Behind the Ear
Fitting Styles: BTE, PP, SP, UP
Warranty: 5 years
In August 2019, Oticon introduced its latest superpower hearing aid, the ‘Xceed’. Designed for the severely to profoundly deaf and created to enable wearers to receive more access to speech than ever before. This is mainly due to the model boasting an impressive 146dB SPL and 87 dB full-on gain and powered by the advanced Velox S platform – making this aid the ‘world’s most powerful hearing aid’.
Therefore, the Xceed replaces its predecessor, the Dynamo, and offers a better quality of life for your hearing healthcare - supporting you and your hearing in noisy environments with 360-degree sound. This range adds to their advanced Oticon Opn S family, which is famous for its open sound experience and innovative technology.
Like with all superpower hearing aids, they are not a small design. However, the Oticon Xceed, like the Dynamo, praises itself for being smaller than most of its kind. This aid comes in seven different colours and two styles: superpower (BTE SP) and ultra-power (BTE UP). Allowing our audiologists to offer you more power, more variations, and ultimately more freedom.
The Xceed range offers three levels of technology; Xceed S1 premium level, Xceed S2 mid-range level, and Xceed S3 lower level. Below are the main features that are included in the Xceed S1.
OpenSound Navigator
Power aids commonly use directionality to enable you to hear the speech from in front of you. Now, with this new technology, you are provided with 360-degree sound that constantly scans, prioritises and maintains speech from every direction. All this amounts to a more natural and balanced surrounding sound.
Leaving the prominent sound, the focus, and the background audible, but not deflecting. Oticon refers to this as a; “Balanced soundscape across all listening environments”. There is also the option to use OpenSound Booster (in the ON App) when you feel the need for extra support in sound clarity.
OpenSound Optimiser
Customary anti-feedback solutions can lead to discomfort if you have severe to profound hearing loss. This results in the technology being unable to manage feedback. Due to the technology being too slow to respond accordingly, it uses gain reductions to control the hearing aids stability.
OpenSound Optimiser studies the incoming sound at a staggering rate of 56,000 times per second. Thus, successfully averting feedback before it happens and promoting speech consistency. You can fit these power aids with up to 6dB more gain, which gives your brain 20% more speech prompts.
Noise Reduction
The OpenSound Navigator polishes extreme background noise in a 360-degree radius. It is successful even when noise and speech are coming from the same direction. It eradicates unwanted noise between spoken words and can be manipulated to suit your hearing needs in both quiet and noisy environments.
Wireless Connectivity
We know how important accessories can be for power users, and how they can help the signal-noise ratio and make everyday life that little bit easier. We think that Xceed can provide you with all the necessary additions to do just that. These being:
ConnectClip
Using Made for iPhone and other smartphone devices, will enable you to make hands-free phone calls and stream music directly. You can also:
TV Adapter
This streams direct sound from your TV to your hearing aids seamlessly. Enjoy the freedom of sound, at the volume you wish to hear, at up to 45 feet. Your hearing aids can also connect to most audible devices with this beneficial feature.
ON App
Using this handy tool, you can control your hearing aids with your smartphone. Embrace the freedom of connectivity by controlling multiple devices throughout your home. From signalling your smart thermostat to asking to be notified when your battery is low – all at the touch of your fingertips.
If you are wondering whether the Oticon Xceed is right for you, or if you would like more information - call our experts on 0800 567 7621 and they will advise you.
►Click here to view Oticon Xceed S 2 hearing aids
►Click here to view Oticon Xceed S 3 hearing aids
**Please note, there will be an additional surcharge of £125 if we are pairing a single hearing aid with an existing aid bought from another company where we are taking over the aftercare responsibilities and looking after both hearing aids**
Do not spend hundreds of pounds without getting a second opinion from us.
If you are looking at this page then it is likely that an audiologist has suggested that you purchase this particular hearing aid, so is this the best model for you?
In general, any audiologist will always be recommending to you the model that best suits your needs. Here is a useful check list to make sure that is the case.
If in doubt, feel free to give us a call. That's what we're here for.
If you have a significant hearing loss in both ears, you should be wearing two hearing aids. Here are the audiological reasons why:
Localisation. The brain decodes information from both ears and compares and contrasts them. By analysing the miniscule time delays as well as the difference in loudness of each sound reaching the ears, the person is able to accurately locate a sound source. Simply put, if you have better hearing on one side than the other, you can't accurately tell what direction sounds are coming from.
