Comparative Review of KS10, Oticon Opn S 1 & Oticon More 1

My review comes from the perspective of profound hearing loss in the highs, while keeping normal hearing in the lows. I’ve been wearing hearing for the last fifteen years, since my mid-thirties. I have also been self-programming my instruments.

For a couple of months, I have been comparing my OPN S to the More 1 (had those on a 1 month trial) and the KS 10.

More 1 vs OPN 1 S: honestly, the difference between the two is minor. I say this as someone who thought the OPN to OPN S was a big upgrade. This said, the More are slightly better. I would say that the floor noise is slightly lower, and that they are ever so slightly clearer. Those differences are small enough that they are hard to detect; in fact I did some blind ABA testing and I was not always correct as to which were the More 1. Where the More were definitely better was the quality of the streaming sound, and the music program (mine did not have the new MyMusic–old firmware). Those would be the true reasons to upgrade IMO, but not quite enough. I was ready to upgrade (and may still upgrade) but my feeling is that the next generation of Oticon More will be the one worth getting, as they hopefully implement real bluetooth connectivity like the Paradise/KS10.

More 1 vs KS 10 Soundscape: While the More 1 and OPN 1 S were so close that either could be used for comparison. I did the bulk of the comparison usage the More 1, however. The KS 10 are very different from the More 1. While the More are immersive, providing a vivid and complex soundscape that can be overwhelming at times, the KS 10 dampen the world around you to highlight voices. The KS 10 provide a more relaxed listening experience, but richness of details are missing. The More are vibrant in their render, but not artificially so. Everything was crisp and clear, without being harsh. This may be a matter of taste, but I prefer hearing as much as possible. The More (and OPN 1 S) let me hear the static coming from my Dyson fan, and the hum of my refrigerator. The KS 10 removed those sounds. I wondered if this was a matter of tuning, but even when turning noise reduction to a minimum, the KS 10 did not reveal any of these sounds. I even opted to overtune the KS 10, but they only got harsh without revealing more details to the soundscape. To use an analogy from photography, the More were like Fuji Velvia film, and the KS 10 like Kodak Chrome.

More 1 vs KS 10 Tech: One nice feature of the KS 10 is transferring sounds from my worse ear to my better ear; it also does that when using a landline, giving me binaural audio. On the other hand, the More 1 have better streaming sound quality by a big margin. This said, the bluetooth implementation is poor. They lack real multi-point two-way bluetooth, which means they are limited to MFI or ASHA devices, and require a separate microphone for two-way audio; this makes them a poor choice for calls. And if you are an Apple Watch user with a cellular plan, the inability to pair them to the watch is an additional drawback. Meanwhile my KS 10 provide two-way audio for calls on my watch, on my phone, and regular streaming from my desktop computer, things the More can’t do. The KS 10 also have motion sensors used to change programs, and to invoke a voice assistant among other things. It’s kind of cool and at times useful, but it has draw backs, such as hanging up on people when scratching your ear, or invoking Siri when taking a face mask off from behind your ear. The KS 10 have a more sophisticated app where you can do a modicum of tweaks. It is somewhat useful, but not really. That’s because it’s a pain to change settings—just the time it takes for them to connect to the app is enough to annoy me. I want my hearing aids to provide excellent hearing with minimal input. They should be mostly transparent, fit and forget. After the newness of setting hearings up, I bet most of us would rather not mess around in yet another app. In fact, wanting to make adjustments are often a sign of your hearing aids not working well for you. This is where the More shine: they are fit and forget. The KS 10 require me to make some changes—my main program does too much sound processing for music and leads to distortions, so I must swap program. With the More, the regular is fine for music, and the music makes it better.

Speech Discrimination: it’s very difficult to tell a difference here. It depends on circumstances, including how tired you are. At the end of a long day, the dampened sound of the KS 10 will likely be easier, if less engaging. They both are quite good, and sound pretty natural. The difference between Oticon’s transposition vs KS’s compression is a matter of taste. Some have told be compression is better for someone with my loss, but with transposition there are some sounds I can hear more clearly.

Wind Noise: The More are definitely superior in that domain. In fact, I wonder if wind noise management is the true difference between the KS 10 & the Phonak Paradise (everything else seems the same—including tinnitus support if you self-program and use Target) as the Paradise mics are placed elsewhere.

