Widex Allure AI RIC Hearing Aids: Dual-Chip Processing, PureSound, and LE Audio Connectivity

ou can hardly imagine my shock when a little mermaid crawled out of the pond behind our house and bid me return with her to Copenhagen. She came at the behest of WSA, who invited me for an early look at their new hearing aid model Allure AI RIC and a major update to their fitting software, Compass Cloud. As the device model name implies, the Allure AI RIC adds major new hearing features while retaining Widex’s signature sound. Let me dry off and we’ll go see what both of those are all about.

The Widex event spans several days at WSA’s headquarters. The first day was exclusive to invited media and influencers. Day 1 included sessions on sound preference, the Widex Allure AI RIC, and Compass Cloud 2.0, plus a factory tour. Allure AI RIC is a 2-chip hearing aid with a new DNN added to the Allure’s existing hardware. What made the factory tour interesting is that we saw the electronic package assembly and how WSA managed to fit the second chip into the existing Allure body. I’ll spare the details, but it was creatively done.

We also took the Sound Preference test two different ways. One was a version of the clinical test where we were led into different environments like outside and in the company canteen with clipboards to rate our preference between the Current Allure and the Signia IX. It was a blind test as we didn’t know which was which until afterward. Then we took the headphone test that will be implemented in clinics. It was interesting that while I did show a preference for one with the headphone test, it was stronger in the live testing. I’m guessing that was because the hearing aids were tuned for my hearing loss but the headphones were not. Which did I prefer? No spoilers. Keep watching.

The second day was the broader introduction to WSA staff. It was then that we were fitted with the Allure AI RIC. It was also when Bob Traynor talked with Lisa Henningsen about sound preference for This Week in Hearing. The only thing I’ll add to that discussion is that the idea of preferred sound and how to determine it has been explored in detail in audio circles, first by Sean Olive of Harman and later extended into the treble, including hearing loss effects, by Knowles when I was working there. It’s great to see the same concept being used directly with hearing devices. You should definitely watch that episode too.

With a group of us armed with the Allure AI RIC, on the third day we went to dinner and a jazz concert. That was a perfect venue to have my first Widex experience with live music. I also had a trick up my sleeve. I brought to the concert the Signia BCTiX RICs that I had previously been fitted with to do a careful listening comparison. Stick around for my impressions of that and other experiences later in the podcast.

On the second day, I got the details on the Allure AI RIC from WSA’s Sonnie Harris and discussed Compass Cloud with Karen Hougs. If you’re an HCP with Compass Cloud experience, you are going to want to hear about the major improvements made in version 2.0 as a result of clinician feedback.

So I have the unique job of taking the information from the research and development side and turning it into the messaging and the materials that an HCP would need to be able to talk about this technology with their patients.

Okay, you’re essentially the voice of the customer then, the customer being the HCPs who are fitting the devices.

Okay, and so let’s start with a brief overview of the current Allure before we get into the new model, because the new model is building upon the current one. It’s interesting because I always thought of Widex as being really focused on pure natural sound, but not necessarily then the very best on speech and noise. But the Allure changed that game a little bit.

What’s really great about the Allure platform is that it’s built with the W1 chip. With this chip that is so much faster and so much more capable than our previous chip, it’s able to support an entire suite of updated tools that are really designed to give wearers the best balance of both focus and awareness. So that focus to be able to hear well even when you get into noisy places, but awareness so that you still have that natural situational awareness that you would need to have that nice Widex sound.

Most wearers are going to use the universal program, and that is designed for all hearing losses. It’s designed to still provide very low processing delay for a very clear sound quality. The other default program is our PureSound program. On the Allure platform, PureSound has actually gone through a bit of a makeover where we’re able to use more advanced features. That means we can use that PureSound program for more wearers with mild to moderate hearing loss and give them a super low processing delay. With that near-zero delay processing, it gets rid of an artifact that generally open-fit hearing aids will have called the comb filter effect.

I’m really interested in trying it. The whole reason why I wear hearing aids is because of too much time in loud rock bars and loud music. I really appreciate music, and I’m very interested to hear what it sounds like in the PureSound program.

