Hearing Aid Recommendation

Car-Guy said:
After years of constant "suggestions" ;) from the DW, for me to at least "try" hearing aids, I finally bought a $300 pair of Audien Atom X Hearing Aids about 6 weeks ago. Best $300 I've spent in a long time. The actaul hearing aids are really worthless, but since I at least tried them, the constant "suggestions" from the DW have toally stopped. :dance:
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I guess this would be a good business model. Offer $50 hearing aids with the promise that your wife will quit nagging you to get hearing aids.
 
Car-Guy said:
After years of constant "suggestions" ;) from the DW, for me to at least "try" hearing aids, I finally bought a $300 pair of Audien Atom X Hearing Aids about 6 weeks ago. Best $300 I've spent in a long time. The actaul hearing aids are really worthless, but since I at least tried them, the constant "suggestions" from the DW have toally stopped. :dance:
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I always say, “If I cant see its my problem, if I cant hear its your problem.”…. I play with some older golfers and I dont know of any that actually like their hearing aides or arent looking for an excuse to take them out. I hope my hearing never gets to the point of needing hearing aides. I dont think its all an ear issue, I think the brain has something to do with it too. In restaurants in my younger days, I could block out the yacking from the nearby tables. Now it seems I hear their conversations better than the one at my table. Its like I cant block it out as well anymore.
 
^^^^^In my case it's almost certainly due to my heavy target shooting days, without adequate hearing protection. Some days I'd come home after shooting a few hundred rounds and I couldn't hear the radio in the car. A few days later and I was ok, or so I thought. So yes, it's a brain issue (or lack of.) For the past 40+ years now, I always wear good hearing protection but I'm afraid a lot of damage was already done.

I built an indoor shooting range in my barn about 15 years ago. The barn is made of concrete floors and metal walls and roof. Talk about loud. But with good hearing protection it cuts out most/all of the "damaging" blasts.

Probably a good (expensive) set of hearing aids would help, but I'm getting by and the DW is happy that I tried. At least for now. :)
 
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There is one thing that Costco does not do WRT hearing aids, at least the one that I went to. Even though the HA may be capable of providing some Tinnitus help, Costco will not activate that feature. I don't know why. Maybe their service people don't have the training/certification?
 
CRLLS said:
There is one thing that Costco does not do WRT hearing aids, at least the one that I went to. Even though the HA may be capable of providing some Tinnitus help, Costco will not activate that feature. I don't know why. Maybe their service people don't have the training/certification?
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Lots of misinformation here. Of course Costco and all HA dispensers perform a word recognition...aka speech discrimination, etc. The score, value is a percentage of correct responses at a predetermined loudness using monosyllabic words. At least 25 words, and as many as 100 words are presented.
 
I'll be honest. I'm dreading getting HAs but I gotta do something soon.
 
Car-Guy said:
^^^^^In my case it's almost certainly due to my heavy target shooting days, without adequate hearing protection. Some days I'd come home after shooting a few hundred rounds and I couldn't hear the radio in the car. A few days later and I was ok, or so I thought. So yes, it's a brain issue (or lack of.) For the past 40+ years now, I always wear good hearing protection but I'm afraid a lot of damage was already done.

I built an indoor shooting range in my barn about 15 years ago. The barn is made of concrete floors and metal walls and roof. Talk about loud. But with good hearing protection it cuts out most/all of the "damaging" blasts.

Probably a good (expensive) set of hearing aids would help, but I'm getting by and the DW is happy that I tried. At least for now. :)
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Right there with you. Upland bird hunting , then ducks and geese in the heartland, with trap and sporting clays mixed in with riding Harleys and eventually moving into woodworking. Now given the clearance by the cardiologist to resume shooting. And I am running the woodworking shop several hours a day. Hearing is blown despite protection. I know better but I love these things and I will never stop as long as I am able.
Just booked a cast and blast weekend with the son in laws!
 
Flyfish1 said:
Right there with you. Upland bird hunting , then ducks and geese in the heartland, with trap and sporting clays mixed in with riding Harleys and eventually moving into woodworking. Now given the clearance by the cardiologist to resume shooting. And I am running the woodworking shop several hours a day. Hearing is blown despite protection. I know better but I love these things and I will never stop as long as I am able.
Just booked a cast and blast weekend with the son in laws!
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I think for me it was sitting behind an aircraft engine for all those hours. Back then, they didn't have noise cancelation head phones. In fact we didn't have head phones - just a speaker that could overcome a 99 dB engine.
 