Fit & Finish: Oticon easily wins here. The More are smaller and are more stylish. I prefer the Oticon domes. And in my case, the Oticon pop into my ears most perfectly, the wire flush against my ear. The KS 10 are not as tightly fitted to my ear.

Ergonomics: Program changing using the instrument buttons is terrible on the KS10. You cannot go up or down between programs, but must cycle through them. (The Oticon handles this just fine, and is a no brainer feature that puts your two most used special programs one press away from access.) Additionally, the KS10 chimes are hard to differentiate, the long press confusing, and I end up in the wrong program. I’ve resorted to using the phone to switch programs, which also is terrible as it take too long to connect to HAs. And unlike Oticon, where you can triple press the phone button to change program at once, with the KS10 the triple press screen has not program change option. Since I have never had an issue with Oticon in this matter, I see this as a clear Phonak shortcoming.

Final Thoughts: I’m sure one’s type of loss and taste will play a factor in which to choose. For me, the ideal hearing aid would be the Oticon More with real bluetooth implementation. I think I will keep my OPN 1 S, and probably keep the KS 10 as they are cheap and come with a great warranty and loss replacement. The Oticon don’t do well with sweat. I’ve needed repairs already. I will be using the KS 10 for biking, etc.

A Question: Does anyone have advice on how to program the KS 10 to sound more like More? I like to hear everything, from the static of my TV to my bicycle chain squeaking when it needs lube.

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Well this is a question only you could find out, I mean no one knows how you hear?
I do my own programming on all my HAs and I found the complete opposite when I compared the Oticon’s (OPN S)to Phonak, I found the Phonak to have superior speech comprehension and didn’t have any problem with them picking up all the other ambient noises,but I actuality didn’t like the AutoSense from Phonak, I didn’t find it to work that well, having them change through the program’s when moving around different environments was annoying for me. I can say the same for when I tried the Widex Evoke up against the Phonak Marvel (KS10) and again when comparing the Resound Quattro to them, but…I ended up with Signia xperience as my main use, with ReSound as my 2nd choice, both for their crisp and clear speech and (mostly) noise reduction. On all of these models the bluetooth streaming was pretty good all round, and unfortunately some required another device for this to work.

So a question for you, are you doing your own programming in your review? Because if not, then it’s really hard to make a fair comparison,as in, there’s no way to know how each was set up, what rationale was used and so on,so to many variables.

So I don’t think you can get the KS10 to sound “the same” as the More’s, it’s just so very subjective for everyone.

If your not doing DIY, I would suggest that you take this up to truely find out what is possible to achieve in trying to get them sounding “similar” which no doubt is something only you could know.
If you are actually doing DIY, you could fire away a few screenshots and detail’s on your set up for each, as I’m pretty sure there’ll be a few forum members willing to offer advice on this matter ; )

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I think you can try the signia ax7.I had try to it,I think it is better than oticon more1 and phonak p90.

@zenon: Thank you for your detailed review. I wear More1s, and I concur - for me, they are “fit and forget”. I put them in at 05:00h or 05:30h, and I hardly am aware they’re there as I go about my day, ending at 23:30h or thereabouts .

The OpenSound paradigm satisfies my requirements, and More1s fit my hearing loss and lifestyle, which revolve more around sounds than speech. (I can understand why some might prefer voice emphasizing getups, but my needs are to hear all types of sounds from a 360° soundscape.)

Your review demonstrates the need to compare the different makes by means of trials, because they are not all the same, by any means.

(Perhaps other makes can do the same for me as my current getup, but I can’t comment, other than to say my previous fitter could never get that performance from my Unitron North Moxi Fit 800s.)

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For giving you more access to softer sounds, your fitter can increase gain to softer (35dB) sounds.

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Increasing soft sound curve gains and decreasing noise cancelling settings. It’s really very simple. Just tell your fitter what you want.

So many fitters just use manufacturers default settings. Most hearing aids are very adjustable, I know the KS10 (Phonak) aids are. They can be tuned to make just about any sound you want. It’s all in the tuning.

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Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I have been self-programming for years with Genie, and now started working with Target for the KS 10, where I am less experience. I will try some of the suggested change, and maybe trial some Signia AX–I’m not familiar with those.

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If you’re not an audiologist, how does one purchase devices and software DIY programming?

Everything I needed to know to do this myself was found on this forum with the search function, starting with the key words DIY programming. You are at the right place.