It’s really a unique clean sound quality that you really can only get from Widex. There’s nobody else in the industry that’s able to get to that level of processing delay.

The present Allure already does a fantastic job at providing excellent hearing for everyday listening. With AI RIC, we are layering in dual-chip architecture to provide additional on-demand clarity for noisy situations where users need just a little bit of extra support.

The way I think about it is any time noise starts to take over, that’s when you’re able to access this added boost of noise reduction. ORCA US did a study where they looked at speech recognition thresholds and found wearers were able to see up to 5 dB enhancement in output SNR for the Clarity Boost program over the Universal program.

Normally in a noisy situation like a bar or restaurant, I even notice it in my house if I’m on a Teams call and there’s a fan running in the room. I can move into that Clarity Boost program and it helps me to be much more comfortable even with that loud fan going on.

When they told me we were getting an AI hearing aid, part of me wondered if it was an April Fool’s joke because when we think about AI, the word artificial is literally in the name. And when we think about the Widex sound philosophy, artificial is the furthest away from where we have ever wanted to be. But the AI team explained that we are using a third generation DNN called a linear recurrent neural network specifically built for sound. It works with the temporal aspect of sound and can keep memory of what happened before. That allows us to balance noise reduction, power consumption, and sound quality in a way that other AI architectures are not able to do.

When AI mode is engaged, the average processing delay is around 10 milliseconds, which still keeps it within what Harvey Dillon considers an acceptable processing delay range.

Battery performance remains strong because of the efficiency of the DNN. The hearing aids provide up to 36 hours of use without streaming or up to 32 hours with five hours of streaming. Even in worst-case scenarios using AI mode continuously, the hearing aids can run up to 15 hours before needing a charge.

The Allure AI RIC supports iPhone connectivity, ASHA Android phones, and LE Audio phones with hands-free communication and streaming support. The device is also Auracast ready and can currently access Auracast streams through supported phones such as Pixel and Samsung devices.

After taking the sound preference test, I learned that the hearing aid I chose was the Widex Allure. With an audio background, love of music, and ability to listen critically, I was not surprised. I had always been intrigued by Widex but never tried them because I wasn’t convinced the performance in noise or connectivity would meet my needs. The original Allure was meant to address those issues, and the new Allure AI RIC goes a step further with the addition of the DNN chip.

On our final evening in Copenhagen, we attended dinner and a jazz concert at a beautiful intimate club. I made sure to get a music mode program with minimal processing. In music mode, the treble was perfectly balanced with about as much extension as I’ve ever heard in a hearing aid.

I periodically switched between the Allure AI RIC and the Signia BCTiX RIC I brought with me. There was no comparison. In one piece where the percussionist used brushes on the cymbals, the sound from the Allure AI was markedly more precise. With the IX, the sound became more like a hiss rather than the distinctive sound of the brushes. The vocalist’s voice was also just a tad purer with the Allure AI. At a certain point, I simply left the Allure AIs in my ears, sat back, and enjoyed the concert.

Speech in noise performance turned out to be much better than I expected as well. At the restaurant before the concert and at the hotel bar afterward, the sound levels and reflections were very challenging. Yet I found the Allure AI to be quite competent.

Once home, I took them to additional concerts, restaurants, and daily listening environments. I also tried Auracast with my Samsung phone, which worked as advertised. One of the concerts was Florence + The Machine. Again, switching between the Allure AI and the Signia BCTiX, the improvement with the Allure AI was noticeable. The IX introduced a bit more distortion in the peaks, while the Allure AI remained clearer and more enjoyable to listen to.

The other concert at home was classical music, which confirmed my impressions from the jazz concert. Overall, the Allure AI RIC served me very well, and the performance with live music was impressive.

WSA also introduced Compass Cloud 2.0, which includes major improvements based on clinician feedback. The company described positive feedback around the first-fit experience, workflow simplicity, and fitting precision, while also acknowledging requests from hearing care professionals for expanded fine-tuning tools and features.

The company has accelerated its release cycles to every two months and added features such as Sensogram, Smart Speak, Adaptation Manager, Sound Class Adjustment, and data logging. WSA also noted that its cloud-based architecture allows for broader data collection and analysis to help improve future fitting workflows and personalization.