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Widex SmartRIC aids now out

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I am now on week two of my SmartRIC (440). I do not miss the buttons. Even when I had buttons I never used them. I find the automatic program to be fine as is. I can easily go the whole day without needing my phone to manage the aid in any way.

The charger is terrific. As for battery life, I wear my aids 14-16 hours a day. I am going to bed with anywhere from 60 to 70% battery life left, depends on my streaming levels that day. The charger itself has not yet dipped below 3 LEDs (out of 3) in the two weeks. Granted I’m only charging a single aid, but still, that’s impressive.

Speech in noise is fantastic. I am highly impressed with this aid.

As for - I used it once or twice. It did accomplish the task I asked it to do, it was kind of cool, but in reality, not something I’ll use often.

Funnily enough, they [WS Audiology] just released IX Stylettos, completely unchanged hardware wise, just adding group-hearing software feature and theoretical future firmware update.
It’s just soo soo lazy, that it offends me.
This should be an update, not a “new” release…

Signia Styletto IX slim-RIC hearing aids | Signia Pro9

Signia Styletto IX slim hearing aids. Explore all models, features and benefits. Visit Signia Pro.

@Reginald said:

It’s just soo soo lazy, that it offends me.
This should be an update, not a “new” HA release…

Absolutely agree, but all the manufacturers are guilty of doing this, Phonak is the worst!

I need a power receiver in my right ear. I wonder if this Widex will work with my needs? Or if someone might recommend a Widex aid that would fit my profile? Just out of curiosity at this point. This is almost strictly for playing my guitar for myself and in small ensemble. I have another aid that I wear for everyday situations. Widex has a good rep among musicians.

I would recommend downloading and installing the Widex compass software, because everything you wanted to know about which models are right for you including tech specs is available in there.

My Widex Moment Sheer 440s don’t have much button functionality either. One button on each aid … quick push on left one lowers volume, quick on right raises volume, push and hold either one to turn the aid off.

So anything else, you need the phone. But the thing I do most often is turn on TV mode or a couple custom ones I made, and I discovered I can control the things with my Apple watch… so I don’t need to have the phone right on me all the time.

You can change button functionality to changing program (up or down) by sacrificing button volume control, either/or scenario.

In reply to @michaelngm30

@michaelngm30 said:

I discovered I can control the things with my Apple watch… so I don’t need to have the phone right on me all the time.

That is very COOL! I have an Android phone. Anyone here using an Android “smart” watch? If so, what can it control in the way of hearing aids?

I’ve had my SmartRIC for about two weeks now. So far, so good. It’s lived up to its promises. Regarding your comment about no button and the awkwardness of using your phone, you should know that, if your phone is an iPhone and if you have an Apple Watch, the app works on the watch, too. It’s easy to change volume and programs using the watch app.

@Michael_K said:

you should know that, if your phone is an iPhone and if you have an Apple Watch, the app works on the watch, too.

I have an Android Samsung Flip-4 phone, but maybe there’s a watch for that platform, too? Thanks for sharing! :slight_smile:

You want Google’s Wear OS watch, currently one of the best is from Oneplus [Watch 2] It has voice command support [not all of them do], and very long battery life.

@Reginald said:

Google’s Wear OS watch

I guess what I’m wondering is: would this Google Wear OS watch somehow connect via to my hearing aids so I could use the watch (instead of my Samsung Flip-4 Android phone) control the aids?

Augh. I SO wish there was a Geek Squad for us hearing aid wearers. There are so many accessories and things out there that if we KNEW how they worked, we could actually buy them and use them.

In reply to @tenkan

@anon33641277 said:

Nobody has any new ideas. All that remains is to stuff the AI ​​in.

@tenkan said:

100% agree, well they are giving us nice but weird shapes to play with ; )

The have huge potential, look at this:

Samples of Adobe Enhance Speech A.I. - YouTube4

I tested Adobe Podcast AI by uploading recordings with speech with backgroud noise and it really make a improvement:

Adobe Podcast | AI audio recording and editing, all on the web1

In reply to @Bimodal_user

These are not the kind of that can be put in the . “AIs” in hearing devices are nothing like the “true” AIs everyone is using nowadays; due to severe hardware limitations, which won’t be possible to overcome in the near future (owing to hardware development plateauing and miniaturisation limits). I’m saying this as someone who works in the field of AIs.
The only hope is in external devices; that’s why open connectivity standards like Audio are massively important.

Quite an attractive and comfortable fit on the ear with this device. The lack of buttons is annoying, but the app connectivity is snappy. Seems to be no way to turn them OFF, which is wild–how do I send one for repair?

In the case of Signias you can turn them off (it’s called perseveration mode or something) via fitting software. It’s the same company so I’m guessing that Widex has a similar feature.

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