ReSound Sensia 9 microRIE Review

Intelligent Focus
4-MIC BEAMFORMING | LE AUDIO | AURACAST | IP68

4-MIC BEAMFORMING | LE AUDIO | AURACAST | IP68

Every manufacturer now runs a neural network that finds speech and lifts it out of noise, and they have all got good at it. The question that actually decides whether you enjoy the evening is the one nobody had a clean answer to: when five people are talking, which voice did you want? The ReSound Sensia answers it with direction.

It is refreshingly unfussy. Four microphones work binaurally as a single forward-facing beam, and you point it by turning your head — the thing you were going to do anyway. It works, and ReSound has data showing it works. What matters clinically is what happens to the voices you are not facing.

My Top 3 Features

Intelligent Focus — four microphones and your own head

Two microphones per aid, working across both ears as one beam aimed at whoever is in front of you. ReSound’s own description of how to use it is the clearest statement of design intent I have read from a manufacturer: “hear what you want, simply by turning your head.”

The study behind it is a reasonable piece of work — 24 experienced premium hearing aid wearers, median age 75, single-blind and counterbalanced, each wearing Sensia and a rival premium device in a 16-speaker array with cafeteria noise at 70 dBA. Talkers sat in front, to the side and behind, and participants named the most audible one.

With all three talkers at equal levels, the person in front was judged most audible 54% of the time on Sensia, against 38% on the competitor. When the front talker was made softer than the competing voices, Sensia held the front at 31% where the competitor managed 4%. A clear win — and it is ReSound’s own research, so read it as the manufacturer making its best case rather than as independent testing.

ReSound’s own icon for the four-microphone forward-facing beam

The neural network knows when to switch off

This is the quietly clever bit and it deserves more attention than it gets. Sensia’s DNN denoising is deliberately bypassed for non-speech noise, which is handed to conventional Noise Tracker II processing instead.

The reasoning is sound: a network trained on speech produces odd artefacts when asked to process sounds it was never trained on. Rather than run it everywhere and hope, ReSound routes around it. Restraint rarely makes a press release, but it is often what you actually hear.

Auracast, working today

Not “Auracast-ready”, not promised in a firmware update — functional. Sensia carries Bluetooth LE Audio, works with iPhone and iPad through MFi and with Android through ASHA, and handles hands-free calling on iPhone 11 and later.

This matters more each year. Where a theatre, airport gate, church or lecture hall fits an Auracast transmitter, the sound goes straight to your aids: no neckloop, no borrowed receiver from the front desk. ReSound reports 87% of users preferring Auracast streaming to a teleloop. The exception is the CIC, which is non-wireless and does none of this.

Key Figures

• 4 microphones working binaurally as one forward-facing beam
• Front talker judged most audible 54% of the time vs 38% for a rival premium device

(ReSound’s own study, N=24)

premium rival tested (ReSound)

• 91% environment classification accuracy · 88% greater combined accuracy than the nearest
• 24 hours typical battery · ~30 hours maximum · ~20 hours at 50% streaming
• 17 adjustment bands · 4 fully flexible programs
• IP68 with protective nanocoating · 10 colours
• Styles: microRIE, zinc-air RIE, ITE, ITC, CIC, plus CROS and BiCROS
• Inductive charging — the aids simply drop in, no connectors to line up

ReSound Sensia 9 microRIE showing receiver wire and charging contacts

Additional Features

Read this before you agree to a technology level. It is the most important thing in this review and it is barely reported anywhere.

Intelligent Focus — the four-microphone-plus-DNN combination the entire study above is about — exists only on the rechargeable microRIE, at levels 9 and 7. In practice:

to remember to switch to it, in the restaurant, mid-conversation.

• Sensia 9 — the AI works automatically. This is the device in the marketing.
• Sensia 7 — you get the DNN, but only in a manually selected hearing-in-noise program. You have
• Sensia 5 and 4 — limited.
• Any custom style — ITE, ITC, CIC — no DNN processing at all.

That last point is the sharpest thing here. The in-the-ear styles are the ones many of my older clients specifically ask for, and they are the ones the headline technology does not reach. If you have been shown the AI marketing and then quoted a discreet custom Sensia, those are two different products. Ask the question directly.

Elsewhere: the ReSound Smart 3D app covers personalisation, remote adjustments, Auracast broadcast location and Check My Fit, and there is a full accessory range — Multi Mic+, Micro Mic, TV Streamer 2 and Phone Clip+. Tinnitus masking sits in a separate Relief app, which is a small irritation.

