Phonak Lumity vs Oticon More

Oh yes they can suppress background noise and wind noise but I believe that without ear molds it isn’t go to do as well. I have very little issues in noisy environments, restaurants, road noise, wind noise, are no issue for me.

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Jonifoz, I currently wear Oticon miniRITE R and am feeling the need to upgrade. I read through this thread and wondered what you decided and if you’re happy with your decision.

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@jonifoz Any feedback on your choice?
Thx

Hi @John_R and @Baltazard ! I have now had my Lumity 90s for over a year, and have been 100% satisfied with them. I originally chose them for speech in noise. That was the one thing I had trouble with the most. I can now hear speech in very noisy surroundings with very little to no problem. In fact, my husband, who has normal hearing, asks me to repeat myself because HE can’t hear with all the noise!

In addition, I immediately noticed sounds I hadn’t heard in years–birdsong, clocks ticking, the timer going off on the microwave, etc.

I’d like to add that although these hearing aids have worked beautifully for me, they may not for everyone. Also, and I feel this is the MOST important thing–they must be programmed correctly. I think the reason some people can’t hear well with their hearing aids is because they aren’t programmed correctly. There was one small issue with these when I first got them. I went back to my audi and all it took was a minor tweak to correct the problem.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll be happy to share my experience!

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@jonifoz Thank you very much.
And how did your Oticon More trial went and why you haven’t chosen them over the Lumity?
Thank you

And thank you to @John_R for reviving this thread :+1:t3:

Honestly, I hated the Oticon More. I had trouble even hearing normal sounds and conversation with them. It’s not the first time I’ve had an Oticon trial. I had an Oticon trial before I decided on the Phonak Marvel, my previous hearing aids. I don’t remember which Oticon model they were, but it was the same situation. They just don’t work for me.

I loved my Phonak Marvels (which I had previous to Lumity), too, when I got them. My audi offers a 30-day trial of any hearing aid you’re thinking of buying. Plus, my insurance was changing its hearing aid policy and I would benefit from buying aids last year. I had heard about the speech in noise improvements in the Lumity. I tried them for 30 days and was amazed. They were like my Phonak Marvels on steroids! I kept them, and have not regretted my decision.

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@Baltazard (post edit to the succeeding post just below me) → I’ve noticed from this forum that many folks with moderately severe hearing loss in the lower frequencies to severe to profound hearing loss in the high frequencies don’t tend to do well with Oticon and find the Phonak aids much better suited for them.

I’m just guessing here that the heavier hearing loss limits the wide dynamic operating range rather severely, and with a much narrower dynamic range, there’s simply not enough room for nuances for the open paradigm to work as effectively. You end up having too many sounds in play due to the open paradigm, competing with each other in a much narrower dynamic range, and things tend become a cacophony that’s nearly impossible to sort out. The Phonak more aggressively isolates out the noise and give more weight to the speech, which nicely eliminates and alleviates the competition between too many sounds.

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@jonifoz That’s Marvel(ous), we need More reviews like yours :sweat_smile:
Joke a side, I am puzzled, such a stark difference between More and Lumity, I guess each one is different.

Good to hear you are happy with Lumity, that’s what most users are saying in here on this forum.

I hope that @John_R can make an informed decision.
@John_R What Oticon do you have at the moment and what is your audiogram look like?

I think your analysis is plausible, but can it be absolutely true based on the empirical knowledge of what we know about Oticon wearers out there? Or put it this way, if it was ineffective for everyone with a severe to profound loss in the high frequencies, this would be well known in the industry and nobody would fit patients using Oticon with those losses.

I think personally that something else is going on here in terms of the ear physiology, by way of explanation.

Despite my guessing analysis, I must say that I have also seen folks with moderately severe to severe and profound hearing loss who stick with their Oticon aids as well. So I wouldn’t say that my guessing analysis is universally common that it would almost always hold true in most cases.

