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New Sam's hearing aids - Bernafon Encarta 400 & NuEar NXG (Starkey AI 24)

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Hello:

Sam recently got rid of the Lexies aids (as posted in other threads).

I recently discovered that the Bernafon Encanta 440 is now available for $1699, which is equivalent to the Phillips 9050 that is sold at Costco.

They are also selling the NuEar NXG 24, which is the same as the Starkey Edge AI 24 (sold as Soundgear AMP at Costco) for the same price

It appears that Sam’s new products are now directly competing with Costco, offering the same products at the same price. However, I am not familiar with the terms of sale (TOS), return period, or other relevant details of Sam’s new offering.

https://samsclubhearing.nationsbenefits.com/HearingProductDetails90

Edit: changed “NE” for “NXG” for the NuEar (NxG is what is shown in the link above and what Sam’s Club is offering).

UPDATE: Sam’s web page lists both the NuEar NE ($1399) and the NuEar NXG ($1699)

19 people in this conversation18 min readJump to latest

Still, personally I would still buy from Costco, it’s actually quite amazing that they can offer prices close to Costco’s I think it’s quite obvious which way the manufacturers are happy to see the retail market heading.

i wonder if this is why the Sound Gear aids haven’t rolled out nationwide to Costco.May be a supply issue driving the delay. I’m holding off purchasing my next set because I am interested in trying the Sound Gear aids.

Good news, thanks

This is a real possibility for me, since Costco is so far away.
My wife and I shop at Sam’s regularly (it’s about 6 miles away). So the next time, I’ll ask a lot of questions at the hearing department. I’ll post the answers soon.

As a hearing specialist at Sams Club the Lucid hearing aids have gone away and Lucid has closed its doors. We now offer the Bernafon Encanta 400, the NuEar NE and the Unitron Vista V9. All at the premium tier of $1699 and basic at $1399. Most of our centers can see you same day or at least same week and we have stock for same day fittings. ALL our products offer a 3 year repair warranty, 2 year loss and damage with a $200 ded and a 60 full refund trial period. We will also be offering managed care thru Nations Benefits within the year.

So it’s really interesting that you guys can offer similar price as Costco, obviously you sell only a fraction of what Costco do, probably working more on markup then volume, but regardless what’s the situation with the Encanta, are bernafon still doing ChannelFree, or are they just the same as Phillips and Sonic rebranded.

We will eventually offer 5 different manufacturers as this only started on May 12. Until then we were still selling Lucid Brand. The Bernafons are a sister company of Oticon and they are feature rich. Not rebranded. If you google the Bernafon Encanta 400 you will see that is a top tier hearing aid in the OTICON line up for $1699

In reply to @hearingspecialist62

@hearingspecialist62 said:

The Bernafons are a sister company of Oticon and they are feature rich. Not rebranded. If you google the Bernafon Encanta 400 you will see that is a top tier hearing aid in the OTICON line up

Yes aware of this, but unless it’s still offering ChannelFree which is the only thing that differs from Sonic/Phillips then it’s simply rebranded like the rest…

Here’s an article about ChannelFree: https://journals.lww.com/ijoo/fulltext/2017/23010/influence_of_channel_and_channelfree__processing.5.aspx25

And an old thread suggesting that Bernafon, Sonic, and Philips were all ChannelFree. There it is claimed that the absence of a channel count in the spec sheet means the aid is ChannelFree. Oticon More next generation? - #297 by user246 I’m not sure how we can be certain without someone contacting Bernafon.

Sorry but that’s hardly a “case study” such a small amount 33 people over 45mins! Yeah but regardless I’ve trialed bernafon ChannelFree and found it useless, there’s a reason no one else is pushing this feature, maybe it needs some help from to make it actually work for people.

Edited

In reply to @hearingspecialist62

@hearingspecialist62 said:

NuEar NE AI

NuEar NE is the Starkey Evolv AI, which is two generations behind the Edge and the Omega. Those are much better .

Corrected to NuEar NXG AI 24 by Ocram which is the same as the Starkey Edge AI. I’ll look for it the next time I’m in Sam’s. If Sam’s sells it for $1700, then that’s a bargain.

Costco’s SoundGear AMP is also the Starkey Edge AI–it’s not as good as the Omega but very good for the price. On a cost-benefit basis, it’s hard to beat the Starkey Edge.

Edited

In the link I shared , which shows the Sam Club offerings , the model listed is the NxG , not the NE. The NXG is the latest model from NuEar and it is fundamentally the same as the Starkey Edge.

My original title/comment had a typo, I have corrected that and added a footnote explaining the mistake .

In reply to @tenkan

****While older Bernafon models were built around this single-channel processing, the Encanta 400 uses traditional multi-channel processing. It splits the incoming acoustic signal into multiple bands to apply customized gain, rather than processing the broad frequency range as one. Utilizing up to 24 channels

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