quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
It already has gone the way of the buggy whip to a degree, but a lot of people, probably most, are resistant to change unless it runs over them.

In my case it wasn't resistance to change so much as having "moderately severe" hearing loss, coupled with far too many people we've known going the "economy" route and ending-up hating their hearing aids.

It may have cost us a pretty penny, but my hearing aids have worked nearly flawlessly for me. So well, in fact, I tend to forget they're even there--until I take 'em out at night. Then it becomes real clear what they're doing for me.

Everyone I know is the opposite. They spent $5K to $7K on hearing aids every 4 or 5 years. None of them are happy with what they've got.

So far 3 have transitioned to the less expensive hearing ands and while they say there's a difference, they all say it isn't much, but the price difference is astounding.

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Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Everyone I know is the opposite. They spent $5K to $7K on hearing aids every 4 or 5 years. None of them are happy with what they've got.

Maybe the people doing the fitting makes the difference? And end-user education?

I approached hearing aids the same way I do most things: With what I think of as an "engineering mindset." That means I researched thoroughly the subject. Read the Little Book of Hearing Aids, read the various threads here over the years, and whatever else came across my way or dug up over the years.

Then, in order, I visited an ENT, had an audiology exam, then worked with a knowledgeable, experienced fitter to choose a solution.

By the time I went to the ENT I already knew which brand I wanted, from long research into the various brands' performances. All that remained was to determine, for sure, that my hearing loss needed hearing aids to address, and which model to choose for the best results.

From all that I also had reasonable expectations of what I could expect from the effort.

In my case the brand I chose had one characteristic, one performance metric, that no other brand matched: How their aids handled ambient noise. Oticon has developed firmware to eliminate the "wall of sound" effect almost everybody experiences from (nearly?) every other brand and model of hearing aids. (This I verified via multiple sources.) I knew indiscriminate, sourceless sound like that would drive me up the wall. So Oticon was the only choice.

And, true to their promise: I've never experienced that effect in any setting, ever, with my hearing aids. In fact: Of all the complaints I've heard from hearing aid wearers I've known: I've never experienced any of them.

Was in Costco today. No Kirkland brand in the display case and the two brands they had were reduced 200 dollars

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Originally posted by rbert0005:
This thread has gotten me to finally get off my butt and see the VA about aids.

I have been wearing some from Costco for about 5 years and find them to be lacking compared to the Miracle Ear ones I used to have, but the price difference was too much to pass up.

I went to my local VA Clinic (there is one just down the road from me) and started the initial paperwork yesterday. We'll see how it goes.

Bob

Bob my local VA in Baton Rouge has been great to me. I'm on my second set of hearing aids. They gave me a TV streamer, a micro mic and a sound machine to use to sleep for my tinnitus.

I used an online hearing test: HearingTest.Online to check my hearing, did my wife's also.
I like this test: it uses a warble tone rather than a solid tone so you can be more certain whether you're hearing the tone.It takes about 10 minutes, and provides you at the end with an audiogram that can help you decide whether to get an OTC hearing aid (if you don't e.g. go to Costco for their free test--I wonder if they will still offer that when people can take their results and get an OTC aid).

I have mild loss up to 2KHz, mild-moderate at 4KHz, severe above that (bilateral).

I had planned to go the Costco route, but now I think I'll wait a while to see how the OTC hearing aid picture shapes up.

My wife's hearing is worse than mine--moderate in the lower ranges rather than mild.

One thing that has thrown me off: I do ask "What did you say" a lot more these days--but often when people in stores, etc. are still wearing masks. Damn COVID rules, idiotic at this point.

Here's a pretty thorough review of devices that will be available OTC; it's from the NYT, but no politics:
4 Best OTC Hearing Aids

Sounds good, but not much help for those of us with profound hearing loss.

Bob

Be warned of a downside of hearing aids. Even if they work great most of the time, there will be a setting where you will wish to rip them out and throw them against the wall. Like in a meeting, they do wonders to hear one speaker. But when the meeting takes a break and everyone gets up talking, you will have a head filled with many voices. That sudden change will make you flinch

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Originally posted by sjtill:
I used an online hearing test: HearingTest.Online to check my hearing, did my wife's also.
I like this test: it uses a warble tone rather than a solid tone so you can be more certain whether you're hearing the tone.It takes about 10 minutes, and provides you at the end with an audiogram that can help you decide whether to get an OTC hearing aid (if you don't e.g. go to Costco for their free test--I wonder if they will still offer that when people can take their results and get an OTC aid).

I have mild loss up to 2KHz, mild-moderate at 4KHz, severe above that (bilateral).

I had planned to go the Costco route, but now I think I'll wait a while to see how the OTC hearing aid picture shapes up.

My wife's hearing is worse than mine--moderate in the lower ranges rather than mild.

One thing that has thrown me off: I do ask "What did you say" a lot more these days--but often when people in stores, etc. are still wearing masks. Damn COVID rules, idiotic at this point.

Here's a pretty thorough review of devices that will be available OTC; it's from the NYT, but no politics:
4 Best OTC Hearing Aids

Aids, masks, and glasses all in the same place is a real problem

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Originally posted by Hamden106:
Be warned of a downside of hearing aids. Even if they work great most of the time, there will be a setting where you will wish to rip them out and throw them against the wall. Like in a meeting, they do wonders to hear one speaker. But when the meeting takes a break and everyone gets up talking, you will have a head filled with many voices. That sudden change will make you flinch

Really? I've been wearing them for around 5 years and never experienced anything remotely like this. Sounds like you've got your volume turned up way too high.

