AirPods vs hearing aids for cookie bite?

thank you for sharing your experience! If I had $5k burning a hole in my pocket, I would go the audiologist route. I just can’t swing it this year. However, if the KS10’s or the Philips HA’s from Costco would help with the issues I have while not amplifying all the background noise, that I can do. Did you find the Oticon More’s to address your loss without over-amplifying everything else to an uncomfortable level?

Believe me, I get it! I don’t doubt that you can find a good fitter at a Costco, but I haven’t gone that route. I’d suggest looking at whatever Costco carries that’s comparable to Oticon OpnS or Oticon More. You can ask that question on the forum and I’m sure someone will chime in as to which hearing aid Costco carries that comparable. I don’t feel like it’s over amplified but there are certain sounds I’m sensitive to with or without amplification and I think those are in the frequencies I hear normally. Crinkling plastic, rustling papers, birds chipping - all of those sounds have the potential to seemingly overpower the mid frequencies that I hear the worst.

Hello Adam
I put off getting hearing aids for a number of years and finally went to Costco 3 yrs ago and got Phonak Brio 3’s. I have, since then, told anyone willing to listen that it was the best investment I have ever made !
Last week I ordered the KS10’s from Costco because I wanted the Bluetooth capabilities and a couple of other new features.
My suggestion to you is get the 10’s and if you don’t find the improvement amazing you can return them - all you would be out is the cost of the membership

I am working with ZipHearing.com6. I believe they represent an up-and-coming trend in the way H.A.'s are marketed. Unlike many other online sellers, Zip’s packages include the aids, setup, and several additional fitting and adjustment sessions after purchase. One possible snag is that you must go to one of the providers in their network. Depending upon where you live, you may have one or several choices. They are trying to vet these members as best they can, but they are unable to actually visit each one. I am still trying to find one of the limited selections available to me, who will provide Real Ear Measurements. (Search the forums or view some Dr. Cliff Olson videos on YouTube if you don’t know what that is). You can typically save a thousand dollars on your aids. You can find aids online for much less, but most of those vendors provide only a very basic setup (in spite of what they claim). Purchase and proper fitting of aids IS expensive. There really isn’t any good way to get around that just yet, but companies like Zip are basically saying, “we are selling you aids online, but are also including the complete package that gets you through purchase and professional fitting. We are not the cheapest, but we make some profit, and you don’t have to pay full retail.” It,s also worth noting that Zip is an AUTHORIZED seller of their brands, and therefore provide you with a factory guarantee and return period. Not al online vendors are authorized.

Ive used both Costco with a good audiologist and Ziphearing with a good practice in my neighborhood. I was pleased with both, but a bit more so with Zip as i got a higher end instrument. That said, Costco has a new model K-10 around $1400 for a pair that might be worth checking out. But I would only go where Costco had a good audiologist, not a lesser-trained hearing technology person.

Oticon Opn S1. The one from Costco was in the corporate family that builds Oticon but had fewer features. I had the Costco one before returning to oticon which I’ve otherwise used for 20-plus years.

I am simply describing my experience with them so far, and how their system works. I have also expressed my opinion of the potential limitations. I have spoken with Zip several times. They seem to be making an effort to develop a business model that gives the consumer a valid option for purchase and fitting. If I back out because I don’t like something about their process I will also report that. As I mentioned, I see one weak spot to be their network providers. These are the same brick-and-mortar Audi’s and providers that are already out there - good or bad. It is really up to you at this point to decide if you are satisfied with the fitter they send you to One of my personal requirements is to find a fitter who uses REM. I may have to drive an hour to meet that requirement. One would hope that in future, the fitters they accept into their system all meet a certain standard. Zip seems to be open to doing things like specifying which fitters in their system do REM and which don’t. These are business people not Audi’s. They seem to be learning as they go, and seem to value comments I have made. Time will tell

@adambullock, a lot of what you’re describing with the AirPods is typical of what first-time HA wearers experience: Sounds like crunching chips and rattling dishes and silverware sounding inappropriately loud. Your brain has to get used to hearing sounds it hasn’t heard for awhile. It gets better.

I’d say go to Costco and get an actual professional hearing exam and have your hearing loss accurately measured. Once you get actual HAs you can return for adjustments based on your experiences with the HAs. That’s the way the process usually works.

If you have experienced improved hearing with the AirPods you will almost certainly experience even more improvement with HAs. IMHO it is so life-enhancing to be able to maximize your hearing that it is worth it to cut back elsewhere to be able to pay for HAs.

You might of already read this, but here’s a nice article about Cookie Bite and Hearing Aids by Neal Bauman who is a prolific hearing loss author Cookie-Bite Hearing Loss and Hearing Aids58

While I wear hearing aids, I also have AirPods Pro and I found that like hearing aids for me (non-standard hearing loss type), plugging in my audiogram does not help nearly as much as manually adjusting treble/bass to what sounds best to me through the headphones accommodation feature. I actually have my AirPods setup to emphasize Vocal Range.

I would also add that Costco aids are typically top tier technology with model name rebranding and some slight differences such as tinnitus feature removal.

My hearing loss started as “cookie-bite” when I first realized that I had hearing loss in my 40’s. After several years it’s more like a “reverse slope” shape. I initially went to an audiologist who was covered by my insurance at that time. She just looked at my audiogram from the ENT, showed me a brochure and color samples and recommended a third-tier aid that cost over $3000 per aid. She didn’t even let me try any of them. Then my FIL mentioned that Costco sells HAs at good price so I went there. I got an impression that my hearing aid dispenser is very good at what she does, and the initial testing at Costco was very comprehensive. She let me walk around Costco with two different set of aids. I decided to get one of them and never looked back. Earlier this year I got KS9 because I lost one of my old ones, and very happy with them. It was like a magic when she turned on KS9 - I doubted my eyes because I thought her mask disappeared (it didn’t, but I could hear that much better). As others have said their aids are the top tier, and initial hearing tests are free. So I would not write off Costco, give them a try.

If fantastic Veterans Affairs Canada didn’t send me to a private audiologist like a rock star, I think I would give CostCo a whirl.

thank you! Trying out the “Vocal Range” now to see how they work in the office. I also really appreciate the article… I’ve sent it to my oldest son and my wife to read, hoping they’ll understand my plight a little more.