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Bose self-fitting hearing aids are finally here (Bose SoundControl™)

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We’re not big on shutting people down. However you’d gain some credibility if you posted your . Also I see you’re brand new to the forum. Welcome, but timing does seem a bit suspicious.

Some additional info. From the best I can tell, the length of the warranty is a year. From looking at their Accessories page, replacement receivers cost $49 each. I do not see any at this time. That might affect receiver life. Replacement domes are currently only sold in an “Eartip Kit” with small, medium and large sized open domes and a cleaning brush for $9. (Apparently are also available) I have no idea if other domes might fit. If you’re considering these, do consider that there’s only a 1 year warranty and that there will be additional costs involved.

Another big consideration, though, is INSURANCE COVERAGE. Are the Bose SoundControl devices eligible for insurance coverage? If not, then they are actually more expensive to me than regular old hearing aids. I get $1,000 per ear every 3 years if an audiologist determines that I need hearing aids as a medical device. That’s $2,000 total. I can go to Costco and buy KS10’s and the cost is essentially ZERO to me (the price is $1,399). Whereas if the Bose SoundControl, if not covered, is $850 out of pocket for me. Whether there is a free trial period, too, is another important consideration. One can wear Costco ’s for SIX MONTHS, decide they won’t work, and return them for a refund.

So I think going on about the evils of the establishment and how these are the greatest hearing aids ever isn’t merited because it doesn’t consider a number of significant factors. It’s great to hear that they’re excellent hearing devices and merit very serious consideration but a less conspiracy theory-oriented presentation might help win converts. Just the fact that Bluetooth isn’t included considerably limits the usefulness of these devices to many people as that functionality is very helpful in making and taking phone calls, in watching TV, and allowing a to be used in difficult, noisy listening situations. Great direct hearing is one thing but Bose SoundControl has a whole lot less functionality than a modern hearing aid or quite possibly other competitive devices from Apple, Samsung, Google, name-the-company …, down the line. But competition is great for the consumer. So here’s to Bose for offering some great competition to the established players! Hope we see a lot more from Bose and others!

In reply to @tenkan

I guess I felt like I was being very critical of the hearing aid industry which I was, and thought that it might not fly. From what I can see, there were online hearing aid sellers and they are all out of business now. My take was that one way or another they got shut down because it was upsetting the price / profit structure of the industry. You never know how far their reach is. I’m glad to see that this forum is independent. I am brand new to the forum and sorry that I can’t find my . As I already stated, at this point I don’t need it. I can hear again. I’m not a shill for Bose but I am in day 3 of wearing their hearing aids and I am way impressed. I’m sorry if my just joining seems suspicious to anyone…I am suspicious that there seems to be a lot of negative comments about this product from people that haven’t tried it. I tried to post my experience because I believe that it will help a lot of people. I was not enthusiastic about having to come up with another $4K for new hearing aids. We’ve needed something like this to happen for a long time.

The reason the would be useful is that it would give others an idea of the kind of loss that they might help.

In reply to @jim_lewis

Bose Sound Control have a 90 day return period which isn’t bad, but yeah, I prefer US Costco’s 180 days. The other thing on their website is that they sell a pack of 8 312 batteries for $7. I hope people realize that they can get them a lot cheaper.

In reply to @jim_lewis

Not very many insurances cover hearing aids. What’s expensive to you personally isn’t what most people deal with. I’ve had great health insurance through quite a few different companies and none covered hearing aids or contact lenses. I previously had Signia rechargable that didn’t have bluetooth. They were pretty good. I didn’t claim these are the best ever but for me, the past 3 days have been a revelation. I can hear in online meetings, business meetings in a noisy restaurant, hear my phone easily, hear the tv, hear my GF who has a tiny little voice and every other situation so far. Great direct hearing is exactly what I needed. $849 is a lot easier to afford than $2800 for a lot of people. Especially when Insurance won’t pay for it. I am representative of one thing that many hearing impaired people share, we have to pay out of our own pocket. If you can’t afford even $2800 for hearing aids which is very reasonable compared to many, and Costo aids have a good reputation. What do you do? What is your audiologist and hearing aid manufacturer going to do to help you?
I may change my mind but right now, I’m feeling like I’ll never go to an audiologist again. These are working really well for me and probably will for a lot of other people. In my opinion, this is a great start for one of the first non prescription hearing aid on the market and it’s going to get better. I’m wondering why there seems to be a fair amount of negativity directed at these Bose hearing aids.

Just to clarify. For $1400, one can get a pair of hearing aids at Costco that will stream Bluetooth from phones and most other sources. They’re also rechargeable. Since they’re warranted for 3 years and have free service for filter and dome changes, I suspect somebody’s net cost would be cheaper through Costco over time.

