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Signia C&G 7IX vs. Phonak Sphere

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Hi there, I got my Phonak Audeo Lumitys back in 2022. I have moderate loss in both ears and I’m in my mid twenties

my aids are out of warranty and my puppy recently chewed up one of my aids, so I figured it was time to get a new pair. My insurance covers them every 3 years.

My audiologist recommended the Signia 7IX since I’m young and work in an office. It seems great — I like that it has since I go to the theatre a lot and take public transit (can’t drive). The battery life seems great. They’re MFI so it’ll be easy to connect them to my phone. But the age of the aids kinda worries me. I also never forget to charge my aids or carry my charger so I don’t know if the battery life is even going to matter for me. My Lumitys degraded to only 7-8ish hours of battery though and that has been annoying.

The Phonak Spheres sound amazing on paper. I struggle the most with noisy environments and my biggest complaint with my Audeo Lumity was how bad they were at automatically switching programs, and comprehension in noisy areas. I live in a city so things get pretty loud. I didn’t like how complicated it was to connect my aids to my phone though so lack of MFI could be annoying for the Spheres.

then, most audiologists in my area only have Signia or Oticon in stock which is useful because I sometimes need same-day receiver replacements. Phonak is rarer in my area for some reason. But still, I’m worried how old the Signia model is. By the time I can get a new pair they’ll be 6 years old in terms of the technology, but they seem to have what I need right now, vs. the Spheres still not having support.

I was thinking of trialling both brands since I have to pay for the aids out of pocket anyways. but of course that’s a high upfront cost and I’d rather just get one. The overall price doesn’t matter to me as long as I get bang for my buck. My audiologist would have to order either trial anyways since they only had the 5IX available. that was pretty good compared to my Lumity.

have any of you tried both? Which did you ultimately get?

Edited

Everyone has different preferences for sound, different lifestyles, different levels of hearing loss. This means that what may work for others may not work for you. Both Oticon and Phonak are top brands of hearing aids.

If you read other threads in this forum, you will see that the Sphere is by far the most discussed aid and many consider the Sphere the king for speech in noise. There are many discussions here about Phonak vs Oticon. You may also want to check hearingtracker.com5 for an audiologist comparison.

The Signia IX platform was released 2023 (it is not 6 years old).

The Spheres will get and LE audio. The Signia IX does not have and will not get Auracast.

Try as many aids as possible and choose the one that works better for you. The success of a hearing aid depends mostly on the programming, way more than the brand of aids.

And, if you are interested in the Signias: Costco sells the equivalent of the Signia 7IX (the highest tech level Signia) called the Rexton Reach (manufactured by the same company) for $1600. If you are paying more than that for the Signia, Costco is a very good alternative.

Phonak isn’t , but it offers universal connectivity, letting you connect to your PC, TV, or anything with Bluetooth without needing an accessory. And when it pairs with your phone, managing it is super simple—it works just like any Bluetooth headset you’ve used before.

In reply to @OcramSagev

thanks for the insight. Sadly I don’t drive so I can’t get near a Costco, without paying for a very pricey Uber. otherwise I’d consider trialing from there instead.

For aids, will I really need an accessory to connect to regular Bluetooth devices like a computer? That’d be a deal breaker for me.

I’ve been seeing that the Spheres were promised shortly after release, but it still hasn’t come. I also don’t see any Auracast support in the places I frequent, instead is more popular. so that’s keeping me leaning towards the Signias until more support rolls out. but if the noise cancelling is really that good on the Spheres, I might not need T-Coil :wink:

you’ve convinced me to ask my audiologist to order the Spheres as well so I can see for sure which one I prefer. Not sure if they have Oticons. I see the Oticon Intents are the newer so I can ask about those as well.

devices can connect to MacBook M1pro+ , M2+ , iPads , iPhones .

Some MFi devices have ( like the Signia IX) : they can connect to other devices that have LE Audio (some recent PCs , some high end Samsung , Pixels and very few other phones). . For everything else that is not Android or the devices I mentioned, you need an accessory: a floogoo USB transmitter or a Signia accessory .

Phonaks connect to anything without any accessories.

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