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In this article, I'll take a look at the Signia Active Pro hearing aid. Signia already has a proven track record in the field of hearing aid technology. This is reflected in their recent hearing aid models and features, like the Styletto, the Augmented Experience platform, and this model, the Signia Active Pro. The company hopes that by making hearing aids look more like conventional earphones, the Active Pro will help to erase the stigma associated with hearing loss.
In this article, I'll take a look at the Signia Active Pro hearing aid.
Signia is a relatively new company founded when Siemens' renowned hearing aid division was acquired by a parent group called Sivantos. It, however, maintains the original company's excellent engineering standards - Signia intends to keep this legacy of providing world-class hearing technology to those who need it.
Signia already has a proven track record in the field of hearing aid technology. This is reflected in their recent hearing aid models and features, like the Styletto, the Augmented Experience platform, and this model, the Signia Active Pro.
The company hopes that by making hearing aids look more like conventional earphones, the Active Pro will help to erase the stigma associated with hearing loss.
The Active Pro is intended for people who have mild to moderate hearing loss.
In-ear design: The gadget looks and works like an earbud, attracting those who might not normally wear hearing aids. Overall, it's a small size that's comfortable to wear and stays in the ear easily. The Active Pro is available in three colors: black, white, and gold.
Button-less design: There are no controls on the device itself - the app is where all of the adjustments are made. You can order a clip if you don't use the app or your smartphone very often. This clip includes volume controls, program selection, and a remote microphone.
Directional microphones: These help reduce background noise and focus on the voice sounds in front of you.
Dynamic Soundscape Processing: This technology improves sound and speech clarity in any situation, even when you're in motion. In a variety of sound environments, the directional microphones and Dynamic Soundscape Processing give superb sound quality.
Made For iPhone: The Signia Active Pro was designed to work with Apple products like the iPhone and iPad, accepting phone calls and audio streaming directly from an Apple device. If you have an Android phone, you can still use the Signia App, but you'll need an accessory to attach to your shirt, such as a clip. And using that clip, you could stream phone calls and audio from an Android phone to your Signia Active Pro hearing aids.
Lithium-ion rechargeable battery: With the Active Pro, you won't have to worry about forgetting to charge your gadgets amid the day and losing your hearing capabilities. The hearing aids can be used for up to 18 hours on a full charge, including around five hours of audio streaming. Signia also offers a carry case that doubles as a charging station. The case can accommodate three additional charges, ideal for those who might run out of power while on the road.
The app is a joy to use and includes the following features:
Control over your device: This software allows you access to several hearing aid controls, allowing you to adjust your hearing depending on the situation. This is an essential feature since there is no way to make these changes on the hearing aid itself.
Signia Assistant: This function uses artificial intelligence to continuously improve the device's performance by learning the wearer's particular preferences in real-time, resulting in a very personalized hearing experience.
Remote fine-turning: Signia TeleCare is a technology that allows your audiologist to make adjustments to your hearing aids from their clinic, and you can activate those changes on your hearing aids quickly with a push of a button on the app.
Mask mode: When someone speaks while wearing a mask, their voice can become distorted. This feature improves the intelligibility of the speech of those wearing masks around you.
With these hearing aids, there's plenty to like. Active Pro devices are smaller than other types of hearable consumer electronic Bluetooth devices. Making them much more suitable for those who are put off by Behind-the-ear hearing aids.
You also don't get many in-ear devices like this, which can boast a long battery life on rechargeable batteries.
They feature a mask-friendly design that is well-suited to the demands of a global pandemic. The Active Pro does not interfere with masks because it is not a behind-the-ear design, making the hearing aids considerably easier to put on and take off.
However, there are a few drawbacks to consider.
With these hearing aids, I went for a run. Accepting a phone call, changing the song I was listening to, or changing the program to hear my surroundings better would have been amazing to be able to achieve while I was working up a sweat. Sadly, all of those changes would have to come through the phone's app, and it's not easy to run while using a smartphone! This situation highlights the limits of an app-only control system.
Plus, the quality of Bluetooth streaming isn't as rich as that of standalone Bluetooth earphones. Finally, the Signia Active Pro is only for mild to moderate hearing loss, so those with severe hearing loss will miss out.
Overall, the Signia Active Pro is a great hearing aid that goes a long way toward de-stigmatizing hearing aids and normalizing their use among newer generations of hearing aid users.
The Signia Active Pro hearing aids are modern hearing aids with excellent sound quality that look a lot like a Bluetooth ear piece. In this detailed review video, I will cover all of the features of the Signia Active Pro the five pros, the features that are outstanding, and then a few cons, some features that you must know before considering buying these. Welcome to HearWeb.
Hello. My name is Dr. Ben Thompson. I'm one of the audiologists with HearWeb. Our mission and our YouTube channel is designed to give detailed reviews of different hearing technology from the premium top level hearing aids down to the entry level hearables and online devices that can help hearing. Having the right guidance from a professional is hopefully going to make the difference so that you pick the right device and that works for you for many years to come. Please subscribe to this YouTube channel to learn more about our review videos and hopefully help you with that decision.
