Oticon launches groundbreaking Oticon Opn S

Oticon Opn S takes the open sound experience and the unique benefits of BrainHearing™ to the next level, and features the world’s first system to prevent audible feedback without sacrificing audibility* ensuring more successful and satisfying hearing aid fittings.

With the revolutionary Oticon Opn™ hearing aid, Oticon said goodbye to traditional directionality to provide a better way of supporting people with hearing loss in noisy environments. Now, Oticon is set to add new layers of innovation to deliver even further improvements in speech understanding and listening effort with the new groundbreaking Oticon Opn S™. Opn S™ offers the world’s first technology to prevent audible feedback without removing the prescribed amplification to provide better user comfort and at the same time optimize the fitting procedure for the hearing care professional.

Oticon Opn S™ features the new OpenSound Optimizer™ which analyses amplified sound at an astonishing 56,000 times/sec. Taking speech amplification to the next level, users can access speech details with more natural sound and increased comfort. OpenSound Optimizer™ is so fast that it breaks a law of physics when proactively detecting the feedback most commonly associated with a microphone being placed too close to a speaker[i]. This breakthrough feature from Oticon overcomes the limitations of current technology which have made feedback management challenging for the hearing aid industry. Traditional technology causes user discomfort when feedback arises and reduces amplification for a while to avoid feedback, thereby compromising sound quality and speech understanding. Thanks to a unique patented feedback breaker signal, Oticon Opn S™ actually delivers up to 6dB more stable gain without increased feedback risk*. This is a technological quantum leap providing hearing care professionals full freedom to deliver users optimal gain, and freedom to provide more open fittings than ever before, all without the risk of feedback*.

The new Oticon Opn S™ is powered by the fastest and most powerful platform that Oticon has ever developed - the Velox S™, which provides unprecedented computation power to unleash the full potential of the open sound paradigm. This power enhancement has enabled Oticon to upgrade OpenSound Navigator™ (OSN), making it even more effective in supporting the brain to decide who and what to listen to. OSN in Oticon Opn S™ features a new very high setting which can be activated as a pre-defined setting for those who are sensitive to background noise. Furthermore, users can now select this extra support from OSN regardless of their pre-defined settings. They simply activate the OpenSound Booster, available in the Oticon ON App, whenever they feel they need an extra boost of support.

Oticon already proved that Oticon Opn™ and the open sound experience outperforms traditional hearing aid technology to provide better understanding of multiple speakers in noisy environments with less effort[ii]. With the OpenSound Navigator™ and the new OpenSound Optimizer™ working together, Oticon Opn S™ expands the unique benefits of BrainHearing™ to better provide users with the audibility and noise suppression they need. By delivering the detailed information that the brain needs to make sense of sound, Oticon Opn S™ has improved the speech understanding delivered by the first generation Oticon Opn™ by a further 15%. Listening effort is reduced with an additional 10% and the memory recall improvement made by Oticon Opn™ is increased by an extra 10%[iii].

“The biggest challenge for people with hearing loss continues to be the ability to thrive in noisy environments with multiple speakers,” says Thomas Behrens, Chief Audiologist, Oticon. “With Oticon Opn S™, users can experience speech understanding in difficult soundscapes, such as parties and restaurants, at a level on par with people with normal hearing[iii]. Users can feel more comfortable wearing their hearing aids without the risk of feedback and are empowered when they need help in common everyday environments that present a challenge.”

Oticon Opn S users can benefit from a state-of-the-art rechargeable lithium-ion solution. The discreet miniRite R offers super-fast three hours charging for a full day of power, including streaming, and a quick 30-minute recharge for an additional six hours of power. Featuring inductive charging, users can enjoy smart and stable magnetic connection with their charger ensuring contact is reliably established.