Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX Review

Four-DNN Platform
ACOUSTIC INTELLIGENCE | TELECOIL | LE AUDIO | RECHARGEABLE

ACOUSTIC INTELLIGENCE | TELECOIL | LE AUDIO | RECHARGEABLE

Hearing aids have got demonstrably better at noise. Satisfaction with group conversation has not moved with them — and closing that gap is the entire argument for the Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX.

Signia makes the point themselves, citing MarkeTrak data in which roughly four in five owners are satisfied with their aids overall, while the lowest scores of all go to following conversations in noise and conversations with large groups. Their answer is not another noise reduction setting — it is four neural networks running at once, collectively branded Acoustic Intelligence, separating a voice from the room and enhancing it rather than silencing everything around it. The most ambitious processing story of the current field. It also asks you to take Signia’s word for rather a lot.

My Top 3 Features

Acoustic Intelligence — four neural networks, and no simple division of labour

Four DNNs run continuously: Speech Detection, Own Voice Detection, Noise Analysis and Scene Analysis, trained on 40 million sound samples across 11 languages and six music genres, with the environment scanned 100 times per second.

Most coverage gets the architecture wrong, so it is worth stating correctly: there is no one-to-one mapping between a network and a feature. All four networks jointly steer all four processing technologies. Signia’s own analogy is a brain coordinating a body, and their whitepaper is explicit about it.

Signia reports an SNR improvement of 10.5 dB at a 0 dB input SNR, putting MaX 2 to 3.1 dB ahead of the best-performing competitor they tested — and their whitepaper discloses the setup in full, from the manikin to the speaker angles to the noise levels. That is more than most manufacturers offer and it deserves credit. It remains Signia measuring Signia against unnamed rivals in Signia’s own laboratory.

SoundSmoothing 2.0 — the feature nobody is talking about

This is the sleeper, and for a lot of my patients it will matter more than the headline SNR figure.

Transient sounds — a knife dropped on a plate, a cup set down hard, a door slammed — used to be handled across two broad frequency bands. MaX detects and attenuates them in each of its 48 processing channels, so gain drops only in the narrow band actually carrying the clatter, leaving the voice you were listening to intact.

Signia measures a 12.5 dB reduction in the transient-to-speech intensity ratio against the open ear — 42% to 66% better than the competitors they tested — and around a 30% reduction in localisation error, so sudden sounds are easier to place as well as more comfortable.

Sudden sharp noises are one of the most common complaints I hear, particularly from people who have worn aids for years and cannot face a café. We called Oticon’s version of this a game changer when we reviewed the Oticon Real. Signia now has measured numbers on the same problem.

Own Voice Processing, without the training step

Signia has always handled the wearer’s own voice better than most, and it previously took a calibration routine at the fitting to do it. The Own Voice Detection network now does that automatically. Own-voice complaints are a leading cause of people giving up on hearing aids, and removing a setup step removes something that can be skipped, rushed or done badly.

Key Figures

• 4 neural networks running simultaneously, trained on 40 million sound samples
• 54× processing power, ~50% more efficient than the previous platform
• SNR improvement 10.5 dB at 0 dB input SNR (Signia’s own measurement)
• SoundSmoothing 2.0: 12.5 dB transient reduction across 48 channels
• Up to 30 hours battery · 28 on LE Audio · 22 on Bluetooth Classic
• Telecoil, LE Audio, Bluetooth Classic and Auracast hardware in one device
• 8 colours · lifetime remote adjustments included

Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX held in the hand — Signia publishes no plain packshot

Additional Features

Technology levels, and the usual warning. MaX 7 carries 48 fine-tuning channels, MaX 5 has 36 and MaX 3 has 32, with group-conversation performance stepping down accordingly. The headline research used MaX 7 exclusively, with a substantial gap to the lower tiers. Every device in the current field does some version of this, but it means the brochure numbers belong to the top model only. Ask which level you are being quoted.

eWindScreen 2.0 now attenuates wind across the first 16 processing channels rather than broadly, and fades toward whichever microphone is catching less wind — useful when the wind comes from one side, as it does when you walk or cycle. Signia reports a 74% improvement in the speech-to-wind ratio over their own previous generation, not against other brands, so it cannot be lined up against anyone else’s wind figure.