Edited

In reply to @kjp111

@kjp111 said:

$849 is a lot easier to afford than $2800 for a lot of people.

Just to clarify, AFAIK, Costco price is usually advertised by the PAIR. So KS10’s cost $1,399 for a pair, not $2,800. ReSound Preza’s are something like $2,200 for a pair. Both those prices are a lot more than $849 but you do get more “stuff,” including a 3-year warranty, a lot of fitting options by experienced fitters, and the Bluetooth. If you read the forums, you can find many posts by me boosting HA’s as, hopefully, the wave of the future and hopefully encouraging more HA OEM’s to offer lower pricing options as well as full service package deals. It is very expensive to get a device qualified as a medical device in all the countries that you might want to sell it (imagine all the different regulations) and a lot of people help minimize the market, not just because of the price. My mother, as an elderly woman, could barely hear. But she adamantly refused to get HA’s because of the imagined bother to her and because of the perceived “stigma” of having to wear HA’s. So I think part of the pricing problem is just building market demand. I think my grandmother was the same way. The one advantage of Mom refusing to wear HA’s is the family could discuss her various medical conditions, sometimes erratic behavior, and what to do about it, etc., right in front of her very nose and she couldn’t hear a word we were saying about her!

In my area, you can already get a pair of hearing aids at a private clinic for less than $1000 with full professional fitting services. My understanding is that in the UK anyone can get hearing aids at no charge and uptake isn’t higher than in the US. People don’t not get hearing aids because of the expense, they don’t get hearing aids because of a whole combination of factors including the stigma, the effort, the time commitment, and the belief that you HAVE to spend a lot of money to benefit.

If these Bose hearing aids help people who are unwilling to navigate the system, great. But at the end of the day, paying a few hundred bucks more to get professionally fit devices with longer warranties and the option of ongoing support seems like better value to me.

Also strikes me as risk for delaying treatment of treatable condition if professional is not seen first

In reply to @Neville

Yeah @Neville, I appreciate your words of wisdom…. I hope the stigma will eventually be overcome? With regards to free aids in the UK, the NHS, probably one of the largest dispenser of hearing aids in the world, all things are not equal, their Audiology Departments are under extreme budgetary constraints, IMO some of these departments actively try to dissuade from getting aids, appointment waiting times are horrendous, now heavily exacerbated by Covid, if you piss people off long enough, they eventually just give up…. That is not to say there are not some excellent Audiology Departments out there, but the service you get depends where you live, NHS have severe time constraints once you eventually get seen, and follow up fittings are as rare as hens teeth, so ’s get thrown into drawers simply because they haven’t been fitted correctly, the end user left frustrated by the whole process…. Cheers Kev

In reply to @chigwell22

Hi Chigwell22,
That was what I was hoping for. Everyone here knows the feeling of isolation when you can’t hear. It has seriously impacted my job. Initially when you can’t hear on the job people are understanding but eventually you just become annoying to them. Being freed from hearing impairment is way cool. My old hearing aids were very good but I think I can hear as well or better. Not all of the bells and whistles but they serve all my needs. I’m 64 and ride 1 year old, 160 horsepower crotch rocket motorcycle and I love it. It’s not as exciting as these new hearing aids. These open up my entire world again. Between the 2 of them, I feel like I can put off being an old man for a while. A lot of people seem to ignore that I’ve said that these are not perfect or a solution for everybody but, they are going to be a good solution for a lot of people. If you want to wait a while and see more results, go ahead, I think that this category is going to take off quickly and give us even better solutions. As for my conspiracy theories, I felt like if I couldn’t afford the price they were asking that they didn’t care if I could hear or not. When my Celion died, the audiologist had no interest in fixing it, only selling me a new pair.

In reply to @Neville

Oh mind you that you haven’t laid eyes on a pair in person let alone tried them. I think kids could figure out fitting them by themselves. It’s a simple process. They all know how to use computers, cell phones and personal music devices. I have all of the professional devices and software to tune up my Cellion 7. It’s not rocket science. If they don’t work out, they have a 90 day return policy.

It’s okay that you don’t find your and think you don’t have to go back to the audiologist, but could you at least say what kind of loss you have? Mild? Moderate? Serious?

In reply to @kjp111

That wasn’t the point she was trying to make. The risk is that parents will fit these rather than getting a correctable middle ear problem fixed, then the middle-ear turns to slush and the ossicular chain dissolves, resulting in a circa 40dB conductive loss going forward.

That leads to a rise in the population of adults with significant mixed losses in later life and poorer outcomes without costly and long-term interventions.

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