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Originally posted by Hamden106:
Be warned of a downside of hearing aids. Even if they work great most of the time, there will be a setting where you will wish to rip them out and throw them against the wall. Like in a meeting, they do wonders to hear one speaker. But when the meeting takes a break and everyone gets up talking, you will have a head filled with many voices. That sudden change will make you flinch

You see: That kind of effect with many, perhaps most, hearing aids is one reason I paid top dollar for a particular premium brand. Even in a brew pub with a bare metal roof exposed, all kinds of duct work and other metal stuff up there, hard floors, and full or nearly-full tables: No problem.

Yes: It is harder to hear my table companions in such a setting, but that's true in such a setting even with good natural hearing. The "wall of sound" effect is non-existent with my hearing aids.

In addition to being a premium brand, Oticon several years ago came up with a firmware algorithm specifically designed to address that specific problem. The guy who wrote The Little Book of Hearing Aids was skeptical, but, when he tried them he was amazed. It worked!

I proved it to myself when, right after getting mine I was talking to the owner of my gym about them and that particular advantage. "For example," I said, "without even looking I know there are two guys holding a conversation right about there," and pointed behind my back, "I'd say more or less close to the dumbbell racks." And sure enough, that's right where they were, about twenty feet behind me.

The gym wasn't heavily-occupied at the time, but there was gym-wide music playing.

I got mine from the VA about 3 years ago, Work great,tuneable to match your needs. Every year
I have then adjusted for any further loss of hearing. Couldn't be happier

Got my VA hearing aids today. Oticon. Excellent experience and they appear to work great. The App that accompanies them works flawlessly. There is a bit of a learning curve as they are far more advanced than my previous pair. So far, so good!

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I used an online hearing test: HearingTest.Online to check my hearing, did my wife's also.
I like this test: it uses a warble tone rather than a solid tone so you can be more certain whether you're hearing the tone.It takes about 10 minutes, and provides you at the end with an audiogram that can help you decide whether to get an OTC hearing aid (if you don't e.g. go to Costco for their free test--I wonder if they will still offer that when people can take their results and get an OTC aid).

I have mild loss up to 2KHz, mild-moderate at 4KHz, severe above that (bilateral).



Here's a pretty thorough review of devices that will be available OTC; it's from the NYT, but no politics:
4 Best OTC Hearing Aids

Low end the higher it went up the worse it got. 250-10, 500-15, 1k-50, 3k-60, 8k-40. Now I did this test twice and scored a little better on the first try.

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Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Got my VA hearing aids today. Oticon. Excellent experience and they appear to work great. The App that accompanies them works flawlessly.

That app has been the one fly in the ointment for me.

It worked flawlessly for me, too, until about the last month or so. Now it loses connectivity with one, the other, or both hearing aids nearly daily. Getting connectivity back requires, variously, restarting the affected aid(s), restarting the app, restarting both aid(s) and app, or even rebooting the phone.

Plus, I found, the Bluetooth connectivity with the aids is easily interfered-with by other BT devices, such as my Airpods, and interferes with other devices, such as a golf club swing training sensor I have.

Even more recently: I found the aids running out of battery by bedtime, whereas they used to have ±35% by then. Suspecting their verkakte BT, I unpaired them from the phone and de-installed the app. Sure enough: When I re-installed the app and re-paired them about an hour before bedtime they were still at 45%.

So, while the Oticon hearing aids, themselves, have been quite satisfactory, their app and BT connectivity rather suck.

Their app rates three stars out of five on Apple's App Store. Last update was a year ago.

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Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Got my VA hearing aids today. Oticon. Excellent experience and they appear to work great. The App that accompanies them works flawlessly. There is a bit of a learning curve as they are far more advanced than my previous pair. So far, so good!

My new HA's I got earlier this year from the VA are Resound One. They work great I like my hands free phone calls in them

 
I just learned our health insurer is offering hearing aids and paying 80% of the cost. I will begin exploring the possibilities, though I will not have extra money for them until next year's tax refund.
 
I took the online hearing test, which showed low moderate loss up to 2kHz, and higher loss at 4kHz and 6kHz (high moderate, not yet severe).
 
Do behind the ear units work at all with glasses, or am I limited to in ear units? My glasses' temples are bent to wrap around behind my ears.

I wear glasses and behind-the-ear hearing aids. Sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling to get everything to fit, but it does work.

I find that the best fit for me is with the eyeglass temples against my skull and the hearing aids outboard of that; you might need to experiment and see what works best for you.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
I find that the best fit for me is with the eyeglass temples against my skull and the hearing aids outboard of that; you might need to experiment and see what works best for you.

I wear glasses and I have my hearing aids in the same location as V-Tail. Everything seems to work best that way.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
I wear glasses and behind-the-ear hearing aids. Sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling to get everything to fit, but it does work.

I find that the best fit for me is with the eyeglass temples against my skull and the hearing aids outboard of that; you might need to experiment and see what works best for you.

I've been wearing HAs for a long time & that's what works for me. It still bugs me after a while, but that's about as good as it gets.

Since I've retired though, I find that I use the hearing aids less. I spend alot of my time outside doing noisy stuff, and wearing hearing protection over the hearing aids isn't comfortable for very long, so I usually don't even bother putting them in unless we're going away.

Over the years my wife has gotten used to talking loudly when talking to me. Even so, most of our conversations consist of me yelling, "WHAT?", while she's mumbling something or other to me from another room.

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most of our conversations consist of me yelling, "WHAT?", while she's mumbling something or other to me from another room.

You too?