ReSound Sensia

Jeff Hall

Hearing Aid Specialist

Published: Aug 13, 2026 | Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Medically reviewed by: Brad Ingrao, Doctor of Audiology

Brad Ingrao

Editor & Doctor of Audiology

Brad Ingrao, Au.D. has been in clinical practice since 1992 in a variety of settings including academia, private practice, educational audiology, the VA, and the hearing aid industry. More about Brad Ingrao

ReSound Sensia Hearing Aids: Smarter AI, More Styles, and a New Approach to Hearing in Noise

About a year ago, I wore ReSound Vivia hearing aids for a week and walked away very impressed.

In fact, when I sat down to write my review, I had to work a little to come up with meaningful criticisms. I eventually landed on two.

First, Vivia’s DNN-powered noise reduction wasn’t automatic. To get the strongest help in background noise, you had to manually switch into ReSound’s Hear in Noise program.

Second, all that new DNN technology was limited to the top (most expensive) '9' technology level.

Fast-forward to Sensia, and both of those limitations have been addressed.

On the flagship Sensia 9 microRIE, the hearing aids can now bring in DNN-powered noise reduction automatically when you need it. And ReSound has loosened the technology-level restriction too: the Sensia 7 microRIE now gets DNN processing as well.

And that theme carries through the rest of Sensia.

Rather than simply adding a new AI feature and calling it a day, ReSound has launched a much broader family, added custom hearing aids from day one, kept disposable-battery options, maintained solid battery life even with more intensive processing, and made the automatic listening experience more hands-off.

It feels like a thoughtful release.

What’s New with ReSound Sensia?

There are three main pieces of technology behind ReSound’s new approach:

AcoustIQ sound sensing, 4-microphone directional processing, and DNN-based noise reduction.

Think of AcoustIQ as the hearing aid’s decision-maker.

It continuously analyzes the sound around you and determines what kind of listening environment you’re in. Based on that information, Sensia can adjust things like directionality and noise reduction as your surroundings change.

Hearing aids have classified sound environments for years. The more important question is whether they actually do the right thing after identifying the environment.

ReSound says AcoustIQ is 88% more accurate at real-time classification and feature engagement than the closest premium competitor it tested.

That’s an impressive result, although it’s important to understand exactly what ReSound measured.

In ReSound’s testing, Sensia correctly engaged the expected directionality and gain settings across several sound scenes involving speech and noise.

One important caveat: ReSound established the criteria for appropriate behavior, and the competing hearing aids were anonymized.

So this study tells us Sensia appears very good at doing what ReSound designed it to do. It does not mean someone wearing Sensia will understand 88% more speech.

There’s another important distinction here: Sensia is a large family of hearing aids, and the feature set varies by style and technology level.

The complete Intelligent All-Around system—the version that automatically combines AcoustIQ, ReSound’s strongest directional processing, and DNN-based denoising—is reserved for the Sensia 9 rechargeable microRIE. AcoustIQ itself extends across the technology levels, while some of the newer AI features are limited to specific microRIE models.

That matters, because buying a Sensia doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting every feature behind ReSound’s headline performance claims.

Sensia Tries to Focus on the Person You’re Looking At

When things get noisy, Sensia can use microphones across both hearing aids to create a forward-facing focus.

Why the front?

Because we usually look toward the person we’re trying to hear.

If I’m sitting across from you at dinner, there’s a pretty good chance the voice I care about is coming from the same direction I’m facing.

ReSound says its newest 4-microphone beamforming strategy improves the signal-to-noise ratio by 13% compared with its previous technology. In other testing supplied by ReSound, 83% of users experienced better speech clarity in noise compared with the closest competing solution tested.

Directional microphones themselves aren’t new. They’ve been helping hearing aid users hear speech from in front for decades.

What’s more interesting here is how ReSound combines that directional focus with its DNN-based noise reduction.

