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Costco Hearing Aids and Tinnitus Masking feature self-enabling

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I’ve had and noise induced tinnitus for around 2.5 years now. I saw a /Audiologist about 1.5 years ago due to many reasons I couldn’t get into one right after the hearing loss. I actually saw 3 ENTs, 3 hearing test (I didn’t want to accept the reality at the time) but only did a hearing aid fitting with one of their Audiologist. All 3 ENTs said I was an “edge case” basically right on the cusp of needing a hearing aid with minor to moderate hearing loss in my right ear and didn’t need it but could try it for comfort and to see if it helps with tinnitus. The audiologist thought different and that I definitely needed a hearing aid. When I tried the hearing aid at the fitting for maybe 5 minutes total I did feel like the tinnitus was less, which makes sense since the sound is essentially your brain making up for high frequency sounds it can’t hear. However, at the time I decided to go without HAs for awhile longer. I’m 35 at the time and didn’t want to accept this is where I was at since I could’ve avoided needing one at all. Well, now I’ve accepted it and don’t beat myself up over it (as much). The other issue is the ENT was going to charge like $4-5k, they said I could try it and pay after I decided but I didn’t like the idea of leaving with something to try that I potentially couldn’t afford if I did want to keep it/get accustomed to wearing it.

So now Costco, 1.5 yrs later, acceptance. Costco seems highly recommended and I have my own reason for wanting to do Costco: What if I move and need to have them serviced/adjusted? Well there’s Costco everywhere. I have an appointment with one Costco next week. Here are my questions:

  1. I’m interested in trying tinnitus masking sound/white noise through the HA. I found THIS thread Your experience using Resound Tinnitus solution that says the Jabra (which are rebranded Resounds) can have their tinnitus masking turned on yourself after buying a seperate device online. I’m tech saavy/enthusiast so this is something I actually want to be able to do myself on my own time, outside the constraints of a 1 hour appointment with other patients waiting outside in a waiting room. My question is, there’s 3 other brands and I’d like to have the option to try at least one other, are there any other brands where you enable the masking sound yourself or will I be locked to Jabra? I have a strong guess that I won’t need or like the masking sound at all and go without. Most experiences I’ve read said that once they tried it the amplification was enough to not need the masking sound too (going to sleep in a noisy environment w/ tinnitus and w/o a HA will be a different issue but I will likely wear Soundcore A20s for that). However I’d still like the option to try different brands masking sounds.

  2. I have 3 Costco’s near me, yes 3. If I go to one and get the hearing test (last years hearing test are expired now but I don’t feel my hearings got any worse) that I have scheduled next week and do the fitting there also but want to try adjustments at another location with another HA specialist will I be able to? Or will I only be able to do followup appointments at that one location? What if I return it and want to try another brand? After the return can I try another brand at another location?

  3. When I saw the ENT/Audiologist/small practice 1.5 yrs ago the HA I tried (Oticon Zircon I believe it was) had both the volume up and down buttons on the same ear, which I liked. Again, this was for 5 minutes and I never tested them outside the clinic, in the real world and at that price it won’t be for awhile. I want the option to potentially wear one HA only (since my left is mostly fine and there will be times when I want to wear a work company provided bluetooth phone earpiece in my left ear, seperate from a HA). Do any of the 4 brands and their models include both volume buttons on each ear or do they only have one button (volume up or volume down) on each ear?

Something I should note too is I found the Oticon’s tinfoily at the small practice (others may not). Phillips is rebranded Oticon’s so I will probably avoid them. That narrows it down to 3 brands or 2 after I’ve tried the Jabras.

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You can do followup at any Costco with a hearing aid center.
Each manufacture does buttons differently and there is usually some options for the fitter in how they set them up. Ask the hearing aid fitter what the options are.
I don’t think playing around with tinnitus masking is worth it, but have at it. You can just download an app from your phone and stream masking to any hearing aid. You don’t need one with a specific masking feature.

@ears said:

I found the Oticon’s tinfoily at the small practice (others may not). Phillips is rebranded Oticon’s so I will probably avoid them.

I wouldn’t blame the . I’d blame the programming. Fine tuning would almost certainly have fixed that. Between needing time to adjust to hearing sounds you haven’t heard and tuning you should be good with any of the brands. And the Philips isn’t the same as the Oticon, the firmware is different.

Take time to adjust to the new things you need to adjust to. Your brain adapts to both loss of hearing and treatment. But it takes time. Some things took me a week. Some a year. Some I’m probably still not adapted to after almost 4 years.

WH

I was told by Costco they are unable to turn on the tinnitus features and had to setup an appointment with a Resound professional. I called one and the appointment would cost ~$150. Since then, I’ve asked around about the tinnitus noise reduction and found most found it didn’t do anything for them. I haven’t had the feature turned on.

