ReSound Vivia™ 9 Review

A Long-Time Hearing Aid User’s Experience

resound vivia 9 review
ReSound Vivia HEARING AID REVIEW Michelle Hearing Empowered

Meet Michelle, 52.

She was born with hearing loss and has been wearing hearing aids for over 3 decades.

I’VE WORN HEARING AIDS SINCE I WAS NINETEEN.

I’ve Worn Many Major Hearing Aid Brands. Here’s Where ReSound Vivia 9 Lands.

I’m not coming at this fresh. I’ve been wearing hearing aids for over thirty years, across most of the major brands, through technologies that ranged from genuinely transformative to wildly overpromised. I have moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears.

Without hearing aids, I’m functionally deaf. Voices blur. High-pitched sounds disappear. I miss most of the speech spectrum.

So when I try a hearing aid, I’m not comparing it to silence. I’m comparing it to every other device I’ve worn, and to what I know is possible. I’m currently wearing the ReSound Vivia 9. These are my honest impressions.

My History with Hearing Loss

I was born with hearing loss, but nobody figured that out for years. I grew up missing things. Words, jokes, directions. People assumed I wasn’t paying attention, or wasn’t smart enough to catch on. In high school, I finally got tested. I thought I was too cool for hearing aids.

By nineteen, I couldn’t function anymore and had to get help.

My first fitting wasn’t much of a fitting. I could only afford one hearing aid, even though I needed two. Nobody explained what that would mean. They took my budget, handed me a device, and sent me out the door. No conversation about what it would feel like to hear from only one side. No curiosity about what my life actually needed.

I thought that was how it worked.

Almost ten years later, I finally got two hearing aids, and the difference was staggering. I could follow conversations again. I stopped zoning out. I was able to actually start participating in life again.

But even then, the care was minimal. When my aids died, I assumed it was my fault. Nobody had told me about professional cleaning or the tiny vacuums that keep them clean and working better than I could do at home.

ReSound Viva 9 Hearing Loss

It wasn’t until I met Dr. Nichole Sorensen at Lakeside Hearing in Kelowna when I was in my 40’s that I understood what hearing care was actually supposed to look like. Someone slowed down. Someone explained things. Someone made sure everything fit, technically and personally.

That experience stopped me cold. I had spent over 20 years getting hearing care that ranged from indifferent to just adequate. Nobody had ever done it like that before. Nobody had slowed down, explained things, made sure everything actually fit the person wearing them.

That’s why I started Hearing Empowered™ in the first place.

I didn’t want anyone else to spend two decades settling for less than that. So I set out to find independent audiologists across Canada who take care of people the way Nichole took care of me. That’s the whole standard. That’s the whole point.

Why I’m Wearing the ReSound Vivia 9

I was already happy with what I was wearing.

I’ve been wearing the same brand my audiologist Dr. Nichole Sorensen at Lakeside Hearing first fitted me with back in 2014. I tried others along the way. I always went back. Your brain adapts deeply to a specific sound processing style and everything else feels like a detour.

So I upgraded within that brand twice over the years. My last upgrade was 2021 technology. A lot has changed since then.

When it came time to choose a device for my own hearing story here on Hearing Empowered™, I tried to open my mind a little. Nichole & Claire thought the ReSound Vivia might be worth trying, partly because I’m always talking about my nervous system and how sound affects it.

Brands don’t pay to be featured here. They provide devices for review and I make my own call. So I had my pick, and I picked these.

Here’s what I need you to know before we go further: what works for me may not work for you.

Hearing aids process sound differently at an architectural level, and two premium devices programmed to the same targets can feel completely different depending on how your brain and nervous system respond to them. You might just feel tired after a long day and never connect it to your hearing aids. You might assume that crowds are just hard and always will be. A good audiologist helps you figure out which processing style actually fits how you live. That’s what Nichole did for me.

ReSound Hearing Aids Sound

The moment I put the Vivia in, my nervous system relaxed.

I didn’t go looking for that. I didn’t even know I was bracing until I wasn’t anymore.