I asked Laurel Christensen, PhD, Chief Audiology Officer at GN, why that combination matters:

“DNN-based noise reduction looks for the prominent speech in the environment and then reduces everything but that speech. There are many times when the prominent speech in the environment isn’t what the hearing aid user wants to hear. For this reason, we pair a 4-microphone beamformer with our DNN. This allows the hearing aid user to look at the person they want to hear, and the beamformer will pull that speech up, making it prominent, and then the DNN will reduce everything else. Without the beamformer, the hearing aid user could be stuck listening to speech they don’t want to hear. This is a common complaint on hearing aid forums today. ”

- Laurel Christensen, PhD, Chief Audiology Officer at GN

That explanation gets to the heart of what ReSound is trying to do differently with Sensia.

The DNN isn’t being asked to magically figure out who you care about. The directional microphones first give it a clue by emphasizing the person you’re facing.

The DNN Can Now Kick In Automatically

Sensia’s rechargeable microRIE also uses a deep neural network, or DNN, called Intelligent Noise Tracker to help separate speech from unwanted background noise.

If you’ve shopped for premium hearing aids recently, you’ve probably heard the term DNN before.

In simple terms, a deep neural network is a machine-learning system trained on large amounts of sound so it can recognize patterns in speech and noise.

ReSound already had DNN-based processing in Vivia (the Sensia predecessor). What changes with Sensia is how that processing can be used.

On Vivia, accessing ReSound’s DNN processing meant manually switching into the Hearing in Noise program. Sensia 9 changes that by allowing the hearing aid to bring in DNN processing automatically when it detects that you need it—a meaningful improvement, because many users simply won’t remember to change programs when a restaurant suddenly gets noisy.

Intelligent Noise Tracker is available in the Sensia 9 and Sensia 7 rechargeable microRIE, with ReSound listing stronger DNN noise reduction in the 9. In the flagship Sensia 9 microRIE, AcoustIQ can automatically combine that DNN processing with the directional microphone system when the listening environment gets difficult. ReSound calls this Intelligent All-Around.

The goal isn’t simply to turn down noise. It’s to help the conversation in the direction you’re facing stand out from everything competing with it.

If you like to get in the weeds a bit, here's a detailed look at what's new in Sensia:

I like that approach. Even the best hearing aid feature doesn’t do much good if the person wearing the hearing aids never activates it.

There is one important exception to that “automatic is better” theme: music. If you’re listening to music, I’d still recommend manually selecting ReSound’s dedicated Music program. Music and speech have very different processing needs, and the dedicated program is designed to preserve more of the sound rather than aggressively optimizing for speech.

The Early Research Behind Sensia Is Promising

ReSound has put quite a bit of evidence behind Sensia, which I appreciate.

In one blinded test involving experienced hearing aid wearers, a target speaker was positioned directly in front while another speaker off to the side was actually 5 dB louder.

That’s an interesting test because it recreates the exact problem Sensia is trying to solve: the person you want to hear isn’t necessarily the loudest person in the room.

According to ReSound, 80% of participants had better audibility of the intended speaker with Sensia than with the competing DNN-powered hearing aid. ReSound also cites testing from Hörzentrum Oldenburg supporting the combination of directional beamforming and DNN noise reduction for keeping the intended speaker more audible in competing speech.

Those results are encouraging.

But much of the launch evidence was supplied or commissioned by ReSound, and the competing products aren’t identified. That’s normal in this industry, but it’s still worth pointing out.

I’ll be particularly interested to see how Sensia performs in independent HearAdvisor testing, and ultimately what customer reviews and return rates look like compared with ReSound Vivia and other flagship hearing aids.

The next step is seeing whether those advantages carry over into independent testing and everyday use.

ReSound Finally Launches the Whole Family Together

One of my favorite things about Sensia has almost nothing to do with AI.

There are a lot of styles.

When ReSound launched Vivia, the focus was on RIE-style hearing aids. Sensia comes out of the gate as a much more complete family.

There’s a rechargeable microRIE, traditional RIE models powered by either a size 312 or size 13 disposable battery, a size 312 custom ITC, rechargeable ITC and ITE custom hearing aids, and a tiny size 10A CIC.

