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Suggestions and comments wanted concerning Invisible (IIC) Hearing AIDS from Beltone

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Hello everyone,

I am considering purchasing a set of Invisible () Hearing Aids from Beltone for the quoted price amount of $4,100 which includes a 3 or 4-year warranty. This will be my first set of hearing aids. I wanted hearing aids that are somewhat inconspicuous. Quality and price are also two additional major concerns.

My questions are:

  1. Is the price quoted fair? If not, can you suggest another option?
  2. Are Betone's Invisible (IIC) hearing aids considered a quality product as it relates to longevity?
  3. Does anyone have experience with using the aforementioned hearing aid. If so, can you elaborate?

If anyone has anything to add that may help me determine the type of hearing aid or best place to purchase it, I would appreciate your input.

Thanks everyone! :slight_smile:

12 people in this conversation16 min readJump to latest

One thing to consider if your hearing loss in borderline qualified to use (because they’re a little underpowered due to the small size) is whether you think your hearing loss will be stable in the next several years or whether there’s a good chance it’ll worsen. You may want to consider that has some room to support worsened hearing loss, otherwise you’ll outgrow them quickly due to worsened hearing loss.

I have no experience with Beltone, but I’m leery. I think you could get comparable, and likely better hearing aids at Costco. Beltone is made by Resound and Costco carries Resound. Costco hearing aids max out in price at about $2800 and include a 3 year warranty. I’m pretty sure Costco’s $2800 hearing aid would be higher quality than the Beltone. Everybody has their own preferences, but I think you’d be surprised at how inconspicuous most hearing aids are. Even when I mention mine, people can’t see them. They are (Receiver in Canal) hearing aids.

Thanks for your reply! I’ll give Costco a try. I wanted invisible ’s because I’m bald headed and don’t have hair to cover my ears. I’d rather have people pay attention to what I’m saying instead of focusing on my hearing aids. With all said, I’ll definitely check Costco’s offerings.

In reply to @Volusiano

Thanks for the reply! The audiologist stated that I will still have room for correction if I choose the invisible . However, she did suggest the ALLY 2 which does not fit as deep in the canal. She said that the Ally 2 had more options and allowed longer use as it relates to possible later hearing loss. I’m going to take what you stated under consideration. I’m also going to check out Costco to see what they have to offer. Thanks for the information!

In reply to @quietear

@quietear said:

Thanks for your reply! I’ll give Costco a try. I wanted invisible IIC’s because I’m bald headed and don’t have hair to cover my ears. I’d rather have people pay attention to what I’m saying instead of focusing on my hearing aids. With all said, I’ll definitely check Costco’s offerings.

Certainly better to look good than hear good.

In reply to @quietear

@quietear said:

Thanks for your reply! I’ll give Costco a try. I wanted invisible IIC’s because I’m bald headed and don’t have hair to cover my ears. I’d rather have people pay attention to what I’m saying instead of focusing on my hearing aids. With all said, I’ll definitely check Costco’s offerings.

’s have a higher failure rate do to moisture issues than ’s, so be prepared to have them in the “shop” periodically so they can be cleaned, serviced, etc. Don’t worry about your bald head and people staring at your ’s, it won’t happen; HA’s aren’t like glasses, since they are behind your ears and on the side of your head, very few people will notice them. Get the hearing aid that will allow you to hear the best and don’t worry about whether they can be seen.

I wear my hair short, and I’ve worn aids for more than a decade. I could wear grapefruits behind my ears and nobody would notice. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes, Costco sells all the models. They also sell aids starting at $495. There is a display case that shows that.

In reply to #6

@Neville said: (unavailable)

CICs will have more options in terms of connectivity, but maybe you don’t care about that in which case IICs would be just as good (if not slightly better because of better acoustics in the ear) so long as your ear is large enough to fit a speaker with the appropriate power level for your loss. (The most invisible option, if you don’t care about connectivity, would be the Lyric.)

