Every few months we see something new come into the hearing aid market. This is great for those who are hard of hearing because each iteration moves technology closer to the end goal of better hearing. I would like to recap the newest products we have seen in the last few months.
The newest product: The Widex Beyond hearing aid.
The Widex Beyond:
This is the newest made for iPhone (MiFi) hearing aid to hit the market. It will be available for shipping as of January 23, 2017 in Canada. Clinics like Oak Bay and Broadmead Hearing will have priority access to this aid and it will be available November 30 to our clients. Widex has always done a great job of amplifying the soft sounds in our environments and preserving the nuances of sound. This new hearing aid promises the longest lasting battery life when considering streaming audio to a hearing aid. The app that they have designed has more access to user control such as an equalizer band and easy access to changing the microphone pick up.
The Phonak Belong:
This is Phonak’s newest product launched in September 2016 and its primary feature is the rechargeable battery. It is NOT made for iPhone and still uses the streamer to connect to phones and TVs. It is nice for those who don’t want to change batteries weekly and they have guaranteed a 3 year battery life. The battery is integrated inside the hearing aid and will need to be returned to Phonak in order to change it. What they have also incorporated into this product is the new Sound Recover 2. This is excellent for those who have hearing loss that is profound in the high frequencies because it truly improves speech clarity.
The Oticon Opn:
A June release of this product has given us time to evaluate its effectiveness. This product has truly improved peoples ability to understand speech in noise. November 11 was finally the release of their firmware upgrade which will allow us to fit more hearing losses as well as the introduction of the Opn2 and Opn3. These new additions to the family of Opn aids provide a few more price points.
Erin