Battery Life and Chargers

24 hours typical, around 30 at maximum, and roughly 20 hours if you stream half the day. That is mid-field — Phonak’s Eon is rated at up to 38 hours and Signia’s MaX at 30 — and Soundly notes the battery as slightly shorter than others on the market. For most wearers 20 hours is still a full day, but if you stream from breakfast to bedtime it is worth discussing. The charger is inductive: the aids drop into the well with no connectors to align, which is genuinely easier with arthritic hands or limited vision.

Drawbacks

The technology levels, again, because it is that important. The neural network is confined to the rechargeable microRIE, automated only at Sensia 9, and entirely absent from every custom style.

No independent laboratory has tested Sensia. HearingTracker says results will be added once their testing is complete. Every performance figure above is ReSound’s. For contrast, Phonak’s Eon has been fully lab-tested by HearAdvisor — one of these devices has outside verification and this one does not, yet.

If you already wear a Vivia 9, think carefully. Sensia shares the same chipset and neural network as Vivia; this is a features-and-classification generation, not new silicon. HearingTracker’s advice, which we would echo, is to wait for independent results before concluding the upgrade justifies itself. The CIC, meanwhile, is non-wireless — no streaming, no Auracast, no app control.

And the study conditions were favourable. ReSound’s participants were fitted with closed ear tips, chosen deliberately to maximise the benefit of the signal processing. Signia and Phonak did the same in their own studies; the methods require it. Most people are fitted with open or vented domes and feedback management running, so real-world margins are narrower than any brand’s published figures. The numbers are honest. The conditions are not yours.

How It Compares

assuming you will turn your head, and keeps more of the room audible around the conversation.

independent lab data of the four.

and includes a telecoil.

• our Oticon Reveal review — sets focus width at the fitting rather than
• Phonak Audéo Eon Sphere — the aggressive noise reducer, with the longest battery and the only
• Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX — separates and enhances the voice rather than steering a beam at it,
• ReSound Vivia — same chipset and neural network.

Where Sensia genuinely leads: Auracast that works now, and the widest style range of the four, including custom and CROS/BiCROS fittings the others do not offer.

Who It’s For

You have lunch with the same three friends every fortnight and you sit opposite them. You are in meetings where you can see who is speaking. You have a theatre subscription, you fly a few times a year, and you are tired of asking at the desk for a receiver that may or may not be charged. You want to look at the person you are listening to — and you can. For you, Sensia 9 is an excellent, sensible device, and the Auracast support is ahead of the field.

If your listening life does not work that way, be honest about it. If you spend hours as a passenger in a car, walk side by side with your partner, sit at long family tables where the talker is at your shoulder, or have restricted neck movement or vision, the beam is pointing away from the person you want. That is worth weighing against Oticon’s Reveal, and how it handles conversations you can’t face. And if you want a discreet custom style, know that the AI does not come with it. You can compare the field across our hearing aid reviews and the brands we fit.

Verdict

ReSound has taken a clear position: use direction as the tie-breaker, align the technology with what people naturally do, and don’t ask a speech network to process sounds it was not built for. It is coherent engineering, and for someone who can face their conversation partner it works very well. Auracast working properly today rather than in a future update is a real advantage.

Two things to keep in mind. The technology levels matter more here than with any other device in the current field — a custom Sensia is not a smaller Sensia 9, it is a different product. And every number so far is ReSound’s own. We stock every major brand and take no manufacturer incentives, which is why we are comfortable telling you that a Sensia 7 is not simply a cheaper Sensia 9. Whichever device you end up in, we verify the fitting with real ear measurement rather than assuming it.

Book a Hearing Assessment

Come in today for a hearing assessment to see whether the ReSound Sensia is the best option, or whether there is something else which suits you better. Our audiologists are Master’s qualified, we handle all the DVA and HSP paperwork, and most clients notice a meaningful difference within the first week. Book a complimentary assessment at Ear and Hearing Australia: 1300 761 667 or earandhearing.com.au.

Review by Mark Truong, Clinical Audiologist at Ear and Hearing Australia

Book a hearing assessment

Come in for a hearing assessment to see whether the ReSound Sensia suits you, or whether something else does. Our audiologists are Master’s qualified, we handle all the DVA and HSP paperwork, and we verify every fitting with real ear measurement. Call 1300 761 667.