This is just a warning to DIY friends here that if you buy your GN Resound Omnia hearing aids from Amplifon, you will get Amplifon branded versions that are technically exactly the same but cannot be connected to the normal version of Resound SmartFit.
Amplifon has a special version of SmartFit (or more likely it’s a front end module that works with SmartFit). And it seems not to be available at all for DIY use.
Amplifon used to be willing to supply normal Resound branded hearing aids as an alternative to their own branded version, but apparently they have recently decided at the global HQ in Italy not to do that anymore.
Thanks for sharing, yeah that’s not a good thing, I totally dislike the locked rebranded market, I actually thought the manufacturer’s were slowly moving away from it.
Well there are many suppliers. You can find them easily enough with google, but you have to watch out for suppliers who are outside UK, eg India.
In my case I bought my Omnias from wholesalehearing.co.uk which is based in Glasgow. The arrangement is that you have to send them an audiogram taken by an audiologist in the last six months. They source the hearing aids direct from the manufacturer, have their audiologist fit them to your audiogram and then courier them to you. They include after sales care and adjustments for four (or it may have been five) years in the price. The aids are not locked or anything like that.
Their price was very competitive (prices are all on their website) and it took only five days between me placing the order to having the hearing aids in my hands, which I thought was really impressive. To expand on that, I ordered them late Thursday evening, they ordered the aids from Resound in UK on Friday, they received the aids & charger from Resound on Monday, their audio did the fitting to my audiogram, then they rang me to say they were despatching them immediately. The package arrived by courier on Tuesday morning.
But I’m not particularly recommending them as I can only speak for the one deal. However it worked for me.
I have just today heard that Amplifon corporate HQ have had a change of mind and have decided that the company will now supply GN Resound branded aids as an alternative to the Amplifon-branded versions if the customer so requests.
But the main point remains that if you want to DIY then you have to have GN Resound branded aids and not the Amplifon branded equivalents.
I have learnt this week that Amplifon has a different marketing strategy for Germany. They have refused my request to buy GN Resound branded HA, in Germany they supply only Amplifon-branded.
I suspect that the corporate decision to supply Resound branded aids if requested hasn’t been well cascaded to branches everywhere yet. My branch was phoned the news immediately because she had made such a fuss about not being able to supply me.
It could be worth telling your branch that you know that this policy has recently been changed by Amplifon corporate HQ in Italy.
Hello David,
after feedback, the official information from Resound for Germany market is:
Amplifon does not sell any original Resound hearing aids in Germany, only brand from Amplifon.
So I have bought now from the Netherlands much cheaper as in Germany (without Service).
Now I am reading in the other threads regarding bluetooth connection problems of omnias I have same problem
Thanks for your information.
Kindly regards,
Petra
As you suggest in your other posting, keeping the phone close by you all the time is a work around. But the iPhone Smart 3D app is badly written because I can see that when the Omnias are still connected to my iPhone (by pressing the side button on the phone three times) the app often can’t find them unless I swipe the app off and restart it.
This is easy to do, but Apple specifically tell app designers that they should design their apps so that users never have to do this. Basically the app needs a “look again” button that resets whatever it is that isn’t working properly in the app when it hangs looking for the heating aids.
Anyway apart from that I am very pleased with the Omnias. The sound quality is much improved over the Ones. Much less “digital” sounding. I still have my Ones and they have the same settings in them as the Omnias, but I never use them now, even though the Bluetooth performance is far better in the Ones.
I have same problem 
