Oticon Opn™ Hearing Aid (previous version)

Oticon has introduced their latest innovation in hearing aids called the Opn. The Opn is designed to work with an iPhone to take phone calls and also use a dedicated app to make adjustments on the hearing aids. The Opn is only available in what is called an “open fit” style of hearing aid.

The open fit device is a small Behind-the-Ear aid that has a thin wire attached to it. At the end of the wire is the receiver, or speaker. The receiver fits in the top part of the ear canal, leaving most of the ear open. This is good for mild to moderate high frequency hearing losses. Open Fit aids have become increasingly popular because of their cosmetic appeal and natural sound quality.

The Opn uses the new Velox processor. This faster processor results in 20% less listening effort, and a 30% improvement in better speech understanding when comparing it to Oticon’s previous premium aid, the Alta2. Of course, many factors are involved in whether you achieve these results. Some people will do better depending on the degree of their hearing loss, the environment they are listening in, and so on.

The Velox processor has 64 frequency channels as well as the ability to analyze the sounds around you over 100 times a second. In addition, the Velox chip can handle over 500 million instructions per second.

In addition to the faster processor, other improvements are:

Twin Link technology: Because of the Velox processor, Oticon is able to use two dedicated wireless receivers. One is for communication between the hearing aids so they can decide together what adjustments to make to give you the best speech understanding. The other is for wireless streaming from your iPhone.
Open Sound Navigator: This feature balances sound and noise to give you better speech understanding in noise.
Spatial Sound LX: This fast binaural processing “improves sound localization and provides more accurate spatial representation” according to Oticon.

The OPN is available in the Receiver-In–The-Ear style. There is no custom made version of the product. The OPN comes in 3 levels of technology, the 1, 2, and 3. The 1 is the premium aid, the 2 is the midlevel and 3 is the basic. The OPN1 has the most features and the greatest number of adjustments that the hearing specialist can change.

The Opn aids can also be used to connect directly to an iPhone (version 5 or higher). What this means is that you can answer calls and have the sound streamed to both ears (if you have two hearing aids). This will let you hear the conversation more clearly than listening with one ear.

You can also use an app on your iPhone to make adjustments on your aids. The app lets you change programs and adjust the volume. The app will also work on an iPad (2nd generation or higher).

In addition to being able to use the iPhone with your Opn aids, you can also stream music, podcasts, or anything else you might listen to on your phone.

The Opn is available in the Receiver-In–The-Ear style. There is no custom made version of the product. The Opn comes in 3 levels of technology, the 1,2,and 3. The 1 is the premium aid and has the most features and the greatest number of adjustments that the hearing specialist can change. The 2 is the midlevel and the 3 is the basic.

In addition to being a remarkable hearing instrument, the Opn has won a number of awards, such as “Tech for a Better World” and “Wearable Technologies” at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. Other awards, and additional information about the Opn can be found on the Oticon website: oticon.com. You can also call Chris at the Dann Hearing Center: (203) 866-3838

[ Top ] [ Back ]