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Consumer Intent Oticon Product Tester Review

Intent 1 Tested! (West Yorkshire)

By
on
July 17, 2024

Oticon Intent 1 re-chargeable

Oticon say this about their Intent hearing aids:

Sensor driven BrainHearing technology uses your movements, the environment, and the conversation around you to recognise what you want and need to listen to, adapting seamlessly to deliver truly personalised support. Letting you stay focused on the moments that matter.

With the introduction of our new premium hearing aid Oticon Intent, we incorporate information from head and body movement, conversation activity and the acoustic environment into the world’s first 4D Sensor technology.

Really? Are they any good?

Comfort and Fit

Oticon Intent rechargeable aids are slightly smaller than the Real rechargeables. They have changed the shape. The aids have an extension above the ears, so that the top microphones are pointing forwards.

The aids sat comfortably behind my ears. Their width at the top meant that there was a tendency for the aids to make contact with the arms of one of my pairs of spectacles, causing a slight rustling noise. My other glasses weren’t affected. Fortunately, Intent aids have excellent handling noise suppression which minimises interference from this source. I soon got used to wearing the aids and forgot that I was wearing them.

Charger and Charging

The charger is compact and with no lid. Power to the charger is supplied by a USB C PSU with a captive lead.

The aids are not powered by induction. They have contacts. This enables them to charge up relatively quickly.

Inserting and removing the aids into the charger is easy enough. The absence of a lid means that the lights on the aids are exposed. The lights are not particularly bright, but they might be a nuisance on a bedside table at night.

Ease of use

Full control of the aids is possible using the Oticon Companion app on a smartphone. It is easy to use and has a comprehensive set of functions, including program and volume change, a graphic equaliser, find my hearing aids, mute, speech booster and battery level.

Volume and program changes can be made using the buttons on the aids. The buttons are of the single push type, with right for up and left for down. I prefer this type of arrangement to up/down rocker buttons, which I find fiddly to use.

Notification of changes is made is by a series of beeps. The volume change beeps make a different sound to indicate the central position.

Program identification is made by remembering how many beeps are associated with each program, which can be confusing. Instead of beeps, Widex aids have a female voice announcing the name of each program

Programs

The General program worked well. I used it most of the time. I also used the MyMusic program. Other programs are available including Speech in Noise, Lecture and Comfort.

Sound Quality

The sound of the Intent aids is excellent. Sounds are natural and clear. Speech sounds natural, and other sounds such as cutlery chinking on a plate, or a toilet flushing, are as expected. Sounds such as a robin singing are bright and clear.

Speech remained clear in noisy environments, such as a busy supermarket or a restaurant.

The sound of my own voice was natural.

I felt that the Intent hearing aids supported my hearing in all different environments. They just sat there behind my ears and did their job well. I quickly forgot that I was wearing them.

In the open, the sound of wind on the aids is well supressed. I could hear the Wind Stabiliser cutting in and out with each gust, but it isn’t an issue.

The Feedback Manager is very effective. There was no feedback at all in normal listening situations.

Listening to music

The sound of music with the Intents set to their General program was good. Set to the MyMusic program it sounded better, but with a slight smearing of the treble when listening using hi-fi speakers. I prefer the sound of the MyMusic program with the Feedback manager turned off, which improves the clarity in the upper frequencies. With this setting the aids have a tendency to feed back, but it is minimal. Feedback might be an issue if your audiological prescription requires a lot of gain.

In the MyMusic program, the default setting of the Feedback Manager is Low. There is greater clarity in the treble if the Feedback Manager is turned off:

Streaming

Intents will stream from iPhones and Android phones. I paired the aids with my Android phone. Pairing via the app was simple enough. There was a low level of background hiss when streaming.

Hands-free phone calls are possible. Calls can be answered by a double tap on your ear. The system worked well

The streaming feature was useful for taking calls, but I was particularly interested in how the aids would sound with streamed music.

