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Signia Introduces Hearing Aids That Tackle the Most Difficult Challenge for People With Hearing Loss: Group Conversations in Noise

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In reply to @billgem

To put it simply, it kicks in when it doesn’t have to, and makes things harder for me. After more than a year of fiddling, my most used program is the “Musician” one. Which has almost all the bells and whistles turned off.
[ I have a moderate hearing loss in right and profound in left ear]

In reply to @Reginald

@Reginald

Been there. Done that.
Took 2 years. Found another practitioner My hearing aids were set up wrong by the audiologist that provided them. I used the “music” program on my hearing aids too I don’t have your ; hope that my comment helps. I spent 2 years with ear stoppers in my ears, not hearing aids.

DaveL

Our own Matthew Allsop has commented on YouTube. Check it out.

Here is another look at what Signia is doing to enhance listening to conversation with background noise. This interview focuses on the AX platform, but it provides the background to look at how Signia has moved forward with the new IX platform. As I understand it, they have built on the AX platform by adding multi-directionality to what they were already doing. New faster processing chips seem to enable them to be more nimble by processing speech from multiple speakers simultaneously and make it all understandable to the listener.

Hearing Aid Technology to Improve Wearer Acceptance in Noise: How Signia Enhances Human Performance12.

Edited

Sorry. I worded it poorly. My reference to them building on the AX platform and using the fast processing chips refers to the fact that in the analysis phase, they are processing 192,000 data points per second and that “the focus streams are constantly adapting their position, width, and level of enhancement, refreshing 1000 times per second . . .” (See the white paper linked at the top of the article.) These developments would not be possible without the newer faster processing chips available today. In the past, beam firming could only focus on the one person the listener was looking at, but this multi stream architecture is capable of accurately pinpointing multiple moving speakers in real time. This is taking beam firming to a whole different level.

I was testing offerings from several major brands for more than a half year, and while ultimately Signia AX won, in my opinion it didn’t have any groundbreaking advantages above others.

In reply to @Reginald

It’s a common theme from all the manufacturers, dress up the new release as “out of this world” with white papers to back it all up from the Lab, then move it on to the marketing department to let them weave their magic, but then we see it’s actually last year’s models and a lot don’t actually live up to it in the real world.

In reply to @Reginald

Reginald, you’re loss sounds similar to mine. I also had my audi turn off as much as possible on the Musician program and now it works very well. I play classical guitar, sometimes in ensemble. I don’t much experience with different brands, even though I’ve been wearing first one and then two aids for over 25 years. The Ax are the first ‘premier’ aids I’ve owned. How do you think these compare to other brands for playing music? I may have asked you that already…
I have the Ax 7s.

Edited

[7 AX here too] They sound more natural and “Hi-Res” after you dial their BS down. I think they share the sound quality with recent Widex [same owner] which are regarded as some of the best sounding.
I think it’s similar to Oticon’s philosophy of leaving most to your brain.
I’ve tried to use the famed AX features for a long time, and they never lived up to the hype or were helpful enough.
Fidelity and predictability seems to trump anything else for my hearing.
I’m guessing that it’s caused by the type of my hearing loss which is ski sloped but on the right side it’s moderate and on the left nearing profound, so I know how things are supposed to sound for the most part.

Also, as someone working in the IT field, I strongly believe that the hardware in current HAs simply isn’t there yet, to back their claims of “” performance.

In reply to @tenkan

Totally agree. Been thru this experience with more than just hearing aids. I am surprised at the lack of progress. And up until the recently available ’s, have felt like I was dealing with Big Pharma. They cost is enormous. You have to service them where you buy them. THey shove one brand at you repeatedly without really taking the time to know what you are about. They give you the same dang hearing test - put the numbers in and you are out the door.

The user available controls are laughable. There should be an “advanced use page” allowing one to adjust bandwidth of compression for each hearing aid. It should be separate - one for each ear. You should be able to compress or limit specific frequencies, now have some (for me) subpar plug in strapped across the entire range of both ears. There should be more frequencies for for adjustment. 10-15 bands on each hearing aid. An adjustable hi and low pass filter. And you should be required to take a test before getting a code to unlock the feature, as these things are pretty hard to learn.

But who has four years to go to school to become an audiologist? This course could be easy and short.

And what good is programming a hearing aid in a 10’x1-office with parallel walls and one person in it.

Why doesn’t Medicare help more, this being a common condition for aging people?

I feel fortunate to be able to try different things, though the $$ bite is so large. And I always think, goodness gracious - why isn’t this provided for in Medicare where it is most needed by people. Many of whom simply can’t afford it.

Gads.

In reply to @WhiteHat

Yes this is true. I have ‘speech in noise’ and ‘my music’ on my Oticon aids, but I sadly don’t rate the speech in noise, it can’t deal with cutlery noise or coffee machines or traffic noise or aircon. Not sure what it does do tbh. And the my music is ok if I’m in a quiet room with just music, but then if someone speaks I’m all over the place!

I recently started using Philips 9040s, which I’m convinced are better than 9030s. These companies are constantly working to improve their products to keep up with or try to stay ahead of competitors. Despite all the speculation on another discussion thread about sharing technology between brands owned by the same big parent company, I believe my Philips HAs use the latest Oticon technology. Similarly, I believe that Rexton’s latest model uses the latest Signia technology. Anyone wanting the best currently available HAs should try Rextons at Costco, as well as Costco’s other brands.

Doctor Cliff checks in:

Edited

He leaves me with the feeling that he is underwhelmed.

I am not sure what to make of it. On the one hand he may be underwhelmed on the basis that he tried it and did not experience the voice separation that he was expecting. On the other hand he may have a preconceived belief that these claims are marketing and he wants to distance himself from them because he does not want to raise expectations and be accused of plugging a device that does not deliver.

I find myself slightly uncomfortable with his modus operandi. I don’t know what degree his loss is, but I don’t know if it falls into a majority cohort. The people who should be testing this are his clients, those who belong to a cohort who have difficulty in noise, to see if there are improvements.

Only time will tell.

Edited
@glucas said:

He leaves me with the feeling that he is underwhelmed.

Yes, there was this: “Is it (improvement over the previous generation AX technology) enough for you to actually go and upgrade from an AX to an IX? Maybe, maybe not.” And this, “I still ran into the same problem, which is that if two different people are talking at the same time, I can’t understand what either one of them are saying and I need one of them to stop talking.”

On the other hand there was this, “How do I feel they actually work in a background noise environment? Honestly, I have to say that it’s impressive . . .” And this, “I feel it’s definitely better than the previous generation AX technology. The thing I liked most about it is that I felt like these hearing aids could switch back and forth very quickly when I had different people talking to me.” And this, “Apparently my perception of how these devices worked was echoed in a white paper that Signia is putting which showed that 95% of people experiencing these devices could hear better and did better in complex speech testing.” And this, “I’ve reviewed a lot of different Signia devices over the years, and I have to say that this IX platform is clearly my favorite.” And this, “Assuming (they’re properly fitted), the Signia IX hearing aids might be the best hearing aids you ever wear.”

And as for his difficulty understanding two people talking to him at the same time, this is a problem that a lot of unaided people with excellent hearing also experience.

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