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Phonak Audeo I90 Sphere vs Oticon Intent

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Hello, been several years since I posted as I haven’t needed new hearing aids in quite some time. I have always worn Oticon and have loved them. My audi is wanting me to demo and compare the Phonak Audeo I90 Sphere vs the Oticon Intent. I’ve watched the Hearing Tracker YouTube overviews for both so I get the general differences. Has anyone here ever done a head to head trial of both of them? I have always found Oticon to be more natural sounding but I have always been intrigued with the Phonaks. I’m mostly concerned with speech sound quality both in quiet and noisy environments, streaming sound quality both for music and audio books, battery life, and Bluetooth reliability. I won’t see my audi until early January, so don’t know yet about pricing or if they are within range of each other in that regard. Thanks for any feedback!

Edited

Hi banshee,

I trialled the Spheres recently but ended up going with the Intents. But that wasn’t necessarily because of one aid being better in noise. It was more to do with the fact that I managed to get the Intents from a provider who performed .

The Spheres were really good at eliminating all noise. Whereas with the Intents, the background noise is still very much present, and to make the comparison, I have to focus a little harder.

In terms of other factors to compare, I believe that bluetooth is probably more convenient with the Phonak. You can have up to 2 devices connected and switch between them. With the Oticon, as you may know, one has to disconnect say, from the iPhone and connect to bluetooth on an iPad, before it will work and vice versa. Also, one needs a ConnectClip for Android/PC (unless a Samsung S23 or other phone with compatibility).

This is largely subjective and just my opinion, I believe that the Oticons are actually easier to use from an ergonomic standpoint, particularly with respect to the General program, which you can leave on and it will cope with noise as well. To be fair the newer versions of Autosense 5/6 are also good and seamlessly switch between programs. However - that’s my view but others on here have been unhappy about the Autosense switching.

Battery life? Both are rechargeable. Some people have raised the issue of the Phonaks consuming high power in Sphere mode. I did not find it an issue, but I wasn’t in that mode for longer than 2 hours. But there have been many anecdotal reports from people that they still have hours of charge remaining at the end of the day with Spheres.

One overlooked factor is speech in quiet and a more complex group setting in quiet. This is why I prefer the Intents. But in writing this it is probably just because I have had REM with them. If I had had REM with the Phonak I might have preferred them. Certainly I have been impressed by the high frequency response of the Oticons.

At the end of the day, I would say it’s really difficult to choose one or the other. It’s hugely subjective and I guess it depends largely on your loss, what aids you are used to previously, the expertise of the fitter, your mobile phone preferences etc etc.

Thanks for the reply, glucas, it’s helpful to hear your experience. I am pretty sure that my audi used at one point in adjusting my Oticons, so perhaps she can do that for both the Intents and the Phonaks when I trial. I have an iPhone and have never had issues with my Oticons connecting, and I don’t think having the multiple device connectivity feature is a must for me. I did see some YouTube comments that mentioned Sphere mode and its impact on battery life. It seemed like it didn’t impact it too much but it does of course depend upon how long you stay in that mode. The one thing that is making me a bit hesitant about the Phonaks is that they look huge! But I won’t know for sure until I try them out.

Yes, the Phonak was a lot bigger than the Oticons. Not an issue for me as I’m a big guy who has a pair of Xceeds (from UK NHS) and was used to wearing growing up. But I was actually astonished by the small size if the Intents, given that tech is packed in there as well.

Good luck, please post a review when you come to trial them.

It’s rare to see a person who has a chance to try both, beside @glucas and yourself here (@banshee), I’m not aware of anyone else, so both your opinions are definitely valued!

I think it boils down to your preference in dealing with speech in noise. The Phonak Sphere I90 will probably give you kind of a bubble where you’ll hear speech inside that bubble really well because other sounds outside of that bubble are eliminated or at least suppressed considerably. But that’s only in a very noisy place. When it’s not noisy enough, the Phonak probably won’t switch to the bubble unless it’s a last resort, so it’s not like you’re stuck with it all the times anyway.

The question is whether you like to be inside the bubble all the times when it’s really noisy or not. If you do, then you have the ideal setup there. And if you don’t want to be in the bubble anymore, you can probably opt out of it via some manual program override. So it’s not like you’re going to be stuck in it.

The Oticon Intent, on the other hand, for sure won’t give you that bubble. And you’ll probably hear a lot more going on with it. Although some people might find it overwhelming, some people might like it this way. They might prefer the awareness of all sounds around them, and they just want help from the hearing aids to get them to understand the speech they want to focus on better, even if they have to work on the listening a little bit harder. They might want to be able to shift focus in a split of a second from one source of speech or sound to another source of speech or sound that may be outside the vicinity of that imaginary bubble. With the Phonak, yeah, they can get in and out of the Sphere mode, but it’s not going to be instant. And you might get tired of having to get in and out of it too often.

So I’d say it really depends on not just the preference, but also the situation as well. If you’re sitting at a table having a conversation with folks at the table itself almost exclusively, then it’s nice to have that bubble to be in because you’re not mobile. But if you’re standing around with a bunch of people and want to be able to hear somebody from across the room calling out to you, or maybe shift your attention around between different conversations going on around you, maybe focus on somebody playing a piano nearby, or listen to something going on on TV for a newsbreak or something, then the bubble wouldn’t work as well as an open soundscape.

I’m wearing the Real 1 right now, so I can’t even pretend to know how the Intent is different or better than the Real, let alone be qualified to say much about the Phone Sphere, except for what I read from users’ experience here on this forum. But I think it boils down to your taste and preference and also even down to the kinds of situations that you find yourself in most often. If you frequent noisy places often and find yourself having a very hard time dealing with table conversations, then it seems like the Phonak Sphere I90 is probably the no-brainer choice for you. But if you’re very active and like having an awareness of your surrounding, and don’t find yourself having to hold conversations in noisy places very often, then perhaps you might like the Oticon Intent better. You just can’t go wrong with either. It’s more like which one you find is more suitable for yourself and your lifestyle.

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