Costco ReSound Vida (Product Information)

@jim_lewis said:

Looks like DIRECT Android stereo streaming is left out, for now at least! Yikes!

Vida does not and will not offer direct Android streaming. You’re thinking of LiNX Quattro, and Vida is not a derivative of that product.

I’m not familiar with what’s involved in making a “derivative” product - just inactivating features in the openly available parent product and not changing anything about the real physical construction?

Otherwise, with a little retooling allowed, it should not be too hard to add the BT hardware and software required for Android streaming to a device. If ReSound doesn’t want to do it because of their pricing strategy, hopefully the competition will force them to do so eventually, if not now, perhaps by August, 2020, when OTC devices become available and will presumably offer direct stereo BT Android streaming.

To me, it seems crazy to tell your customers that if you want direct stereo BT streaming, you’re going to have to pay ~$6K for our Quattro device or carry around a PhoneClip+. And why supersede the Forte now with the Vida if in 3 to 6 months time, they truly could offer a defeatured version of the Quattro that would be less attractive, less premium but still offer MFA when all their devices offer MFI, anyway?? Maybe just as for Android software in general, all the real money is to be made with Apple users; Android users are such cheapskates, there’s little money to be made from them and might as well neglect them; it’s not going to profit the company much to cater to Android users, …, etc.

@Don said:

They are proposing BLE for hearing aid streaming and BLE does not have a standard for audio

Hi, Don. Just like ReSound put the hardware for BLE into the Quattro’s but it won’t be generally realized until Google makes Android Pie widely available on October 18th (or whatever it is), ReSound could have preloaded the necessary hardware into the Vida’s if they really wanted to have a private label product available through Costco that might draw folks away from other competing brands. Guess the glass half-empty/half-full view is now the other brands have an opportunity at Costco to make ReSound pay the price of not going all the way for the customer by including the Google open standard BLE protocol in their upcoming Costco devices, etc.

Has anyone gotten the new Resound Vida HAs yet? Are they basically the same as the Resound Forte – just now able to add the Zpower rechargeablity?

My husband was planning to order the Resound Forte this week but will get the Vida instead.

He currently has Kirkland Signature 8 but not fully satisfied so plans to try Resound instead.

Thanks.

Jim, that is ridiculous. Apple developed the tech when they did…google did not. Straight standard Bluetooth streaming would suck 312 and 13 hearing aids dry in no time. The hearing aid manufacturers offered the streamer devices to solve the problem… the phone clip connects to the phone and also to the hearing aid using a low energy signal.

Google is finally working on it. Resound is the 1st to design aids to connect to the protocol that google is designing… so…who is forcing whom to do what? A 2nd low energy connection may mean a radio that operates on 2 different frequencies… It isn’t just Resound disregarding Android users. If anything, why don’t you ask Google why they are so late to the game. Why is google only lately giving a damn?

I had a Note 8 and went to iPhone X to get direct streaming. I have had every major phone os including palm os. I am not a champion of any one brand or OS. Right now, Apple is most seamless…and that is what I have.

BTW…those phone clips have advantages too… they will connect to just about anything Bluetooth. Motorola 2-way with Bluetooth…check. Sony high def music player with Bluetooth…check. Laptop with Bluetooth…check. The clip is small… The tech has come a long way in 5 years.

I, too, am demanding, but you do have to be reasonable. If the aid is retooled…it has to go back through the FDA approval process… it only makes sense with new models going forward. Two years from now, Quattros will be $1500 each. No one…not a single hearing aid manufacturer is going to retrofit this into an old platform. That would be foolish…it would essentially be real easing a new platform with only a radio change and no better hearing component.

Resound is first out to try to tackle this issue and has worked with google…and you want to rake them over the coals… I guess you would rather they hadn’t offered it at all. No pleasing some people

I wouldn’t say that if I use the words “irked,” “dissatisfied,” or “frustrated” that I am mad or angry. But perception is in the eye of the beholder - to do some crazy wordsmithing. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with believing in the free enterprise system. If you think I shouldn’t begrudge ReSound as a company trying to make as much money as possible (the free enterprise system), maybe you shouldn’t begrudge me as a consumer believing or hoping that if ReSound doesn’t offer the type of service I’d like at the price that I want (the free enterprise system again, from the customer’s point of view) that their competitors can come along soon to offer me a better deal at a better price. That’s not me being mad, it me believing that the free enterprise system works in both directions and hopefully in the end by that means achieves a better deal for me, the consumer. I don’t think that it’s incongruous to like a company’s product but at the same time hope that the company’s competition holds the company’s feet to the fire and keeps product prices as low as possible and by competitive pressure induces the company to produce the type of product I most want to buy. Sorry if that point of view bothers you. I feel the same way about cars. I like Hondas but I hope competitive pressure from Toyota, Hyundai, and others keeps making Honda produce better cars that I can buy at price that I like. If they don’t and I declare that maybe my next car is going to be a Toyota instead, I hope there is nothing much wrong with that.

