Virto with full bluetooth is available in ITC size. The CIC and IIC are non wireless.
I don’t like getting ripped off with Phonak accessories. The HA must be good enough.
The audiograph is actually my wife’s.
She gets by, but it is getting more embarrassing for her.
We will do something. Thanks.
@jfranek43 Neville is a pro who helps us with so many things.
His posts are very helpful, read them carefully.
Good luck.
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I have the OPN 1. But I have trialed the OPN 3 for a good while as well.
As far as the built-in programs, the 3 that you mentioned are probably Music, Speech In Noise, and Lecture; beside the General default program. There’s also Comfort, and various Phone Mic / Tcoil programs depending on which model you have.
All the programs are adjustable. The built-in programs give you a starting point and you can customize them further for yourself if you want. They all evolve around the OpenSound Navigator as it is the 'heart" of the OPN. They just have various settings set differently in the OSN as specific to the name of the built-in program implies.
But most folks (myself included) find that the OPN is designed such that the General default program covers most 90+% of the situations just fine. There’s little need to resort to the built-in programs very often, unless you feel like you need extra help in certain situations.
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I do not agree with your statement. While some people may not have had very good results, many of us on this forum, including myself, have had good results. No, my hearing isn’t as good as it was when I had “normal” hearing, but given that I do have a hearing loss, I am quite pleased with the results of my hearing aids.
That’s one of the myths.
If your SNR is poor, no aid in the world can help you. That’s the fact.
I highly recommend reading this site, they shared a ton of useful information:
Also this
And bunch of others, check menu.
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Not sure if you are interested, but a google search shows Costco (the large wholesale chain) has warehouse/s in Melbourne. I didn’t see that mentioned so far in this thread. Costco has very attractive prices compared to audiologist and dispensers in the US. Costco has a 6 month return policy and savings would more than pay for membership.
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It’s not, unfortunately. I think it’s still kicking around in the marketting, but they really can’t get it that small and at least where I am the manufacturer has stopped referring to it as an ITC.
Blacky’s not wrong. It depends on the person and the situation. Opns claim the highest SNR improvement, but 9 dB is in a perfect laboratory situation and it is likely less in the real-world. For users who only have a mild (say, 4 dB) SNR loss, and/or aren’t often in noisy situations that’s great, but many individuals with hearing loss need a much greater signal to noise ratio to understand the target speaker. No hearing aid can compare to the SNR improvement of clipping a microphone directly to another person.
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Virto with full bluetooth is available in ITC size. The CIC and IIC are non wireless.
You are correct that Phonak do not market it as an ITC. I was wrong refering to it as ITC.
I do lots of reading these days and it gets confusing after a while
The size is something other manufacturers would call HS - half shell.
It is the smallest Marvel style with full bluetooth. There are two smaller sizes, but those do not have bluetooth for streaming.
I think the larger size could have an advantage for the distance of the microphones.
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I rang one of the Costco stores in Melbourne. They do sell Phonak, but the models are specially made for them, they are not listed on Phonak websites, there is no technical information they can give me.
Only price - $1,900 something.
Thanks, but I am not looking at RIC.
Most of the info applies to Brio 4 also, or you could search for Costco Brio 4 product informatio
I hope it will be the case with my wife, and later with me too.
My wife’s audiogram (posted as my own in my profile) is quite a bit worse than yours.
As I read comments, I look at the poster’s audiograms, and it seems that people who are happy with HAs only have moderate-to-severe impairment.
Those who have problems are the worse categories.
Thanks.
I happened to read your posts from Oct 2017 explaining the Opn philosophy.
It sounds good in theory, but does it work in practice? Or, even if it works, do people appreciate hearing the voices all around them unattenuated between speech. Does the brain comprehend everything the right way.
Maybe this will be the key thing - to try and to compare - the Opn, and also the Phonak or Starkey with their sound class systems.
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My wild guess - those people with lower SNR needs probably appreciate this type of sound processing, while people who have bigger SNR needs probably don’t.
SNR need is done by for example quicksin test, sentence in noise (where noise is speech babble), and that essentially measures / checks ability of your brain to comprehend things.
So, audiogram - yeah you have loss. Wrs - you can expect such results from HAs, SNR - you need external mics / or you don’t and opns could be great for you. (ok, part about oticon is my guess at the moment).
But, point of tests is that fitter sees bigger picture and recommends HAs that could cover your needs about the loss and wants about the features. I mean, that’s why we’re paying them 
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The mic separation is not determined by a larger faceplate. That’s predetermined and calibrated into the SW.
Larger faceplates are caused by more ‘real-estate’ needed for VC/buttons/larger batteries. Other hidden items like telecoils, E2E Aerials and Bluetooth Aerials.
You can make a 312 ‘canal’ sized directional ITE without all the other stuff in it, but the demand for power and BT functions isn’t congruent with that ambition.
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I’ve read somewhere that ideally mic separation should be at least 9 mm.
But as you say, if it can’t be, then it is done in sw.
I would not want the CIC or IIC. I think the ITC or HS should be fine. Neither me or my wife would care if it is visible.
The Virto Marvel is somewhere between ITC or HS and has 312 batteries and full BT.
The Starkey Livio is all that, plus rechargeable.
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So why pushing ite types then? 
I mean, most common reason for people to go ite family of aids is because they don’t want it to be visible.
If that’s not a factor, I’d suggest broaden your horizons.
You have non trivial loss.
Ric models are more versatile, and usually cheaper I think.
And if you get more loss, with ric your fitter just exchange the speaker with wire and voila, stronger aid is here. Cost here in Germany is 50-100 eur for more powerful speaker.
Not to mention all possibilities for playing with the acoustics when you have options between domes, custom molds vents and so on. So, a ton of things can be adjusted to fit your needs.
And rics are definitely easier to trial. Battery life is better since they can fit even bigger one. T coil is easier to fit in. And they’re less prone to die bc of moist, yes receivers can die, but cost is minimal compared to whole aid dying.
And then you definitely have option for costco and ks9 which are awesome aids (they’re phonak marvels m90 afaik, currently only difference is that they don’t have remote fitting, yet, but it’s in the process afaik), and costco is dirty cheap compared to other places.
If your insurance coverage will do costco, I’d say go there, trial ks9, make notes, you have 6 months probably as folks in USA to change your mind. In two you’ll know where you stand.
You’re trying to do all guesswork without even trying them or hearing what’s feasible (after getting the test). I’d recommend spending energy on trial, invent situations to test them throughly and research when you have own issues to resolve, and not worry about bunch of us with our issues and trying to find the best aid. There isn’t one. There might be the best one for you, but you have to trial to find that out.
And trial with proper fit. Costco in USA does it, I hope in Australia they do it also
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I had a look at the Unitron Insera Tempus technology range. Looks similar to Phonak Marvel AutoSense, but different feature names.
They have a type that looks similar to the Phonak Virto Marvel, but it DOES NOT have bluetooth. (the picture here is wrong. The device looks similar to the Virto.)
And surprise surprise, it is slightly more expensive than the Phonak Virto M. Prices are from the same clinic -
So the Unitron Pro level is almost twice as dear as the 700 level.
And when I look at the spec sheet, the difference is manly in the speech recognition area. It is a very expensive feature.
From the point of view of upgrading it would be ideal - starting say with the 700 and stepping up if required.
But is it as good as Phonak Virto with BT?
Phonak would not need any accessories to stream TV. Unitron would. Not expensive as Phonak, but messy.
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You can kick around ideas on the internet all day long but until you actually go to an audiologist or hearing instrument specialist it’s all just noise in the wind…
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