Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Costco will stop selling the Rexton Reach and replace it with the Sennheiser Sonite

This topic is closed.

164 replies12.4k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic

Found in Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HearingAids/comments/1gcdsil/107_costco_locations_will_start_selling/404

Sennheiser Sonite R Features:
• Available as a rechargeable device with a standard charger.
Non-rechargeable devices and premium chargers are currently unavailable.
• New Technology:
• Automatic feature with Al identifies sound & adapts noise reduction for the best listening
experience
Narrow Speech focus 2.0 directional beamforming
New Speech manager detects direction of the main speech signal
Made for all streaming technology allows any bluetooth compatible device to stream directly
& connects to 8 enabled devices
• 68
• Compact, fast charger. Charges in 3 hours and lasts all day
• Support app adjusts hearing aid settings, tracks activities & connects them
• Available Colors: Silver/Black, Graphite Gray/Black and Sandalwood/Black
Item # Kiosk Item Description US Price
1891070 Kiosk Sennheiser Sonite R-Li Pair w/ Standard Charger $1,599.99
1891071 Kiosk Sennheiser Sonite R-Li Single w/ Standard Charger $799.99
1891072 Kiosk Sennheiser Sonite R-Li Standard Charger $199.99
• Accessories:
• 1266799 TV Connector $ 99.99
• 866496 cShell with UP receiver $ 39.99
867532 Phonak custom earmold $ 39.99
• 1891076 Easyline Remote Control $ 99.99
• 1891075 Easyline Partner Mic $299.99
1001070 Canite D I: Otondard Aharmar $199.99

I wonder if it will be the Costco equivalent of the Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio I90.

45 people in this conversation49 min readJump to latest
Edited

Great share. Impossible at this point to know which Phonak model this might be similar to. I’d guess the Infinio rather than Infinio Sphere but it does mention so who knows. We should have more info soon but it’s unlikely to be definitive. I’m thinking our first clue might be dimensions as Sphere is somewhat bigger than Infinio. More definitive would be somebody poking around in Target.

Wow, this is very interesting.
Could this be fabricated news? Nonsense?
I personally hope it’s true. Great aids for Costco.

There’s always the possibility it’s fake but Reddit post looks pretty legit.

100% confirmed true. I saw the memo yesterday at my Costco.

I have an appointment next week to take impressions.

Yeah shocking news, nothing official on the interwebs, but dropping Rexton (Signia) is disappointing, it’s always good to have the choice, WS Audiology won’t be happy!

Edited

Only the version is being dropped. The version is still available.

Your location will begin offering the Sennheiser Sonite R RIC Hearing Aids on Monday 10/28/24. The Sennheiser Sonite R will replace the Rexton Reach R-LiT RIC Hearing Aids. The Philips Hearlink 9050 and Jabra Enhance Pro 20 RICs remain available, in addition to all existing BTEs and Customs available from Philips, Jabra and Rexton.

You can continue selling Rexton Reach through November 24th to avoid impacting members who already have an appointment scheduled. On Monday, November 25th, the Rexton Reach RICs will be disabled in Sycle and depot distributions will no longer be available.

How I read this is ONLY the Receiver In Canal (RIC) version is being discontinued. The Behind The Ear (BTE) version of the Rexton along with Jabra and Phillips will still be available.

Edited

In reply to @MDB

@MDB said:

I’m thinking our first clue might be dimensions as Sphere is somewhat bigger than Infinio.

I should think that if they’re as good as the Spheres, the Costco PR would be trumpeting 10 enhancement, etc. outside of Costco might be relatively upset if a Costco alternative just as good as the Spheres is issued so relatively soon after the launch of the Spheres, IMHO.

I would agree that would be upset (as they were for KS9 and KS10 (Marvel and Paradise). I have no idea what aid it’s similar to, but it wouldn’t surprise me if how Costco markets it isn’t part of the agreement with Sonova.

In reply to @RSW

@RSW said:

I can not find the Sennheiser Sonite R RIC Hearing Aids on their website. Only on an FDA site…

Must be very new

It’s for Costco only, so we’ll have to wait for everything, like features, spec’s etc from them I would guess.

Since we’re speculating and not waiting 'til Monday to find out, all three major services (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot) say that the Sonite R will not have the advanced -powered noise reduction features of the Sphere, FWIW. Newer but not as advanced with a strong focus on audio fidelity, was ChatGPT’s take. The search text used for all three was “How do the Phonak Audeo Sphere Infinio I90 and the Sennheiser Sonite R hearing aids compare?”

is definitely interesting. I did a search for Infinio vs Infinio Sphere dimensions and got this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=infinio+vs+infinio+sphere+dimensions&rlz=1CAANLP_enUS1109US1109&oq=infinio+vs+infinio+sphere+dimensions&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigAdIBCDk0NTZqMWo0qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-848

Useful because I have some knowledge but they have dimensions of the Infinio and Sphere reversed. I know the Spheres are bigger. AI is potentially dangerous when “taken at it’s word” rather than verifying. Has led to lawyers citing cases that don’t exist.

Edited

More likely is that these are simply the Phonak Infinio without Sphere. It was speculated on this forum at the time of the Infinio/Sphere release that this would likely be the case.

In reply to @jim_lewis

If there are no details online about Sennheiser Sonite R then the chatbot answers must be hallucinations. I guess there could be online info that’s been crawled by chatbots but not Google et al. Don’t know how likely that is.

Edited

In reply to @MDB

@MDB said:

AI is potentially dangerous when “taken at it’s word” rather than verifying.

I don’t take any given at its word. If it matters, I check multiple AI sources, as I did in my post above. I also look to see if references are included in the reply and check those, including weighting their sources. I will also do a Google or Bing search to see if relevant hits come up that way.

I think the thing that’s useful about AI is rather than just getting a hit list for some search terms as in Googling, which may be skewed by metadata from website owners gaming Google’s Search, etc., the AI response is like a search that attempts to specifically and concisely answer the question you’ve posed. Also, the AI remembers your previous chat in context, so it’s easy to drill down further or explore the ramifications. Although AI is dumb, it has a far larger database than most humans can begin to comprehend. Google’s Gemini has gotten a lot better recently. OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o is probably better than Microsoft Copilot (a derivative of ChatGPT) on non-Microsoft things. Copilot tends to condense and simplify things too much (the 1-Minute Manager approach), whereas the devil is in the details.

If you check the public records, the Sonite R has been in government records since May 9, 2024. It does not seem like a good idea, if the Sonite R also contains the DeepSonic chip, to release a product that might let the kitty out of the bag THREE MONTHS before your big product announcement in Las Vegas… Another reason to believe the Sonite R is not equivalent to the Sphere.

AccessGUDID - DEVICE: Sennheiser Sonite R (07613389741155)36

AccessGUDID - Sennheiser Sonite R (07613389741155)- No description.

See Device Record History or Device Record Status links/buttons on the web page.

A better reason to disbelieve the AI would be how can it know about such a recent product release as the Sonite R? Until recently, ChatGPT has had a several-year lag in the timeliness of its data knowledge. However, one can now ask CoPilot, ChatGPT, or Gemini the weather, and any of those will give you an up-to-the-hour report on what the weather is ~anywhere you ask in the U.S. So, the AI services are making an effort to access the most current data for things that might matter to their users.

Related discussions