I’m glad ReSound did this.

Keeping everything under the Sensia name makes shopping simpler, and I particularly like that ReSound kept disposable-battery RIE models.

Rechargeables are great for many people, but they aren’t right for everyone. Some people travel extensively, have unpredictable schedules, or simply prefer changing a battery in 30 seconds instead of worrying about charging.

Sensia gives you that choice.

The size 13 RIE is also the Sensia option for people who want a built-in telecoil. And across the lineup, Sensia hearing aids are IP68 rated for resistance to dust and moisture.

Sensia Delivers All-Day Battery Life Even with AI Processing

ReSound rates its rechargeable Sensia models for about 24 hours of typical use, with up to 30 hours under lighter-use conditions. Even with roughly half the day spent streaming, ReSound estimates about 20 hours of battery life.

Those numbers are solid, but what stands out is that the Sensia microRIE can maintain all-day battery life while automatically using DNN-based noise reduction in the flagship model.

AI processing requires power, and ReSound says its DNN is 17 times more efficient than a competing DNN-based solution. The practical benefit is advanced noise reduction without giving up all-day battery life.

Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast Are Here Too

Sensia’s wireless models support Bluetooth Low Energy Audio and Auracast.

Auracast is one of the more interesting developments happening in hearing aid connectivity. In simple terms, it allows compatible hearing aids to receive audio broadcasts from supported TVs, public venues, and other transmitters.

You can find and select Auracast broadcasts through the Auracast Assistant in ReSound’s Smart 3D app. Sensia also works with accessories including the TV-Streamer+ and Multi-Mic+.

Direct streaming from compatible iOS and Android devices is available across the wireless Sensia models. The tiny CIC is the exception—it’s a non-wireless hearing aid.

Hands-free calling is also style-dependent. ReSound’s professional materials specify that it isn’t available on the CIC or the disposable-battery ITC.

For people with single-sided deafness, ReSound offers a rechargeable Sensia microRIE CROS transmitter, which can be paired with Sensia RIE hearing aids on the better-hearing ear.

And for people using a Cochlear Nucleus cochlear implant on one side and a hearing aid on the other, ReSound also offers dedicated Sensia bimodal options.

My Early Take on ReSound Sensia

I went into Sensia already liking the product it replaces. That probably makes me a little harder to impress, because Vivia was a very good hearing aid. But ReSound didn’t simply put a new name on Vivia and give us a slightly better DNN.

They addressed one of my biggest usability complaints by making their strongest AI-powered noise processing automatic in the flagship model. They expanded DNN processing down to the Sensia 7 microRIE. They launched custom hearing aids at the same time. They kept disposable batteries for people who want them. And they did all of that while maintaining legitimate all-day battery life.

Those are thoughtful improvements.

Just keep in mind that Sensia is a family, not one identical hearing aid in different shells.

The Sensia 9 rechargeable microRIE gets ReSound’s complete Intelligent All-Around system. The Sensia 7 microRIE still gets DNN-powered Intelligent Noise Tracker, while the disposable-battery RIEs and custom models have their own feature sets.

I still want independent testing. I still want to see what actual wearers say after these have been out for a while.

But I give ReSound a lot of credit for this release. Sensia feels like the company listened to what worked with Vivia, listened to what could be better, and made meaningful changes rather than chasing a longer feature list.

For someone whose biggest hearing challenge is following the right person in a room full of competing voices, Sensia is one of the most interesting new hearing aids I’ve seen from ReSound in a long time.

Jeff Hall

Hearing Aid Specialist

Published: Aug 13, 2026 | Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Medically reviewed by: Brad Ingrao, Doctor of Audiology

Brad Ingrao

Editor & Doctor of Audiology

Brad Ingrao, Au.D. has been in clinical practice since 1992 in a variety of settings including academia, private practice, educational audiology, the VA, and the hearing aid industry. More about Brad Ingrao