Now it's time to get into the features of the Signia Active Pro hearing aids. The size of the devices are small. They are sleek. They fit in the ear and nice and deeply in the ear because they come with that rubber tip, the sleeve that goes on the end of the hearing aid, and you select the different sleeve size, one that fits your ear. The process for me was very simple. I chose the medium-size. I put it in my ear, and instantly, it fit well. I'm moving my mouth up and down. I'm shaking my head up and down, side to side and the Active Pro devices are still staying in both of my ears. I tested this out. Overall, the size is small, feels comfortable and it stays in the ear. So that's a great design. As you can see here, I'm wearing the silver and black color. There are other color options. There is a solid black, there is a white and there is a gold. The Active Pro are designed for individuals who have a mild to moderate degree of hearing loss. That means if you get a hearing test from an audiologist and they tell you that you have a severe hearing loss in any pitch, any frequency, then you should not get these hearing aids because there are other devices that can better serve you and give you better sound quality, so mild to moderate hearing losses only. The smartphone app for the Signia Pro hearing aids is called the Signia App. I used it myself. Overall, it's an excellent app, gives you access to the different hearing aid control so you can change the listening based on the environment. The app includes tinnitus sound therapy features and Signia TeleCare which is a system that allows your audiologist from their clinic to send some changes to your hearing aids, and instantly with a press of the button in the app, you can activate those changes on your hearing aids. This is called remote fine tuning and the Signia Active Pro hearing aids do have that feature through the Signia App. The last great feature of this app is a button you can press that is called Mask Mode. In these times of COVID-19, of coronavirus, people are constantly wearing masks and it was already hard to hear them if you had a hearing loss but now with a mask, it makes it even harder. And everyone all the time is wearing a mask so it makes sense to have a quick feature that you can press from your smartphone to activate something called Mask Mode. That gives an extra boost to speech clarity. When someone speaks through the mask, the clarity of their speech can be muffled. So in that case, you can press this button and it gives a boost to the treble sounds. And then with the amplification change, you can hear that voice more clearly.
You can see the device sitting in my ear and you may be thinking, are there any buttons? There are no buttons. There are no controls on the device itself. All of the changes come through the app. So if I touch this, if I press this, nothing happens. If you're someone who doesn't use the app or a smartphone too much, you can order what is called a clip. And this would have some adjustments to volume, programs and a remote microphone feature. In terms of Bluetooth streaming and these devices are looking a lot like popular Bluetooth consumer electronics. The Signia Active Pro has a made for iPhone feature. So that means it does take phone calls and audio streaming directly from an iPhone. If you have an Android phone, you can still use the Signia App but you will need an accessory, a clip, that you would put on your shirt or on your body. And that clip would allow you to stream phone calls and stream audio from an Android phone to the Signia Active Pro hearing aids. A great thing about modern hearing aids is that they are rechargeable. No more having to mess with small hearing aid batteries. This is the case that the hearing aid sit in, and you can plug this into the wall. This case is typically charging the hearing aids overnight when you're not using them, and then during the day you can wear them all day. A full charge would deliver up to 18 hours of using the hearing aids. That includes about five hours of streaming audio. If you're someone who doesn't stream audio, the devices can last 21 hours on a single charge. This is a big differentiator now when we're thinking about comparing the Active Pro, which are designed primarily for hearing loss, to other kinds of Bluetooth devices that are designed primarily for audio or phone call streaming. Being able to wear these throughout the whole day without needing to recharge them does make them similar to hearing aids. And if you're someone who has a hearing loss, who is active, then you will want to wear hearing aids all hours of the day or at least have the option to.
With the Active Pro you won't have to worry about taking them out and losing your hearing ability because you need to charge the devices in the middle of the day. So are the Active Pro more of a hearing aid or more of a Bluetooth device? And I'm a doctor of audiology so I have a pretty good sense of how this stuff works. My take on this is that these devices are primarily hearing aids and they're excellent hearing aids. They have great sound quality. That's what hearing aid companies do very well. The audio streaming of phone calls and music, unfortunately, with hearing aids, it's not as excellent as it would sound through other types of Bluetooth headphones. And that's mainly a hardware issue that hearing aids are typically small, and these devices are small. They do not have a big, strong speaker that's laying in the ear. So for these devices and other premium hearing aids, the audio streaming and the phone call streaming quality, it's okay, not as full or as clear as you may hear if you're just putting in earbuds into your ears straight into your phone. We're almost done with this video of this HearWeb detailed hearing aid review. Now let's cover the pros and the cons. There are five pros. So let's start with number five. The Active Pro hearing aids are coming from Signia, which is one of the companies that is known for having excellent sound quality. And the devices have directional microphones, so automatically they're helping you reduce background noise behind you and try to focus on the speech sounds that are in front of you. This can have a functional impact on your speech understanding. So that's great and that's pro number five. Pro number four is that these hearing aids have a rechargeable system that lasts all day. And for in-ear devices, that's relatively hard to find. Most Bluetooth technology out there does not last all day on a single charge. If we're talking about major consumer electronics that you put in your ears to listen to music and phone calls like the Apple AirPods, for example, after a number of hours, those need to be recharged. So it wouldn't work to use them all day as hearing aids. The Active Pro, however, you can charge them overnight, put them in your ears and wear them all day just like hearing aids. So that's great. Pro number three is that the Active Pro devices are smaller than other types of hearable consumer electronic Bluetooth devices. So that makes them more discreet, it makes them lighter in the ear, makes them comfortable when they're in your ear. That's a great thing.
