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How often do you upgrade your hearing aids? [POLL]

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Now that technology is changing so fast, I’m curious, how often are people upgrading their hearing aids. Select the number that matches how long you plan to wear your current hearing aids before upgrading them.

Poll (179 votes — closed at migration)

  • 1 year — 2 votes
  • 2 years — 10 votes
  • 3 years — 50 votes
  • 4 years — 41 votes
  • 5 years — 43 votes
  • 6 years — 8 votes
  • 7 years — 5 votes
  • More than 7 years — 20 votes
35 people in this conversation12 min readJump to latest

I’m considering it at 3 years. Depends on how much difference I see. I’m currently in a trial of older Oticon OPN as I await the Marvel becoming available. The OPN is definitely better than my KS7 but I don’t think it’s worth it FOR ME. I’m very hopeful for Marvel plus Roger Select, but we’ll see.

This topic was pinned across the forum.

Ha ha, I’m not independently wealthy and don’t have any medical coverage for ’s. I’ll probably have these Marvels until I die (if they last, if I last that long).

And if my wife has anything to say about it.

Provided I keep my medical coverage, through work, I’m thinking 4 years will be when I’m looking to upgrade again.

I wear Phonak Brio 1 which are pretty old but work very well for me. No need to upgrade until I start to struggle with my current .

I’m not interested in streaming music and phone calls. I don’t mind my Roger receivers either as they are integrated receivers so don’t need to use the new Roger iN devices either.

Depends on the change in my loss and the system I get my aids from the VA

If used aids count I have bought 4 sets in the past year.
Trying to figure out what was best for my hearing loss and best for my comfort.
So, I am not sure how to answer your survey.

I don’t upgrade my hearing aids. I will wear what I now wear until they die: until it becomes impossible or too expansive to repair.

probably ought to split that poll into insured and non-insured. I have never had insurance coverage, so I make an aid last until it becomes unreliable or the shell becomes damaged. If I had insurance, I’d be all over a new aid at every eligibility cycle, since they have essentially become computers instead of amps.

Agree with Jeff Bowser that incorporating info on insured vs. uninsured might be helpful for interpreting results in a meaningful way.

Also helpful in interpreting results would be a question like “Do You Always Like To Have the Latest or the Best Technology,” voted for on a scale from 1 to 5.

Another consideration that might only work incorporated into a separate poll would be “Which of the Following Would Be Reason Enough For You to Upgrade Your Hearing Aids?”

For me the question of upgrading is just sane use of my money. I don’t chase the latest and greatest computer or smartphone. We’ve usually kept our cars about 13 years and always put 100,000 miles or more on every one. But for any one of these things, if there were a stupendous reason to upgrade, benefits that leapfrogged the past, I’d upgrade for sure. If premium ’s come down in price or the movement provides great, less expensive HA’s with exciting technology, sure, I’ll upgrade more frequently. It’s the MONEY vs. the BENEFIT!

The thing about Google getting into this with Live Caption, Pixel Buds, research on dealing with speech in noise, etc., is that it has resources that dwarf Phonak’s and a world audience and an openness to improvement contributions from anywhere, e.g., ReSound can contribute its experience with MFI, within the limits of licensing strictures, to the development of , etc.

So if anyone is going to come along with killer technology and a hearing app ecosystem that makes me want to upgrade for “must-have” improvements, I think I’d bet more on Google and its collaborators more than anyone else, e.g., now it’s Apple that’s trying to keep up with Google’s Pixel camera technology … Since Google has shown increasing interest in improving sound technology, I’m hoping it leads to more stellar audio performance with smartphones, earbuds, headphones, and eventually hearing aids. Their Live Caption video ad that shows the woman trying to announce to her friends that she’s pregnant as a subway train rolls by and wipes out what she’s saying shows Google is focused on speech in noise and has the AI chops to do something about it (the two premier AI interfaces these days, TensorFlow and Keras, come straight from Google, too)

So a poll that asks how many years until you upgrade is not as useful as one that also asks (in an easily linked way) “and why is it that you made this choice?!”

P.S. on “easily linked way” - if one clicked on an avatar in the poll, one ought to be able to jump to the 1st comment that user made in the thread relative to the poll, for instance. That would be a helpful forum software improvement.

Pretty sure we’re a pretty skewed sample too. I’m guessing you could add a couple years to our averages for nonforum members who have no idea how fun it is to geek out on the latest hearing aid feature. :smile:

I got the lst generation Phonaks w. tech almost 2 years ago. Set before that was about 6 y.o. Worked fine. Can’t think of any other feature that would be useful. I’m sure battery tech will improve - but I wouldn’t upgrade just for that.
I knew lst gen w. new tech would be sketchy, but I didn’t want to wait another year or 2. Turns out 2nd gen (Marvel) came out about 14 months later. I am on phone a moderate amount. Had worn over/ear BT headsets for years both before and after lst set of . Have phone set to answer automatically on 2nd ring.

Also unsure what to put down. I wore Starkeys for 7 years and would have worn them longer, but I changed to Signia Pure 5X to see if they would work better for me. They really haven’t after many adjustments, so I’m looking to maybe try the Costco K9’s next year which makes it 2 yrs.

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