Disappointed with Oticon Intent 1 vs. More 1

Hearing Aids
#1

I have been wearing More 1 since January 2021. After reading good reviews of Intent I decided to trial them. My audi copied the programming from the Mores to the Intents and sent me off for a three-week trial.

I haven’t noticed much difference. I was able to test them out in a loud restaurant environment that I am very familiar with. I switched to the Intents after wearing the Mores for awhile. I was hoping that the Intents would reduce ambient speech and music noise to a much greater degree than the Mores. But that was not my experience. It seemed about the same. I had trouble hearing conversations with the Intents in the same places I had trouble with the Mores.

When I had the Mores set up I asked for the Oticon rep to be present on the phone for the setup. The Oticon rep agreed with my audi’s settings. My complaint then was the same as it is now: too much amplification of ambient speech and other noise. Maybe the Intents have programming adjustment options that the Mores don’t have that would help address my problems, but I think the Intents would show more of an improvement even with identical programming to the Mores.

Bottom line: the Intents would cost me about $4,000 out of pocket. They might be a little better than the Mores, but not $4,000 better.

I am going to trial the Phonak Lumitys next. From reading @1Bluejay’s review of Intent vs. Lumity I think Phonak’s approach to speech in noise might be more effective for me.

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#2

It all depends on how well your audiologist made the needed adjustments for your needs. Your hearing loss is similar to my hearing loss. I am now wearing the Real1 and will be getting the INTENT1 aids in about a month. My audiologist and I have a 5.5 years experience working together to get my aids adjusted correctly. I have discussed with my audiologist about how my INTENT1 aids will be setup, and we decided to copy my settings from my Real1 aids to my new INTENT1 aids then make the needed changes to reflect the differences in the aids. This has worked great in the past as I have worn Oticon aids for 14 years.
My guess is that your audiologist hasn’t done the best fitting possible for your hearing needs and I would be having a heart to heart talk with the audiologist about what your needs are.

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#3

@cvkemp , the problem with this situation is that it would probably take several fitting sessions to optimize the fitting. I had several fitting sessions when I bought the Mores. After the fitting sessions with the Mores the audi and the Oticon rep both said that the Mores were optimized. In other words, we’ve done the best we can. I was still not satisfied with the Mores’ treatment of ambient noise.

I’m sure that if I were to actually buy the Intents my audi would agree to multiple adjustments. But how can I know that, even with optimal adjustments, I would be satisfied with the results?

I feel that I have to hear an immediate improvement in speech-in-noise comprehension before I pull the trigger and spend $4,000. I didn’t hear that improvement with the Intents and I’m not confident that I would attain satisfaction if I bought the Intents and had the fitting optimized. To me, the logical next step is to trial the Phonak Lumity.

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#4

@ziploc to get to where i can hear and understand speech took 15 appointments over an 18 month time frame, and 3 sets of hearing aids with 2 changes in receivers and ear molds to find the right configuration so I can be part of a conversation. It is what I was willing to do to be a part of civilization again. If you aren’t worth the effort then why bother. Over the last 5.5 years i have dedicated myself to being able to understand speech and enjoy what is left of my life.
Do not give up and be willing to be dedicated to yourself and your health.
Getting the proper fitting takes patience, time and willingness on both yourself and your audiologist to make it work. But it is damn well worth the effort.

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#5

@cvkemp , thank you for the encouragement. I guess what bugs me is that, to really do it right I would have to spend $4,000 to buy a set of HAs, go through multiple adjustments like you did, and then maybe still decide that these HAs are not the best for me.

Then I would have to spend another $6,500 (after using my insurance benefit on the first set of HAs) on a different brand and go through the same process again, with maybe the same unsatisfying results. Then spend another $6,500 and repeat again?

In the real world it seems impossible to be able to compare one optimally-adjusted HA brand to a different optimally-adjusted HA brand. No audi would allow such a trial. So I’m just trying to do my best to compare one not-optimally-adjusted HA to another. It’s frustrating.

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#6

I have trialed both the Intent and Lumity recently, and they are both great hearing aids, although they have different approaches for challenging situations (I wrote about the Lumity here). It’s a good idea to trial the Lumity if you can; perhaps they will be a better fit for you.

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#7

I just looked, and Lumity was released in August of 2022. I thought it was more recently. So I’ll probably wait until Phonak releases the replacement for the Lumity. It should be fairly soon I would think.

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#8

I would still trial the Lumitys first @ziploc, even if you intend to wait for the next iteration of Phonak (Allegedly August/September) that will give you some insight into how these Phonak’s sound, then you can gauge if you might be suitable? Personally, my first fit in November with Naida Lumity 90 UP BTE’s, was my last fit, no further program alterations where needed, after first fit, my A.uD said how does that sound, I asked her to switch on compression, and swap to NAL NL2, we where then good to go… And nothing has been altered since then, mines just worked well, straight off the bat, no REM was done… Cheers Kev :wink:

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#9

I’m no techie … but if your audi copy/pasted the Mores’ settings into the new Intents, that is JUST THE BEGINNING! I’m guessing that the Intents have other features and settings, and so it should not be a 1:1 match.

