Resound Hearing Aids

ReSound Omnia

ReSound has delivered a new hearing aid platform that's available right now in Scotland. The new Omnia range of hearing devices offers ReSound's latest technology to help you hear better. Packed with both updated and new features, the devices allow you to hear better when attending those complex sound environments like family dinners or celebrations with their best speech understanding in noise yet.

Three Styles of RICs Initially

The platform will be available in three RIC styles, a rechargeable RIC that will offer an unbelievable 30 hours of use, a RIC 61 with a traditional size 312 battery, and a RIC 62 with a traditional size 13 battery. The devices, as you can see from the main picture are shaped just like their previous One platform offering.

ReSound is making strong claims with the Omnia release, they say that you can hear your best in noise with an incredible 150% improvement in speech understanding. The supporting study evidence on that 150% number shows that Omnia will provide 4.3dB SNR (Signal To Noise Ratio) improvement to speech understanding compared to their legacy products. While 4.3dB sounds like a small number, for SNR, it's a technically significant improvement. The video below gives a decent rundown of the system.

ReSound also mentions Organic Hearing, which means that they sound natural, feel natural and connect you to your world naturally. It seems that ReSound hearing aids have become more natural sounding with every new release if my customers are to be believed, so it will be interesting to see what some of them make of the Omnia. They also announced an interesting new feature that will be available on the App that they call Check My Fit.

This feature will allow you to check the physical fit of your hearing aids, it's a pretty good idea because many new users are never sure if they have their hearing aids in their ears correctly. Having your aids properly in your ears is important, if they aren't in properly, you don't get the full benefit. Check My Fit should solve the uncertainty.

Two more things offered are natural own voice perception and 360-degree sound environment mapping. For new users especially, the suddenly changed perception of their voice when wearing hearing aids can be irksome at first but usually fades. The new system will work towards making it a much more natural perception. ReSound say that 360-degree mapping enables users to automatically tune into what they want to listen to and not have the hearing aids choose for them.

ReSound One

ReSound announced the introduction of their new ReSound One hearing aid platform on August 18th but they officially launched them at a virtual global event on September 1st. As I said in my news article, there is a lot of new with this platform, new features, a new chip, a new normalised sound and a breakthrough microphone placement.

A Microphone in The Receiver

One of the big innovations is the new microphone placement with their M&RIE receiver. ReSound believe that with a third microphone in the ear canal that they can make use of the more natural sound cues that can be picked up there. The outer ear plays a big part in our ability to localise sound allowing us to work out where sound comes from. This plays a big part in our ability to ignore sound that we are not interested in and to focus on the sound we are.

Resound Say "The outer ear (pinna) is designed by nature to work like an acoustic antenna. It helps the brain localize and tune in to a particular sound, for example when listening to a specific voice in a crowded café. However, the most popular styles of hearing aids (Receiver-In-Ear and Behind-The-Ear models) capture sound from microphones that sit behind the ear and then approximate the effect of the pinna. The result is an averaged and incomplete reproduction of sound, making it hard for the brain to achieve its natural localization and noise-cancelling function."

ReSound say that they have worked on this for over ten years. Placing a microphone in the receiver is challenging because of the possibility of it causing feedback. ReSound has introduced a brand new feedback management system which they are calling DFS Ultra III. They have worked on this system for nearly ten years and say that the new feedback manager combined with the newly designed receivers allows them to deal with the feedback challenge.

New Directionality Modes

ReSound has also introduced two new directionality modes they are calling All Access Directionality and a user-activated Ultra focus setting. All access directionality allows you to focus on the speaker while still having access to the surrounding sound. Ultra Focus will be user-activated and it allows you to narrow the focus of the microphones in noisy situations. It will allow you to focus on the person in front of you allowing you to hear what they are saying even in a noisy sound situation. These new directionality modes will only be available in the top level of technology.

