Naida V vs. Exelia SP --- Music??

[raphaelc]

So I annoyed my audiologist and returned my Elevas, which I had on trial and they were working beautifully --- great w/ music, good w/ noise reduction --- and am now torn between the Exelia SP and Naida V. If you're gonna pay $6,000 for aids plus an FM platform, I wanna be sure I get the best my money can buy. Nothing wrong with that, eh?

The advantage of the Exelia SPs seem to be enhanced noise reduction. They also have 20 channels and five programs (including one dedicated for music).
The SPs also have EchoBlock and SoundRelax (to eliminate impulse sounds). They seem like an improved cousin of Savia Arts.

The Naida Vs have 16 channels, four programs. They have noise cancellation and Digital AudioZoom, and in addition also have SoundRecover for converting those high-frequency "sh" sounds into audible range. They are also water resistant.

So, the main advantage of the Naidas over Exelia SP seem to be SoundRecover, water resistancy and maybe a smaller unit (Naidas advertise 35 percent smaller than conventional power BTEs, but I haven't seen this advertising on Exelia SP).

But in getting the SoundRecover, water resistancy and smallness, you cut out the Exelia's enhanced noise reduction, echo block and soundrelax.

All of this raises an interesting question:

What is the affect of Naida's SoundRecover is on music? If you're converting high-frequency sounds into lowers some way, doesn't that affect musical pitch and thus music enjoyment?

Unanswered questions:
Both units are compatible with the new Inspiro/and ML10i dynamic fm platform, but is the solution design-integrated for Naida but not Exelia SP?

[jgirardi]

From what I understand, it really depends on your hearing loss. Exelia is the better hearing aid in terms of features, but not powerful enough for those with a profound/severe loss. So if you can be fitted with the Exelia (based on yor loss), that would be the way to go, if your loss is to much that the Exelia is not powerful enough, you have no choice but to use the Naida. I am not an expert, but Im speaking from 40 years of expericnce wearing HAs and with a Profound/Severe loss.

[raphaelc]

If you take a look at the fitting-range and gain for Exelia SP, it's hard to imagine how Naidas could be more powerful, or am I mistaken?

http://www.exelia.phonak.com/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/en/027_0430_02_Exelia_Product_Information.pdf

[raphaelc]

Wait, I think I found the power difference.

The Naida V has the ear-simulator max gain of 85/80.
The Exelia SP gives it at 80/75.

Maximum power output (ear simulator):
Exelia--141/139
Naida V--144/139

Doesn't seem like a huge power difference, then again, I am not an audi and the Naida specs I have come from a sheet I found not off Phonak's site but from a Danish press release agency.

[xbulder]

5 db could make a difference

[raphaelc]

Hrrrmm, well Exelia SP seems to have the same power/gain as the Savia Art/Eleva 411's, so it's probably an improvement on that line.

The Naida's seem somewhat of a different animal--5db more power and with the SoundRecover feature. I'm curious though, what gets compromised. The data I have seen so far suggests it could be music and the better noise-reduction features and sound cleanups on Exelia.

[Jaw2000]

The Naidas are also around $4500 for a pair - does that make any difference?

[grkbella03]

I'm trying the naida as a trial...I'm able to try them out for longer than 2 weeks and I'm not too happy with the music part. I've never had any high powered hearing aids give me a problem usually, especially with music and with the Naida I was disapointed. Especially when I am in my car, because of car noises and outside noises, the music sound is "compressed" and you can't really hear it like you usually would like with hearing aids such as supero which is what I was using before. Another thing I did not like about Naida was that although I heard more sounds and everything much more clearer, it was harder to talk to people in restaurants or hear people call out my name in a restaurant because of all the other noises around me such as people talking, and such.

[BABS]

I just recently purchased the Destiny 1600. I have a profound hearing loss. My Doctor wanted me to get a Nadia but I was concerned with how well it would work with music. I decided against it after doing a little research. And then I decided to purchase the Destiny 1600. I have had them for 1 week now.I have found that they work well with music. I have on it a program no. 3 that I use for music and I have been quite happy with it,

[schinamama]

Hello,
I am brand new to the board and just got on to find out info on Savia Art 411's. Found this discussion first so I thought I would write down my opinion before I continued. I just finished my trial of the Naida hearing aids. I have a profound hearing loss. And the audiologist thought that the sound recovery mechanism of this aid would help me out tremendously.
Well, I must say that my old aids are from 1996 at least. Yeah why mess with something if it ain't broke.

I do hear better with the naida's and I don't have to constantly play around with the volume control, up/down, up/down. But understanding was hit or miss. It all depending on who I was talking to. And whether I was looking at the person when they started talking or not. It depended on the timber of their voice, whether their voice projected or not. I have to tell you that dealing with people on my Captel phone became so bad that when the phone rang I wouldn't even get up from my seat, I just looked at my husband and said--- You get it. And that's WITH Captel mind you.

I know that you have to let your brain ADJUST. But there is just so much my brain is going to do before I'm going to take the hearing aid off, drop it on the floor and stomp on it. I even put my old hearing aid back on and I'll tell you that my brain had adjusted already to the point that I could not go back to my old hearing aid. Sigh.