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Can you elaborate on how you like the new MyMusic program on the More better than the previous built-in Music program in the OPN S?

Some folks on this forum had an initial favorable opinion of MyMusic on their first listening, but after a while, they find MyMusic to be too colored up and also falls flat in the mid, basically not an authentic recreation of the sounds they’re used to hear anymore. So I wonder if you’ve listened extensively to music on the More’s MyMusic, long enough to continue to still like it better than the legacy Music program?

I wouldn’t say “real” Bluetooth connectivity per se. It’s just the original Bluetooth protocol. The iOS MFI connection is also based on BT, albeit the Apple proprietary BT Low Energy. The new ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aid) that’s available in the More and is supposed to work with newer Android phones like the Samsung 20 is also BT LE, but just not compatible with the legacy original BT protocol.

I really doubt that any HA mfg beside Phonak will eventually follow Phonak’s footstep to develop a custom chip (like the Phonak SWORD chip) to enable compatibility with the original legacy BT standard. I think many will go with the ASHA route like Oticon did and stick with this approach because that’s more the way of the future. This guess is only because if anybody wanted to go the Phonak route, they would have done so and have a version of theirs released already.

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Since I’ve been an android user for years, I’ve learned to adopt to the ConnectClip, to the point where even an ASHA phone wouldn’t work for me.
Since it’s only 1 way audio streaming, I’d be always having to grab the phone to speak.
The ConnectClip just works, and acts as a remote, and microphone.

When I trialed the Phonak Marvels, I liked the 2 way streaming phone calls, but outdoors, or a noisy setting, they were useless. for me.
I’m sure the KS10 would be the same.

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I wonder if you’ve tried to use frequency lowering on both the Oticon (either OPN S or More) and the KS10 for listening to music, and whether you find a preference between the frequency compression of the KS10 and the frequency transposition/composition of the Oticon for music listening? The reason I ask is because some folks on this forum who use the Phonak SoundRecover 2 said that frequency compression makes the music sound terrible and they turn off frequency compression for the music program. I wear the OPN 1 and I find it OK to leave Speech Rescue (the frequency transposition) on for both my default P1 program and the built-in Music program, and I don’t find anything bad that would make the music sound funny or off tune or distorted to me.

Since you’re in a unique position to have both the OPN S and the KS10, I’m very curious to see if you’ve tried this and whether you have an opinion about it specific to music listening.

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I agree that ConnectClip works, but I find its form factor somewhat retro and clunky. I do appreciate that its LED indicators are discreet. But my biggest complaint is that its battery is neither disposable nor replaceable! C’mon, Oticon!

You could if you wanted, replacement of the battery isn’t to hard, finding a suitable replacement on eBay is the hardest part, but of course this would mean doing DIY.

@tenkan: DIY repairs are fine. I do them all the time.

Programming my HAs is something that Veterans Affairs Canada would frown upon, to say the least.

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Is your iPhone, or iPad battery disposable or replaceable?

@flashb1024: Of course they are! $50 gets me a new iPhone battery in 20 minutes!

Yes, I totally agree. Speech Rescue does not impede music listening, but SoundRecover 2 definitely makes music more flat. Compression is problem especially for classical music, which is the bulk of my listening. Regarding your earlier MyMusic question, I now realize that my demo More likely had the old music program, not the new MyMusic. The demo had my settings from my Oticon OPN 1 S copied to them by the audiologist. I could not verify for sure, as the demo More seemed locked, and I could not connect them to Noah Wireless.

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OK, thanks. It depends on whether your demo More was on the latest firmware 1.1.1 or not. If not, then it wouldn’t have MyMusic. If yes, then it would ONLY have MyMusic and the legacy Music program is gone. The firmware 1.1.1 was only released maybe a month ago?

It’s interesting that your More demo seemed locked (could not connect to the Noahlink Wireless). I wonder how your audi could have connected his/her Noahlink Wireless to it then? It’s the only interface compatible with the More to begin with.

I can understand if you were able to detect the demo Mores with the Noahlink Wireless, THEN when it tried to connect after detection was successful, it might have required some kind of passcode. So can you clarify whether you were able to detect the Mores but couldn’t connect next? Or you weren’t able to detect them at all with the Noahlink Wireless?

Yeah I ment replacement of the ConnectClip battery in this instance.