Comparing Oticon’s More 1 vs Intent 1

Hearing Aids
#1

I’ve been wearing the Oticon More 1 for about two years now. Recently, I had the chance to trial the Phonak Lumity L90, and I found that my Oticon More aids were slightly better. Now, I’m in my third day of trialing the Oticon Intent 1, and here are my initial impressions:

Companion App:

The Companion App has two EQ options for the Intent 1: “sound equalizer” and “streaming equalizer”. Sound EQ applies to ambient sound and has a range of ± 6 dB for Low, Mid, and High., while the streaming EQ ranges from -12 to + 6 dB. I tried the sound equalizer while playing my acoustic guitar, and it is effective, to the point where I think it could help improve the overall experience for some of us having problems with music. Comparatively, the Oticon More 1 only has the ‘streaming equalizer,’ making this a much anticipated improvement.

Sound EQ

signal-2024-05-06-103058
signal-2024-05-06-1030581290×1922 112 KB

Streaming EQ

signal-2024-05-06-103154
signal-2024-05-06-1031541290×1932 111 KB

Quiet places:

In quiet environments, the difference between the More 1 and Intent 1 is incremental. The sound from the Intents is slightly crisper and richer compared to the Mores, although the difference is not significant.

Noisy and complex places:

I haven’t had the chance to put the Intents to a good test yet. So far, I’ve only used them a couple of times at the gym. I noticed it was easier to understand people with the Intents compared to the Mores. Additionally, the Intents handle noisy streets much better than the Mores. While wearing the Intents, I’m aware of the surrounding noise, but it doesn’t bother me as much as it did with the Mores. This made it easier to communicate with people walking next to me. However, I still need more time to find out whether the Intents are an incremental improvement, or a significant leap compared to the Mores in these challenging situations

Music:

I did an A/B test listening to ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac (among other songs) wearing my Beyer DT 900 X over-the-ear headphones. Note that I have the exact same dedicated music program on both Intents and Mores.

The Intents deliver a noticeably more detailed and dynamic sound; they sound livelier and more enjoyable. While the Mores are not bad for music, the Intents offer a higher level of resolution. To use an analogy, it’s like comparing your new glasses with the correct prescription (Intents) to your old ones where you sometimes struggle to see details (Mores). This difference is particularly evident when listening to elements like drums in songs such as ‘Everywhere.’ The Intents bring the beat to the forefront, giving it life, while with the Mores, the drums sound a bit dull and less pronounced. One reason for this could be the Intents’ capacity to better correct for highs in my hearing loss.

Guitar:

I have the exact same dedicated guitar program on both Intents and Mores. I noticed the same difference I mentioned for music. Both are excellent for my acoustic and classical guitars, though the Intents seem to deliver more resolution.

Streaming:

Streaming with the Intents is a bit better. I disabled the ‘power bass’ feature because songs and podcasts were overly bassy for my taste. This wasn’t the case with my Mores, where I had them set with medium bass in the right ear and low bass in the left ear. However, streaming is still not as good as listening to music with my over-the-ear cans and dedicated music program.

Battery:

The battery on the Intents seems to last longer than my Mores did when I first got them. I’ve been wearing the Intents for almost 15 hours a day and still put them back in the charger with around 40% battery left.

Firmware stability:

The Intents definitely need a firmware update to correct some of the bugs I’ve noticed, such as the hearing aids freezing and requiring a hard reset, as well as occasionally going mute when accidentally touched. Connectivity with my iPhone could be better too, although it’s not significantly different from the Mores, to be honest.

That’s it for now. I will report back when I am able to test the Intent in a few challenging situations. So far, so good. It really seems like the Intents are a few steps ahead of the Mores.

12 Likes
#2

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Intent. I guess as you will have to chance to try it out some more, especially in noisy places, I’d like to know if you notice whether it’s smart enough to guess your intent (meaning the 4D Sensor experience).