So now I am wearing the Savia Art 411. I do like the quality of the tone of sound much better.

Both the Savia and the Naida have the T coil, Mute, music and Soft? tone settings. And maybe others.

My question is---- because the Naida just came out the audiologist says he can charge $5400 for the pair, but because (get this) Savia's sell so well Phonak is not giving a break on them and therefore he charges $6400 for the pair. I don't understand this and wanted to know if this is in the ballpark?

Also he made an adjustment to them so that the Tcoil comes on whenever I lift up the phone to the aid. Instead of manually making the Tcoil come on.
And now I think it has affected the quality of sound somehow. I want to know if this is just my imagination. But while on the phone the Tcoil goes in and out of mode very often- and besides not being able to be consistent, the beeping is highly annoying and interrupts the conversation.

I'm off to find info on Savia Art 411.
Anyone?

Take care
Schinamama

[JennyB]

So now I am wearing the Savia Art 411. I do like the quality of the tone of sound much better.

Both the Savia and the Naida have the T coil, Mute, music and Soft? tone settings. And maybe others.

My question is---- because the Naida just came out the audiologist says he can charge $5400 for the pair, but because (get this) Savia's sell so well Phonak is not giving a break on them and therefore he charges $6400 for the pair. I don't understand this and wanted to know if this is in the ballpark?

Also he made an adjustment to them so that the Tcoil comes on whenever I lift up the phone to the aid. Instead of manually making the Tcoil come on.
And now I think it has affected the quality of sound somehow. I want to know if this is just my imagination. But while on the phone the Tcoil goes in and out of mode very often- and besides not being able to be consistent, the beeping is highly annoying and interrupts the conversation.

I'm off to find info on Savia Art 411.
Anyone?

Take care
Schinamama

I used to use Savia Art 311's until my thresholds dropped and I switched to Naidas.

I also had some seriouse issues with the 'Easy Phone' function on the Savias. At the time a huge part of my job was talking on the phone. After about an hour of being at work with the Savia's I emailed my audiologist insisting that she do something to fix the insesint beeping that occured the entire time I was on the phone. She turned off the 'Easy Phone' and then there were no more problems. I would just manually put my aids into the t-coil program and I was ready to go.

I paid $3470 each for my Savia Arts. $6400 for a pair sounds average to me. Where are you from? I am from Canada.

Feel free to PM me, or just post here, if you have any other questions and I can try to answer them!

-Jenny

[Nan]

Hi. Does anyone have any updated comments on the Naida hearing aids? My young son (6 years old) currently has Oticon Digifocus hearing aids and loves them. He was just fitted with Naida Ultra Power hearing aids and he does not like them especially when listening to music. I understand the feature moves high frequency sounds to lower frequencies which in my opinion may affect the sound of music? The Naida is great for his hearing loss, but I do not want to distort the sound of music for him. He loves music too much. Does anyone care to comment about a hearing aid that might be good for severe to profound hearing loss that sounds great when listening to music? I am considering looking back to Oticon or another brand of hearing aid. Thanks.

[ljjehl]

There is a music option in the Naidas that he may be able to use as a manual option. I'm not 100% sure of the difference compared to the normal speech configuration, other than all the sounds in the frequency spectrum is used for the music program. He might like it if the music is the only sound in the room, but if you add offending background noises to the mix, it might become a problem. That's why I use it in a manual setting. My current preference is using FM for my music listening, as I use it for stuff like connecting to my music playing devices via bluetooth or direct jack connection.

[Maureen]

my 11 year old moved from Digifocus II to Naida SP and he loves the new aids. I would see about tweaking the music program to have less compression to see if that helps.
I recently had his audiologist add the music program and find that he tends to prefer it to the automatic overall.

[ljjehl]

I should probably look into the compression stuff for the higher pitch noises....never had time recently to work on the music part of the program....

At times I seem to like the music part also, but it seems to increase the volume setting of everything in a noisy situation.....so I suppose it's best in a calm setting like TV watching or music listening.....

[Hask12]

I just returned from my audiologist where I too complained of the music sound of my Naida Ultras which I have on a trial basis. I requested that he bump up the volume and the bass. It has made a huge difference in the overall sound quality of the music setting.

[ljjehl]

The volume is good, but I may look at the bass portion only for the music setting....Thanks for mentioning this!!

[kcrowe]

I've had the naida's for a few months now. Very frustrated with the t-coil for the phone. It does go on and off. And the delay on the restart with the Naida takes forever. I've missed half the conversation!
I'm hoping a software upgrade will fix the phone t-coil intermittancy problem??

[ljjehl]

Not sure why you have the issue with the T-Coils.....unless there's the Easyphone feature that's causing this.......The easy features are usually more trouble than it's worth....

[sjb2003]

Hi there all l have the niadia 3up.l have program for music in calm.But l was wondering what the different between music and calm program.Any help would be great.

[ljjehl]

Calm is the base program for all the different manual program options. Calm is usually set for the voice spectrum and music enables all of the audio spectrum of audible sounds.....so you may hear more than you want to hear in a crowded place such as a concert....the good news is, the music program can also be tailored to fit your hearing level and be adjusted too.....