Hi:
I have been visiting my Audi this morning. He resurrected my ancient Siemens Pure 701. Anyway I know the technology is advancing. And he is telling me that now there much better HA’s
At this time, after reading this forum, I am very interested in Oticon OPN1. But my audi is telling me that Bernafon are the same brand. And they are cheaper. Is this true? Is there any equivalent to the OPN1 in Bernafon
Regards
jpeinado
Well, Bernafon is a company belonging to the William-Demant holding group which also owns Oticon and Sonic which are 2 other hearing companies. But them being sister companies of William-Demant doesn’t mean that they sell the same HA models under each of these brands.
There is some slight evidence based on the marketing information that maybe the latest Bernafon model Zerena may be equivalent to the latest Sonic model Enchant 100. But there’s no marketing evidence to suggest that neither of these have the technology of the Oticon OPN in them.
Then. You think they are different models?
Thank you very much for your help Volusiano.
jpeinado
That is my personal opinion. The OPN platform has barely been a year old and is doing very successfully. There’s no reason for William-Demant to waterfall this technology to Oticon’s sister company to sell for a lower price yet.
But this is not to say that the Bernafon Zerena or Sonic Enchant 100 are bad hearing aids. Somebody on this forum said he tried the Enchant 100 and the OPN 1 and he couldn’t really tell a difference. But that’s just one personal opinion.
I haven’t seen anybody report back on the Bernafon Zerena yet on this forum.
Both the Zerena and the Opn1 are among those aids that I’d be interested in trying. I’ve not tried any hearing aid yet, so I have nothing to report regarding how they compare in practice. However, I’ve researched both, and there’s absolutely nothing I’ve seen that suggests that Zerena is an Opn1 under a different name or that it uses the technologies that distinguish the Opn1 from other aids.
One thing I’d hazard a guess on is that perhaps they’d “sound” similar. Likely they have the same microphones and receivers and fitting software that provides similar gain. No, not all the features, but one thing that my Mom’s audiologist commented was that the OPNs “sounded” really nice. I’m guessing that means a natural, non mechanical sound. It wouldn’t surprise me if both the Sonics and Bernafons also share that sound.
Yes, I believe you’re right that the Sonic and Oticon and Bernafon seem to share the hardware features, and their hardware specs seem to be the same. They probably share the same accessories and communication protocols as well. Most likely they also share the same VAC+ fitting rationale as well. I think even the soft app on the phone probably looks the same, too. The main thing different about them is the gut -> the signal processing technology.
Thank you very much for your help. The advantage of Bernafon is they are much cheaper --> 30% approx. in Spain. The HAs in Spain are very expensive because they include lifetime fitting…
Sorry. What VAC and gut stand for? I apologize if this is a basic question…
jpeinado
VAC+ (Voice Aligned Compression) is an Oticon-specific/proprietary fitting rationale used by Oticon for their hearing aid models. Fitting rationale is a set of rules/equations to determine how much gain to apply/prescribe at each frequency band for the specific hearing loss of that patient. Oticon deems that their own VAC+ fitting rationale will work best for patients wearing Oticon hearing aid models. But they also make available industry standard fitting rationales in their fitting program as well in case the patient and/or hearing professional wants to use the industry standard fitting rationale for some reason.
The word gut here I use is just to imply the “core” signal process technology.
Thank you very much
Jpeinado
Hi,
as far as I know the hardware of OPN and Zerena is identical.
The software, however, is completely different. Bernafon doesn´t use VAC+ .
So, depending on your needs and preferences, Zerena might be worse than OPN, but it even might be better.
Maybe the casing and mic and receiver are the same, but the actual chip set used, which is also considered the hardware, is a much more important piece of hardware compared to the casing and mics and receivers.
The chip set used by the OPN is based on the brand new Velox hardware platform and I really doubt that the Zerena is based on this platform at all. This new Velox platform is key to the OPN being able to do the type of software signal processing it does. So yes, the software is different but the hardware is also vastly different in terms of the chip set used.
I read up on the Zerena and it looks like they’re based on what they called the Channel Free platform. It may share some of the same chips as the Velox platform specifically on the NFMI and 2.4 GHz communication. But for the core signal processing chip set on the Velox platform that supports the OPN OpenSound Navigator signal processing flow, I’m pretty sure that those chips are not shared with the Zerena.
My understanding is that the recent Costco upgrade of the Bernafon line uses the Velox hardware.
I know a guy from Switzerland who did beta testing for Zerena - he also says that it´s the same chip.
However, please don´t forget that, for instance, Apple Computers and Windows Computers use the same chip (intel processor), too, and I´m sure that people do spot differences.
The open sound paradigm of oticon is software only, it hasn´t anything got to do with the chip.
I wouldn’t say that at all, if the chip wouldn’t have the horsepower to compute all singals, the software wouldn’t work. the fact that the software works is supported by the strong processing fundament the chip delivers.
The whole layout of omnidirectionality is designed from the ground on with the hardware being laid out for it. You couldn’t be more wrong.
Compared to the alta pro 2, the opn chip is a beast, it wouldn’t have worked with the lower end chip.
you never know how much of a cutdown there is, best to still compre both aids.
If you look at the snippet below which I cut out of the Velox white paper, there are 3 ICs in the Velox platform: the DSP, the Front End and the TwinLink.
I would find it believable that the Front End and the TwinLink chips are shared between Oticon, Bernafon and Sonic. BUT, I’ll eat my short if the DSP IC is shared between Oticon, Bernafon and Sonic.
I’ve done a very extensive study of the Sonic Enchant and its DSP algorithm is NOTHING like the OPN DSP OSN algorithm. See my review of the Sonic Enchant on this forum.
I’ve never heard of the Sonic Enchant using the Velox platform anywhere in my research for my review. It uses the SoundDNA platform. I’ve also never seen anywhere upon my brief research recently due to the claim on this thread saying that the Bernafon Zerena uses the Velox platform. I could only find mention of the Bernafon Channel Platform.
If you have found any literature or official link from Bernafon to support your statement that they also use the Velox platform, please share it with us here because I’d be extremely interested to learn more about it.
From what I’ve seen, the technologies used by Bernafon for the Zerena, although having different names, sound very close/similar to the technologies used by the Sonic Enchant. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the same DSP technology. But no way the Bernafon Zerena nor the Sonic Enchant uses the same DSP technology designed for the OPN based on what I’ve read so far.
Beside, I’ve worn both the OPN and the Sonic Enchant 100 and their DSP based on my actual experience of wearing them are nothing alike.
Well, it is MFi and only the Velox platform has that. Is it an OPN1? No, it uses its own software. Is it the hardware? Until you prove otherwise.
@Gery_R, you have a wealth of opinions. Will you please share the supporting facts.
yeah I would agree with you, that the whole platform in itself is unique to one brand, with cutdowns and modifiactions on some lower lvl within the chip, as a whole are being made to transition the technology to the other brand with it’s unique consumer base.
Most likely Oticon being the High end, we have it all brand.
general assumption. the velox has 64 processing channels. maybe they simply use cut down chips with less in their other brands.
Why should they sell the same with a different brand name for less money? Every Chip in the PC market has a “full chip” and then lower end cutdown versions, either bad chips with less yield, or specifically cut down function, like disabling some memory lanes or shader processors.
Simply put a cutdown of a chip. Maybe they only use part of the IC design, there’s various combination you can do to create a derivate from the original Velox platform, which behaves different, in some ways worse, for less money.