Oticon Nera 2 £845

All the styles above of the Oticon Nera 2 contain the same technological features but are just wrapped up in different packages to suit your lifestyle, hearing loss and personal preference. The Nera 2  is Oticon's advanced, mid level hearing aid providing excellent hearing from the Inium Sense platform. The hearing aids are still connected to each other but only to make sure each aid is doing the same thing in terms of noise reduction, directionality, volume and the program setting they are in. The Inium Sense delivers 30% more processing power increasing understanding of soft speech by as much as 20%.

The Nera 2 Pro and the Nera 2 are 16 frequency channel hearing aids with bandwidth up to 8kHz. This is reduced from 10kHz in the Alta 2 and Alta 2 Pro. More channels means better sound quality reproduction and more scope for manipulation. Higher bandwidth creates a more natural sound with more high frequency amplification so it's fantastic for listening to music or birdsong. However, 16 channels and 8kHz bandwidth is still great value for a mid range product. 

The Nera 2 Pro's stand out features are Advanced Spatial Sound and Binaural Processing. These are missing from the Nera 2. Binaural Processing is when the hearing aids are wirelessly connected to each other and are able to share information about the sound environment. They can then effectively alter things like noise reduction (Noise Management) and intensity (Spatial Sound) independently in both ears to give the best all round result. It is important to note that only the Alta 2 Pro and the Nera 2 Pro have the Spatial Sound feature.

The Nera 2 has 3 automatic personal profiles for individual personalisation and Soft Speech Booster is an excellent new feature that is in both the Alta and Nera ranges. Soft voices can be particularly difficult to follow but the Inium Sense processor allows more gain on soft speech enriching those more intimate and private conversations without compromising on sound quality.

If you currently wear hearing aids and don't find hearing in noisy environments challenging, then the Nera 2 is a reasonable automatic hearing aid for the price. However, the Nera 2 Pro with its increased use of binaural and spatial technology really does make a difference to people that find background noise a problem and is definitely worth the extra investment. If you really struggle in even low noise environments then the Oticon Alta 2 Pro is probably what you need.