Oticon Intent 1 versus Widex Allure 440 + INSET vs REM

I have no clue what INSET is but, the Widex Compass Cloud does not have the in-situ sensogram tool.

The Widex is also not compatible with any of the accessories for the Widex Moment except for the TV Play 2 and RC-DEX per Widex Spec Sheet. Dr Cliff claims that the Allure is the only hearing aid he has seen that has less features that the previous generation. It doesn’t allow remote fitting and it does not allow to do your own programming.

I love the Widex sound, I like it better than Oticon’s but, sound preference is very personal and I don’t know the effect of the programming limitations. Widex does not have DNN or AI features for noisy environments but Oticon does. Per Dr Cliff, he thinks that Widex went that way because they don’t want to spoil the natural sound and the speed of sound processing. I’m a not a fan of his but he did have some good points in the video.

In short: Give Widex a chance , test them in complex environments and let us know how that went.

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Today I have just wanted to buy canal lock, however the HIS has it only for M and S receivers :sweat_smile: Indeed I have high degree of ear canal changing during jaw movement.

19th Aug I’ll receive my titanium cShell with 0.6mm vent. Finally the feedback threshold will not be a problem!

Yikes! This thread went down the REM rabbit hole fast! Sorry!

My Oticon and Widex trials were older models, with Oticon More and Widex Moments. So best I can give you is their different philosophies and how I experienced them. The Widex is about accuracy, natural sounding, and they have unique solutions for those in their HAs. Oticon has a more industry standard hands-on approach, more processing, to help comprehension. Which is best for you, between theses two, would comedown to their benefits meeting your needs.

Did your audi do a comprehension test, or a speech in noise test? Also, think of this as a What-o-meter… Day to day how often are you saying “What?” to get others to repeat themselves. Do you find yourself checking-out, disengaging in converstions. Ever have you mishear/misomprehend what someone has said? The harder compreheding is for you, and the longer you’ve been experiencing comprehension problems, the more suited you are for the extra processing in the Oticons. If your comprehension is moderate-okay, but you want your frequencies restored and you have need for the clarity from Widex, then those’d be a viable choice.

Ideally, trial both, being mindful of what benefits your’re experiencing, not just how things sound. Try their different modes and settings.

On REM or not, :man_shrugging:. I’ve never been REM’ed but I’m okay with that, it’s not the be-all and end-all of hearing care.

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As others have said, Widex use the sensogram but I understand the Allure has a calculation made to do this automatically. I had REM done once with the Widex and it messed up the fitting and I couldn’t hear very well. The sensogram plays the noises directly through your hearing aids as you would receive them in real life. I trust their set up as when done according to the manufacturer I can hear clearly, love music & speech in noise is excellent (440).

Can someone explain to me how this automatic process work? I can understand the argument between REM vs in-situ measurement but, are we saying that you can put your audiogram in c compass and the software knows the ear resonance of the patient for making the adjustments ?

The automatic process - according to how he set up my aids, is that he connects the aids to the noahlink whilst in my ears. Then he runs a program or something presumably from Genie 2 and this makes a lot of different sounds in each ear for about 30 seconds. This apparently does the same thing as REM but you are using the aids themselves to verify the fit. At least ways, that how it seems to me.

I ended up going with Oticon partially because they were so good at speech comprehension and partially because the new Widex Allure’s can no longer be programmed by the audio’s thanks to Widex new cloud system which they are still rolling out. So, basic settings such as changing to Nal-NL2 cannot be performed anymore. My audio said that this means that Widex is not suitable for people with moderate to severe hearing loss, because he cannot change any of the settings.

So I went with Oticon Intent 1 and I am very happy with them.

See my review on the two aids - Widex Allure 440 vs Oticon Intent 1 Trial and Review

This makes no sense for me.

  1. There must be microphone part for verification
  2. The only mics are in the HA housing, so the process is apparently dependent from vent hole
  3. The vents comes with much different sizes, lenght diameter or course through the earmold. For each situation mics should be calibrated differently, not to mention about domes.
    4

I am not the best person to ask about this, as I am not very knowledgeable about all this.

But fundamentally this comes down to the old debate:
in-situ is for fitting and REM is for verification!

I agree with you though. Despite having had this automatic process, I still needed adjustments to my aids to perfect my hearing in different environments. So, clearly it’s not as accurate as the manufacturers claim it to be! But unfortunately many audio’s don’t do REM - presumably because of cost.

This is a bit risky for Widex, if audios steer their clients away from the Allure due to the requirement for cloud programming, it could result in a loss of market share and reputational damage. I’m not seeing, nor entirely convinced forcing cloud programming is the way to go, however, as an option it’s interesting.

My audio says that Widex are planning to make all these settings available for the audios in their new cloud system. The problem is that they rushed the new Widex Allure range to market and their cloud system is not ready for production use. He said out of 10 Widex aids ordered by him, he has had to send 8 back for precisely this reason.

The limitations of this new cloud system is not actually meant to be a permanent situation, but you are right, Widex are going to lose a hell of a lot of business because of it, because it will take them months to get their cloud system production ready.

I don’t think cost is very prohibitive.

Its the only explanation that I have for why so many audio’s don’t do REM’s. Mine says he doesn’t do it, because he finds the in-situ process better and to be fair to him, he has done a lot better than my previous audio. My new audio has accomplished more in 6 weeks than the old one managed in 6 months!

I am going in for one more adjustment which should hopefully resolve the last of my remaining issues.

And then Widex will still lose sales because most do not want a limited-access cloud system or even an unrestricted cloud system. If it was just an option, maybe, but otherwise this might be the end of Widex unless they reverse course.

I’m a bit surprised they did not launch the cloud system fitting for the Allure in tandem with the option to use Compass GPS. It would have given Widex a good sense of how much audios would have been willing to embrace cloud fitting, instead of forcing it and receiving push-back in the form for failed sales. What’s worse, it seems the cloud based fitting system wasn’t matured and ready for prime time to coincide with the release of the Allure.

What he is describing (I think) is the 30 sec feedback test done in Compass.
I would love to know what the HISs in this forum have to say based on their experience with Compass’ cloud.

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