In terms of CICs, my general experience is that Starkey is one of the better companies for packing a lot of technology into a small space. I know a guy with severe loss who is very happy with the wireless Starkey CICs. He had bad luck with a few other companies who were unable to make CICs that were powerful enough for him. Plus, they stream directly to your iPhone and the CIC mics pick up your voice and send it out for calls so you don’t need an intermediary device (note, does not work well for certain ear shapes).

I don’t have direct experience with them, but I believe that the high end seimens CICs also do binaural beam forming, which would give extra benefit in noise (most IICs and CICs are omnidirectional). As far as I know they are the only company who does that as of yet.

Without knowing what technology level of Beltones your practicioner was recommending, it’s impossible to know whether that was a reasonable price. But the Ally 2 is the base level model, so $4k for that seems steep to me. Are you at a HearMore? The ones in my area are predatory.

Thanks for responding! Thank you for the additional information. I do not have the specific technology of the invisible hearing aid at hand.

I will research all of the choices you mentioned. Btw, I did research HearMore but I could not find any locations near me. With that said, I am noticing that many of the hearing aid centers near me, utilize high-pressure sales strategies which only makes me hold on to my money longer before making a final decision.

In reply to @MDB

@MDB said:

I’m not sure what Costco carries, but this link suggests that they carry Resound IIC http://www.costco.com/resound.html

I’m not aware that Costco offers any IIC per se. But for sure it’s a very popular place to get fitted with HAs thanks to its reasonable pricing, great service and great trial period.

[/quote]

Wow, thanks! That’s very helpful! I could not find information concerning ’s on Costco’s page. I must have overlooked it. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Basically I was going by the picture. They seemed to show some pretty small hearing aids. Perhaps they’re only instead of , but they are by the same overall manufacture as the Beltone aids.

In reply to @Doc_Jake

LOL!! I can deaf-inately relate to both sides of this! Luckily, being a woman, my hair is long enough to cover my ears, but even with my , I’ve found that folks don’t focus as much on my EARS as what I say. O’course, I’m 61, and not 31, which makes that tricky call even easier.

Quiteear: My own 2-cents’ worth is based on experience: I am a bit prone to developing itchy-ear if the canal is firmly sealed. In fact, I’ve had two bouts of otitis (due to allergic reaction to hard shell cases) that convinced me: NO (Lyric, et al) is worth even “going there”.

I’m not familiar with Beltone’s invisible aid, but I’d have a YUGE issue with an aid where I couldn’t swap out batteries myself as needed or get the dang thing out every single night to give my ears a chance to breathe and dry out. I also think Volusiano brings up a valid point about “future growth”. If you want the investment to pay off, perhaps have some built-in range in which to increase gain and fine-tune the frequency ranges.

BEST of luck in what you decide! Be sure to keep us posted. Trials are a great way to test out one aid against another. And Costco seems the most reasonable solution for many here. I have opted for REI, behind-the-ear Oticon Opn miniRITEs, which seems to work with my loss profile.

====================

@Doc_Jake said:

Certainly better to look good than hear good.

In reply to @seb

@seb said:

IIC’s have a higher failure rate do to moisture issues than BTE’s, so be prepared to have them in the “shop” periodically so they can be cleaned, serviced, etc. Don’t worry about your bald head and people staring at your HA’s, it won’t happen; HA’s aren’t like glasses, since they are behind your ears and on the side of your head, very few people will notice them. Get the hearing aid that will allow you to hear the best and don’t worry about whether they can be seen.

Thanks for replying!

I didn’t think about moisture issues. My understanding is that most companies offer a protective coating to protect against moisture. Are you saying that even with the moisture protective coating, ’s fail at a greater rate than ’s? Are certain manufacturer’s protective coating more effective than others?

Btw, I’d rather be kicked, dragged, and have my eyes gouged out than to wear BTE’s :D. However, I agree that my choice should be solely based upon the hearing aid that allows me to hear the best I can. I’m hoping the IIC will give me what I need.

What you choose is obviously your call, but I would encourage trying on and looking at some of the hearing aids. They are remarkably small and discreet. If you don’t like them after looking at them, great, but I wouldn’t rule them out. I never have anybody comment on my hearing aids. Although I’m not bald, I have short hair and the aids are visible if one looks for them, but most people don’t closely examine my ears. :>)

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