Phonak Hearing Aids

In 1969, Phonak introduced the Phonette, a hearing aid with integrated circuits that allowed for more precise, active filter technology. Since then, the company has continued to innovate, offering the world's first colorful hearing aids in 1977, developing hearing aids for children, FM systems, remote control hearing aids, and even bluetooth systems.

Among Phonak's current offerings are the Savia™, Persio™, Claro™ and Valeo™.

Phonak Savia

With nine different models, the Savia offers what Phonak calls Digital Bionics™, which uses digital technology to mimic biological systems. Phonak's Digital SurroundZoom™ isolates the sounds you want to hear by breaking incoming sounds into 20 different channels. Digital SurroundZoom™ then calculates the optimal directivity per channel. It can also track moving sounds.

Savia's RealEar Sound™ offers another feature missing from the hearing aid experience: sound localization. With many hearing aids, it is difficult to tell where sounds are coming from, but with the Savia, "front-to-back localization uses frequency dependent intensity cues to determine the sound origin. This cue differentiation is essential not only for front-to-back localization, but also for natural sound perception."

The Savia is available in a variety of colors, including some two-toned models.

I always found that locating the direction of sounds was a big problem with the amplifier-in-the-ear type of older hearing aids. And older behind-the-ear aids made finding a sound's direction difficult because the microphone was set further back on the head than the ears. The Savia tries to correct this issue.
Phonak Persio

Phonak's Persio system offers a variety of next generation technologies to improve the hearing experience: PersonalLogic™ with the Listening Situation Manager™ allows the fitter to set each hearing device to the personal preferences of the user. The system then "continuously updates signal processing parameters in response to acoustic information, listening situation classification, the wearers' hearing status and listening preferences." Persio's Digital Perception Processing™ breaks incoming sounds into 20 different bands before selectively amplifying them. And digital AudioZoom helps to reduce noise behind and beside the user, allowing the user to focus on the sounds he is facing.