Time to Read: 8 minutes
This is a transcript from our latest video, reviewing the Oticon More. Value Hearing uploads new videos regularly. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss out on a new video when it is released!
I’m Emma from Value Hearing and today's video is a long-awaited update on the Oticon More.
If you've been following our YouTube channel, you would have seen that we made a video just before Christmas and then after Christmas on the Oticon More.
We do like to report on new hearing aids as they come out into the market, but this one was particularly exciting because it's gone in a completely different direction from the rest of the industry, and it's definitely, firmly believed that this is where the rest of the industry will be following, now we’ve fitted a lot.
I did not feel that comfortable back in January giving a really big update because I’d only fitted a few.
It was all positive feedback I was getting, but you never want to say too much too soon with this kind of thing, especially with hearing aids it can take some time for issues and things to come out. Here at Value Hearing, I've personally fitted a large number of the Oticon More and my colleagues across Australia have fitted a large number as well.
So, some of the updates that I'd like to share with you, they're generally really positive and I think, and my clients think, that this really wasn't just marketing that Oticon were talking about with this Deep Neural Network - that it really is the future of hearing. And potentially, for a lot of people, is superior to what we've been able to offer before.
"Completely Different"
Some of the comments from my clients have been, for example, (a hearing aid wearer) who's very experienced and tried a number of other premium devices, has said, ‘Emma, this really is a new era, it's definitely not just marketing. I really do believe these are completely different to anything else I've tried’.
He was kind enough to even do a proper field trial for me where he went out into restaurants and compared the Oticon More to some of the other competitors in the exact same environment and was quite clearly able to say that, yes he was hearing more noise with the Oticon More but he was understanding speech much better.
He said it generally feels so much more natural. And that is a recurring theme with almost all of my clients.
Those that have trialled More here in our Bondi Junction clinic have been a real variety of types of hearing loss and experience with hearing aids. Some of them have had really significant signal-to-noise ratio losses.
I wouldn't say that if you have a really significant SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) loss that the Oticon More is going to be that radically different from any other hearing aid for this, but I'm still hearing back from those clients that they still prefer the sound quality.
They're really liking how natural it sounds, they're enjoying more access to sounds around them, and nature sound, and whatnot.
For those clients more in the middle, where their signal-to-noise ratio loss is very, very treatable with hearing aids, or we've got minimal SNR loss in some cases, the response has been incredibly positive.
"Better than Normal Hearing"
I had one amazing example, which actually made me laugh, where one of our clients had worn a competitor's hearing aid before he was about to purchase the replacement of that hearing aid from the manufacturer.
He was very happy with that trial but then he said, ‘Oh look, just I'll try the More for a couple of weeks just to see’. He came back in and said, ‘Look this, these are absolutely amazing’, and his wife, who I'd never actually met before at that point, came in and said, ‘I can't wait until I need hearing aids so I can hear better than people with normal hearing!’.
I laughed and said, ‘what do you mean?’, and she said, ‘well I assumed that all people with hearing aids hear better than people with normal hearing’.
We had a good laugh about this when I explained to her that that certainly has historically not been the case.
What had happened was he been to his son's 21st birthday party which apparently was somewhere really really noisy, and his 23 year old son was complaining about how difficult it was to understand speech in the noise.
(The client) was actually hearing better and coping really well and, comparative to his 23-year-old son, he felt he was understanding more speech and background noise. So they had a good laugh about that.
So, overwhelmingly really positive.
Should I try the Oticon More?
We've had a lot of you ask, ‘Should I try the Oticon More? My audiologist is recommending something else’.
You might try the Oticon More and say, ‘it's no different from the other product’. I have had that as well, where they've tried a different hearing aid and the More and said, ‘Yep, both sound great, don't notice any big difference’.
But I have had others where they said it's a huge difference for them, so I can't figure out a pattern there. Maybe there will be, but at this point there isn't. My recommendation would be certainly, if you have the opportunity to try and compare, definitely try the Oticon More.
Now, I have had a couple of cases, not many, but a couple, where they've gone the opposite direction where they've actually preferred the sound quality of another manufacturer's model.
They had some interesting history with their hearing loss and whatnot. They weren't the typical textbook case, but still, it was without a doubt that they preferred the overall sound quality of other hearing aids over the Oticon More.
So, we can't say it's for everybody, but like I said, the majority of my clients have been really really happy with it.
I have OPNs, should I get the More?
I also have a colleague who had someone who'd recently gotten the OPNs over the last couple of years from Oticon and tried the More and said, ‘Yes there's definitely a bit of an improvement from me, but not enough to warrant the cost, and I'm still really happy with my OPNs’.
For those of you asking us, ‘Oh, I've got a pair of OPNs, would I notice a difference?’, that really seems to be a very personal response.
It seems very individual because I've had a client where he had the OPNs we just fitted him before the More came out, before we knew it was coming, so we've actually swapped it over for him. He said these are definitely better and he even said in the room that they instantly sounded more natural. It really varies from person to person.
'More' about Oticon More
We did promise you that we would have an interview with Oticon asking them questions that we'd asked you to give us, and also some of our own.
Unfortunately due to some legal issues with the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia, Oticon are not actually legally allowed to be seen on camera with us answering questions about their products.
But don't worry, we're working on something where I'll be able to ask and answer those questions for you.
We'll go over a bit more detail about the Oticon More with what Oticon would say, based on what information we have learnt as audiologists during our training with them. But, like I said, unfortunately we can't actually get an Oticon face on the YouTube channel. So our apologies for that.
Please, if you enjoyed this video, like and share. Definitely subscribe to our channel, it really helps increase our reach on YouTube. Thank you so much for watching.