Idnar7 said:
My wife has issues with her hearing aids. She has tried multiple ones from True Hearing (Signia). She can-t hear me unless I am face to face with her. She can't hear the tv and has to read subtitles. One of her joys was going to lunch with her friends. Now she doesn't go because most restaurants are noisy and she can't hear in a group of people. She gets so frustrated that she doesn't want to go unless it is one on one. She is 73 and has had hearing aids six years. She goes to an audiologist for adjustments a couple times a year, but that doesn't seem to help, or doesn't last. Would appreciate any feedback.
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I am on my 3rd pair in about 8 years. First was in the ear which wasn't great. Then I went with Jabra OTC which was a big impovement with an over the ear model. Unfortunately though, my hearing in one ear was bad and it wasn't powerful enough. After 3 years, I"m now switching to Starkey which has an AI sensing for optimization in noisy enviornments. They have differet models which I'm trialing but inclined to go with their top of the line one.
 
skipro33 said:
I have Oticon and they are great! There's an app on my phone to set up equalization just like a mixing console if I want to get into it, as well as 'modes' I can select either through the app or from the aid itself. For example; there are modes for human speech, noisy environments, music, driving, etc. Driving cancels out the road noise like tires and other sounds that one hears when driving down the freeway, while still fully hearing the radio and passengers as well as other outside sounds that are not just 'noise'. For crowded restaurants, I need to look at the person and aim both ears. The internal processor cancels out sounds that are not equal to both hearing aids so the person I'm listening to comes through clearly. I did this last at a Christmas family dinner out at a restaurant with 14 of us at the table. I could hear not only conversations I was having, but I could 'eavesdrop' in down the table by aiming my ears in the direction I wanted to hear and the aids would mute, not completely, but reduced all the other noises that were not equal to each ear. Music mode is simply a graphic equalizer. I can also turn up or down in 3db steps if I want. In a quiet room, I don't want to hear every scooting chair, say, in a library, but I do want to hear a whisper from the person I'm studying with. I bump down the level maybe 6 or 9db and I hear the near person fine, none of the ambient noise. At night, I go outside and crank them full. Crickets sound like an invasion of godzilla-sized insects. Great to hear what someone is saying long distances away in the dark. Some movie theaters offer bluetooth connection to listen to the movie though my hearing aids as well. Look for theaters for hearing impaired in your area.
If I have any issues, I message the audiologist and they can adjust my hearing aids remotely. I guess because they are bluetoothed to my phone and she can access them through that? I don't know, but it works. When I visit once a year, she logs on with her computer, sees everything I did or adjusted and then gives me an audio test with tones while I let her know what I can and can't hear. BTW, my left ear is slightly worse than my right, but only at frequencies very close to my wife's voice. She 'sees' the anomaly and makes adjustments so I don't have to mess with the aids every time my wife is to the left of me.
Pretty cool technology. The aides are rechargeable, no batteries. Servicing them for the consumables is pretty easy considering the meat hooks I have for hands and fingers. Ha!
Oh, and somehow, they help with the tinnitus I have in my ears. Maybe because it's not so quiet with them in, I don't notice it as much as when I'm not wearing them. Since they are bluetooth enabled, I can either pair them up with the TV or my phone. So cool to watch videos and such on my phone without disturbing anyone around me and for watching TV in bed if my wife wants to read a book or go to sleep.

The app is called Oticon Companion if you want to check that out.

One last thing; they were expensive at $3,000 each as I recall. I got them before I went on Medicare, which only covers $500 for hearing aides. My retirement medical covered 100% of all prosthetics and they consider hearing aides prosthetics. All I paid was a $15 copay for the initial hearing exam to determine if I was a candidate for hearing aides. With the law no longer requiring a prescription, perhaps the cost for a pair has gone down too. They are insured; if I lose or damage either or both, they are fully replaced but just once. I lost one wearing my motorcycle helmet. Forgot I had the aides in and one fell out as I either put the helmet on or off. Could not find it. Now they are searchable with my phone app. Just click the tab marked, "Find my hearing aids" and it will track them down. Sort of like when I look for my wife's phone when she's traveling.
Other tabs in the app are;
Update. Just checked, it says no new updates, Current version 1.4.5
Battery notification
Hearing aid details: Model More 1 miniRITE R (there's firmware that matches the Update tab and there's Serial Number, which I won't give out here)
Find My Hearing Aides; uses Google Map on my phone and right now shows they are at my address. I suppose if I misplaced them, I would appreciate that.
You can wear them in rain or showering but not swimming they say.
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I'll second Oticon. I got a pair of the Oticon Intent 1 miniRITE hearing aids last fall, and now I can follow conversations in noisy, busy bars and restaurants! Those in particular were really hard for me before. The audiologist actually made adjustments remotely via a telehealth call through the app Skipro mentions. They are $$$$$, though, but honestly it is such a big improvement in my quality of life.

And after a few months of use, they are usually still above 50% battery life left when I go to bed!
 
Oh, and since someone mentioned hearing tests, this was the most interesting part of my hearing test, the phoneme (letter) sounds and where they fall in the frequency range, and how each ear did on both headphone and bone conductance tests on different frequencies. It was really helpful to see the differences! (Key at the bottom)
1772380693673.png
 
I have used behind the ear but find them somewhat uncomfortable when wearing glasses. I have an audiologist appointment next month and will ask them about the Oticon Zeal. The entire unit rests in the ear canal.

 
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