Clearer speech in a room full of noise

A hearing aid cannot make a restaurant quiet, so the useful question is how it decides what to lift. ReSound’s approach works in three steps. The aid first classifies the environment you are standing in, then narrows its microphones toward the person in front of you, then applies noise reduction to what is left. ReSound calls that combination Intelligent All-Around on Sensia, and says its AcoustIQ classifier engages the right features with 88 percent greater accuracy than the closest premium solution, with listeners preferring the four-microphone beam 93 percent of the time.

That sequence is why two people with similar test results can need different technology levels. Someone who eats out four nights a week is asking far more of the classification step than someone who mostly talks one to one at home.

Fuller sound, not just louder sound

Loudness and clarity are different problems. ReSound tunes across the full frequency range rather than pushing volume into the frequencies you have lost, which is what makes voices sound like voices instead of like amplification. The M&RIE receiver adds to this by picking up sound at the ear canal, so your own outer ear still shapes what you hear before the aid processes it.

The Smart 3D app is where you adjust things between appointments. Change settings by environment, save a profile for a place you go every week, your regular coffee shop with the espresso grinder behind you, and the aids pick it up again when you walk back in. Media streams through the same app, and iPhone users can run the whole thing from an Apple Watch.

The app also carries ReSound Assist, which lets your hearing care provider send a fine-tuning adjustment to your aids. We still prefer to see you in person for fittings and for anything that changes your prescription, because a real fitting is verified in the office rather than estimated over a connection.

ReSound Sensia, the newest line

Sensia is ReSound’s current release, and the line built around Intelligent All-Around, which pairs the classifier and the beamformer with deep neural network denoising. ReSound reports that combination gives 80 percent of users the best audibility of the person they are trying to hear, and calls the Sensia microRIE the world’s smallest AI RIE, 6 percent smaller than its closest competitor.

Two things are worth knowing before you get attached to the headline. Intelligent All-Around is a Tech Level 9 feature in the microRIE style, so the full version of what ReSound is advertising comes with the top tier in that form factor. We carry Sensia in the 9 and the 7. The 7 runs 14 fine-tuning channels against the 9’s 17, keeps Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast, IP68 protection and the M&RIE receiver option, and remains a strong fit for someone whose hard listening happens in moderate noise rather than every night in a crowded room.

ReSound Vivia

Where Vivia earns its place is hearing in noise. Its deep neural network was trained on 13.5 million spoken sentences and works across 3.9 million tuned sound parameters, performing 4.9 trillion operations a day, and ReSound reports that 64 percent of Vivia users experienced better speech understanding in noise. It runs up to 30 hours on a charge, or about 20 hours when streaming half the time or running Intelligent Focus, and it is IP68 rated.

ReSound Nexia

Size is the reason most people end up with Nexia. It carries the M&RIE receiver, which places a third microphone in the ear canal so your own ear anatomy does some of the work before the aid does, and it supports Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast. For wearers who have rejected hearing aids on size alone, Nexia is usually the first one they agree to try.

You will also still hear about ReSound Omnia. It is an earlier ReSound generation and we continue to fit it, with the M&RIE receiver and a choice of rechargeable or battery styles, which keeps it in the conversation for someone who wants ReSound sound quality with options across price tiers. If you already wear Omnia, we service it and reprogram it here, and we can put it next to a newer line at your next visit so you can hear the difference for yourself.

Still deciding between two of them? Compare Vivia and Nexia point by point, then bring the question to a fitting.

Which Resound Hearing Aid Is Right For You? 

Which technology level you need is a clinical decision rather than a shopping one, and it is worth understanding how it gets made. Your hearing test produces a prescription, meaning a target amount of gain at each frequency for your specific loss. The technology level does not change that prescription. It changes how many fine-tuning channels a provider has to shape it with, and how much automatic work the aid does when your environment shifts. At many of our locations, a provider then verifies the fitting with real ear measurement, placing a thin probe microphone in your ear canal to measure what the aid delivers at your eardrum rather than what the software predicts. That measurement is where a good fitting separates from an average one, and it is the step that tells you whether a higher technology level is buying you anything in the rooms where you spend your time.