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I'm doing an Oticon Real trial followed by a Phonak Lumity trial

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I went to the audiologist today for my annual checkup and tuneup for my P90Rs and walked out with a Real 1 trial for a week. Once I turn these in next week, I’ll do a 1 week trial of the Life L90Rs.

I’d had Opn1s back in 2017 and liked the sound, but had massive issues with moisture, which led me to the Phonaks in 2020. I’m excited to see how switching back and forth between the P90Rs and Real 1s plays out!

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@habu987 , I will be very interested in your impressions. I got Oticon Opn 1 in 2016. In late 2020 I trialed Phonak P90 and liked them.

In 2020 my insurance company announced that, starting in 2021, they would pay a benefit once every five years instead of once every three years as they had been doing. But if I bought HAs in 2020 I could get another benefit in 2023.

Oticon More 1 had been announced by the end of 2020 but were not available yet. I bought the Mores without trialing them, and I found them to be only a slight improvement over the Opn 1.

Even with the help of the Oticon representative on the phone, my audi was unable to adjust the Mores to mitigate my issues of being distracted by background conversations when I tried to concentrate on a target speaker in a noisy bar/restaurant setting. I wonder if Oticon’s “Opn” concept does not really suit me. Maybe I would have been better off with the Phonak Paradise.

Now, in 2023 I am in a similar situation. Are the Oticon Reals a significant improvement over the Mores? Or are the Lumitys better than the Reals? Obviously I will have to trial both of them myself to see how they work for me. But even with the insurance benefit I will have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for new HAs, and I don’t want to spend that money for only a marginal improvement over what I have now.

During your very short trials, could you try out both the Lumity and the Real at the same loud bar/restaurant to see how each of them performs in that setting? And how each performs compared to the P90 and your memory of how the Opn performed? Or maybe you still have your old Opn1. Your impressions will be very helpful to me, and, I suspect, to many other members here. Thank you.

I am also trialing Lumity P90s and will try the Oticon Real 1 afterwards. So, definitely interested in all your impressions.

I’ve had the P90s for about 4 weeks and while my brain has adjusted somewhat to the more lively, jarring sound of the P90s (versus my current Resound Enzos), I wouldn’t say it’s a comfortable sound just yet. I’m getting the bumped up to the maximum power today (will help match my mid frequencies) and will also ask for other adjustments. So, we’ll see how it goes.

As I’ve documented elsewhere, the P90 handling of bluetooth streaming volume / external microphone volume has not worked well for me. I believe the Phonak Real 1 offers better options in this respect but am also very curious to see how the Real 1 processes sound as their general approach seems very different from Phonaks.

Thanks!

In reply to @ziploc

@ziploc said:

Even with the help of the Oticon representative on the phone, my audi was unable to adjust the Mores to mitigate my issues of being distracted by background conversations when I tried to concentrate on a target speaker in a noisy bar/restaurant setting. I wonder if Oticon’s “Opn” concept does not really suit me. Maybe I would have been better off with the Phonak Paradise.

I hate to say it, but you pretty much answered your own question, there.
IMHO, you are more suited to Phonak’s paradigm than Oticon’s.

Don’t take anyone else’s impressions of which sounds better in X or Y. Trial them yourself under the conditions you are critical of, and make your own judgement.

Of course, the most critical aspect is to get the audi to program them to your RX.

I’ve done a trial of more 1, real 1 and lumity 90. Ended up with real 1. For me the lumity was awful. I hated the wires and domes very uncomfortable vs oticon. The streaming on lumity is appalling on an iPhone doesn’t connect most time or poor and I have most powerful iphone 14 pro. The best thing about the lumity is customisation but that’s it. I’ve been with real 1 in pop concerts large meetings pubs social gatherings and in front of TV. Never have to alter from general settings and get perfect natural sound as if it’s not there. Real 1 is awesome imo

I have also found during my ongoing L90 trial the connectivity to be not only a bit flakey in holding its connection, but also to take upwards of 5 seconds when making a successful connection between the two LE BT services and the L90s. I don’t normally see any BT connection take nearly that long on my phone. I just got latest firmware downloaded yesterday and will see if that makes a difference.

I had the latest firmware of ios and the lumity. I have lots of bluetooth devices such as Apple Watch and airtags so I guess there isn’t sufficient bandwidth for bluetooth classic as well. The oticon has crystal clear two way streaming

Personally I did. I had more trouble in pop concerts and pubs with more 1 than real 1. I reckon the real 1 is far better.

Edited

I turned the Reals back in this morning after the 1 week trial and picked up the Lumity Lifes for a 1 week trial.

