New KS10 hearing aids, have issues

If I recall correctly @sterei, purchasing a Noah Link Wireless from legitimate sources, may or may not require you to provide proof of AuD Or HIS qualifications? But, where there is a will, there is always a way…. Cheers Kev

You are right @kevels55, most of these sources there will not sell to us.
But I also found one on that list that did (Amparex.com2). But as I remember they do not ship outside Europe.

Is there something different from the Noahlink Wireless device you can buy direct on Amazon for $198? Says it is the same. And Prime, so quick shipping.

Check out the Hearing Aid Self-Fitting and Adjusting (DIY) section of the forum. Don’t go buying stuff until you understand what you’re doing. If you’re considering do it yourself programming, consider your personality. Are you going to freak if something doesn’t work right? There will definitely be glitches. It’s not overly complicated, but it requires care and attentiion and although help is available from the forum, no one is going to hold your hand. I’m overly picky, but I prefer precise language when talking about this stuff. There’s a difference between a Noahlink and a Noahlink Wireless.

You can buy a Noahlink Wireless device and download the required software and do your own adjustments. I am going this route for the same reason you list. Costco HIS employees suck at my local store. They are hesitant to adjust to my personal direction and every adjustment is a slight tweak, not the full adjustments I am asking for. They treat every customer like they are a first time aid user. They won’t even allow me to change my own domes without their permission, which I did any way, just like I have always done on any previous aids. I can’t even seem to get the HIS to remember what my last adjustments were, like you said, they act like it’s my first visit instead of 3rd. It’s a joke and as soon as I get my custom molds. I will be self programming.
I am not aware of any aids that offer self adjustments on the part of the user. You have to go around them and just do it yourself.

@stu

Hearing Aid Self-Fitting and Adjusting [DIY]

This forum is a place for consumers to discuss fitting and adjusting their own hearing aids.

@stu said:

How do you find a self programming hearing aid? My wife has had COSTCO for years - and it is a trial to get adjustments.

If your wife has had Costco aids for years then they might be back when they were locked to special Costco software. The more recent ones can be DIY. Although maybe not all models either. Not sure.

My wife purchased ReSound Forte 8 at Costco about 3 years ago. Works well after some visits and poorly other times. They give her a supply of domes and filters.

I purchased my KS-10 HAs from Costco in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA). The most senior fitter, Roger, has been in the business for roughly 30 years. He was top notch both at Costco and over the iPhone for a small tweak a few weeks later. The second most senior, Jason, worked with Roger at another brick-and-mortar HA store that happens to be located across the street from where I live. That store offers turkeys or toasters, etc. to induce you to come in for a “free exam.” I can see why Roger and Jason left them for Costco. I would guess that Jason is also very good, though he appears to be at least 10-15 years younger than Roger. They recently hired a third young man who only recently passed his certification exam, and I would prefer Roger or Jason for just that reason. Bottom line: my KS-10s are at least a tad better for me than my Phonak Marvels (also 90 RT), and I am thoroughly satisfied with Costco’s service quality.

From what I can gather, it looks like they are locked to Costco fitting software.

@lewiii8 said:

Costco guidelines dictate that their hearing aids are fit to NAL-2 and REM measurements for maximum audibility.

First time I’ve heard this mentioned, so is this something that is part of some employment policy? as in, I doubt any audiologist worth their salt would do something that they knew wasn’t suitable to begin with, which you seem to agree with(as in it shouldn’t be done)

@lewiii8 said:

This is true of Phonak and the KS10s.

The KS10 is Phonak (Paradise)

@lewiii8 said:

No amount of change to the automatic programs and the noise levels will make the aids less metallic and loud for soft sounds.

Haven’t heard this mentioned before as well, so your saying no amount of manual change will affect the auto programs in
AutoSense, can you explain this a bit more, I’m curious why this would be.

@lewiii8 said:

which is done automatically if they delete the REM measurements in the aids and set the target gain to Phonak adaptive targets.

Again if you could clarify this, so just by removing the REM gain curves (measurements made) the settings are automatically reflected with lower compression and a linear fitting, but only if you use Phonaks proprietary rationale (Adaptive Phonak Digital)

This is all very interesting, something I’ve not heard before.

@lewiii8

How would you recommend suggesting something to the Costco fitter to not have the metallic sounding outcome. This is my real issue - is it just deleting the REM measurements and using the Phonak targets? Looking for the right words to use - you hit the nail on the head however with my issues, loud or soft sounds are very metallic sounding and harshly loud compared to most other sounds.

@lewiii8 do you mean for the phonak /ks10 specifically? I have had the philips and jabra and neither was programmed using nal2.

Unfortunately, a lot of specialists start working for Costco from within and are trained within Costco guidelines. From my perspective, this has led to some specialists not understanding what they’re doing isn’t accurate, because they’ve been taught it is the absolute best and only way to fit hearing aids. REM is not a perfect measurement, especially if not done appropriately and I will 100% support the statement that there are probably half the Costco specialists that do not know how to accurately measure and adjust to REM, even if they do because it’s mandated for every patient. Costco is only now starting to certify its specialists for how to do REM accurately from a practical standpoint and they’ve only done it for the managers of each store if I’m correct.

From the manual comment, I only mean just going into each profile and changing the noise manager to max will only fix the amount of external background noise the patient picks up. It will not help reduce the metallic nature of the sound or keep audibility of the background noise/speech because it affects every gain line. Adjusting the low level gain line (50 dB) lower will give a patient a greater sense of softness to the sound but retain relative audibility. Lower compression leads to a more natural sound. Phonak also tends to fit a bit high in the high frequency range, so it doesn’t hurt to activate Frequency Shifting or lower the gain past 4khz a bit.

And yes if autorem is used, the gain lines reflect off the AutoREM measurements in the TargetMqtch tab. You have to delete those measurements to pull up default gain levels based on only a patients audiogram.