I listened to several hi-resolution tracks using the Qobuz music streaming app. The sound of streamed music was very good. The mid-band was clear and detailed. Female vocals sounded excellent. The bottom end was lacking though. Most people would be very happy with the sound, but possibly not fans of AC/DC or Led Zeppelin.

LE Audio

Oticon Intent hearing aids have a feature called LE Audio, which is a streaming technology based on Bluetooth Low Energy radio. It is available on some recent Android phones. On my phone it is labelled as experimental.

I tried streaming some music tracks using LE Audio, but I couldn’t detect any improvement in the sound quality compared with tracks streamed using standard Bluetooth Low Energy.

LE Audio is included in the latest Windows 11 release, but few computers have Bluetooth adapters that can use it. The aids paired with my computer. It recognised that they were LE Audio capable devices, but it didn’t work.

The LE Audio specification includes a one-to many technology called Auracast. Several, or many, people wearing LE Audio equipped devices are able to receive audio from a single source. It is pencilled in to replace telecoil technology, but it will have other uses as well. For instance, people wearing LE Audio devices will be able to hear railway station announcements made from a single Auracast source.

LE Audio technology isn’t being developed just for hearing aids. It is intended for use in earphones and earbuds that rely on battery power. Creative labs have released headphones that use it. An LE Audio capable Bluetooth dongle is included with the headphones and Creative have said that the dongle will be made available separately

TV Adapter

I connected the aids to a TV using the optical socket on a TV adapter 3. The sound quality was good. I tried listening in two ways, firstly with the TV speakers off and then with them on.

With the TV speakers off the sound and video synchronisation was good. It would be a useful feature if you wanted to watch TV by yourself without disturbing others.

With the TV speakers on, the two sound sources were slightly out of sync. There was an echo effect that I couldn’t entirely eliminate. I found that the best setting was to have the TV box quieter than the TV speakers

Conclusion

I never cease to be amazed by the capabilities of modern hearing aids and Oticon Intent 1 rechargeables are no exception. They are excellent hearing aids. Their performance is at least as good as other brands in this sector of the market and the inclusion of LE Audio makes them futureproof. The longer I wore them, the more I liked them.

FHJ: Oticon Opn 1, Widex Beyond 440, Phonak P30 and L90R.                                 18/07/2024

The Oticon Intent 1 Re-chargeable hearing aids were provided for evaluation by Mr Robert Donnan, of RJD Hearing Care, Cleckheaton

Consumer Intent Lumity

Oticon Intent 1 vs. Phonak Lumity

By
on
July 2, 2024

From HJ, product tester:

“The L90’s are currently in use all the time. I’ve retired the Widex B440’s for music listening. The L90s do the job as well and with less tendency to feedback. There’s no need for me to keep swapping.

I tried the Intent 1. They are excellent hearing aids, with very similar overall performance to the L90s.

… It could have been Oticon or Phonak. It didn’t really matter which. They are both superb hearing aids.

I wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the performance of the Intent 1 and the L90s as hearing aids. The differences are trivial and boil down to personal preference. Also, price.

  • The Intents are slightly bulkier behind the ear towards the top than the L90s. They were a bit noisy because of contact with my spectacle arms. The L90s don’t make any noise behind my ear.
  • The sound of music streamed from a phone to the Intents using LE Audio is very good. Very detailed in the mid-range. Female vocals in particular sound excellent. The bottom end is lacking though. I think that most people would be very happy with the sound, but not fans of AC/DC or Led Zeppelin.
  • The streamed sound of the L90s isn’t quite as detailed as the Intents, but the bass is more realistic. One of my test tracks is Get it Hot, by AC/DC. The L90s don’t give quite the same experience as a decent Hi-Fi, but they try.
  • Phonak aids have universal Bluetooth connectivity. Oticon aids don’t.
  • The Intent charger is a poor little thing with no lid. The L90 charger is neat and compact. With a lid.”
HJ, July 2024
Consumer Lumity

Phonak Lumity L90R Tested!

