Yesterday evening Phonak officially announced the introduction of the Titanium IIC. I have been waiting for the launch of this product for some time now as I suspected that it would allow for more powerful receivers to fit within the IIC shell…and it seems I was right.
Titanium
The shell is constructed from 3D printed medical grade Titanium and perhaps this is how Phonak came up with the name; but I would never make such bold assumptions.
So why titanium? Titanium as we all know is stronger and more durable than conventional acrylic. As such, they can afford to make the casing thinner which means that for the same ear, you get a larger area for components to fit inside. You may not be aware but the receiver (speaker) is the biggest part of the hearing aid and so if you have a severe hearing loss you would have had to make a larger hearing aid.
Super Power
Phonak are advertising that the Titanium is capable of housing a super power receiver which is very exciting indeed. My one concern would be that, as with any IIC, there is no directional microphone which is detrimental to hearing in background noise. Individuals with severe sensori-neural hearing loss can particularly struggle in noise due to the extent of the damage within the ear.
For more information on directionality take a look at my review of the Oticon Alta 2.
I won’t jump the gun though as I don’t know what features the Titanium will boast until the product launch in mid March. Following the launch I will be posting a full overview of the features.
What else did Phonak launch?
Phonak Bolero PR
Phonak also announced the release of the BTE version of their rechargeable hearing aid called the Bolero PR. Based on the same platform I assume it will be identical to the current Receiver in the canal version. I assume they will be launching this at the same time as the Titanium but I’m not 100% sure at this stage.
Summary
We certainly have some things to look forward to with the Titanium and I’m very exited about seeing what it is capable of. Keep following us for more of the details come March.
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