When Sony entered Two years ago, the company managed to conquer the over-the-counter hearing aid market with two products: the CRE-C10 and the more expensive CRE-E10. I was intrigued by the tiny C10 – it’s still one of the hearing aids I recommend most – and assumed the E10 would be even more impressive. Now that I’ve finally found a pair of E10s to test, I can assure you that the E10 isn’t so much an upgrade to the C10, but rather a completely different class of product with its own advantages and disadvantages.
While both the C10 and E10 are based on an in-ear earbud-like design concept, their general approach is significantly different. While the 1 gram C10 fits almost entirely into the ear and is invisible enough to require a small retrieval wire to remove it, the 2.94 gram E10 is much bulbier and more visible. It’s more like a standard Bluetooth earbud than any other hearing aid I’ve tested, with its rounded body filling the ear cup. Because, as the old saying goes, not all ear cups are created equal, your comfort level while wearing these hearing aids may vary significantly. In my ears, the fit was snug but not tight – comfortable to wear for a few hours, but not all day. Sony only offers four pairs of earbuds that you can experiment with to improve the fit.
Photo: Sony
The other big difference between the C10 and E10 is that the C10 uses replaceable hearing aid batteries, but the E10 has a more common rechargeable battery. The additional size of the device allows the E10 to work for up to 26 hours (without streaming). The USB-C connectable and Qi-compatible charger provides enough juice for an additional two to three charges.
Despite their larger size, the CRE-E10 devices have no external controls, which is understandable as the controls would be difficult to access due to the way the devices sit in the ear. Instead, all controls are in Sony’s Hearing Control app (Android, iOS). Since this is the same app that is used for the CRE-C10, I had already installed it, but I immediately had problems because the old tools were still registered in the app.
Photo: Sony
To set up new tools, you must remove the old ones from the app. To do this, Hearing Control requires you to enter a code that will be sent to your registered email address. Of course, since I never received the code, I couldn’t install the new tools. Eventually, Sony tech support instructed me to delete the app entirely and set it up again with a different email address – perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it helped me get it working.