Oticon Opn1 minirite 85s appropriate for my loss?

@Volusiano said:

That’s interesting. Maybe the latest version of the download had been crippled, restricting its use on the OPN so they can control the SW now? Maybe we have to share older downloaded versions that didn’t have this new restriction?

Ain’t gonna happen. I will eat my hat if it does.

It would create situations like this,

Sorry Mr MegaBucks who paid $7000 or $8000 for your hearing aids, but we have to wait until we get software updates using snail mail. Let’s see it’s Friday afternoon and we can’t get mail until sometime next week. Are you okay with waiting until next Wednesday? Maybe you should have bought Phonaks from the business across town because they update via the Internet.

ETA: Sure were a lot of purple-A Avatars in the forum today. I’ve never seen so many Purple-A’s. I think Jimi Hendrix wrote a song about Purple A’s1

ETA: Latest = Genie2 2017.1 Build 3.315.181.6 / Genie Updater = No updates

It was related to the OPN 3 and 2. We had Genie 2, but the only option was the OPN 1. There was no way for us to update to the latest version and the rep said there was no download available from their site. We had to wait for the physical flash drive to show up. I raised hell over it because it was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.

I’m not disputing that something happened that required a flash drive update. I’m just saying I’ll eat my hat if Oticon is backing away from automated Internet updates.

Ah, ok. Yeah, I’m with you. I was dumbfounded.

By the way, which ones (OPN 1, 2 or 3) are you selling the most of? Or maybe give us a relative percentage totaling 100$, for example, 33% are the 1, 33% are the 2 and 33% are the 3, for example.

Of the people who decided to buy the 2 or the 3, did they ever try out the 1 at all?

99% OPN 3
1% OPN 1
0% OPN 2 (oddly enough not a single person has even asked about it)

Many patients call asking about the OPN 1 that their local audiologist tried to sell them for $6000+
We explain how little of a difference there is between the OPN 3 and the 1 and they get the 3.

Several patients insisted on getting the 1 because of said audiologist, but only a handful kept them, the rest switched to the 3.

The only OPN cancellation I’ve seen was a guy that got a 3, then switched to the 1, then cancelled without explanation.

In our industry, that’s a crazy good record for a hearing aid. I’ve never seen a satisfaction rate this high before.

@pvc said:

I’m not disputing that something happened that required a flash drive update. I’m just saying I’ll eat my hat if Oticon is backing away from automated Internet updates.

I agree with you. I originally downloaded the Genie 2 software in January 2017. As I recall, it was in May or thereabouts when the Genie Updater popped up on my screen and informed me that there was an update available for the Genie 2 software. I went through the update process without any problems and the software has worked just fine with my Oticon OPN 1 aids, both before and after the update. It also updated the firmware on my OPN 1s to version 4.0 without any problem.

@audiometrix_hearing said:

Many patients call asking about the OPN 1 that their local audiologist tried to sell them for $6000+

We explain how little of a difference there is between the OPN 3 and the 1 and they get the 3.

Perhaps there’s more than a little difference.
Here’s a list from the Oticon Opn Techinical data sheet4

@audiometrix_hearing said:

Many patients call asking about the OPN 1 that their local audiologist tried to sell them for $6000+

We explain how little of a difference there is between the OPN 3 and the 1 and they get the 3.

@pvc said:

Perhaps there’s more than a little difference.
Here’s a list from the Oticon Opn Techinical data sheet
||Opn 1|Opn 3|
:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:
OpenSound Navigator |100%|50%|
Max. noise removal |9dB|3dB|
Speech Guard |Level-1|Level-3|
Spatial Sound |4-estimators|2-estimators|
Fitting Bandwidth |10KHz|8KHz|
Processing Channels|64|48|
Transient Noise Management |4-configurations|On/Off|
Fitting Bands |16|12|

I agree with PVC. I think the reason more people bought the OPN 3 from AudioMetrix is because they’re being told by the provider (whom they consider the expert) that there’s very little difference so they believe them and trust their judgement, and of course who wouldn’t want to pay less if the expert says there’s very little difference.

For those who tried both the 1 and the 3, it then depends on how thorough they test the 2 out. For normal listening you probably can’t tell the difference. But in complex environments, that’s where you’ll begin to notice the difference. But it’s not easy to do a thorough evaluation between the 2 unless you have both side by side in a complex environment to do A to B comparison, unless you have a great memory. And I would have to wear each for at least a month and make it a point to immerse myself in as many complex environment as possible to really thoroughly test it out.

The most significant selling point of the OPN is its ability to provide clarity for speech in noise, in my opinion. By crippling the OSN Balance module by 50% and the Max noise remove from 9 to 3dB, that’s a significant crippling in my opinion, so you’re giving up the most important thing that you’re spending the big bucks to pay a premium aid for. Sure if you’re not in complex listening environments often, it make not make a difference. But over the course of the life of the OPN, I’m sure you’ll come across complex listening environments, and I wouldn’t want to skimp out on a few hundred bucks and settle with the 3 and not happy with it when I happen to be in those complex listening environments. If you buy a premium aid costing $3,600 for a pair, it’s just silly to try to save a few hundred bucks and settle for a really crippled version of the aid. If money is that important, go to Costco to get a much higher value for the money. They’ll serve you just fine for simple listening environments if your rationale is that an OPN 3 is good enough for you because you’re rarely in complex listening environments.

What matters is if the patient can tell a difference. If it’s hard to tell, then why spend the extra? If you have a Phonak Audeo B50, then try the B90, you can tell a difference. Its not even slightly hard to tell, it IS a huge upgrade. With the OPN 1 & 3 you would have to reaaallly strain to say there is even a very marginal difference. However, everyone is different. Some people say they can hear it, and those people keep them. The rest can’t and get the 3.

The 3 can blow the doors off a Kirkland brand hearing aid. Besides, you can still get name brand for cheaper then that anyways.