I’m excited. I have a zeal for the Zeal. What we have all been waiting for has finally come to fruition. The smallest hearing aid available, one that is rechargeable, (I know, that’s not new), but also has Bluetooth capability, with the ability to receive Auracast broadcasts, (more on this later).
It’s called Zeal, and it’s made by the Danish headquartered Oticon. It is the first CIC hearing aid that has Bluetooth LE built in and rechargeable capability. In fact, it is only available as a rechargeable, non-custom instrument.
There has been an assumption that the smaller a hearing aid is, the less it will be noticeable. This isn’t always the case, but it has led people to make decisions that are not necessarily the best for their circumstances. The most obvious is the problem of fit and gain availability, which is still an issue to some extent. The smaller an instrument is, the less room there is for circuitry and the less power it will be able to put out. Add a rechargeable battery and a Bluetooth LE chip and it leaves no room to spare. Thus, this instrument is really made for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Anything more and it won’t really be strong enough and may produce significant feedback, (that whistling noise you sometimes hear when you put in or take out a hearing aid).
Another relatively new device on the market, is the Phonak Audeo Infinity Sphere. The Sphere technology is a noise reduction algorithm that makes the claim to reduce enough noise that hearing speech in a noisy environment is 50 to 60% better than others on the market, even its own.
I currently have several people using these instruments and the response, so far, has been amazing. Some have commented that they have no idea how they have lived without this for so long. Again, not every hearing aid is suitable for every person, but the Sphere has a bigger market than the Zeal, as much as I hate to say that.
New tech is something that occurs on an ongoing basis. For those who wonder why hearing aids are so expensive, it’s primarily because these manufacturers invest most of their revenue on improving what they already have, several times every year. Take a tour of one of the research facilities sometime and you’ll understand why this can get expensive. That being said, both of these remarkable instruments are priced very competitively and offer a great value for their cost.
If you are interested in either, please give me a call and I can go into more detail about either or both of these technological wonders!
