I spoke with an audiologist earlier today who actually fits Phonaks now with her new company but in the past she said she had patients, particularly musicians that much preferred Widex for music quality.
Anyone else heard this?
JH
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For me Phona.k is more accurate. y mMV
Yes, Iâve heard that about Widex. There are also people on the forum who have Phonak who are musicians who really like their Phonaks. In my opinion, itâs largely what one gets used to.
Going by music alone is no good to me, being able to hear talking in different environments is my 1st priority then music, which I play guitar. Having said that I have Phonak P90R and it is a huge improvement over my previous Phonak B90. Sounds are more distinct in music now and being able to adjust Bas,Mid, Treble has given an added advantage to me as well.
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I have worn Widex for nearly 25 years and music sounds so good I get goosebumps. I watch lots of live musicals and the music sounds amazing, with the Evoke 440s I can also hear someone discussing the performance next to me as the speech in noise is awesome. Everyone has different experiences and I can only speak for my own experiences. I have tried other brands including Phonak but for me didnât get any where near the same enjoyment for music, or speech in noise.
I have been using Widex Passion for about 4 years and switched to Phonak P90 six weeks ago. I find the Phonak HAs brighter in a good way and have a fuller frequency spectrum. However I am struggling with a distortion with vocals in recorded music which the audiologist is finding difficult to fix. Maybe I have a rogue pair of HAs. I am thinking of asking my audiologist for a second pair to compare before I give up totally and ask for my money back. Do you think itâs worth a trying for a second pair?
If a satisfactory solution/answer cannot be given then by all means yesâŠ
I donât feel I can advise on Phonak as I donât have experience with them but I am sure some other experienced users can help with this. There will be a lot of progression from the Widex Passion to the Evokes and then the latest model which is the Moments. They move automatically between sound classes and I have never needed to adjust this as it works so well for me. The F2 ric Evoke has sound sensĂ© learn, an app you can use to change your preferences for how you are hearing sound. I think other models can be a âlighter/sharperâ sound which you say you like. There are many ways to adapt the sound preferences now with Widex, either via AI or your dispenser. The clarity of speech in music may be less processing ability. I have heard so many lyrics with the Evokes that I didnât hear before, the 440 gives the greatest ability for this. Itâs really important the fitting is followed correctly for Widex-vent type, sensogram, ear piece type and rationale are all critical and key parts for best and most accurate acoustic performance. If you did try them and you are not getting a great result, ask for the Widex rep to check the set up.
Thanks for all of the replies. I am glad to see such an active and helpful group. I am about to get my first HAs but they wonât be top of the line as my insurance covers $4000.00 and it seems the extra nice ones cost $6000.00.
There must be a heck of a markup on HAs. As a 40 year electrical/software engineer I have worked on a lot of high tech systems and these prices seem out of line. What is really disturbing is looking at the feature lists and knowing that the difference between a $4000 pair and a $6000 pair is probably nothing more than an enable bit being set in a configuration file. Unfortunately I have seen in it other industries, same hardware, just change one bit per feature and they are enabled.
If you are anywhere near a Costco they carry very nice aids for much less.
Thanks but Aetna uses NationsHearing which does not use Samâs or Costco.
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Unfortunately, music quality depends more on the nuances od your loss than aids themselves.
In short, for some losses, thereâs no tech in the world which will make music sound exactly like itâs supposed to.
People who âgot luckyâ with less troublesome losses might feel the difference between âsound colorâ of different aid manufacturers.
And for all those in between - it depends.
Also, much more important is how properly the aids are fitted for your loss, following best practices, so finding a fitter who really knows their job will ensure you get the best possible outcome from those aids.
Best aids in the hands of poor fitter will perform poorly, no matter what manufacturer tried to do to mitigate that issue of overwhelming number of poor fitters.
I had back to back experience on the same aid model, fitted by poir fitter, I heard better without aids. Fitted by proper procedure and I was flabbergasted how useful it was.
Sound quality is poor compared to Hi-Fi but if you canât even work with them for your everyday needs, nuances about sound color really donât matter at all.
And your brain can train to get used to the color and squeeze the most out of it.
Good fit ensures that your brain has something to work with at all 
In short, find the best fitter you can.
If you havenât already, I suggest getting some basics through these two sources
best practices summarised by dr cliff
And they have article about listening in noise, also recommended to read.
Both sources have youtube channel if you like that media instead.
Thanks for the great response Blacky, those are really helpful articles.
John
Widex, Starkey, and Oticon are the preffered HAâs for musicians, and music lovers because of their âInput Headroomâ which allows for a high dB SPL.
Iâm not certain what Phonak is rated at, but when I trialed the Marvels I discovered the input was rated at 95 dB SPL, as opposed to the others which are in the 110-115 dB range.
This article by Marshall Chasen, who is considered the leading Aud for musicians gives some insight to the Widex line back in 2014, but still holds true.
You can google more articles by him. Some great knowledge.
I currently have Phonak Audeo M 70 hearing aids. I have repeatedly had them adjusted and have still not had much improvement with hearing music. All music sounds off key. I explain it like listening to bad karaoke. I had an older model of Phonak before these and had the same experience. Before these I tried out Oticon and Winex with the same results. My hearing isnât real bad without them and I can hear music clearly without them but I need to have it pretty loud and it is annoying to anyone around me. It sounds so bad now that I canât even make out what song is playing sometimes. Any suggestions?
- Post your audiogram (Top of page, click on Forum, click on My Hearing Tests)
- Try over the ear headphones.
Might have more ideas after seeing audiogram.
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My friend is a professional musician and wears Phonak Sky UP aids. She has tried Oticon and couldnât get on with them. She is now self programming her Phonaks.
I have a problem with music that may have been present all along but is much more notable now. If I use a tone generator to play middle C in my right ear only then later in my left ear only the pitch in the left ear is almost a 1/2 tone lower, ie not quite down to B. But if I play it in both ears and turn up the volume eventually the right ear takes over. I had noticed over recent years that if I turned on the car radio with the windows down I would recognize a song but could not get on pitch with it until I lowered the noise or turned up the volume.
What is weird is that near frequency beating is correct. If you play 261 Hz in one ear and 262 in the other you will hear a 1 second oscillation. This happens to me oddly. I hear the 1 second oscillation but the frequencies sound about a 1/2 tone apart.
Long story short. I wonder if this is why to some people music is just noise. Perhaps you might have the audiologist check your frequency perception.
According to some experts musicians with perfect pitch drift down a 1/2 tone as they get older. However, relative pitch is retained.
I believe that if you are a musician, or someone who really cares about the quality of music sound, you must do one of 2 things.
- Marry, or live with, an audiologist who works from home with all the equipment. Or
- Get the equipment and learn to self-program and constantly tweek your settings.
#2 is not difficult or expensive
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