I immediately took them to the most rigorous testing environment I could think of: Costco. Cart wheels on concrete, voices coming from everywhere, ambient sound hitting you from every angle. I walked in expecting to white-knuckle it like I always had, because I’d spent thirty years assuming that level of overwhelm was just the deal with hearing aids.

It felt almost peaceful. I heard every word Steve said even when he was ahead of me in the aisle. I was genuinely shocked.

I didn’t realize how much of the work I had been doing until I wasn’t doing it anymore.

To be fair, a lot has happened in hearing aid technology since 2021. This wasn’t a subtle upgrade. The gap between what I was wearing and what’s available now is genuinely significant, and I wouldn’t have known that without trying it. But before I get into what the Vivia actually does, it helps to understand what I need my hearing aids to do, because my listening profile is pretty specific.

What I Need My Hearing Aids to Do?

My requirements are specific because my loss is significant and my life is full.

  • Speech clarity is non-negotiable. With moderate to profound loss, I don’t get the luxury of “pretty good.” Voices have to come through clearly or I’m lost. That includes high-pitched sounds, consonants, the edges of words that carry meaning. I need frequency lowering technology. Without it, a big chunk of the speech range is simply gone.

  • Background noise performance is where I live or die. Noisy environments have always been the hardest. Restaurants, events, group conversations. The gap between what I hear in quiet and what I hear in noise is where I measure every new device.

  • I’m on my phone constantly. Streaming quality matters. Bluetooth stability matters. Whether I’m streaming podcasts while doing the dishes or calling my family in Calgary, connection to the people and things I love runs through these devices.

  • All-day wear. I put these in when I wake up and take them out when I go to bed. Comfort isn’t a bonus feature.

Bluetooth Hearing Aids ReSound Vivia

What Are the ReSound Vivia™ Hearing Aids?

The Vivia is ReSound’s current flagship, and the headlining technology is a Deep Neural Network trained on over 13.5 million sentences mixed with background noise, traffic, cafeteria environments, and other real-world acoustic chaos. The goal is to pull speech out of noise rather than just turning down everything around it.

The Vivia 9 comes in a microRIC form factor, a tiny receiver-in-canal design with the processor sitting behind the ear. For a fully-featured device with 30 hours of battery life, the size is genuinely impressive.

The dual processor setup is worth understanding. One chip, called the 360, continuously scans the environment and adjusts directionality. The second runs the Deep Neural Network, working on the signal-to-noise ratio in real time. These two processes run simultaneously, which is different from how older single-chip aids worked.

The DNN feature requires you to manually select the “Hear in Noise” program, and it works best when you’re facing the person you’re trying to hear. That’s a real-world limitation worth knowing upfront.

The Vivia 9 connects via Bluetooth LE Audio for newer iPhones and Android devices, meaning better sound quality with lower battery drain. It also supports Auracast, which will eventually allow direct connection to broadcast audio in venues. The ReSound Smart 3D app handles volume and program control, a three-band equalizer, tinnitus masking, and a find-my-hearing-aids feature.

AI Hearing Aids ReSound Vivia

RESOUND VIVIA™ FEATURES

Click to Expand the ReSound Vivia™ 9 Features

For reference, here’s the full spec. Before I got tested I assumed hearing aids were basically just volume knobs. The list below is a good reminder of how wrong I was. It’s a lot for something nobody can really see.

  • MicroRIC design, tiny and discreet
  • Deep Neural Network for speech-in-noise processing
  • Dual processor: 360 environmental scanner plus DNN signal processor
  • Frequency lowering available
  • Removable microphone covers for easy cleaning
  • Available in multiple colors

  • Bluetooth LE Audio for newer iPhones and Android
  • Auracast-ready
  • ReSound Smart 3D app
  • Apple Watch control for iPhone users

  • 30 hours battery life without streaming or DNN
  • Approximately 24 hours with normal use
  • Rechargeable with a power-bank charger showing charge levels for both aids and case

The Real World Test

Thirty-plus years of hearing aids. Noisy restaurants, busy events, phone calls, everyday life. Here’s what I’m actually finding.