I have the Jabra Enhance Pro 20, the lasted is the 30. I’ve had a tough time getting my ’s adjusted for my hearing needs. I’m not sure if it is me, the HA’s, or the technicians at Costco are the problem. Some very high frequency sounds are way to loud and others to low…etc. The mobile app for the HA’s is OK at best. Hopefully the issues with Bluetooth have been fixed.

@ears said:

I found the Oticon’s tinfoily

what do you mean by that … sound quality or physical quality ?
Some people find the jabra’s to be “tinny” sound, I think it is just giving you the sounds that you have been missing for years. Some of the others have more of a bass sound to them, therefore people don’t think they are “tinny”, more of a mellow sound.
I personaly like to get the upper frequency sound that I have been missing for 40 years.

I have used both phonak and now using Jabra 20 and going to get the jabra 30 next Sat.
Having one button or a rocker/two button, I have found is not much difference.
It is kinda hard to find the up or down on a rocker … easier to find a single button, left for down, right for up volume :slight_smile: Just a double tap to answer the phone.
With the phone app … you will not use the buttons much anyway.

Responding to the issue in the title; Costco, as a manner of policy will not activate the Tinnitus features in any of the hearing aids they sell. As mentioned you can go to an independent audiologist and have it turned on and adjustments made but that may be expensive. If you are a do it your self type of person you can turn the Tinnitus feature on yourself. Visit the section of this forum for advise. It involves downloading the free software (you must have windows) and buying a programing device which is about $150.

If you are in the U.S., Costco has a 180-day return policy, no questions asked. When I was unable to decide from the quick walk around test in the store between 2 brands (first aids I got), I bought both – not the same day. As I remember got one, wasn’t sure, and then got the other weeks later. Anyway, that enabled me to test both in my own everyday activities, and when I decided which worked better for me, I returned the other pair. The audiologist (yes, she is really is an audi; Costco does have them) knew what I was doing and had no problem with it.

Of course to do that you have to pay for two pair to start with. However, two Costco sets were much less than the single pair I tried at a private audiologist’s, which really were beyond any reasonable outlay for me and discouraged me mightily until my primary care doctor told me to go to Costco.

My experience with tinnitus is like what a lot here report, just wearing hearing aids has reduced it to almost unnoticeable. Mine was never as severe as what some have, though.

I’ve called 2 of the 3 Costco’s near me. The two that I called use specialist, not . I’ll call the 3rd one and see if they have an AuD but I doubt it.

From personal experience when I was seeing /AuDs 1.5 yrs ago I wasn’t all that impressed, but I only tried a fitting with one so I’m sure there are better AuDs around me that I just don’t have access to with my insurance. I’m sure a HA specialist will be fine, if not more experienced than the recent graduate AuDs I saw.

You can download the Resound Relief app for iPhone, assume there is also one for android. This app does the same thing as the tinnitus manager. It will allow you to customize a sound that will play continuously thru your aids to see if the tinnitus management would be any value to you.

For me, it’s just replacing one annoying sound with another.

I do find wearing my aids by themselves lowers my tinnitus about 30%

YMMV

Edited

If I do find it helpful I would rather have it built-in to the rather than have to stream it from my phone since that can disconnect, especially if you’re ever more than 10ft from your phone. My understanding (or hope) is that once enabled I can turn it on/off from the HA earpiece itself, maybe by a long press of the button or something like that. Can anyone confirm this?

Again, I may not need even need it or find the feature useful but trying to find out as much info as I can before I spend $150 on a seperate device even if it’s returnable. Thank you in advance.

I think from memory you could have a separate program for it or add it to an existing program, a few other features as well, I don’t use use it myself, I should check in SmartFit.

In reply to @ears

@ears said:

I’ve called 2 of the 3 Costco’s near me. The two that I called use HA specialist, not AuDs. I’ll call the 3rd one and see if they have an AuD but I doubt it.

It’s not like I believe anyone is necessarily better because of being an audi. I suspect in most professions there are just some people who have an extra talent for it. I saw that in the years I raised horses. Some vets are just better, and it has nothing to do with what schools they went to or how long they’ve practiced.

Anyway, since I regularly see claims here that Costco doesn’t have audis … Just can’t resist piping up with yeah, they do too.

I’ve been seeing this particular person since my first aids, like her, and recently saw her again for a new hearing test. She told me once that she started out in a private practice and ended up feeling too much like a used car salesman, which was pretty much how the audi in the private practice I first saw on my hearing aid journey struck me, except delete the “used.” After all they’re pushing high end new product.

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