oticon hearing aids

Oticon company history

In 1904, Hans Demant began importing hearing aids into Denmark – his wife suffered from hearing loss and he was looking for a way to help her and other like her.

After Hans’ death in 1910 his son, William, too over the business – he continued to import hearing aids until the outbreak of the 2nd World War cut off his supply from abroad. William began to make his own instruments and the Oticon TA was the first Danish produced hearing aid – it was released in 1946.

During the 60s and 70s Oticon expanded into a global brand with sister companies in Norway, Holland, USA, UK and Japan among others.

Since then, Oticon have continued to innovate and push hearing technology. Their MultiFocus aid, released in 1991, was the world’s first fully automatic hearing aid. The DigiFocus, Adapto and Delta brands have followed since then.

Models and technology

Nowadays, Oticon offer a wide range of digital hearing aids – as you might expect, these range from the expensive and feature-rich instruments, down to the more basic and cheaper models. Below are the current ranges:

Epoq

The current jewel in Oticon’s crown. The Epoq contains wireless technology that:

• Enables the left and right ear aids to communicate with each other and give you a more realistic sound. Other hearing aids will, even if you are wearing two, work independently of each other.
• Use you mobile phone through your aids via Oticon’s Intelligent Epoq Streamer technology. You do not have to hold your mobile to your ear, you don’t even need to pick it up!
• The Intelligent Epoq Streamer technology also works for MP3 music players such as Apple’s iPod.

Delta

The Delta range use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide you with the best level of speech understanding in all situations. Delta’s AI models the human brain to constantly work at giving you the clearest and most comfortable hearing environment. The Delta also has an inbuilt memory that monitors and records your sound environment and your reaction to it – this enables your hearing aid provider to better adjust the aids to your specific needs.

Synchro and Safran

The Synchro and Safran ranges offer the same Artificial Intelligence capabilities as the Delta to give you optimal speech recognition.

Tego / Tego Pro

The Tego range employs DecisionMaker technology to give you advanced sound processing. Thanks to the DecisionMaker, speech comes through clearly, no matter how busy things get. It knows exactly when to focus on speech and when to cut out unwanted noise. It also eliminates whistling sounds without reducing the overall volume.

Sumo DM

The Sumo DM range are for people with sever or profound hearing loss. Sumo gives you powerful amplification of low-frequency sounds to help you hear people’s voices more clearly.

Go Pro

Go Pro is Oticon’s cheapest digital hearing aid offering. It is cheap and simple but offers great sound quality – probably more suited for people with mild hearing loss.

Prices

This is a rough guide as to the kind of prices you can expect to pay for Oticon products. You may be able to find cheaper prices online or you may prefer to pay slightly more and buy locally from a bricks-and-mortar vendor. Either way, treat these prices as ball-park figures and remember to always try to drive the price down a bit when you are buying – hearing aids are expensive items!

Range	US price	UK price
Epoq	$2800 – $3400	£1700 – £2100
Delta 8000	$2300 – $2749	£1475 – £1820
Delta 6000	$1999 – $2499	£1225 – £1500
Delta 4000	$1799 – $2300	£975 – £1250
Synchro	$2549 – $2900	£1500 – £1700
Safran	$2100 – $2600	£1250 – £1550
Tego	$1649 – $1,949	£950 – £1200
Tego Pro	$1849 – $2300	£1100 – £1500
Sumo DM	$1749 – $2250	£1100 – £1300
Go Pro	$1329 – $1500	£650 – £900