Here in this article, you will learn about the different hearing aids from Signia and what distinguishes them from another. They do not only look different but also run different software depending on the release cycle of new Signia hearing aids. Currently, you can buy Signia hearing aids based on the current platforms. The list starts with the older platforms and ends with the newest one.
- NX (Natural Experience)
- X (Xperience)
- AX (Augmented Experience)
Having a hearing aid based on a newer platform means the Signia hearing aids can perform faster due to a newer computer chip inside and have different features on board. First of all, we will have a closer look at the different models with the good and bad about them.
The list of different models starts with the behind-the-ear hearing aids from Signia and ends with the in-the-ear- hearing aids. Here you will get a short overview of each of the hearing aids from Signia. If you want to go deeper into the specs and my personal experience with the hearing aids you can use the links within each description.
One important piece of information for you is your experience with each hearing aid can be vastly different from another person’s. Every person has a unique hearing loss and requirements for hearing aids. The best way to find the right hearing aid is not by reading and comparing the features but actually testing them. Make an appointment with your local audiologist and gather your own experience with the Signia hearing aids.
Differences Explained in Signia Hearing Aid Models
Styletto
The Styletto hearing aids from Signia are only available with rechargeable batteries. They also come with a portable battery pack which will give you the ability to fully charge your hearing aids up to three times when you are on the go. You can use a Qi charging pad to charge the case of the Styletto hearing aids or a USC C cable.
With a full charge, you can expect 16 hours of usage. When you like to stream a lot the battery will drain faster and you might get a few hours less out of the hearing aids. When you like to stream go for the Pure charge and go, model, as they will give you 19 hours of usage with one charge. Alternatively, you would have to use your charging case on the go for 30 minutes to get 6 hours of usage out of the hearing aids.
The size of the case is quite small you can take it with you easily. When you use silicone domes they fit all in the case of the Stylettos. But when you need custom earmolds and your ears are a bit bigger or when you have a bigger shape of a custom earmold it will not fit in the case as you can see in the picture below.
Speaking of no so much space the Styletto hearing aids are very slim compared to a lot of other hearing aids. This is why they oftentimes make a good fit behind the ears when the space between the head and the ears is quite small.
The Signia Styletto is missing buttons. You can adjust the volume and sound balance easily in the app. But when you do not want to take out your smartphone every time you want to make it one-click louder you could also have a closer look at the Pure charge&go model.
Motion Charge&Go
Those hearing aids are also available in three sizes. The more severe your hearing loss is the bigger the matching device will be. The most powerful option comes with a runtime of up to 61 hours with a single charge. With this behind the ear hearing aid, the body of the device is connected to a tube with your custom earmold.
Compared to the Pure model where the loudspeaker sits in the ear canal the loudspeaker sits behind your ear with the Motion Charge&Go. This is why the device behind your ear gets bigger when more powerful options are needed. With the model Pure the loudspeaker in your ear gets changed and the device behind your ear stays the same.
The loudspeaker and the device behind your ear are connected with a small cable. In contrast, the Motion charge&go comes with a tube between the earmold and the device behind your ear. You may ask where the difference is in sound between them?
In most cases when the hearing loss is severe the loudspeaker in the ear canal provides a little more power in the higher frequency spectrum compared to the models with a tube which are more powerful in the mid frequencies.
Here in the picture above you can see the model motion charge and go with a slim tube. While this may look better compared to a thicker tube most people will lose the needed amplification when it comes to the higher-pitched sounds. This oftentimes is a bad tradeoff.
Pure
The model Pure hearing aids from Signia can be powered with replaceable batteries or as a rechargeable which is called charge and go. Here you have more options when it comes to the chargers compared to the Styletto hearing aids. You can have stationary chargers that need to be plugged into a power outlet and portable ones as well.
Some are designed open and others encase your hearing aids fully because they have UVC cleaning and a drying technology on board to combat one of the biggest reasons for a hearing aid not working well. The pure hearing aids are small even as a rechargeable version.