Solid. Voices come through naturally and with good richness. Sound quality is accurate without feeling processed or thin. The Vivia is quieter in terms of environmental sound than what my brain was used to. Soft ambient sounds, a fan running, the general texture of a room, are more contained. It took a few days to stop noticing that. Once I adjusted, I stopped missing it

This is where things get genuinely interesting, and genuinely complicated.

When the DNN kicks in, you notice it. There’s a sharpening of the voice you’re listening to against whatever is happening behind it. It is noticeably better than what I experienced with previous devices in the same environments. For someone with my loss profile who has always struggled in noise, that matters.

My honest read: the DNN is doing real work. It requires active use, you have to be in the right program and facing the right direction. But in situations that used to exhaust me, I’m working less hard.

Large, shifting groups are harder, and no hearing aid has fully solved that for moderate-to-profound loss. The directionality works well when I’m engaged and facing people, but the moment conversation starts moving around a room, things get more complicated.

This is actually why I’m going to try something I’ve never used before: the ReSound Multi-Mic+. I’ve relied on lip reading my whole life, which works fine when I can see faces. It doesn’t work at all when I’m hiking behind someone, sitting in the back seat on a long drive, or trying to follow a moving conversation at a networking event.

The Multi-Mic+ streams directly to the Vivia hearing aids and can be held up near whoever is speaking, clipped to someone’s shirt, or set on a table. It also generates Auracast broadcast, which means a presenter can wear it and anyone with compatible hearing aids or earbuds can stream that person’s voice without any pairing required. I didn’t know that was possible until about five minutes ago.

I’ve never used a remote mic before, iPhone or otherwise. Hiking alone might make it worth it. Stay tuned.

This has been genuinely impressive. Direct connection to iPhone, no pairing drama, streaming audio sounds clear. Phone calls come through well. I’ve been listening to podcasts and music directly through the aids and the quality is better than I expected.

These are the smallest hearing aids I’ve ever worn. I didn’t think that would matter much to me after thirty-plus years of wearing them, but it actually does. There’s a lightness to them, physically and somehow in another way that’s harder to name. I’m just less aware of them than I’ve ever been.

The charging situation is worth mentioning because it’s a small detail that makes my life easier. There are two charger options. I opted for the premium charger, which has an onboard battery that holds up to three days of portable charging without needing a power outlet.
For anyone who travels, and I do, that’s not a small thing. I already travel with more charging cords than any reasonable person should have to manage. One less cord, one less thing to hunt for in a hotel room, one less thing to forget.

ReSound Hearing Aids Charger

Are the ReSound Vivia 9 Hearing Aids Worth It?

For my hearing profile, yes, with the right fitting.

The speech-in-noise improvement is real and meaningful at this level of loss. The frequency lowering is working. The size and comfort are genuinely impressive for what these devices are doing. The sound quality is accurate and rich enough that I’m not grieving what I left behind.

What I’d tell anyone considering these: the fitting matters enormously. These aids have more potential than they’ll show you out of the box. Real Ear Measurement isn’t optional, it’s where the actual performance lives. An audiologist who knows what they’re doing with ReSound’s programming will get you somewhere noticeably better than a quick default setup.

And if your biggest challenge is speech in noise, which it is for most of us with significant loss, the Vivia 9 is genuinely worth a trial. It’s not the only contender. Other brands have amazing technology now and each approaches it differently. What works for my audiogram won’t automatically be right for yours.

Should You Get the ReSound Vivia Hearing Aids?

Honestly, I can only tell you what they have done for me.

I can tell you what they’ve done for me. Moderate to profound bilateral sensorineural loss, thirty-plus years of hearing aid experience, active life, all-day wear. That’s my context. Yours is different. And that’s the whole point.

The only person who can actually answer this question is an independent audiologist with access to the leading brands and knowledge of your audiogram. Someone who will do a proper fitting with Real Ear Measurement, understand how you live, and tell you honestly whether the Vivia 9 serves your hearing profile or whether something else would do more.

That conversation starts with a full diagnostic hearing assessment. Everything else comes after.

Review for ReSound Vivia 9 Hearing Aids

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ReSound Vivia 9 hearing aids were provided to Michelle for trial and evaluation. All opinions and experiences shared here reflect her personal use in real-world conditions. ReSound and Vivia are trademarks of GN Hearing.