New member, getting first HA, seeking opinions Oticon, ReSound

I agree, lucky with this HIS fitter, especially after all the other audiologists have treated me as old, senile, and uniformed,

As I have seen so many times, the relationship with the fitter is far more important than the HA brand, I’m almost ready to stop the attempt to trial the OPN because of the fitter attitude toward my questioning nature. If I get no response today, I’ll call Hearing Revolution, they were emphatic that if the clinic was not responsive, to let them know.

According to this post by pvc, the ReSound Forte 8 is locked, though the Kirkland ones are not.
https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/hearing-aid-lists-costco-mfi-big5-redux/36941?u=teejayess (member archive)

2017-Q4 ReSound Forte /ReSound LiNX 3D 9/Beltone Trust 17 SmartFit software locked

I think the last I saw from PVC was that the Resounds from Costco are locked. To the best of my knowledge, others are unlocked. The only thing I can confirm from direct experience is that my KS7s are unlocked.

Thanks for the clarification.

Costco started out with locking ReSound KS5 in 2013 and KS6 in 2015. Then it seemed like Costco had stopped locking hearing aids because the KS6 Rexton/Sgnia was not locked.

But the not-locked KS7 turned out to be caused by switching vendors from ReSound to Rexton. Now they have reverted back to locking ReSound hearing aids with ReSound Cala 2016, and ReSound Forte in 2017.

Well, if I paid 6 or 7 or even 8 thousand for a pair of hearing aids, I would want the audiologist to jump through hoops of fire! And I would expect nothing less than absolute perfection.

As for me, I’m quite happy after a month and a half with my Costco Resound Forte 8s… and yeah I could get a few more presets with unlocked Fortes…

BTW, I’m a musician and extremely picky and tech savy. Like some above I’m an audiophile, and have a home recording studio and fully amped up home theater and turntable. Music is my passion…

I’m an analyst by day in an HMO IT environment, and still I’m working at 66.

I’m a realist. And I’m still very aware of saving money to quit working someday. I’m simply not willing to pay an extra $3500 to $4,000 for a what are comparable hearing aids. And that’s just me… And that is just my story… Those of you in search of The best – carry on… I’ve got no beef and I’m quite interested in your quest.

Thanks for the reply. I was quoted $8K for OPN 1 by an audi, as you see. That prompted the call to Hearing Revolution and the $3700 quote and a different audi. This audi clinic has an HIS as well as the audiologist. She is the one who placed the order and needs to change it. They are only open 3 1/2 days each week. Still waiting for return call…

Aside from the obvious financial gouging by an audiologist that charges $8K for OPN1s, I think it is also a real statement on how that audiologist views their customers. Even if I could negotiate with that audiologist to a more typical charge for the HAs, I wouldn’t use that audiologist due to the uncaring attitude shown. I can’t help but think that same attitude would be reflected in all aspects of that audiologist’s practice.

@teejayess said:

[The Costco fitter] did more tests in this session than I have had before:
1-standard pure tone thresholds in each ear.
2-bone conduction on both sides (I only had 1 at the 3 others, only on one side).
3-word recognition "say the word (two syllable) in each ear.
4-word test with one syllable getting quieter until I could not understand in each ear.
5-most comfortable loudness of tones in each ear.
6-loudness comfort with voice (someone reading until it was too loud) in each ear.
7-someone reading & I could ask for louder / softer until I found the preferred volume level in each ear and then both at once.

This was exactly my experience with my recent Costco fitting. I think there must be a set of standards that the specialists are expected to follow. Hearing test at a nearby audiology office, which was pushing a pair of OPN1s for $7K, consisted only of 1 - the standard pure tone thresholds in each ear.

@crootnik said:

As for me, I’m quite happy after a month and a half with my Costco Resound Forte 8s… and yeah I could get a few more presets with unlocked Fortes…

And if those who have figured out how to program their Forte 8s share their preset discoveries with us, the rest of us, who aren’t terribly interested in programming our own aids, can go back to our fitters and request the change.

@Bryan9 said:

And if those who have figured out how to program their Forte 8s share their preset discoveries with us, the rest of us, who aren’t terribly interested in programming our own aids, can go back to our fitters and request the change.

We can’t find anyone who has programmed their ReSound Forte’s because they are locked as for as we know. All ReSound hearing aids from Costco are locked. All of them (except the 2011 Alera).

That thread was me. At the time I thought they were unlocked, but since nobody has spoken up that they are programming them, it seems that they are locked.

The Alera’s are ancient history. Who knows? They might have been locked too! It’s so hard to tell since most ppl don’t try to program their Costco hearing aids.

@MDB said:

That thread was me. At the time I thought they were unlocked, but since nobody has spoken up that they are programming them, it seems that they are locked.

Really appreciate your clarifying this - thanks!

i just received a call from the fitter for the OPN 1, she stated that she feels the 60db receivers would be adequate since where my hearing loss drops to 65db & 70db is at 3kHz to 6kHz range where there is no speech, so no need for the 85db receiver. She said she would call Hearing Revolution to see if they would add the 85 receivers as well.

I still know that there are sounds, music and nature, classical music strings, bird calls, crickets, etc. that I will want to hear above the 3kHz range. Or am misunderstanding? I want HAs to give me back more to hear than just speech, since I spend to much time outside in open spaces. I also listen to music many hours a day at home on speakers or with ear buds when out walking around town.

What do those with experience think about this? I’m not sure I like that answer, but I’m too new to know if that is a good reason.

I think I mentioned the Costco fitter ordered the ReSound MP receivers and not the LP ones, as shown on the purchase order. When I plugged my audiogram readings into the Genie 2 software and choose the OPN family, it auto selected the 85 receivers.