When I first got my Lumity Life aids 2 yrs ago, my audi also copy/pasted my existing Marvel settings into the new aids. But to my nuanced hearing, I needed and wanted more. I changed the dedicated programs, boosted max power output vs gain, tweaked some of the frequencies and THEN I really enjoyed noticeable improvement in speech comprehension. Think about that. Don’t have the IDENTICAL setting from older pair of aids on the newer ones. Explore, articulate what you want improved, and I’d bet the Intents can deliver.

Maybe unrelated aside, but also beware of the copy/paste in general. Turns out that my recent repair & replacement of a rechargeable battery on Phonak Lumity Life aid resulted in a corrupted file copy! Yesirree! For about 3 mos I had the most annoying noise/whining/zinging sounds NON-STOP throughout the day on ALL three pairs of aids that had the same program copy/pasted into my profile.

Got on the phone with Phonak Tech, and we had to start all over from Ground Zero with a NEW profile and manually-entered values for ALL the settings, frequencies and programs (even MPO/Gain). AUGH. It was beyond tedious. I have found (again, my nuanced hearing) that I’m not able to comprehend speech as good. Something was lost. So now begins the irksome trial and error to get my Automatic (default) program JUST RIGHT. I’ll need to figure out if I want more or less highs, mids or lows. I’m flying blind, but about 95% there.

Even so. Dang tedious in that all my adjustments have to be done in the audi’s clinic cuz I am not a DIYer.

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#10

@ziploc Well if the audiologist didn’t do anything but copy the settings from the More aids to the INTENT aids without making any adjustments to make the aids INTENT I can see why you see no difference. And the audiologist should be fired for his laziness.

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#11

Chuck and @1Bluejay hit the nail on the head @ziploc!!
The Intents are 2 generations beyond the More, not to mention going from the Polaris to the Sirius processors.
A completely different DNN and all the other bells & whistles.
I think your audi showed very little INTENT to maximize your experience.
Tell them you REALly need MORE!!

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#12

Um. I’ve read about NAL NL2, but what does this do? Should I ask my audi to do the same on my new Lumity Life 312s? I know something is slightly “off” from the previous setup (mostly copy/pasted from my old Marvels). How did switching on compression and NAL NL2 change the outcome for you?

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#13

NAL nl2 is a fitting prescription/process to go from the results of a hearing test to an initial fitting of the hearing aids. Different ones result in different outcomes, are for different situations (long time hearing aid wearers, children, new hearing aid wearers, more seriously deaf, etc.

Prescriptive fitting formulas

WH

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#14

Basically all fitting formulas sound slightly different, you have to persist sometimes, NAL NL2 took me about a month to acclimatize, but after I got used to it with Naida Marvel SP 70’s, I will use no other… Crisper, clearer and slightly louder comes to mind @1Bluejay… Try it, you may like it, you might not! Good luck, cheers Kev :wink:

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#15

Meant also to mention hearing aid companies typically have proprietary fitting formulas for their aids. Often mentioned they result in a soft fitting for the comfort of new users to prevent returns because of harsh sounds among those not yet used to what the world should really sound like.

WH

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#16

Yeah WH, agreed NAL NL2 is a bit harsh at first, it takes a while…Cheers Kev :wink:

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#17

I returned the Intents to the audi today. I asked him if there were adjustments that could be made on the Intents that could not be made on the Mores. He said not really, they were pretty similar, and I should have noticed an improvement even before fine-tuning the Intents.

I did tell him that with the Intents, and the Mores and Opn before that, that my big problem was too much ambient noise being amplified while I was trying to carry on a conversation. He said I probably couldn’t expect to solve that problem, especially with Oticons.

He was surprisingly unenthusiastic about Phonal, although he does carry them and has dispensed them many times. He recommended that I try Resound Nexia as they have great beam-forming in their speech-in-noise program. So I will try them in early July. I may be done with Oticon. We’ll see.

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#18

It is all I have known. First time hearing aid wearer, for 2 and 3/4 years now.

WH

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#19

I never will forget when my audiologist switched my OPNS1 to the formula that I am now using and loving. But just after the switch the sound was loud and irritating. But my audiologist told me to lower the volume and increase it as I got use to the sound. It took me about a month to get use to the default volume level. But I noticed right away the difference in speech understanding and that was what I was begging for. And my audiologist has just copied my fittings from one set of aids to the next. And of course making the needed settings for the upgrade in the aids. But it took 15 adjustments over 18 months to find that sweet spot.

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#20

Yeah Chuck, irritating, and perhaps jarring might be the appropriate word, turning then down helps, then gradually increasing the volume over the weeks, once you acclimate, you are fine… Cheers Kev :wink:

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