And so the quest begins for the frustrated consumer – what the heck is the difference between the Vida and the Forte? I can still return the Fortes I recently bought for the Vidas… and I’d be interested in doing so if the Vidas incorporate the Quattro’s impulse noise suppression feature. Is this the same thing as Echo Stop, mentioned above? I’m not sure about the rechargeable batteries, with their one-year usage life… how much does it cost to replace them?

I’ll be asking those questions about the Vida this Friday when I go in to Costco for adjustment. Did you see my thread on hearing the HA processor noise? I think that might be the Forte version of impulse noise suppression, whatever it is called. I’ve gone through the Smart Fit software and a couple of tutorials on its use and can not be sure what it is. Like you, I have time to return the Forte for something else. I’m overall 95%+ satisfied with them, this one small annoyance seems to be getting worse, though it might be that since I’m aware of it, I cannot ignore it. Like that itch you know not to scratch, but it taunts you and drives you crazy.

As for the rechargeables, I wanted them at first, but all my research, plus my time as a cell phone tech as they went from lead acid to Ni-Cad to Li-Ion, and the fact that I use the Battery University website to this day, makes me shy away from the Z-Power. There are many reports of problems with them, and supposedly those are all solved now, thanks to at least one HA manufacturer stepping in to take over production. I will not consider Z-Power rechargeables for at least two more years.

Lithium Ion that the Quattro uses is proven in many devices, and I would go with them. The first audiology clinic I saw, the one who helped me had previous experience with the Signia Nx Pure Charge and Go, and gave them high recommendation, but that clinic was months from getting Signia as a brand to sell. There other reasons to not use that clinic that I have documented before.

@Bryan9 said:

It affects my right aid only. Possibly this argues for a defect rather than a configuration issue? It’s less audible if I use the noise filter.

I see you have more loss in your right ear too. I hear this in both, but more prominent in my left were my loss is greater. I want to see if I can solve this with the Forte, since the Vida is based on it. The fitting appointments are only 30 minutes and it has been hard to cover everything in the last two 30 minute adjustments. I will request a longer appointment to address this. I will also ask about just swapping for the Vida, why not?

@MDB said:

t’s often possible to check one sided noise by sticking the other hearing aid in your ear and see if you still hear the noise. My experience is that if I wear medium instead of low powered receivers, I can hear processor noise in my better ear. It becomes much less notable if I don’t focus on it.

I have medium power receivers, that is what I had verified in the Smart Fit software by entering my audiogram and selection the LINX 3 D aids. That is what Costco fitted me with as well. My loss drops into the 65-70 db range at the high end. The low power receivers only go to 70 db, so any future increase in loss would require new receivers.

Thanks for the comments!

I personally think the “need” for higher powered receivers with a high frequency loss is debatable. No matter how high a power of receiver one has, if one has 70 dB loss or greater at high frequencies and is using any kind of an open fitting, one is unlikely to make the high frequencies audible. That’s where frequency lowering can come into play. When I first got my aids, I struggled with this issue too, thinking the HA fitter had given me the wrong receivers. Some here insisted I was right to be concerned–I should have gotten higher powered receivers. I asked my Mom’s audiologist and although he would have given me mediums, he said it really didn’t matter. I’ve tried medium receivers in other hearing aids and always had some background noise. In one pair it was easy to get used to, but I think for those with near normal low frequency hearing and severe to profound high frequency loss, there is a trade off between trying to give maximum audibility to high frequency noises without frequency lowering and having background noise. I’m glad my first hearing aid fitter gave me the lower powered receivers.

Thanks, I think.

Time for more analysis and research, those are strong points to consider. Maybe I can ask if they can swap for LP receivers this Friday to test. I wonder if slightly lower gain at those frequencies would do anything positive and not negative? Hmmmmm.

@teejayess said:

I have medium power receivers, that is what I had verified in the Smart Fit software by entering my audiogram and selection the LINX 3 D aids. That is what Costco fitted me with as well.

I’m more of a ski-slope audiogram than Tim but about the same loss at the very high end. My audi appears to be in at least the 60- to 70-year-old range and quite experienced from the way she talks to me. She is going to fit me with medium-power receivers and “power domes” - I discussed wanting to listen to podcasts and not missing too much bass, so I don’t know if the power domes are because of that discussion.

To help the discussion here, here are the specs for LP and MP receivers from the end of the Quattro manual. It looks like you get a few more dB potential gain out of the MP receivers but also a few more dB input noise (without noise reduction). Looks like the % harmonic distortion is actually a few tenths of a percent LOWER on the MP’s than the LP’s at the frequencies tested.

A bit of a sidetrack here, but I also discussed changing domes myself as my listening desires changed. The audi discouraged me from doing that saying that if I didn’t do a good job of getting the domes on, I’d risk losing one in my ear canal, which she said would be a bit of a hassle.