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Difference in tech levels/tiers of RIC models, processing speed, battery sizes, for moderate severe flat loss

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@hilary said:

Most people chose the lower levels

On the Phonak FB page, everyone gets the 90 top level tier. Very few people get the others.

My friend is so profoundly deaf that our free UK NHS weren’t agreeing to offer her hearing aids so she paid for private Aids.

She mostly feels vibrations but wears them everyday. Her Audi insisted on her getting the Phonak 90 level despite not being able to use really any of the fancy features.

Edited

Why did the audi think the 90’s were better for your completely deaf friend? Also, I bet the top tiers in Europe are 1/2 the price of the e and w coast, ‘wealthy’ areas of the USA. My daughter lives in the UK. A top tier Widex Moment where I live in Washington State, USA, costs $6,300.

I don’t know about the aids you’re looking at
but mu audiologist was going to put me in 312 battery model
I did some research and found that the 13 battery aids were only a very small bit thicker. Completely negligible in my opinion. When not side by side with a caliper in hand you really can’t tell.

I have very happy I went with 13. I change batteries every Saturday…probably would have been every 3 days or so with the 312’s. No big deal, perhaps…but it’s nice.

I’ve been using Phonaks for about 18 months now - first pair of ’s for me. I first tried Oticon and their technology was 3-4 years old at the time. They didn’t work well for me and returned them. Then insisted that I wanted to try the Phonak equivalent - their technology was newer and worked much better for me and I kept them. They use the 10 battery and I get 5-6 days out of them, but they don’t have bluetooth, streaming, or other fancy features that I don’t need. I would recommend trying the latest technology possible during your trial period. That made a difference in my case.

yes, good point! the battery is approx 2x thickness but the aids are not…at least the Phonak marvels I was looking at. That’s what I was referring to when I said they were only negligibly thicker than the 312 model.
I looked at it pretty closely when I was deciding. Don’t recall the numbers now but the actual energy stored (amp-hours) was as I recall also about 2x what’s in a 312…so I came to the same conclusion as you… twice the life and the aids were the same price

I guess I’m old fashioned but I still have zero interest in rechargable. I like only fussing with them once a week, no anxiety did I get them seated in the charger ok…am I going to be able to hear tomorrow
and on the rare occasion when I’ve gotten a weak set of batteries and they fail early, I can reach onto my key chain or into my desk drawer and in about a minute I’m back up and running… or I can pop into almost any store and buy some

Probably. :person_shrugging:

How much more is a mystery. Sometimes not to much more, but other times the manufacturers discount the previous generation heavily just before a change so there ends up being a big difference if there was a sale on. But it can vary dramatically clinic to clinic.

@bradw said:

the battery is approx 2x thickness but the aids are not…at least the Phonak marvels I was looking at.

Phonak did a really nice job getting those 13 battery hearing aids down in size with the Marvel and forward. Much smaller than previous generations.

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