Phonak Hearing Aids

Owned by the Sonova group (probably one of the largest hearing related companies in the world) the Swiss company Phonak have been established since 1947. They are world leaders in hearing aid and cochlea implant research and development and as of September 2007, the group employed about 4,200 employees worldwide. In Autumn of 2006 Phonak launched the “Hear the world initiative” which creates awareness on the topic of hearing health and hearing loss and promotes good hearing world wide.

Phonak patent many of the latest hearing aid technologies that other hearing aid manufacturers try to mimic. They continually update their hearing aid platforms and a new one arrives about every two years. They are regarded as one of the best hearing aid brands in the world and they have offered many innovative hearing aid technologies in the past and continue to do so. They are somewhat famous for their hearing aids for people with severe to profound hearing loss.

In fact, to a certain extent, their Naida hearing aid range is seen as the standard for people with those types of losses. Understanding their hearing aid offerings can be a little confusing though. Phonak do things a little differently than the other manufacturers when it comes to naming their hearing aids. They do use numbers to signify the different technology levels, however, they split their hearing aid types or models out with different names. So you need to understand the platform, such as the Belong, the name of the hearing aid and the corresponding number. 

For instance, in the recent past, a flagship or premium range hearing aid from Phonak will use the number 90 while a basic aid will have the number 30 in the name. Their BTEs are called Bolero, their ITEs are called Virto and their RIC / RITEs are called Audeo. Their superpower hearing aids are called Naida. So for instance, if you are offered a Virto Belong 90, you are being offered a top of the range in the ear hearing aid which is on the Belong platform. Let's take a look at what is currently available from them. 

Meet The Brand New Audeo Marvel

Phonak Made For Any Phone

Phonak introduced their latest hearing aid platform which they are calling the Marvel at EUHA in October 2018. It is their latest hearing aid platform and it is quite an exciting introduction. The Marvel is a full range of Made For Any Phone hearing aids. The devices will be available from November 22nd 2019 and the first to be introduced will be two models on their Audeo Receiver In Canal hearing aids range. They will be offered in the usual four levels of technology, the Marvel 90, 70, 50 and 30. There is quite a lot to talk about with the new introduction, so let's get to it.

Phonak Audeo B-Direct

A Made For Any Phone Hearing Aid

Phonak have introduced a hearing aid called the Audeo B-Direct which is an addition to their new Audeo Belong family. It is different in many ways from the other Audeo Belong devices, for one, it uses a completely different chip. Unlike the others, it also offers a direct connection to any Bluetooth enabled mobile phone, that means taking calls from any phone without a streamer. The Audeo B-Direct connects to any Bluetooth® enabled mobile phone, directly without a streamer and in doing so, also offers completely hands-free calling. As it supports the classic Bluetooth protocol, it provides direct connectivity to cell phones – including AndroidTM, iPhone® and even classic cell phones.

True Hands-Free Calling

As I said, the hearing aids offer real hands-free voice calling. You can answer or reject a phone call by simply pressing the push button on the hearing aid. The ringing of the phone is heard through the hearing aids and once the call is accepted, the conversation is instantly streamed. You don’t need to pick up your phone nor in fact do you need to be near it. Your voice is picked up by the hearing aid’s microphone network and transmitted to the other caller. The hearing aids act in a similar way to any wireless headset.

While the hearing aids offer easy phone calls, they will not allow you to stream music or audiobooks from your phone. The devices simply don't allow the type of streaming that delivers music or other audio. However, they have thought about music lovers and your TV viewing habits.

Hearing aids that double as wireless TV headphones

Phonak introduced an accompanying TV Connector with the hearing aids which uses their proprietary AirStreamTM technology. It is designed to be a state-of-the-art compact multimedia hub that connects wearers to their favourite TV programming for an immersive audio experience. It’s a plug and play solution that automatically turns a pair of Audéo B-Direct hearing aids into wireless TV headphones. The TV Connector can also connect and transmit to multiple sets of Audéo B-Direct hearing aids simultaneously. The TV Connector can be hooked up to any sound source, so you can listen to your stereo as well if you wish.

The device is a receiver in canal (RIC) hearing aid which means that it will be suitable for a wide range of hearing losses and users. It is also the first device to make use of Sonova’s revolutionary SWORD chip and wireless radio technology. They say that the low-voltage radio chip has the lowest power consumption of any hearing aid using Bluetooth Classic. The device uses a size thirteen battery and Phonak reports some excellent battery life figures. They say that the battery should last for six days with one hour of phone use and 3 hours of TV per day.

