Hearing aids

[perlsvilla]

Saw an ad today for Elite Hearing Centers for a set for $400. Too good to be true I know. Anyone have experience with these? They're rechargeable! Is that a good thing? Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy New Year. Perl

[retiredguy123]

Costco seems to be highly recommended for hearing aids.

[Two Bills]

Saw an ad today for Elite Hearing Centers for a set for $400. Too good to be true I know. Anyone have experience with these? They're rechargeable! Is that a good thing? Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy New Year. Perl

Sounds like they are selling 'sound amplifiers.'
No way are they any good for serious hearing loss.
Go to a decent audiologist, and get tested and see what your hearing requirement are.
Lots of charlatans in the hearing aid business.
You get what you pay for.
As above, Costco seem very popular and straight up.

[Stu from NYC]

Where to go depends upon how much of a hearing loss you have. Moderate you can get away with cheap ones, have what I have and need services of a qualified audiologist

[villagetinker]

I would get an exam from a qualified audiologist, and them ask if the OTC (Over The Counter) devices would work for you. I just went through this, and was advised that even lower cost full blown hearing aids would not be suitable as I needed different levels of amplification based on different frequencies. So I now have programmable hearing aids which worm much better than my previous ones. The hearing test should take around 20 minutes or more and include a word recognition test.

[Toymeister]

The way these preprogrammed aids work is they are set for the average hearing loss.

There is nothing wrong with that, if you are average.

You are not but if the choice is these or no aids I would take these.

Generally these are set for high frequency hearing loss. The sort of loss where you wonder why everyone is mumbling. Where you hear letters of a word but not the entire word. I have had a similar product and it helped, to a degree.

[NotGolfer]

My other half wears hearing aides that are top of the line. I forget the brand. We belong to TVH so the audiologist there continues to monitor them. They are the rechargable ones but still need checking from time to time. The hearing loss has continued to decline so it's important to have consistant care!!!

[Shoogley]

Saw an ad today for Elite Hearing Centers for a set for $400. Too good to be true I know. Anyone have experience with these? They're rechargeable! Is that a good thing? Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy New Year. Perl
Hearing aids have evolved to a point where it can be controlled on a phone for both ears together or separately.
Expensive only because they charge for 3 years of free batteries and service to clean and repair.
Oticon is best I have had in 15 years
Now rechargeable so no battery required or audiologists to adjust. All adjustments available on over the ear models. Buy it and do your own adjustments. Easy peasy.
I do not want rechargeable because I wear mine 24/7 to hear my breathing. If I do not hear my breathing…. I do not have to get up.

[JCR642]

Saw an ad today for Elite Hearing Centers for a set for $400. Too good to be true I know. Anyone have experience with these? They're rechargeable! Is that a good thing? Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy New Year. Perl
Any chance you can post where you saw the ad or where the center is? Need a backup pair

[retiredguy123]

As I understand it, you can either amplify the sound equally for all frequencies, or you can use an "equalizer" to amplify the sound differently for different frequencies. That is about all you can do to adjust a hearing aid. But basically, it is an amplifier. It's the same concept for AV receivers. It is not rocket science. Am I missing something?

[PoolBrews]

As I understand it, you can either amplify the sound equally for all frequencies, or you can use an "equalizer" to amplify the sound differently for different frequencies. That is about all you can do to adjust a hearing aid. But basically, it is an amplifier. It's the same concept for AV receivers. It is not rocket science. Am I missing something?

What you are describing is a sound amplifier, not a true hearing aid. When you have a hearing aid test, it will chart out where your hearing loss is and the amount based upon frequency. A hearing aid will be programmed to restore your hearing loss by the measured amounts and at each frequency range. When a hearing aid volume is increased or decreased this programmed curve will then be increased or decreased across the entire range.

A sound amplifier simply increases or decreases everything without taking into account your actual hearing loss.

