it. But what I fail to understand is why did they wait this long to do it?.

That’s the part of this rollout that has me flummoxed - I just assumed that all the makers would have addressed this issue a looong time ago. And Oticon is trumpeting they’re so great for doing it at this juncture?