Realistic lifespan of hearing aids

The Seven Year Itch also affects the ears, I guess.

The Bluetooth/Aerial chip isn’t that big. It’s in the Unitron/non-Sphere product and they’re similar volume and a slightly more ergonomic than the Intent/Encanta.

The bulk is down to the Sphere chip and battery ensemble. Going forward they should be able to make it smaller, but the demands of live processing AI are likely to widen in the intervening period too.

@Roberto said:

Replacing too frequently (especially nowadays) does not generate as much benefit as it used to as improvements are now evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

That’s demonstrably untrue with the paradigm shift to AI, more processors and better charging.

Seven years ago, I’d probably have said the Resound Quattro was the best ‘bang for your buck’. Since then DeMant and Sonova have both pushed the game forward in way more than iterative hardware steps.

You don’t have to update every 3 years, but there’s been big developments in most products in that time, the old platform increment was about 4 years, with an intermediate firmware/tweakery step on two years. Now there’s usually a platform jump every 3. As more recent developments are happening through software, this cycle is going to happen more quickly too.

My statement was more intended as a general statement for electronics, be it laptops, hearing aids, printers, phones etc. For example, I have just upgraded my old Samsung A3 2017 phone to a new Samsung S25 phone and while there are a few nice new features etc, there is nothing that would have prompted me to replace my old phone sooner. A lot of technology (like computers) has matured and a brand new computer today will be no better than a 5 year old computer. The difference will be marginal like for like.

AI will no doubt make huge advances in hearing aids, but it won’t really make computers for example work any better. That’s why questions like this are very difficult to answer. Some people will answer three, others will say every five years, I say seven years (based on my working experience of computers and laptops) and other people just use em till they drop, which is ok for home use, but not practical in a business where you need to budget for expenditure. I accept your statement that AI will vastly improve hearing aids, but it will take time for all this to feed into new technology, releases, become stable etc. So, frankly I still think 5-7 years is a good time frame.

I’ve added my audiogram from July. My current aids have become less effective for me over time so testing out new ones with such improved technology seems like quite a step up. Connections are easier, volumes are up but I still need to rely on speech reading and captioning. Speech discrimination is poor in the real world outside of optimal conditions. The cochlear implant is something audiologists have recommended for me but of course, with new hearing aids, the candidacy may not be successful. Time will tell.

Got a chuckle looking at your audiogram. It’s worse than mine and I went with bilateral CI’s. It’s been life changing for me.

When Phonak’s Sound Recover couldn’t help me I knew it was time for implants.

Aids won’t help that loss. You have nothing from 1500 up. In my opinion.

What’s your WRS in quiet percentage? If you rely on captioning and lipreading hearing aid probably has nothing much to do.

If you go through cochlear implant evaluation and you will be eligible for CI, buying new HAs will be probable unnecessary spending of money.

Have you checked your battery stock?

No, a change in power consumption does not make sense for electronics (as far as I understand how electrons walk). Maybe try a different (fresh) battery brand?

I think this is probably metal element issue in battery socket. Maybe they have passivated or covered with a layer of skin oil?

Honestly, I wore my Marvel 70 yard for over eight years and I have to tell you I love them. We went on a cruise. I lost one now I’m buying a new set and it’s a real pain. Yes, there’s a lot of new technology out there, but I’ll be honest with you there’s gonna be something new right behind it. My insurance doesn’t cover mine so I pay for them out-of-pocket, which can be quite expensive so that’s the reason why I keep mine and I take good care of them up into losing them on the cruise well at least one of them I was just having too much fun anyways if I had insurance, I would regularly switch just to see what’s available so I guess it depends on your economic status. Hope it helps.