Fortell Hearing Aids

@tenkan said:

xMEMS receiver/microphone is the way forward, been waiting a while for someone to offer better technology in this department for a while now

This is what I’m waiting for, too, given my profound hearing loss above 2000 Hz, but it looks like I’ll have to wait a while longer. I should replace my Phonak P90s this year, and I don’t know whether to wait until 2027, hoping some brand will use xMEMS technology for severe/profound hearing loss like mine, or to abandon xMEMS and trust in artificial intelligence.

I too would love a true hearing aid (to at least 15k hz). Current ‘hearing aids’ are speech aids. I do love my KS 10’s, but I’m greedy and want more.

Hello Matt, I am not in NYC, but I am very interested in your hearing aids. I actually had a phone consult with one of your audiologists, Christina, and sent her my audiogram. We spoke for about 20 minutes and she said that she would keep me informed on when you all get telehealth set up. I am in the Denver area. I’m a very sophisticated hearing aid user as I have had it for 48 years and have tried Phonaks, Widex and now Resound hearing aids over the years. Though I am very grateful of the better technology over the years, hearing in noise is my primary problem even using the programs on the aids. I have very bilateral high frequency loss and very poor speech discrimination scores so the background noise factor is my biggest problem. Anyway, just wanted to reach out and find out if there is any progress towards setting up telehealth appointments or expanding to other cities. If there is a waiting list I am willing to come to NYC as well. Thank you.

Beck, Fling & Darrow: Extended High Frequencies Jan 2026 | Douglas L....10

Here is a PDF version of our new article "Why Extended High-Frequency Hearing Assessments are Necessary." Wishing each of you a healthy and joyful 2026! ---DLB | 11 comments on LinkedIn

About extended high frequencies:

Beck, Fling & Darrow_ Extended High Frequencies Jan 2026.pdf (792.2 KB)

Why Extended High-Frequency (EHF) Hearing Assessments Are Necessary9

Extended high-frequency (EHF) audiometry provides essential data and helps explain speech-in-noise difficulty when the audiogram is normal.

@MattHdeJonge, my audiologist filled in your site’s “For Audiologists” form almost 2 weeks ago and hasn’t heard back. She’s in a consummately professional practice near DC that could help you serve more clients in a competent and ethical manner. How can she reach you?

Thanks for asking! We are thrilled to meet audiologists who deliver fantastic levels of care. To be candid, the response to our launch in NYC has been larger than we anticipated so we are still focused exclusively on our flagship, fully owned NYC clinic but will be in touch with her as soon as we can support her in an excellent way (ex: sufficient volume of product, technical support, training on how to deploy our novel AI). Grateful if you can email me her name so we can prioritize her for DC! matt at fortell dot com

would love to see how these hold up against my Spheres and my cookie bite, especially in the types of sound environments i’m in. the sphere and non-sphere programs do not mesh well with animal sounds– amplifying them rather than suppressing. i either have to take them out or deal with it, but with how loud it is, it can cause pain. not great when your job consists of people and animals all at the same time! my airpods had better noise suppression in a noisy, echo-y room full of dogs, but they were not sufficient for my loss.

looking forward to seeing more data and real life anecdotes from those with fortell aids! seems promising so far.

So why hasn’t a review appeared yet? You still haven’t been able to get your hands on production units?

Looks like they are just stating the manf’s claims and ripping off a bunch of content from other sources. We finally have the product and are testing it for real. May be a couple weeks before we publish anything.

Definitely interesting. If they are as good as they seem I think most likely outcome is one of the Big 5 buying them out rather than them becoming a major competitor, but time will tell.

My feeling right now is they are probably going to be successful … not sure whether they are hoping for an early exit.

I find it mind-boggling. For years we’ve been told that one of the reasons hearing aids cost so much is all the R&D that goes into them. Picturing decades and decades of hundreds of people around the world in lab coats… and then a small bunch of dudes decide to make a hearing aid and they possibly do it better?

Anyway, Blamey & Saunders were going to disrupt the hearing aid industry for a while and they started to. Then Sonova offered them a lot of money and off they went. I hope it doesn’t happen this time.

You could be right Abram… But, the major players aren’t likely to appreciate this competition, they might be slightly aggrieved, when this is unforeseen new competition? Especially so, if they make better hearing aids than they do, let us hope this isn’t a newer version of “Whisper Mark 2”? It would be very interesting to find out how they fair, when given an intensive review? No doubt you guys will be on the case, I look forward to seeing your assessment of this new brand… Perhaps, this might be the shakeup the hearing industry needs? Most likely these will not accommodate my level of loss, but that’s not important, the main thing is we might have a new kid on the block, who might just propel this industry forward? Cheers Kev

A couple of thoughts… I finally finished that video I posted earlier… In the end he says they are in for the long haul. So, sounds like they aren’t eyeing an exit.

@kevels55 said:

we might have a new kid on the block, who might just propel this industry forward?

I think this is absolutely the case… The AI race was already happening to some extent, but Fortell is going to force the incumbents to take it much more seriously, and I expect there will be more strategic hiring and investment in R&D. Things should get better faster than ever before. Exciting time.