OneConnect is the connectivity story and it is a good one: Bluetooth Classic, LE Audio, Auracast hardware and a telecoil, in a single device with no variant to choose. A telecoil is increasingly rare, and it is the thing Phonak’s Eon does not have at all. Also here: the new MaX-Fit fitting rationale and lifetime remote adjustments included with purchase.

Battery Life and Chargers

Up to 30 hours without streaming and 22 hours on Bluetooth Classic — ahead of Oticon’s Reveal at 24 hours, behind Phonak’s Eon at a rated 38. A full charge takes around four hours, which is slow, but 30 minutes gives you about six hours if you have been caught out. The portable charger holds four full charges.

Drawbacks

One style, and that is the whole range. The Pure Charge&Go RIC is it — no custom in-the-ear, no BTE, no instant-fit earbud style, no CROS or BiCROS, and no disposable battery option. That is the narrowest range in the current field. If you want something discreet and custom-moulded, this device cannot do it.

Auracast is not finished. The hardware is there, but full functionality is promised in a future firmware update. If Auracast is a reason you are buying, ReSound’s Sensia has it working now — a material difference rather than a technicality.

No independent laboratory has tested MaX. HearingTracker and HearAdvisor have both said they are evaluating it; nothing is published. For contrast, Phonak’s Eon has been fully lab-tested by HearAdvisor. Signia’s whitepaper is more transparent about its method than most manufacturers manage, but transparency about your own testing is not the same as somebody else checking. HearingTracker’s reviewer put the broader caution well: four DNNs may not be inherently better than one.

A processing signature worth trialling for. The same reviewer observed that MaX “slightly raised the treble in voices when things got louder”, describing it as a common but not universally preferred characteristic of this kind of processing. This is subtle and subjective, not a fault — brighter voices read as clearer to plenty of people, and many wearers will never notice it at all.

The IP rating is not published, unusual when every competitor here is IP68, and tinnitus support is unconfirmed in Signia’s materials. Ask before you commit if either matters to you.

And the caveat that applies to everyone. Signia’s headline measurements were made with closed coupling eartips and feedback cancellation switched off. Phonak and ReSound did the same in their own studies — the method requires it. The numbers are real, but most people are fitted with open or vented domes and feedback management running, so what you experience will be narrower than what any brand publishes.

How It Compares

speech and the surrounding room rather than separating one from the other, with focus width set at the fitting.

and the only device of these four with independent lab data. No telecoil, though.

Auracast working today.

measurements by roughly a decibel of SNR.

• Oticon Reveal — full assessment — aims for a fitted balance between
• Phonak Audéo Eon Sphere — the aggressive noise reducer, longest battery, strongest wind handling,
• ReSound Sensia 9 — uses direction rather than separation to decide which voice matters, and has
• Signia Pure Charge&Go IX — the previous generation. MaX is ahead of it on Signia’s own

Where MaX genuinely leads: a built-in telecoil, 30 hours of battery, Own Voice Processing with no fitting calibration, and lifetime remote adjustments included.

Who It’s For

You are the one who stopped going to the Thursday lunch. Not because you cannot hear — one to one you are fine — but because a table of six in a hard-surfaced room turns into noise, and you have spent two years nodding at things you did not catch. You want the voices separated out of that, and you use a loop at church or in the hall. MaX is built precisely for that, and the transient handling will quietly improve your café experience as much as the headline processing does.

Pure Charge&Go MaX worn, shown from the side

If you have tried hearing aids before and abandoned them because they sounded processed, tinny or artificial, trial this one carefully and say so early — it is worth understanding what the Oticon Reveal does differently here before you decide. If you want a discreet custom style, or a disposable battery, MaX cannot offer either. We publish current hearing aid prices, and you can compare the field across our hearing aid reviews.

Verdict

Signia has gone further than anyone on processing ambition, and the whitepaper behind it is more open about its methods than most of the industry bothers to be. If your problem is specifically the noisy group table, the architecture is aimed directly at you, and SoundSmoothing 2.0 deserves more attention than it is getting. The telecoil and the battery are real practical advantages.

Two things to keep in mind. Every performance figure is Signia’s own, with no independent testing published yet, and this is a single-style range — so if you need something custom-moulded or non-rechargeable, the decision is made for you. No manufacturer pays for our recommendations, so if a trial tells us MaX is not your device, that is what you will hear from us — and whatever you are fitted with, we prove it with real ear measurement rather than assuming it.

Book a Hearing Assessment

Come in today for a hearing assessment to see whether the Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX 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 Signia Pure Charge&Go MaX 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.