Made For iPhone, Made For Android

The ReSound ONE platform will offer connectivity options to both iOS and AndroidTM smartphones for streaming and hearing aid control.

The Hearing Aids

The new One platform will be introduced with three RIC (Receiver In Canal) or as they call them Receiver In Ear devices. They will be a rechargeable aid using lithium-ion, a 312 traditional battery aid and a size 13 traditional battery aid. They have introduced a new style of casing which while similar to their old one looks a bit more angular. The rechargeable will come with the outstanding charger case that they introduced with the Quattro, which means charges on the go if you need it.

Three Technology Levels

The ReSound One platform will be available in three technology platforms, the 9, the 7 and the 5 offering a ReSound One for every pocket.

LiNX Quattro

Resound launched a new premium plus hearing aid range called the LiNX Quattro. The Quattro works on a completely new chipset from Resound that delivers a huge improvement in processing power and speed. Resound has used that chipset to full effect by completely re-designing their signal processing and the hearing aid features.  While the initially introduced just Receiver In Canal hearing aids, they have now released custom hearing aids on the Quattro platform.

A quick run-down of the salient points:

• The Quattro range is available in three technology levels
• Quattro devices are now both Receiver In Canal devices and In The Ear Devices
• All of the Quattro devices are Bluetooth direct connection hearing aids
• The devices use a brand new chip platform
• The chip has 100% faster processing than 3D
• The chip has 100% additional memory over the 3D
• Resound are using a new way of handling directionality inputs
• They have introduced a redesigned wireless radio with extra signal strength
• They have extended the bandwidth of the devices giving extra high-frequencies
• They have increased their dynamic input range, calling it industry-leading
• The Quattro range has an outstanding Lithium-ion rechargeable device available
• The rechargeable hearing device will deliver 24 hours of use with 50% streaming on a three-hour charge
• The Lithium-ion devices will deliver 30 hours of use without streaming on a three-hour charge 
• The Quattro range offers the first-ever Bluetooth direct connection Completely In Canal hearing aid ever

A Lithium-ion Rechargeable Made For iPhone Hearing Aid

The LiNX Quattro LT-61 is a rechargeable direct connection, Bluetooth enabled or Made For iPhone hearing aid just like all the LiNX devices before it. Resound have redesigned the wireless radio though and they say that it is more powerful than ever before. That should translate into pretty stable connection to the iPhone and hopefully Android phones when Android releases the new version. Making it a rechargeable device makes a lot of sense, although they have used the chip upgrades to improve power consumption, a rechargeable option allows you the comfort of never having to worry about hearing aid batteries. The battery life is also fantastic, they say that you will get 24 hours of life even if you are streaming for 50% of the time, that's pretty amazing. The device shown above is the rechargeable option, but they are also offering a traditional hearing aid battery model which is based on the LT-62 using a size thirteen battery.

Traditional Zinc Air Powered

The LT-62 is a traditional zinc-air powered device that takes a size 13 battery. It has a telecoil onboard and offers a multi-functional button which acts as volume control and programme button. The device is water-resistant. This might be the device for you if you want an on-board telecoil receiver.

Resound say that the new power management system will increase the battery life of the 62 type device by 20%. We reckon that most modern 13 battery hearing aids will offer you about 5 to 7 days of use. You will be lucky to get much more than that.

Custom Hearing Aids

It will be interesting to see how the custom hearing aids work out. While normally with new technology we would expect teething problems, ReSound have been offering Made For iPhone custom hearing aids for a long time. It will be interesting to see just how small the CIC is and what type of battery life that they can get out of it.

Premium Plus Price Point

Resound have not introduced the devices as a replacement for the LiNX 3D, rather, they have introduced them as a new premium price point above the LiNX 3D 9 and 7 and 5. With the expansion of the Quattro range to now include custom hearing aids, they will be more attractive to more people. The fact that this is the first-ever Made For iPhone and Made For Android CIC is also to be celebrated.