Audiometrist MATTHEW O’NEILL wears and prescribes Starkey’s most advanced hearing solution, Omega AI hearing aids, which hit the Australian market in March 2026. He reveals why he is so impressed.
As an audiometrist and owner of six independent hearing care clinics, Matthew O’Neill gets to try the newest hearing aids before they hit the market. As a person with hearing loss, he could wear any device but has chosen Starkey’s Omega AI hearing aids.
“To be quite honest, I’ve found them to be the best on the market,” he says. “I put them on and the hearing just works. I don’t have to make any adjustments because it’s got the ‘always on’ artificial intelligence technology.”
O’Neill is experiencing what Starkey describes as the world’s first hearing aid to feature deep neural network (DNN)-powered directionality. Omega AI’s DNN 360 system is designed to deliver better hearing all round by analysing the entire environment for 360-degree sound, not just the front.
DNN 360 works to replace traditional adaptive directionality, the company says. Trained on extensive acoustic data, it continuously classifies and optimises complex soundscapes, smoothing transitions between talkers from any direction while preserving spatial awareness.
Starkey says the platform delivers a step-change in sound processing, durability and healthable features, giving hearing care professionals a distinctly new tool for today’s tech confident over 50s.
“Omega AI is an engineering breakthrough that redefines what intelligent hearing technology can do for everyday listening and long term health,” adds Dawn Rollings, general manager Starkey Australia.
O’Neill, a practising clinician of nearly 30 years, agrees. He previously wore Starkey’s Edge AI hearing aids but says Omega AI is a clear step up.
Compared with its previous models, Starkey says Omega AI delivers up to 8 dB signal to noise ratio improvement for spatial awareness and around 8% increased speech intelligibility, while achieving a 6.5 dB advantage in speech intelligibility measures versus all other brands.
O’Neill says he has tried top of the range devices from competing brands but Omega AI was the standout.
“I’ll always trial the latest aid to see how good it is, and now that I have permanent hearing loss, it’s obvious to me whether it’s going to work for me and how good it is,” he says. “I set up Omega AI the right way, put them on and I don’t have multiple programs because I don’t need them. It automatically adjusts when going from a quiet to a noisy space.”
But in extremely noisy places, such as restaurants or during meal breaks at conferences, he flicks on the Edge Mode+ feature which further optimises and enhances speech clarity.
“That allows me to hear people comfortably and clearly in noise,” he says. “Near the dance floor the other night at the ACAud congress, with a band playing, I did just that and I could hear clearly and follow conversations.”
In fact, Omega AI has 28% better speech intelligibility in challenging environments, Starkey says.
“With my previous Edge AI hearing aids, I would have to put them in Edge Mode+ in challenging, noisy environments but with Omega AI, I am not having to do that as much which is really good,” O’Neill adds.
“The feedback cancelling on Omega AI is also the best I’ve found.”
His devices are discreet and tiny, with people generally not noticing them unless he points them out. He has even had several patients loyal to other brands trial Omega AI and swap to wearing them full time because of the difference they made.
Two days’ charge
For O’Neill, there are other features beyond the hearing performance of Omega AI hearing aids.
One of those is the ability to wear them for two days without re-charging thanks to the industry-leading battery which provides up to 51 hours’ charge.
“It’s very handy especially if you’re travelling, at airports, going to conferences where you’re on the go from 8am until midnight,” he says. “It just lasts all day and all the next day.”
Plus, a new LED indicator light on the devices flashes when taken out of the charger to indicate the aid is charged.
While he personally focuses more on hearing function than wellness metrics, he notes some patients enjoy the added functionality of healthable tools. These include an industry-first continuous respiratory rate monitor, according to Starkey.
He is, however, keen to try Omega AI’s balance assessment and training features on some clients who are a bit unsteady as he thinks they would benefit. This includes Balance Builder, the newest module in the My Starkey App, which offers guided at home balance exercises to help prevent falls.
Tech savvy clients are particularly impressed by Omega AI, he adds, as are his worker’s compensation clients who have described the improvements as “incredible”.
Speech intelligibility
O’Neill opened his own independent practice, Advanced Hearing Solutions, 13 years ago and the business now owns five clinics in NSW’s central west, south coast, central coast, Sydney, and one in Victoria. Practitioners at his other clinics have also had excellent feedback about Omega AI, he says.
“They have no restrictions on which brands or devices they can fit but they’re also finding that patients fitted with Omega AI noticed a massive improvement in speech intelligibility and clarity,” O’Neill says.
“Even to the point where, for some it was too sharp, too clear, and they weren’t used to this, so the practitioners had to dull it down a bit.”
In terms of fitting, he says Starkey’s ProFit software is more intuitive, simplifying the process.
“The telehealth and remote programming by clinicians are also incredible,” O’Neill adds. “You pop the client’s number in, you initiate it, and it ‘tings’ on their phone before you’ve even finished talking.
“Connectivity has improved massively, and compatibility with different phones. I believe there are less complaints with connectivity issues.”
Starkey says the TeleHear feature is the first generative AI troubleshooting tool of its kind in hearing care, predicting and resolving common issues in real time with 93% accuracy, and 84% of patients reporting meaningful benefit.
Additional extras such as improved waterproofing and a 20x tougher shell resin for custom models are also good to have, O’Neill says. People probably don’t appreciate these features until something happens, he adds, such as when one of his clients visited Bali in 2025 and lost his hearing aid in a storm.
“His Starkey hearing aid fell into a puddle of water and stayed there for a day,” O’Neill says. “He found it the next day, dried it, and it worked.”
In similar cases, features like the “Find My Hearing Aid” functionality have previously helped users recover misplaced devices and are again included in Omega AI.
A lifetime of noise exposure
O’Neill’s hearing loss developed gradually over decades of occupational and recreational noise exposure.
His family was involved in running factories as his father was a boilermaker who manufactured mining equipment. He spent weekends and school holidays helping in the factory and workshops from a young age.
Later came work in retail on loading docks and around industrial refrigeration systems, followed by years participating in pistol shooting as a licensed shooter.
Although hearing protection was used, he says cumulative exposure over time took its toll. “It started to hit me about three years ago,” he says. “I’m now 53 and have worn hearing aids permanently for the past two years.”
His says severe high-frequency industrial deafness now shapes the way he works with patients. “I tell patients I have hearing loss and say that as a hearing aid wearer I understand why they have trouble hearing in background noise and I have the same problem,” he says.
O’Neill advises all audiologists and audiometrists to trial all new hearing aids, regardless of whether they have hearing loss.
“Put them to the test yourself and find some clients in your clinics who will trial the products for you and give you honest feedback with no sales pressure whatsoever,” he says. Advanced Hearing Solutions takes this approach and clinicians find it valuable, he adds.
Omega AI is for patients whose hearing loss ranges from mild to moderate and severe, O’Neill says, adding that his clinicians have fitted the aids to patients across these categories, with all extremely satisfied.
“I think more technologically savvy people will especially benefit more from this level of device. If they’re happy to spend the money to get good quality hearing, this is definitely the way to go,” he adds.
For O’Neill, the technology’s biggest achievement is simple: it allows him to wear hearing aids for days without thinking about them including hearing clearly in noisy situations. As both clinician and patient, he believes that practical everyday performance is what ultimately matters most.
For more information, see Starkeypro.com.au.
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