Widex Allure AI Hearing Aid Review
Usually, I like to try new aids out myself, but WSA has seen fit to remove Frequency Lowering from Allure and there are no signs of it coming back in. Consequently, I cannot hear very much at all with Allure!
But it's not all about me, and there are plenty of people who do fit the Allure range, so we are trying out the new generation with AI capability. Moment generation had machine learning, but Allure AI has been trained using AI. This means it uses a DNN (deep neural network), which is a way of saying that:
Like GN Resound's Vivia aid, the Allure has been trained on thousands/millions of different 'noise' signals. Trained to recognise speech and subtract what it recognises as 'noise'.
I was quite impressed with Moment, but it was fiddly to use the machine learning and took a lot of time to get settings right. It also needed an internet connection. Allure AI is available with a single button-press, much more accessible in real world usage. It's a larger unit than Moment was. Not massively bigger than Moment, but getting bigger compared to some competitors.
Over to the lovely Jen, who has been wearing Widex Moment for 3+ years, and has trialled these for 9 days. I knew I could rely on Jen to give me an unbiased review, since she has been very honest about flaws with the previous model vs Android phones. More on that later!
Jen has given the Allures a really good run. One supermarket trip, garden centres, cars on the motorway and a pub in a group of 4. Plus a group of 4 for a card game, to trial directly against the group in pub background noise.
Jen had the usual teething problems with the new aids - sharpness and loudness - which settled over the first few days. On the supermarket trip, she engaged the AI (called Clarity Boost in Allure's app) and found it to be clear and comfortable.
The motorway journey, she heard no better than with her own Moment aids, but she noted that the speaker has a low frequency voice and spoke quietly. I'm OK with this, as I expected improved speech in noise but didn't expect a miracle. When someone speaks quietly in your problem frequency range, it can take an improvement of 15dB or more to bring them level with surroundings, let alone amplify them over the noise. This is still beyond reach of hearing aids.
Real, measurable differences were seen in background noise at the pub, garden centre cafe (I have been to that cafe, the acoustics are atrocious!) and the card game group. Jen noted that she didn't struggle, and she heard all that was said. I saw her handwritten notes and she described it as 'perfect' with a little star drawn next to the word, which is rather super.
Interestingly for me as an audiologist, Jen's worse ear saw the most noticeable gains. As we had rather written off this ear for speech clarity, I was impressed. The Allure AI is using the same receiver (speaker) hardware as Moment, so it is the processing that's improved.
Quite a few niggles were had with Android phone connections. When the phone was successfully streaming music, it was noticeably better sound quality through Allure vs Moment. This is what I hoped, since Allure dedicated its second processor to streaming. However, the Android connection issues have followed across from Moment to Allure... the aids are not remaining paired to Android, they are not always available to stream to, without re-pairing them to the phone. This patient has a Samsung Galaxy S10, which is not a shabby handset. I will see what Widex can tell me about this and report back. It should be noted that my husband had no issues with iPhone, which has Made For iPhone tech and is as reliable as ever.
Does Jen want to swap Moment for Allure AI? Yes, she very much does, notwithstanding the Android connection issues.
Is Allure AI natural-sounding? Difficult to say, as she only has Moment to compare it to. However, when I described my own experiences with Resound Vivia (unnaturally quiet surroundings in noise, but grateful to be able to focus on speech), she tells me it was not like that.
As with all hearing aids, your personal best fit is not necessarily the same as the next person's. Your audiologist can help guide you to your perfect aid when they know your likes and dislikes, as well as your audiogram. But be prepared to try 2 or more pairs before you find your perfect aids.
Summary:
Distinct advantages in various challenging environments when using the AI feature, versus Moment.
No noticeable loss of sound quality when using AI. Retained the quality Widex is known for.
Streaming issues with some Android handsets continue.
Easy to access the AI features using button onboard the aids. This means the patient can make full use of the features they have paid for.
Hearing aid body is larger than competition, by some way.
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