Three levels of technology

The device is only available in three levels of technology, the 90, the 70 and the 50, so there is no entry-level device.

Auto StereoZoom What is it?

Auto Stereo Zoom is a feature of the latest Premium Quest hearing aids that is automatically activated within the primary Sound Flow program when competing ambient sound escalates to approximately 65 dB SPL. The feature uses the input from the two microphones of each hearing aid and wirelessly combines them in real time to create a four microphone array. It combines directional microphone technology and binaural processing to create a very narrow, highly focused front directional beam. It is purported to increase speech understanding in loud environments by a 6dB SNR (signal to noise ratio). It is claimed to be the industries only four-microphone directional microphone system that is automatically activated where the width of the beam former is narrowed.

Benefits of Auto Stereo Zoom:

Auto Stereo Zoom enables the hearing aid wearer to more easily separate a single speaking voice in front from the range of speaking voices in a crowd. It improves speech understanding whilst substantially reducing competing background noise. Auto StereoZoom is available in the Q90 levels. StereoZoom is accessible in the Q70 levels, which acts the same only it is manually accessible with the press of a button (either on the hearing aid or using a remote control).

Sound Recover

Also unique to Phonak, this feature makes use of a non-linear frequency compression system that gently compresses and shifts high frequencies to ensure the full frequency range of sounds are audible with natural sound quality. This enables the higher frequency sounds in speech particularly the higher pitched sibilant speech sounds such as “s” and “Sh” to be moved from the extended highest frequency band range and compressed to a subtly lower frequency region where the hearing sensitivity is typically stronger. For individuals with sloping high frequency hearing loss adjustment of this system by an experienced audiologist can make the difference between hearing and missing these important high pitched sibilant sounds in speech that provide meaning and context in terms of plural and ownership.

Zoom Control

This refers to the ability of the hearing aids to automatically pivot the focus of their adaptive directional microphones toward where the desired speech signal is coming from and away from competing background noise. This occurs binaurally synchronised in real time. The hearing aids constantly analyse 360 degrees where the desired speech signal is coming from discerning human speech sound with its characteristic pattern from the more erratic background noise. In each of its digital processing channels it is drawing distinction between the desired speech sound to amplify and the competing noise signal to suppress giving more emphasis/amplification to the desired speech sound and less to the competing noise thus improving the signal to noise ratio in each of its channels. The greater the number of digital processing channels the greater the ability the hearing aids have to improve the signal to noise ratio across the frequency range (Speech relative to noise) and the more accurately they can shape the amplification to the individuals hearing configuration in each ear across the frequency range.

The Zoom Control feature is particularly beneficial in listening situations where the hearing aid wearer can’t physically turn to face the speaker such as when driving in a motor vehicle.

Speech in Wind:

Speech in wind uses binaural processing to significantly improve speech understanding and listening comfort in situations where wind noise affects one ear more then the other. The hearing aids route the speech signal from the better side (least wind turbulence) to the side to the wind affected side using the Phonak unique “Binaural VoiceStream Technology”. It leaves the frequencies above 1500Hz untouched so as to maintain spatial cues needed for localisation. It does this to assist both speech intelligibility in wind as well as comfort. The Speech in Wind feature can also be set up and activated as a manual program. Such a feature is particularly beneficial to people with an active lifestyle where they may often find themselves conversing outdoors.

Duo Phone

Duo Phone improves clarity of telephone conversations because the call is heard in stereo in both ears whether using a conventional, wireless or mobile phone. Duo phone can be set up by the Audiologist to activate automatically upon placing the phone in close proximity to the hearing aid (called EasyPhone) and/or as a manual program with the push of a button called DirectTouch.

Demonstrations and Trials

We stock a full range of Phonak hearing aids and are happy to provide Free in Clinic demonstrations where we fit them to your hearing configuration and you can also take them out of the clinic for the day to try them in the busy outside world. If you decide you’d like a full 60day trial we only charge an industry standard fitting fee of $150 per ear. That is you can trial the hearing aid models of your choice for up to 60 days in everyday life to decide whether the benefits warrant the investment. If you proceed with the purchase the fitting fee comes off the purchase price of the hearing aids. Otherwise we fully refund your deposit all except the fitting fee.