Less amplification required. A phenomena known as “binaural summation” means that the hearing aids can be set at a lower and more natural volume setting than than if you wore only one hearing aid.
Head shadow effect. High frequencies, the part of your hearing that gives clarity and meaning to speech sounds, cannot bend around your head. Only low frequencies can. Therefore if someone is talking on your unaided side you are likely to hear that they are speaking, but be unable to tell what they have said.
Noise reduction. The brain has it’s own built in noise reduction which is only really effective when it is receiving information from both ears. If only one ear is aided, even with the best hearing aid in the world, it will be difficult for you to hear in background noise as your brain is trying to retain all of the sounds (including background noise) rather than filtering it out.
Sound quality. We are designed to hear in stereo. Only hearing from one side sounds a lot less natural to us.
For most people, the main benefit of a rechargeable hearing aid is simple convenience. We are used to plugging in our phones and other devices overnight for them to charge up.
For anybody with poor dexterity or issues with their fingers, having a rechargeable aid makes a huge difference as normal hearing aid batteries are quite small and some people find them fiddly to change.
One downside is that if you forget to charge your hearing aid, then it is a problem that can't be instantly fixed. For most a 30 minute charge will get you at least two or three hours of hearing, but if you are the type of person who is likely to forget to plug them in regularly then you're probably better off with standard batteries.
Rechargeable aids are also a little bit bigger and are only available in behind the ear models.
Finally, just like with a mobile phone, the amount of charge you get on day one is not going to be the same as you get a few years down the line. Be sure to ask what the policy is with the manufacturer warranty when it comes to replacing the battery.
For most people, the answer is yes. But it's never that simple.
The majority of hearing problems affect the high frequencies a lot more than the low ones. Therefore open fitting hearing aids sound a lot more natural and ones that block your ears up can make your own voice sound like you are talking with your head in a bucket. Therefore in-ear aids tend to be less natural.
However the true answer is we can't tell until we have had a look in your ears to assess the size of your ear canal, and until we have tested your hearing to see which frequencies are being affected.
People with wider ear canals tend to have more flexibility, also there are open fitting modular CIC hearing aids now that do not block your ears.
There is also the age old rule to consider, that a hearing aid will not help you if it's sat in the drawer gathering dust. If the only hearing aid you would be happy wearing is one that people can't see, then that's what you should get.
Most people can adapt to any type of hearing aid, as long as they know what to expect. Have an honest conversation with your audiologist as to what your needs are.
Generally speaking, six or more. Unless it's none at all.
The number of channels a hearing aid has is often a simplistic way an audiologist will use to explain why one hearing aid is better than another, but channels are complex and it is really not that straightforward.
Hearing aids amplify sounds of different frequencies by different amounts. Most people have lost more high frequencies than low and therefore need more amplification in the high frequencies. The range of sounds you hear are split into frequency bands or channels and the hearing aids are set to provide the right amount of hearing at each frequency level.
Less than six channels and this cannot be done with much accuracy, so six is the magic number. However, a six channel aid is typically very basic with few other features and is suitable only for hearing a single speaker in a quiet room. The number of channels is not what you should be looking at, it's more the rest of the technology that comes with them.
As a final note, different manufacturers have different approaches. One method is not necessarily better than any other. For example some manufacturers have as many as 64 channels in their top aids. Most tend to have between 17 and 20. One manufacturer has no channels at all.
Hearing aids are easily lost, misplaced or damaged and typically are one of the most expensive personal possessions an individual can own. We offer hearing aid warranty cover for £80 per year per aid. Find out more here
All our audiologists use the very latest technology and provide the full range of tests to accurately measure your hearing for free. Find out about what we offer all our customers here
Hearing Aid UK offers all their customers free home visiting services and home visits for hearing aids - Including hearing tests, fittings, maintenance, check-ups and much more in the comfort of your own home and at your convenience. Find out more information here
Here, at Hearing Aid UK, we are dedicated to offering low hearing aid prices. We achieve this by having no head office and low marketing costs. Our hearing aid prices are amongst the lowest you will find anywhere in the world.
When we refer to a product as 'Latest Launch', we mean it is the latest to be released on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'New', we mean that the product is the newest hearing aid model on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'Superseded', we mean that there is a newer range available which replaces and improves on this product.
When we refer to a product as an 'Older Model', we mean that it is has been superseded by at least two more recent hearing aid ranges.