The premium version of the Venture platform is the Audéo V90. The V90 is a Receiver in the Ear (or RITE as it is sometimes called). The RITE is a small aid that fits behind the ear. There is a thin wire that goes from the aid and down to the ear canal. A small speaker is at the end of the wire, and this is what fits into the ear. The RITE devices are popular because of their invisibility when worn and their clear, natural sound.
The V90 is the flagship model and it has the most features. Some that you might find helpful are:
auto StereoZoom: This is when the aids automatically focus on a single voice when there is a noisy environment. When the aids are in StereoZoom, the person you are talking to will be easier to hear. The noise behind you is suppressed (though not eliminated). This whole process is done using an aid on each ear, with each aid having two microphones. This will not work if there is just one aid being worn.
What happens, according to Phonak, is that StereoZoom uses "exclusive wireless full bandwidth audio streaming and sophisticated processing technologies to create a bi-directional network of four microphones" Phonak states that StereoZoom will increase signal-to-noise ratio by 3db. Signal to noise ratio means that the person’s speech you are trying to hear will be 3 decibels (give or take a decibel, depending on the noise and acoustic parameters of the environment) above the noise. This will let you hear and understand more words of the conversation in a noisy environment. In the V90 the StereoZoom is automatic so that you don’t have to push a button to access the program.
Speech in Wind: Sometimes there are windy days, and when you wear a hearing aid it is difficult to hear over the roar of the air rushing across the microphones. To help lessen that problem, Phonak has their "Speech in Wind" feature. According to Phonak, "the aid with the better speech signal is identified and the good signal is streamed to the opposite side". So both ears will receive the better speech, not just one.
EchoBlock: When there is a lot of reverberation in a room, such as one with hard surfaces, it is difficult to understand the words because the reverberation smears the speech signal. With EchoBlock, it will identify the signals that are causing the problem and eliminate them, resulting in better hearing.
auto ZoomControl: Sometimes you can’t face the person you are talking to. With auto ZoomControl, the two aids work together to, according to Phonak "focus on the dominant speaker when you cannot face him/her". This might be convenient if, for example, you are driving a car and someone in the backseat is trying to have a conversation with you.
The Audéo V90 has many other features, but the above are exclusive to this model.
The V70 is the same on the outside as the V90, but with a few less features. For example, it has StereoZoom, but it is not automatic. You have to push a button on the aids and have a special program to access this feature. Some features that it has in common with the V90 is SoundRelax, which will cut down annoying high frequency sounds, such as dishes clattering, without sacrificing speech cues. Another is, if you wear two aids, the DuoPhone. The DuoPhone is nice because when you put the phone up to one hearing aid, it streams the sound to the other aid. This lets you hear the conversation more effectively than with one aid.
The V50 is a more basic device, and doesn’t have some of the features of the V70 such as SoundRelax, StereoZoom, and WindBlock, among others. It is still a great aid, and has been fine for most of our clients.
The V30 is an even more basic aid than the V50. This has some features as the others, such as WhistleBlock (to help reduce feedback, or whistling) that sometimes occurs with hearing aids. It also comes with two programs, with the first being the main program and the second could be for the phone or perhaps one that reduces more noise when in a restaurant.
Phonak Audéo V can be easily connected to all the interactive communication and media devices via the Phonak wireless communication portfolio.
Dann Hearing Center
650 West Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06850
office: (203) 866-3838
fax: (203) 899-0601
info@dannhearing.com
The Dann Hearing Center has been helping the people of Fairfield County (Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Westport, Stamford, Ridgefield, Redding, Greenwich and elsewhere) to get more out of their lives with better hearing.
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Dann Hearing Center