This means the receiver stays directly in your ear canal. Oftentimes moisture can accumulate when you use your hearing aids. A charging case with drying technology will make your hearing aids run longer without the hassle to get a new receiver.
When the model Pure hearing aids were fully charged you get 19 hours of usage out of them. This includes 5 hours of streaming from your mobile phone or with StreamLine Connect which transfers the audio from your TV directly into your ears.
Prompt
When the wearer of hearing aids is looking for a more basic and robust option this behind-the-ear hearing aid is a good option. The body of the hearing aid is connected with a tube to a custom earmold. Depending on how much power is needed this model is available in three different sizes. The more power is needed the bigger the device gets.
The S variant comes in the smallest size and has only one push bosh button for controlling the hearing aid. In contrast, the medium-sized Prompt P and bigger SP model come with a push-button and a rocker switch.
Although these hearing aids are less price intense they also can be controlled with the Signia app. This works out with a low-volume high-pitched sound. And it works really well.
Active
When other in the ear hearing aids practically disappear in the ear the active and active pro from Signia are a visible statement. They look more like modern hearables than normal hearing aids. They have a very unique design and are also designed to be fitted directly in the shop.
Here the same instant fit domes can use available for smaller and big ears which are also available for hearing aids from Signia with the loudspeaker in the ear and the other instant for hearing aid Silk. The Active and active pro hearing aids have both Bluetooth onboard and a more sophisticated double microphone system on board compared to the Silk hearing aids which only have one.
This microphone setup with the software enables wearers to hear voices clearly from any direction, even in noise. You can see this microphone setup basically in all behind-the-ear hearing aids from Signia as well as with the big Insio in-the-ear models. Here you have a rechargeable battery built which provides up to 26 hours of listening or 23 hours of listening with 2 hours of streaming.
Intuis
The Intuis RIC hearing aid is a less price intense model which looks very similar to the Pure model. It comes with fewer options. It has no Bluetooth connectivity but can be controlled via a mobile app. The Intuis model from Signia shares the loudspeakers that get placed in your ear with the Pure and Styletto hearing aids in the older X Platform.
Here in the picture above the Intuis RIC hearing aid is shown with an optional custom earmold. Alternatively, a smaller silicone dome can be used instead.
Silk
The Silk model from Signia is one of the smallest in-the-ear hearing aids available on the market. You can try it directly in the shop of your hearing care specialist without the need for a custom mold. This could be still an option but in most cases, a custom earmold will make the Silk hearing aid more visible in the ear canal while with a standard silicone dome it is in a lot of cases completely invisible.
It comes in two color options brown and black and the actual body of the hearing aid is colored blue or red which makes it very easy to see which hearing aid goes in the left and which one goes in the right ear.
This hearing aid is also very small because of the fewer hardware components used. I wrote an in-depth article on the Silk here if you are interested to learn more about it. Basically, with this hearing aid, you have one microphone instead of two compared to most other hearing aids listed here and you have no Bluetooth with the Silk.
You can still control it with the app from Signia which works well but other hearing aids with two microphones will provide you with the ability to cut through noise easier with directional microphones. When you use two of them and at least the technology level 3X you will also get a directional microphone but it will deliver less performance compared to the behind-the-ear hearing aids.
The way you hear your voice is oftentimes heavily influenced by the shape of the body of your hearing aids. Depending on where the hearing aid touches your ear canal your voice can be perceived louder or less natural. The Silk is a great hearing aid but when you want more options like the possibility with more microphones and or Bluetooth compatibility you should have a closer look at the Insio model.
Insio (ITC, ITE, IIC, CIC)
The Insio in-the-ear model from Signia is available in various shapes. It is always individually built for the wearer. An earmold impression is needed in order to produce this hearing aid. Depending on the shape and the size of the ear canal of the wearer and the built-in components this hearing aid can look very small or quite big.
