Again....what is your metric for "better in providing therapy".....Is it just AHI? I know it is the primary metric used by a lot of people but that doesn't make it correct. People really need to learn to look at the big picture and not a tiny corner of the picture. AHI of 0.0 doesn't guarantee squat in terms of therapy or sleep or how we feel if all we look at is AHI.
AHI numbers are all computed the same way....Events divided by hours. Pretty simple. No matter which brand.
Now there is a very minor difference in flagging criteria between ResMed and Respironics for a hyponea flag but it is so minor it really doesn't impact the numbers. Otherwise criteria is the same for the other event flags.
Now the 2 brands do have different auto adjusting algorithms though and thus they do go about doing their jobs a bit differently in terms of response. This is where the difference in results in AHI likely shows up. People compare both brands at same pressure settings and they end up thinking one is "better". Can't really expect to use same settings on both machines and getting same results when there are 2 totally different auto adjusting algorithms at work.
I have used both brands in auto adjusting mode. I got the same AHI with BOTH brands but I did have to use a higher minimum pressure to get it done on the Respironics machine. People CAN get nice low AHI numbers with a Respironics machine if all they want is an AHI number to brag about but they have to understand the different algorithms and make adjustments to get it done.
I guess it all depends on a person's thinking. Me....I don't "fuzz" about stuff that I can't do anything about anyway. Waste of precious energy (brain cells) IMHO to worry about stuff I don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of doing anything about.Or it's one of those things not worth fuzzing about?
I don't put all my eggs in the AHI basket either. AHI is one metric...not the ONLY metric we use to evaluate therapy.
By your own admission your AHI is reduced but you don't feel that your sleep quality itself has improved.....
so better numbers doesn't mean "better therapy" IMHO.
Better therapy is when we actually feel the improved numbers. IMHO
If I were in your shoes and not feeling the improvement in my sleep quality that I wanted or expected.....I would start doing a lot more detective work as to what else might be going on and quit using the AHI as the metric. It is often a misleading metric.
My most awesome miracle day after starting cpap came about 6 months into cpap therapy back in 2009. Respironics M Series APAP in auto mode. OMG it was a miracle. I felt like superwoman all day long. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the software reports that evening and saw the AHI was 10.4....WTH...yep...10.4. I thought for sure I just had to have had a 0.0 AHI night. I can tell you right now that I would gladly take AHI of 10.4 every night of the week right now if I could duplicate that OMG miracle. AHI be damned....I want to sleep good and feel rested and have tons of energy the next day....that is "better therapy" for me.
It's okay to use AHI as a metric.....just don't go making it the only metric used because there is so much more to feeling the good numbers than just getting them. Getting them is the easy part....feeling them is the difficult part so we have to understand the limitations of what "numbers" alone mean.
AHI of 0.0....nice metric to brag about and pat yourself on the back when you get it but it doesn't guarantee anything without a lot of other stuff falling into place to go along with it.
Doesn't matter what brand machine in that regard.
And yes...I do think ResMed is a "better" machine overall...that's why I use the brand but the reason I feel that way has absolutely nothing to do with just the AHI it might deliver.
My AHI last night.....0.6....and today I feel like total dog crap. Has absolutely nothing to do with my sleep apnea therapy though and everything to do with the amount of sleep I didn't get last night along with some other health issues that mess with my sleep quality that the cpap machine can't do a damn thing about no matter how much I wish it could/would.
When we put all our eggs in the AHI basket all by itself and won't/don't look at other factors that mess with sleep or how we feel........unrealistic expectations and a good way to find all the eggs cracked.