When I went for my last appointment, one of my old hearing aids had died, and they had me test out a new Beltone hearing aid. I wore it for several days and, while it was awesome, I was not going to spend the $7K they were asking. I did a lot of research and ended up with Jabra Enhance Select 200 hearing aids. They look identical to the Beltone, and performance was identical (as far as I could tell). They sell for $2K, but they had a $300 rebate offer going on at the time, so they ended up costing $1,695 with a 3 year warranty and 3 year Audiologist support.

They have an online hearing test available, but that will never be as accurate as a test in a real sound booth. I got a copy of my latest hearing test and sent it them, and they used it to program my hearing aids. They have been fantastic so far!

[retiredguy123]

What you are describing is a sound amplifier, not a true hearing aid. When you have a hearing aid test, it will chart out where your hearing loss is and the amount based upon frequency. A hearing aid will be programmed to restore your hearing loss by the measured amounts and at each frequency range. When a hearing aid volume is increased or decreased this programmed curve will then be increased or decreased across the entire range.

A sound amplifier simply increases or decreases everything without taking into account your actual hearing loss.

When I went for my last appointment, one of my old hearing aids had died, and they had me test out a new Beltone hearing aid. I wore it for several days and, while it was awesome, I was not going to spend the $7K they were asking. I did a lot of research and ended up with Jabra Enhance Select 200 hearing aids. They look identical to the Beltone, and performance was identical (as far as I could tell). They sell for $2K, but they had a $300 rebate offer going on at the time, so they ended up costing $1,695 with a 3 year warranty and 3 year Audiologist support.

They have an online hearing test available, but that will never be as accurate as a test in a real sound booth. I got a copy of my latest hearing test and sent it them, and they used it to program my hearing aids. They have been fantastic so far!
Your first paragraph sounds like what I described as an amplifier that amplifies sound differently for different frequencies. This is what an equalizer does when it is attached (or built in to) an AV receiver. It doesn't increase or decrease everything the same. So, if you have hearing loss at low frequencies, the low frequency sound will be amplified more than high frequency sounds. What can a hearing aid do that would be any different from that?

[PoolBrews]

Your first paragraph sounds like what I described as an amplifier that amplifies sound differently for different frequencies. This is what an equalizer does when it is attached (or built in to) an AV receiver. It doesn't increase or decrease everything the same. So, if you have hearing loss at low frequencies, the low frequency sound will be amplified more than high frequency sounds. What can a hearing aid do that would be any different from that?

A hearing aid is a device that in it's simplest form could be called an advanced equalizer. The primary difference is that sound equalizers are limited in that they can adjust broad spectrums of sound (low, medium, high) and can't target specific frequencies. A true hearing aid takes a chart of your hearing, and restores the portions that have hearing loss to a normal volume. As a very simple example, say you specifically have hearing loss at 4Khz, and 4Khz only. The hearing aid would be programmed to pass through every frequency except 4Khz at normal levels, but would enhance 4Khz so it would be at normal levels.

Once that specific amplification is applied, now when the user sets their hearing aid to a given level, it would amplify the entire spectrum (with already applied amplification at 4Khz), so that normal hearing levels are maintained at all settings.

Taking that example to the next step, there will be different levels of hearing correction at different frequencies. Lower cost devices will have a more limited range across the spectrum, and will also have a coarser granularity for correction - i.e. they may only be able to provide adjustments for low, medium, and high or every 2Khz as opposed to specific corrections in Khz or Mhz steps. What this translates to is that if your hearing is only weak in the upper medium range, lower cost devices will still amplify the entire medium range (or worst case the entire hearing aid range). This simply translates to louder sound coming in, and not clearer, as the area you are having an issue with will be drowned out by the increased volume to the areas you are not having issues with.

So while the answer to your question is yes, the difference is that a quality hearing aid has far more granularity and control than an equalizer, and is tuned to your specific actual hearing loss. In addition, high end hearing aids can also suppress background noise, enhance speech, and improve the overall quality of incoming sound.