By
on
June 26, 2024

HJ (Product Tester) is familiar with many brands and models of hearing aids. He sets up each model himself. In this scenario – the Phonak P30R, P90R and L90R were compared over two months. He owns Oticon Intent 1 and Widex Moment 440 as well.

“Phonak L90s are excellent hearing aids. My hearing is noticeably better than it was with the P30s and probably better than it was with the trial P90s.

They are almost completely “transparent”. By that, I mean that they just sit there and do their job without colouring the sound in any way that I can detect*. I can forget about them, confident that they are doing their job, working well in all scenarios.

*The sound of music using the automatic program is much better than it was with the P30s. I can hear the effect of the Feedback Manager, but it isn’t particularly intrusive. I would be happy to use the automatic program all the time if it wasn’t for the fact that the independent Music program sounds even better. I set up the two Music programs, one with the Feedback manager on and the second one with the Manager off. The P30 used to feed back using the Music program with the Feedback manager off. With the L90s there is no feedback and the sound of music from my Hi-Fi is excellent. Widex can go bust now.

The sound of music streamed from my phone is very good. Probably better than the P30s and definitely better than the Oticon Intents using LE Audio. LE Audio is compromised by the fact that it is based on the limited bandwidth of Bluetooth LE.

Phone calls work well. I like the tap to answer feature.”

Update one month in:

“They are better than I expected. Much better. 

The turning point for me was the sound of the music program with the feedback manager turned off. It sounds great, with no feedback and no interference. At last. Brilliant. About time.” 
 
Consumer Roger

Roger On iN – tested in an educational setting

By
on
March 27, 2024

“I’m in my early 50’s and have severe hearing loss in one ear and moderate hearing loss in the other. Rob fitted me with Phonak hearing aids which do a pretty good job, but I was still struggling to hear in lots of situations especially on days when my hearing loss is worse. I was concerned that I was missing out on a lot of conversations especially with my family. I was very keen to try the Roger On as I wanted to try anything that would help me hear even just a little bit better.

I was really impressed from the start – it’s very straightforward to use and helped a lot more than I’d hoped. I tend to use it most for one-to-one conversations and either prop it up using the case it comes in on a table in front of the person I’m speaking to, hold it in my hand and point it at their face or sometimes they hang it round their neck. If I’m out and about with one of my teenage children they usually wear it and it’s made a huge difference to car journeys, shopping trips, dog walks and bike rides as it has meant we can have conversations when we are side-by-side and even quite a few metres away. In restaurants or at parties I tend to point it at the person I’m speaking to, and it means I can have a conversation when there is a lot of background noise. It also means that I can confidently go into situations (e.g. doctor’s appointments) knowing that I will be able to hear. Although it’s unobtrusive I’ve found that using the Roger On and telling people about why I am using it has been a good way for me to start a conversation with someone about my hearing loss and explain to them what helps me (please don’t cover your mouth!).

Everyone has been really interested in the technology. If the Roger On is in a good position, then I’d say the sound quality is as good as taking a mobile call when your phone is connected via Bluetooth to your hearing aids.

Of course, it’s not perfect and I still don’t always catch everything first time and I do have to remember to have it with me, get it out and start using it. And I’m a little less keen on the tabletop setting even when I turn some of the mics off using the app. Overall though, the Roger On has made a much bigger difference than I was hoping for and I can now go into noisy situations with much more confidence and, most importantly for me, hear better when I am out and about with one of my children.”

 

Anon, March 2024

Consumer Roger

Roger On iN tested (West Yorkshire user)

By
on
February 23, 2024

Phonak Roger On™ – Microphone Transmitter – Review

 

I own a pair of Phonak Marvel M90 which I purchased in Nov 2019 from RJD Hearing Care at Cleckheaton. At a…