I fully agree that there is also something else going on as well. I think one’s personal preference to the listening approach, or one’s expectation of what their hearing aids can do for them, would also play a big role in the suitability of a hearing aid. If you have moderately severe to severe hearing loss, but you really want to be able to hear more sounds, and you adopt a positive attitude and really give it a try with the Oticon hearing aid, maybe you’d have a better chance of making the Oticon aids work for you, as compared to someone who prefers to hear less sounds and just wants to understand speech better, tries the Oticon and the Phonak, and instantly like the Phonak because it meets their expectation better.

But there’s probably also some physiological hearing limitation as well. I remember @bluejay as an example. She tried the Oticon OPN and really wanted it to work for her, so she definitely gets points for having a positive attitude and really wanted to try, but in the end it just didn’t work out and she switched to the Phonak Audeo B Direct (IIRC), then Marvel and Paradise later, and it works out much better for her since. IIRC, she has moderately severe hearing loss, even at low frequencies.

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If you have the option to demo both, you can determine which is best for your needs.

Also, I wanted to mention something else about the Lumity. One of the sounds I couldn’t tolerate was the vacuum cleaner. I always had to turn my aids off whenever I vacuumed. I don’t have to do that with Lumity. When I turn on the vacuum, Lumity begins to turn down the noise. It doesn’t turn it down much–just to a tolerable level.

It’s also good at directional sounds. For the first time I can hear sound behind me, like when someone is sitting in the back seat of the car. I no longer have to turn around to hear them or read their lips!

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Yes. I think we are in agreement. I love the idea of the Oticon OPN philosophy and even discounting the testimonials of those it hasn’t worked for, it has clearly been of benefit for a particular cohort.

The UK NHS have told me my next upgrade is likely to be an Oticon Engage, which is effectively the OPN. I will be able to make a comparison, but then, my loss is more severe across the board totally and it may not work.

Actually, I thought it was @1Bluejay that tried the OPNs and they were unsuitable. She has a severe to profound loss across the board.

Ow, you’ve got an encyclopedic memory! That is me on all counts except for the level of hearing loss. Once I swapped in my audiogram from 2022 I was AGOG to see how low it goes. Not much left to play around with … and I sleep BEAUTIFULLY every night not able to hear a bomb going off.

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Yep! You get a gold star for that summary! I simply could not comprehend speech in ANY kind of enviroment as I recall. I think the Oticon OPN is perhaps made for a brain + ear connection that I simply don’t have. Luckily, Phonak Lumity Life aids have worked out, but like all of us, I’m ever pining away for that better, better, BEST solution! :slight_smile:

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Oops, sorry, I didn’t realize there are many “bluejay” members so I just grabbed the first “bluejay” name that popped up in my search. But you’re correct that it was @1Bluejay. The fact that her hearing loss is a little worse than the other one maybe confirms my hypothesis somewhat more, I guess.

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No worries! I think you were referring to the correct lady (confirmed above!) - and I too remember the testimonial.

I think this is an interesting area as I assume the open paradigm extends to the More and Real, and presumably this new release that is upcoming as well. I will try and talk to my NHS audiology department to see if they have any idea about successful patient outcomes with the OPN and why that is. (to try and establish if they know why there are some of these cases where it does not work out).

I’m pretty sure that the open paradigm extends to the More and Real. Oticon’s BrainHearing philosophy started out with the OPN. Below is the screenshot of the Oticon whitepaper on the DNN, just capturing the conclusion of the whole whitepaper. It clearly said that its DNN (the MoreSoundIntellegence) is built on the BrainHearing philosophy and gives access to the full sound scene…

image

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Yep, small flock of 2 I think? I WIN in the cinderblock category. :grinning: :trophy:

I agree that the FULL sound scene Oticon delivered was just way too much for my weary brain to process.

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@Volusiano I’ve noticed that too. Something to look forward to. I wonder if the quick replacmentt of the Paradise HA’s was because of performance?

I have had Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s for going on two years… I thought they were terrible. It was the setup that was bad. Now they are acceptable…Couple of months ago I was cursing my HA’s.