Oticon’s Chili and Safari super-power hearing aids, introduced last Fall, have kept the Danish company on the forefront of highly functional solutions for adults and children with severe hearing loss. Often the super-power hearing aid user suffers because there are comparatively fewer consumers in that niche than in the mainstream market of hearing aids for users with mild or moderate hearing loss. So manufacturers can be slow to deliver the same new features and functionality that they put into their hearing aids for people with less serious hearing loss. And because hearing aids for severely impaired users require so much amplification, the danger of over-amplification of environmental sounds, distortion of speech and feedback noise is greater than with hearing aids requiring less amplification.
So it was welcome news to severely impaired consumers when Oticon introduced Chili and Safari with numerous features in its hot mainstream Agil hearing aids, including wireless connectivity with audio devices, Oticon’s next generation Speech Guard sound processing software, advanced adaptive directionality, and spatial noise management, all in a much smaller behind-the-ear processing unit than its earlier super-power hearing aids.
The benefits of the Agil hearing aids have been documented, including better hearing in noisy environments, much better understanding of speech in quiet environments, and a more “natural” sound quality overall. With Oticon Chili, many severely impaired users are enjoying these benefits for the first time. Oticon has some some impressive testimonials from severely impaired customers happy with the new hearing aid. And Oticon’s ConnectLine solutions, first introduced with Oticon’s Epoq hearing aids in 2007, give it possible for severely impaired users access to hear the telephone and television through a wireless streamer and Bluetooth connectivity that transmits audio signals directly into their hearing aids.
Meanwhile, Oticon Safari extends the company’s traditional strong presence in pediatric hearing aids, providing severely hearing impaired children of all ages with custom solutions integrating the latest advances in sound processing and connectivity.
When Oticon introduced its previous generation super-power hearing aid, the Sumo, in 2005, it led the category. But since then others have pushed ahead with high-function, high-power hearing aids. The Phonak Naida hearing aid family has been very successful in providing severely impaired customers with smaller, more attractive and feature-filled super-power solutions. Oticon’s success with the Chili and Safari are re-injecting some welcome competition into the heavyweight hearing aid class.
Kerrie says
I too am loving the great clarity, but frustrated by the constant feedback. The automatic adjuatments made to environmental sounds is too sensitive and incompatible with my hearing needs. I intend to change for different brand, which is a shame because the sound clarity is wonderful, but the extras just show off too much and ineffectively.
Jennifer Gibson says
I have a severe to profound loss & have worn a variety of BTE’s for 30 years. I was a loyal customer of Widex until they stopped producing the super powered aids. I have tried the Phonak Naida’s & they were absolutely horrible – music & speech awful, muddy & distorted. I recently switched to the Oticon Safari’s & they surpassed every super powered BTE’s on the market in regards to sound quality – the music sounds superb! However, there is a major issue with internal feedback whenever there is a loud sound nearby – everytime the car door chimes, or the oven timer beeps or if someone is speaking too loudly beside me, I get a loud internal feedback. It’s really annoying & disruptive & happens frequently on a daily basis. This has never happened with any other aids. The question is: is it a faulty chip? A compression issue? Poor design? Software glitch?
mmortz says
I use induction loops. Do all these hearing aids come with t-coils?