In general, it seems like if you don’t move your head, it’s supposed to put more focus on the speech in the front. If you move it a little, you get the default noise reduction with wherever speeches are going on. If you bob your head regularly (like maybe up and down), it signifies maybe walking or keeping trying to get focus on speeches from all around you, then it gives more equal speech priority to your whole 360 degrees sound field.

That’s the general idea, but overall, it’s mainly whether you feel that there’s more “dynamic” in terms of speech clarity when and where you want to focus on whatever speech(es) going on at the time, as opposed to maybe a more “static” type of speech clarity from the More that might be kind of flat (which would be the equivalent of you moving your head a little bit (not still nor too much movement) in the Intent.

I’m just trying to gauge whether the 4D Sensor has a significant and positive enough effect in terms of giving you speech clarity on what you seem to want to focus on. Thanks.

6 Likes
#3

Quick update about something I just realized…

I achieved a significant milestone with the Oticon Intents 1. Having otosclerosis in both ears and undergoing stapedectomy only on my right ear, resulting in asymmetrical hearing loss, I found that previous hearing aids, including my Oticon Mores, didn’t help as much with speech comprehension in my right ear compared to my left one.

With Oticon Intents, it seems I have the exact amplification needed in both ears. The Intents 1 made the world sound the same in both ears for me for the first time in my hearing loss journey: speech is just as clear, and music sounds full and rich coming from both ears. This is incredible!

8 Likes
#4

Thank you for sharing!
I’m very happy for you! Keep the person that sold those hearing aids to you and set them up!

It’s good to hear good news.
(I’ve had my hearing aids for 2-1/2 years. I’m finally gaining ground with setup after changing to a new fitter. Preriously I was running backwards in the hearing-aid-setup-marathon!)

3 Likes
#5

The companion app for Android had a minor update this morning, says stability fixes

4 Likes
#6

This is a very interesting observation although it’s not obvious to me right off the bat what applicable improvement done on the Intent that could have made this happen, such as the DNN 2.0 or the 4D sensor.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the new self-calibrating receivers on the Intent can now intelligently deliver a more accurate response for your right ear, therefore you now get more of the highs appropriately amplified for you than before with the passive receivers prior to the Intent. That for sure can help improve speech comprehension on your right ear now that you can hear more high contents that can also be important for speech.

Just out of curiosity, did you use Speech Rescue on the More at all? Or the Intent now?

1 Like
#7

I am also curious… I transferred the Intent’s programs into my Mores, so both have the exact same 4 programs. The difference in the right ear is there, quite pronounced. The Intent right HA sounds clearer and louder. I never used Speech Rescue.

Edit: I think part of the improvement might be coming from the new receivers. I am that kind of person that will give a hard time to my audi about 1 dB here and there in my programs.

2 Likes
#8

If you’re the curious type and wants to try out something just to see, I think the Speech Rescue frequency lowering technology might be applicable to your right hearing, as your hearing loss from 4 KHz and up starts going into the severe range. By moving it into the more audible region between 1.5 to 2.4 KHz range (the leftmost configuration on Speech Rescue), you might be able to hear those high sounds much clearer than before without too much amplification. You can actually keep the high amplification as is and just add to the lowered destination region to supplement, so that you can hear both.

Your left hearing loss is not as steep like the right on the high ends, but nevertheless, if you were to try out Speech Rescue, you might want to enable it for both ears just for the symmetry.

Again, just a suggestion to try out if you’re curious, as long as your audi is game to enable it for you. The worst that can happen is you try it out and you don’t like it. Then you just disable it, no harm done and at least you know that you gave it a try.

1 Like
#9

I sure am the curious type lol. I tried Speech Rescue with my Mores and did not like it a bit. I will take your suggestion and give it a go with the Intents as well. How long do you think would take to get used to it?

