Just saw a bit of new release stuff: put aside the date (Feb 27th) because they’ve just reinvented the wheel etc.
Now, it’s a bit odd timing since Real was only put out last February; unless something else has bumped the timeline. We’re conventionally used to seeing a full chip overhaul every four years with an incremental model step every two. It has been noted here and elsewhere that the Real performance increment over the More was marginal at best.
Given Starkey have jumped ahead with battery life and their Ai approach, I’m wondering if this is DeMant’s rapid engineering response.
This is my hope too, I have new Phonaks Nadia P90-UPs I like a lot but I miss the more open Oticon sound of my last HAs and would be very interested in trialing a new model!
I find Oticon is particularly egregious when it comes to over-hyped marketting claims. I typically like their devices, but I don’t trust anything they say until I see it.
Truly, Starkey’s claim of 51 hours of battery life on a single charge seems to run laps around their competition.
But as for their AI approach, your comment about their AI approach jumping ahead of the competition got me curious, so I tried to Google the whitepaper on it to learn more. Below is what I could find, just a very high level, fuzzy and meager 2-page so-called whitepaper that doesn’t give any clear details about how their AI work that would show how Starkey has had a jump ahead with their AI approach compared to their competition.
Starkey basically said that they use the DNN stuff for AI, just like Oticon said they use the DNN stuff for AI as well. At least the Oticon whitepaper on their DNN AI is a full 11-page paper with enough details for the reader to have a good idea of what their DNN AI does. The 2-page Starkey DNN AI paper barely explains anything in good enough details.
The only meaningful thing I got out of it is that somehow, their AI was able to boost their input dynamic range (they call it input saturation level) from 108 to 118 dB SPL now. The Oticon spec is at 113 dB SPL, and Resound LiNX Quattro boasts 116 dB SPL, for comparison reference.
If you do have a better whitepaper link with more details on how Starkey’s AI has a jump-ahead over their competition, can you share here for reference? Thanks.
Seems likely. LE Audio jolted Resound out of its 3 year cycle. Maybe it can do the same for Oticon. Except “game-changing” implies they’re first. They’re not.
Yeah Sammy is always first, but did I read someone said the latest pixel as well? but there’s ear buds as well that support it, all the phones coming out over the next few months will have it, forget Apple, those people only think of themselves, they have their own respective protocol MFi, which sorely needs some serious work going by the posts here on hearingtracker.
If it is LE Audio, it could be about perception, not wanting to be seen to be lagging behind. It might be my imagination, but I think I’ve seen Resound Nexia get mentioned more than any other hearing aid model lately. Not just here either. There’s genuine interest.
Anyway, it could be anything. I
Btw, is there something Apple-esque about Oticon’s marketing? Name a release date 6 weeks away and get people talking about them for 6 weeks. Pretty slick for a medical device manufacturer. Maybe if whatever it is is ready now, they could release it now?
“LE Audio” – Best I can tell, not being knowledgable about wireless tech, “LE Audio” is shorthand for Bluetooth Low Energy. Oticon seems to think they implement that. It seems also to be a component of Apple’s MFi.
Me, too. I’ve read all their “brain hearing”, AI/DNN stuff, and often scratched my head in reaction to various sentences, as in “huh? What does this even mean?” --And this from someone who chose to buy a pair of Real 1 after reading the hype.
Back in 2018 or so when I first got involved with hearing aids, the Oticon hype, particularly as interpreted on this forum, turned me off to the brand. By the time I needed new aids last year, I realized that the nonsense I read here shouldn’t influence me at all, positively or negatively. I’m happy with my Real 1’s.