The Reals definitely had a different, more open soundstage than either my current P90s or the L90s. I could hear more of the background sounds (e.g. the intermittent creaking of one of the car seats in my car, stuff like that) with the Reals than with either of the Phonaks.

My noisy environment test was wearing them while swim coaching a few times. When I’m on the loud, echoey pool deck, besides my team there are two other swim teams and a dive team in the water, with the dive team playing music on a speaker that adds to the general din and cacophony. With my P90s, I’d often have trouble hearing a swimmer (well, more accurately, understanding them) in the water if they were off to one side or behind me given the directionality of the . I didn’t have that problem with the Reals. I still had to actively listen to hear them over the general noise level, but my comprehension was definitely better for what I could hear.

Music streaming quality seemed to be a bit off compared to the P90s, but not enough for me to complain about. I didn’t bother tweaking settings in the streaming section of the app, so that might be a moot point if I’d bothered to fiddle with the settings.

All in all, Real non-streaming sound quality was in my opinion a bit of a step up from the P90s, specifically in the open soundstage and non-forced directionality. Not a life changing step up, but a noticeable step up.

I did have one fairly major pet peeve, though, and that’s how the Reals interacted with my phone while Android Auto was running. Phone calls while AA was running would default to playing the audio through the aids and I had to go in on every single call and change it to play over the car speakers. Music via AA would play over the car speakers by default, though. I poked around a bit but couldn’t find any settings to prioritize the car speakers for phone calls.

I’ve got a Pixel 7 Pro and the Reals also showed up as a different type of Bluetooth device with an ear icon (link to screenshot15) and didn’t have the phone call or audio selection choices in the menu.

I’m not sure if there was a setting I could’ve changed for the Reals, but given that 90% of my phone calls are in the car, that might be a deal breaker if I can’t change the call setting.

ETA: I have the open domes on my P90s and on the trial L90s. I’d had open domes on my OPN1s, but the audi gave me the demo Reals with the bass domes. I didn’t have any open domes to compare them with, but I thought the non-streaming sound quality was fine and didn’t have any issues with occlusion or ear canal fit.

@habu987 said:

I did have one fairly major pet peeve, though, and that’s how the Reals interacted with my phone while Android Auto was running. Phone calls while AA was running would default to playing the audio through the aids and I had to go in on every single call and change it to play over the car speakers. Music via AA would play over the car speakers by default, though. I poked around a bit but couldn’t find any settings to prioritize the car speakers for phone calls.

That is a Android issue, due to .
I don’t use AA, but every time I’m within range of my no matter what device I’m connected to, the HAs grab control!
So that would explain your Auto’s speaker not being allowed.
Your best bet would be to forget the HAs in BT connected devices on your phone’s settings.

@habu987 said:

I’ve got a Pixel 7 Pro and the Reals also showed up as a different type of Bluetooth device with an ear icon (link to screenshot ) and didn’t have the phone call or audio selection choices in the menu.

That is ASHA, you get the Ear icon, and only a connected confirmation when they are active.
And of course, due to ASHA, you have no control over choosing options.

Phonak uses old fashioned BT Classic, so there is full control for you.
The only downside of that is they require more power, and drain the batteries a little faster.

I have Oticon Mores, and don’t care for Phonak’s Autosense paradigm, so I put up with it, or sometimes just use my ConnectClip, which allows me control.

If the AA issue is a deal breaker than the Phonak’s may be a better option for you as long as your audi can get them dialed in for you.
Keep us posted.

That’s a bummer that it’s how is implemented!

In that case, I’ll probably either just stick with my current P90s or upgrade to the L90s and wait a few more years until rolls out through the industry and reevaluate then.

That’s a bummer because I do prefer the Oticon sound profile a bit more than the Phonak sound profile.

@habu987 said:

I do prefer the Oticon sound profile a bit more than the Phonak sound profile.

That’s exactly why I stick with Oticon.
Oh, and btw, you should never talk on the phone when driving :sunglasses:

I got the Amplifon pricing for the L90Ls and the Real 1s: $3800 per pair for both. When I got my P90s in 2020, the Amplifon price was $4922, so that’s a significant decrease in price!

I’m leaning towards going with the L90Ls later this year and trying Oticon again in a few years when LEA has been implemented, since upon reflection the implementation is a showstopper for me.

I ended up getting the L90Ls earlier than initially planned and got fitted for them three days ago.

Still prefer the sound profile of the Oticon Reals, but it’s not a night and day difference, and I absolutely prefer the Bluetooth behavior of the L90Ls over the Reals.

My out of pocket for the L90Ls came out to $3790 for the pair.

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