Sennheiser Sonite R (Exclusive to Costco 2025 ) Review

I have the Philips 9040 hearing aids. They are the best sounding hearing aid I have used, but I also spent a few hours programming them to get them to the point where they sound great.

From my experience, it’s all in the programming.

I too am very happy with my Sennheiser aids. I also tried the Rexton Reach aids before I went with Sennheiser and the bluetooth problem was a killer. I had them replace the batteries in my KS10’s for backup, at a cost of $225. KS10’s were very good, but my warranty had expired and wanted something new. Thanks for the great review.

This is an interesting read. I also switched to Sennheiser Sonite R and had to adjust from a Phonak Marvel completely in the ear and many years with audiologists to a warehouse setting. So far, I have had the same experience, more power, good streaming better hearing but still problematic in noisy setting. I feel for the price it is a very good value and good enough for me now.

I have Sonite R and I find them terrible in noise. I had such high hopes for them. I have had them for about 3 months. I plan to make an appointment and ask that they be reset to my prescriptive level and try again. I believe they were better before she made adjustments. If that does not work, I think I will need to return them and try another brand.

It’s now 5 months later and I am going to return my Sennheiser HA. They are very good for blue tooth, but horrible in noisy conditions.

I’m a 75 year old retired Broadcast Engineer with 40 years experience in Radio and Television. None of this prepared me for my first Hearing Aid.

I was well aware of my hearing loss from self testing with an audio oscillator.

With the encouragement of my family, I scheduled a hearing test at Costco. My audiogram resembled what we used to call “Telephone Quality” since almost everything over 3kHz was gone!

They took a look at my Android 12 phone and said that of the 4 products they sell, only one would work with my Android. The Sennheiser product sounded good to me since I’ve seen and used their products for as long as I can remember.

Little did I know, that Sennheiser had nothing to do with the design of this hearing aid.

Upon the first fitting (another new term for me) I left the store hearing what sounded like a demolition derby! That was 3 weeks ago.

The audio level seemed extremely high and overemphasized at the high end way to much. I was hearing sound I haven’t heard for years. Hello, Sound Recover/HiFrequency Protect! Lowering the volume helped but it seemed to constantly go back to a painful “Normal”.

So, I built a new program. Setting the equalizer to “comfort” helped. I have my second fitting in another week. While I’m waiting, I wanted to test the “Automatic/AutoSense OS” functionality. I found a way to read what the Sonite’s current automatic program is using the APP.

I’m almost convinced that Automatic AI doesn’t come close to selecting the best program (yes, I had switched back to Automatic)

Also, since StereoZoom 2.0/Narrow Speech Focus is a critical setting in all the programs, I tested that feature in my fixed program configuration. I don’t hear any change as I move the slider between wide and focused. I had my wife speaking directly in front of me, to the side and behind with a fair amount of background noise and moving the slider did nothing.

I often wonder how the fitter fine tunes programs that cancel noise while the customer sits in a sound proof booth. I will see soon.

The Sonite seems like a good hearing aid however, I have nothing to compare it to. It does improve my ability to decipher speech. Music sounds pretty bad although it has sounded “distorted” to me for about 10 years. The hearing aid can’t fix that.

I look forward to a DIY configuration if my second fitting doesn’t fix anything. It should be interesting!

Couldn’t agree more. Mine will be returned also. I am hoping the Jabra 30 will be better. I would appreciate feedback from someone who has made to change.

I am not going to be much help because I can’t remember. I know it was very simple. Someone on here gave me instructions when I was not able to do it about a year ago. I am betting someone who does know will chime in and tell you.

I believe if you press your name or somewhere at the top of your post, you will see a box that says my audiogram. Sorry I can’t be more specific. Good luck?

Figured it out. Tap your picture, then tap again and you will see a green box that says my audiogram.

I have had the Sennheiser Sonite R from Costco for about 4 months and I love them. I also got the custom ear mold after the first month. The audio guy also set up several custom programs for TV and restaurant and noisy environments. They are incredible in restaurants, bowling alleys, and outdoors. I have a custom program called front focus that allows me to hear everyone at the table in restaurant. I have the TV connector which is cool but I rarely use it because I don’t need it. I thought of waiting for the AI ones to get the bugs worked out but I’m glad I didn’t. Run don’t walk to Costco and get them. Oh and streaming music is great also along with stable bluetooth connections for steaming from my laptop.

Thank you for this review. I’ve just been listening to audio samples at HearAdvisor (ok I know my audiogram is not a match to their test one as I have a steeper high frequency slope) and perhaps no surprise the Phonak Sphere’s sound the best But limiting myself to costco choices the Sonite R just sounds good, even if not the best speech in noise - mostly I’m interested in these for use in quieter places anyway and my loss isn’t so bad either. The Resound Viva 9 (which I think Jabra Pro 30 are the same from what I read) seemed to do worse for speech in noise even with a DNN chip, it even sounds worse to me in the hear advisor clips. Anyway, I’m armed with some useful info before a trip to costco. And the bluetooth classic is a big attraction for me. My other device is an AirPods Pro 3, they work well for me as I make a lot of calls etc sometimes in noisy places, but looking to explore other options as well.

@JohnSmith said:

But limiting myself to costco choices the Sonite R just sounds good, even if not the best speech in noise

Yeah reason is the Sennheiser are rebranded Phonak Lumity models.

@JohnSmith said:

The Resound Viva 9 (which I think Jabra Pro 30 are the same from what I read)

Yes exactly the same.

@JohnSmith said:

seemed to do worse for speech in noise even with a DNN chip, it even sounds worse to me in the hear advisor clips

Yep when I did a short trial there was no “wow” factor at all.

Thank you. I will aim to start the demo with Sonite R, hoping they might do a quick REM for that demo as well (not just at fitting appt) as I want to try them at 100% target not some comfort setting. Maybe that’s what the long return period is used for in reality though!