ReSound One Hearing Aids

ReSound One is GN Hearing’s latest flagship hearing aid. One shares many hardware and software features with the popular LiNX Quattro (released in 2018), and uses the same smartphone app (ReSound Smart 3D™) as previous generations of LiNX hearing aids. One appears to signal the end of line for the long-running LiNX series, which all started with the world's first Made-For-iPhone hearing aid back in 2013.

The LiNX series has evolved significantly over the years, gradually improving on connectivity, feedback suppression, noise cancellation, directional sound processing, speech enhancement, and smartphone app functionality. One inherits a very strong foundation from LiNX, and represents a radically new generation of hearing aids for ReSound, with the introduction of "Microphone & Receiver-In-Ear (M&RIE)", a pioneering technology that places a microphone in the ear to improve sound quality, localization, and wind noise. ReSound is also introducing binaural beamforming directionality ("Ultra Focus") in One. 

Key Features

• Made-For-iPhone (MFi)

• Android streaming via ASHA

• Hands-free calling via the Phone Clip+

• Smartphone app control

• Remote programming support

• Microphone in ear (New)

• Beamforming directionality (New)

• IP68 Rating (New)

New C6 Chip Platform

One runs on the brand new "C6 Chip Platform", which is ReSounds fastest and most efficient to date. The C6 platform delivers 50% more processing power and 220% more memory when compared to LiNX Quattro's platform, and ReSound claims this enables "sound with greater depth and direction without compromising battery life". 

Microphone & Receiver-In-Ear ("M&RIE")

One of the big problems with behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids is that the microphones are placed on top of the ear, rather than in the ear, where sound is typically picked up by the eardrum. Traditional BTE microphones miss out on the unique amplification provided by our unique ears (pinnas and ear canals, etc), which can introduce issues with sound quality and sound localization. To help overcome these issues, and restore more natural sound, One places a microphone inside the ear canal, to pick up sound that includes the unique amplification provided by our unique ears. 

ReSound claims that M&RIE improves sound localization by about 15% when compared to omnidirectional BTE microphones, and about 10% when compared to hearing aids that provide pinna compensation (based on the resonance of an average ear, not your unique ear). They also claim that users more consistently prefer the sound quality of M&RIE vs pinna compensation, and a 14-19dB improvement in wind noise reduction when compared to omnidirectional mics, with greater improvements achieved in less windy settings.

The best part about M&RIE is the inclusion of both in-the-ear and over-the-ear microphones, which provide directional hearing benefits:

Microphones on the Over-The-Ear device mean that M&RIE can be combined with directional technology when additional boost in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is desirable. M&RIE allows users full benefit of binaural processing by the brain. When the spatially encoded information is presented to the brain in the format it expects, the benefits include better SNR, better estimation of direction of arrival of sound, better depth and distance perception, and synergy between the visual and auditory systems. - Source

Ultra Focus and All Access Directionality

The other brand new feature in One is binaural beamforming directionality, which uses microphones from both hearing aids to create a hyperdirectional microphone array. This is thanks to the new C6 platform that enables ear-to-ear wireless streaming between hearing aids. ReSound states that All Access Directionality "uses a new binaural connection to create a stronger, more focused beam for sounds in front of the listener. Compared to traditional directionality it provides up to 2 dB better signal-to-noise ratio".