With this hearing aid, everything is custom. Different loudspeakers can be built-in optimized for individual hearing loss. An optional button can be built in as well as optional Bluetooth compatibility. Currently, when it comes to in-the-ear hearing aids as soon as Bluetooth is built-in you will receive a bigger device.
Also, a bigger battery is needed to power the more power demanding components. This custom hearing aid only comes with replaceable batteries with the size 312 or 10. An option for a rechargeable battery is not available. If a rechargeable battery matters to you should have a closer look at the Active model from Signia.
Which Signia hearing aid Is the Right Hearing Aid for You?
As you can see there are a lot of hearing aids offered by Signia. How you perceive sound is not only dependent on the chosen hearing aid but also on your hearing loss and the earmold or dome which sits in your ear. Generally speaking, most people wish to wear an in-the-ear hearing aid that is practically not visible. But approximately 50% of the people who tried such an instant fit in the ear hearing aid actually like the feel of having their ears less clogged up.
With a more closed-ear the features of the Signia hearing aids work better. Generally speaking the better the Technology level the more features a hearing aid has and the more powerful they are. Signia sorts the technology levels from one to seven. The higher the number the more features the hearing aids have and the more subtle the hearing aids can react o noise.
In other words the higher the number the higher the price will be. But a higher price doe not automatically makes a better hearing aid. Some people do not benefit much from some features while others are very happy with them. The spectrum of experiences is very bright when it comes to hearing aids. Signia hearing aids are extremely capable devices. But you will only find out if they are right for you by gaining experience with those devices in your daily routine.
No hearing aid is perfect. When you gain experience with them you will realize what you like and what you definitely do not in a trial period. So in order to find out which Signia hearing aid is best for you, actually gain the experience and hear it for yourself that makes a difference to you.
Here in the picture below you can see an example of the differences in the tech level. The list of features listed shows the tech levels for the Pure Charge&go hearing aids from Signia. They only have three different levels. Other models have only two like the active hearing aids or seven levels.
| Pure C & G AX | Features | 7AX | 5AX | 3AX |
| Dynamic Soundscape Processing 2.0 | highest feature performance | medium feature performance | low feature performance |
| Augmented Focus | yes | yes | yes |
| Acoustic Sensor | yes | yes | yes |
| Motion Sensor | yes | yes | yes |
| OVP (Own Voice Processing) | yes | yes | yes |
| Sound Clarity | highest feature performance | medium feature performance | low feature performance |
| Signal processing (channels) / Gain&MPO (handles) | 48 / 20 | 32 / 16 | 24 / 12 |
| Hearing programs | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Extended bandwidth | yes | no | no |
| EchoShield | yes | no | no |
| Spatial SpeechFocus | yes | yes | no |
In a lot of cases, the hearing care professional can turn on or off a feature or even balance it to your liking. With the professional fitting software, it is fairly easy to switch between the tech levels. This makes comparing the tech levels more accessible to the wearer.
As far as my experience goes with Signia hearing aids the features are great but they are also limited. That is the case with every manufacturer. For example, let us talk about the spatial speech focus you can learn about in this video below.
This feature focuses the microphones more on the loudest speaker. Here in the video, this works great but when you are in a very crowded place there will be this one person talking louder than everybody else in the room. Then the hearing aids will focus on that person. But is this person your conversational partner? The feature does not know because it is only detecting patterns that are similar to speech.
Speaking of speech your own voice can be detected by most of Signia’s behind-the-ear hearing aids. Therefore the professional needs to train the hearing aids in the fitting software so your individual voice can get recognized. The benefits are:
- Your own voice sounds more natural to you
- You understand other people better when someone talks to you while you talk.
Hearing aids generally focus the speaker with the loudest voice. You are the closest to the microphones of your own hearing aids. This means when someone interrupts you and you say something simultaneously chances are high you can not understand the person talking to you. This is why it is so important to train the Signia hearing aids to recognize the voice of the wearer so the own voice will not get in the way of understanding the conversation.
Your hearing care professional can only tell after he did the measurements what type of hearing aid will work best for you and why.
