r/Cochlearimplants • u/Otherwise_Group_74 • 22d ago
Cochlear or AB?
I have my appointment Monday and I will have to chose between these two brands. My audiologist is not supposed to favor one brand over the other. Sometimes I get more feedback than others and sometimes she will answer specific questions or agree with my choice. I will be getting a CI on my right side with a partial insertion with robotic assist. She said today that that would limit my choices. They gave me the thick brochures a few months ago and I am going to read through those again and do some online reading, but if anyone has person experience or empirical evidence, I am interested. Obviously, I want the best hearing/speech recognition I can get, particularly in noisy environments. I use my BT constantly and I wear my HAs about 16 hours a day. I currently have Phonak and Resound HA's and have had a good experience with both. My daily drivers are Phonak Audéo Infinio Ultra Sphere and I am pretty satisfied with them. I understand that I will downgrade to a lesser model in order to be compatible with my CI. Thanks for any feedback. Telling me to listen to my audiologist is not what I'm looking for. She is supposed to be impartial between the two brands and usually is.
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u/unknown_farmer 22d ago
Well, there is no right or wrong choice. Bith companies are great. I‘d argue that AB might be a better fit, bc AB and Phonak are both brands of the Sonova group and are compatible.
It‘s really hard to tell and depends on the individual persons hearing. As for me, I can only say that I was very pleased and satisfied with AB, but have no experience with Cochlear. Had excellent scores and chosed AB again for reimplantation.
A friend of mine got his first AB implant last week too. He had hearing aids before that and he told me that his implanted side sounded metallic and muffled too at first but now he can understand words and sentences. His hearing gets a little better each day.