Costco Phonak Brio 3 (Product Information)

Costco aids usually run a generation behind the manufacturer’s latest aids. Perhaps the introduction of Costco’s Brio 3 signals that Phonak is about to come out with a new aid or a new platform soon.

Costco aids do not have tinnitus masking features, but if you have one of their made for iphone hearing aids, it’s a pretty simple hack to stream whatever sounds you want from your phone. Hope masking is helpful for you. I haven’t heard any “Wow” responses to masking though.

@ziploc said:

Costco aids usually run a generation behind the manufacturer’s latest aids. Perhaps the introduction of Costco’s Brio 3 signals that Phonak is about to come out with a new aid or a new platform soon.

I think Costco is no longer satisfied being a generation behind. The Phonak Beyond/B platform (<- I think I got that right) was just late summer of last year. That seems too early for another Phonak platform.

Costco and VA move large volumes of hearing aids;

US Hearing Aid Unit Sales Increased by 8.7% in 2016

According to HIA statistics, 3.65 million hearing aid units were dispensed in the United States during 2016—or 8.7% more than in 2017.

The previous generation aid seems to largely be a Costco myth as aids from Bernafon and Resound are current generation. It does hold for the Phonaks though and their “new” generation has been out for sometime–the Audeo B Direct. Although it shares the Audeo B name, the Direct is a new chip (called Sword)

I asked my local Costco about a Phonak bluetooth enabled hearing aid recently, and they said, “it’s coming!” I like buying from them, but the Resounds were not good for me and the others don’t seem to be a good fit.

I would certainly think Costco staff would know more than me, but it would still surprise me for them to start selling their “latest and greatest” through Costco.

@MDB said:

Hope masking is helpful for you. I haven’t heard any “Wow” responses to masking though.

I got my OPN 1’s yesterday and I’ve changed my mind. I would not use Tinnitus Masking as part of my criteria for choosing HA.

I mistakenly thought that the masking would be going on in background all the time and give me some continuous relief. It’s more a program that you can run a couple of hours a day to do retraining.

So far though, I love these hearing aids. The Connectclip is working great for listening to audio books and phone calls. I even tested the remote mic with my wife upstairs and me downstairs and could hear her fine.

Mike

I don’t understand the pattern, but yes, sometimes Costco offers a “free” device with their non Kirkland hearing aids. In the past it was often a streaming device or charging device (with the streamer being the much better deal) If I had to guess, I’d guess they’d do it after a model has been out for awhile, but it’s just a guess.

so these are what were recommended for me when I went for the hearing test. I will be getting them on Thursday. Good fit or no for my hearing loss?

Just about any RIC would be a good fit. The important thing is how you like them.

PVC just did the same kind of report for the KS8. It showed renamed features. This one doesn’t. So, is this a worse product than the “enhanced” KS8?

No way to really tell from this. It looks like the KS8 is more improved.

Yet, the Beyond has an improved processor and that allows more code to work in real time. So, it is a better/improved product but the specs above don’t tell that story.

So how do you tell? Stick it in your ear.

Brio 3 has Sound Recover 2 which the Brio 2 does not (except in ultra power version) Sound Recover 2 uses dynamic frequency lowering whereas Brio 2 is static.

Thanks I saw that but then lost it during the mechanics of producing the table with copy/paste. I fixed it.

This stuff is tough to decipher. I don’t see much difference between the old Phonak Audéo V models and the new Phonak Audéo B models. Except, they added a rechargable model, WhoopDeeDo! Oh, and a SoundRecover2 tweak.

But wait, there is the new Phonak Audéo B-Direct and that is new. It has the new SWORD chip and offers direct connectivity to cellphones (iPhone and Android). Though I believe the new SWORD chip resides in just this one model, the Audéo B-Direct.

What this looks like to me (except for the rechargeable model and SoundRecover tweak) is that the other Phonak Audéo models (B90, B70, B50, B30) just got a name change from Audéo V to Audéo B. I don’t see any other changes. Thus the Phonak Brio 3 hasn’t changed from the Phonak Brio 2, except for the SoundRecover2 tweak.