If you're getting these Active Pro hearing aids, you are only able to get them through an audiology clinic. And an audiologist is a doctor who helps with the accurate hearing test and the validation verification that the hearing aid is working for you. There are specific equipment that can verify the hearing aid settings are matching your prescription. So if you're going to an audiologist, you're likely to have excellent sound quality with hearing aids. And finally, pro number one here is that these devices do not interfere with taking off or putting on a mask. In the times of COVID and the pandemic, it's especially important to think about taking off the mask, putting on the mask. With traditional hearing aids, it happens a lot. You don't know how it happened, but suddenly you realize you lost a hearing aid. Oh, it must've been when you took off your mask coming back from the grocery store. "Oh no, where is it?" You're searching for it. There's a risk of losing your hearing aid when it's on top of your ear with a mask. And that risk is a lot higher than something like this, which is a device in your ear. The Active Pro, they do not interfere with masks. And additionally, Signia also added through the Signia App the button you can press, which is Mask Mode to actually improve speech understanding and speech clarity when people that you're listening to are wearing masks. Great job, guys. You're doing great. Now let's get to the three cons of the Signia Active Pro. Con number one is that they are only for mild to moderate levels of hearing loss. That means a percentage of people with hearing loss won't qualify for this hearing aid. However, for most people who have hearing loss, it does fall into the mild to moderate range. So talk to your audiologist to interpret your hearing test properly to see if these devices would work for you. The second con here is that the Active Pro do not have any sensors or buttons on the ear to make changes. Went on a run with these hearing aids because I wanted to make sure they stayed in my ears, which they did. And while I was in the run, it would have been really nice to accept a phone call, to go to the next song that I was listening to or to change the program so I could hear my environment better, but unfortunately, all of those adjustments would have to come through the app on the phone. That is something that's maybe worth considering in the next generation of these types of devices. Because when we look at other consumer electronics that are Bluetooth in the ear, almost all of them have some changes you can make from the device itself. The last con here is that the Active Pro hearing aids similar to other premium hearing aids, although they do a great job with speech clarity and speech understanding, which they should, they are hearing aids after all, they do a fair okay job with the sound quality of audio streaming through a smartphone and the Bluetooth phone calls coming in through the smartphone. Largely, this is a hardware issue and it's not something that's easily changed without making the device in your ear much bigger, but it is worth considering and you might notice that if you're used to higher quality audio or higher quality devices in your ears. Well, we've made it to the end of this HearWeb hearing aid review, but now is the fun part where we get to compare the Signia Active Pro hearing aids, which are premium hearing aids, typically quite expensive from an audiology clinic.
We get to compare these top level hearing aids with more entry-level consumer electronics products that have hearing aid features. So let's compare the Active Pro from Signia, a major hearing aid company with the Nuheara IQbuds MAX. We also reviewed the Nuheara IQbuds MAX on this YouTube channel, make sure you're subscribed. And the major differences here, number one is size. Signia Active Pro is smaller than Nuheara IQbuds MAX. The second major comparison here is price Signia Active Pro is at least five to 10 times higher with the audiology services included. These hearing devices are at least five to 10 times higher in price or more expensive than the Nuheara IQbuds MAX, which you can order directly online. The Nuheara IQbuds MAX are primarily an audio and streaming device that has a shorter battery life, more of a electronic product for music. The Active Pro is primarily a hearing aid. The battery lasts all day, and it has great sound quality of speech understanding. There's a give and take here. And as you can see, it's an individual decision based on what you need and how bad your hearing is and what kind of situations you're looking for help in. Both of the products have features for hearing loss and for streaming or audio and phone calls. However, they have pros and cons to each one. So on this YouTube channel, HearWeb and over at hearweb.com, this is your place to be if you're considering different hearing technology. Head over to hearweb.com to find out the most up-to-date prices on this technology and to look at other independent reviews from doctors like myself who are making these videos to help you. If this provided any value, please give this video a thumbs up. Thank you so much for being here. My name is Dr. Ben Thompson. On this next video, you will see our review of another hearing product. And in this video, we'll cover the Nuheara IQbuds MAX. Take care, thank you.