When started with the Phonak aids, the white noise (circuit noise) was very obvious to me as soon as I first wore the aids.
The Starkey aids have none of that circuit noise, but, by default, you can hear soft background sounds quite well. There are other program modes that generally reduce these valid background sounds.
Some aids filter out soft background sounds, by default. My aids are not currently programmed that way. That is what I meant by “reasonably quiet”.
The sound quality of the Starkey aids is very good. The Phonak aids, many times, sounded echoey to me. With the Starkey CIC aids, I have better sound direction and less wind noise too. The natural ear shape provides the sound direction quite well.
The Phonak aids have worked for many people, but did not work for me. I think a large part of the issue was the audiologist, but I am not sure. I am just happy to be trying a solution that suits me better.