1 Like
#10

Actually if you already tried it out on the More and didn’t like it, then it wouldn’t be any different with the Intent anyway, at least in theory. If you didn’t like it because of the artificial “s” and “sh” sounds were too pronounced, I assume that you already dialed down on the volume strength as well to make them much less noticeable but still there? And yes, I think it’ll take some getting used to, but hopefully not more than a few days to a week. I think the key is to have a hint of it to help with speech understanding, without making it to intruding and sounding obnoxious. You can always enable it in just a spare program so that if you don’t like it, you can file it away until your next audi visit to remove it.

1 Like
#11

Exactly, the artificial “s” and “sh” sounded odd and out of place. I like the idea of having two programs differing only on Speech Rescue being on and off. That way I could do A/B tests and get used to Speech Rescue on the go.

1 Like
#12

I’m sold.

Oticon Intents are superior to my Mores in every way I can think of, except for the need for a firmware upgrade to fix bugs and instability. For reference, I own a pair of More 1s and am trialing the Intents 1. Before trialing the Intents, I also trialed the Phonak Lumity L90.

With the Intents, the human voice is clear, loud, and comfortable. The HA also sound very natural, music is pretty decent, and I have both ears closely matched for the first time since this journey began about three decades ago.

The Intents are the best iteration of the Oticon concept for hearing aids yet (you know the words Oticon likes to use: “brainhearing”, “open paradigm”, etc). I’ve been listening to the world with my P1 as open as it gets, and my speech comprehension has noticeably improved compared to my Mores. They just make conversing easier while keeping you aware of the complete soundscape. The Intents surely bring more quality to my life.

Moreover, I believe the Intents are a tough competitor to the Phonak Lumity L90 in the way Phonak hearing aids excel. Set to its maximum capacity, the Speech in Noise program cleans a lot of noise while still focusing and preserving speech and vocal cues. Of course, you won’t get Autosense 5.0 or the better Phonak app, but you can have a taste of both worlds with the Intents.

As usual, YMMV. We are all so different; what works for me might well be a nightmare for someone else.

3 Likes
#13

I am definitely looking forward to getting my INTENT1 aids in late June. I have now the Real1 aids as my primary set and the More1 aids as my backup. I can definitely hear the difference in the two sets, but I still don’t have that wow feeling for speech in noisy environments. Yes i can be honest with myself and say with my hearing loss it may not be possible.

2 Likes
#14

@e1405 do you have P1 set up with all the DNN and other “Embellishments” enabled?
I found on my More 1s turning off all the More Sound junk made them sound great.
All that digital processing just distorted everything!!
I’ll prolly be requesting the Intents from the VA, soon.

2 Likes
#15

My Real1 and More1 aids are set to the max for the default program, except that i can enable the MoreSoundBoost or what ever it is called for the Real1, and get a noticeable improvement. With it enabled on my Real1 noisy environments is bareable. It is good enough that i can hear conversations in the restaurant we normally go to, but it isn’t loud like say a Chili’s. I have been in Chili’s and couldn’t hear anything at the table my wife was at.

#16

Chili’s is not only noisy, but the qc has really gone downhill over the years.
I don’t use the Companion app, since my phone & CClip always fight for control (the ASHA vs BLE fight).
So my Mores aren’t paired to my phone, only the CClip.
I never remembered to try the SoundBoost anyway.

2 Likes
#17

My Samsung S23 is stable with my aids, both sets. I am using the latest released version of companion as it seems more stable than the beta now.

#18

I do but everything set to the lowest level. They do sound better than the Mores. I feel like those “embellishments” you mention are more effective with the Intents, which have a more clear and articulated soundscape.

1 Like
#19

Do you still have your CClip paired w/ the S23?
I guess the newer Qualcomm chip has a lot better BT modem, too.

#20

Thanks for the update.
Yes keeping all those settings to minimum is a good idea.
Back when the Mores 1st came out, people were wondering why the defaults were not set for max, in the MSI screen for Neural Noise easy/Difficult.
I spoke to Oticon support on another matter, and also asked about those settings, and was informed that the more dB you allow, the more speech is affected! MORE=More!
I just disabled MSI altogether, and get a much richer level of speech understanding, and less artifacts.

4 Likes