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My Costco experience with the Jabra Enhance Pro

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For neophytes to hearing aids and those possibly also Costco customers, I wanted to post my experience.

I got my Jabra Enhance Pro hearing aids 3 weeks ago at Costcos in the DFW area following a hearing test at the Costco Warehouse. First the good news. I am overall happy with the Jabras, but not 100%. I will explain why in a moment. The bad news? I am not very happy with my Costco experience.

My audiologist was very knowledgeable and friendly. I feel he was competent and trust that the compensation he set into the Jabras was (likely) correct. What I didn’t like is he told me almost nothing about my options and what I was to expect from the hearing aids. In a follow-up visit, I literally had to drag information out of him. He installed my receivers with tiny domes, leaving my ear canals mainly open to the outside. The result, of course, was pretty terrible streaming of phone conversations, the TV, or any audio coming through the streaming. No low frequencies whatsoever. I had to educate myself about occlusion and the tradeoffs thereof on HearingTracker. Same issue with ear wax. My hearing aids were quickly totally plugged. I took them in thinking they had died, and my audiologist cleaned them out. He informed me I would need to “bring them in” when this happened again. Once more, I educated myself online to find that there are ear one can use. Are they worthwhile? He never mentioned this. Are they effective? The Costco audiologist gets a D-.

As for the Jabras, they do the job. Constantly having to re-pair them with my phone when I leave the phone in the other room is a hassle, and the instruction manual that comes with them is less than useless. Online videos are much more helpful. Do I recommend them? Yes. I also recommend that you pin your audiologist down to answer questions like open vs occlusive receivers (pros and cons), what the different “pings” mean, how to re-pair the Bluetooth connection, how to deal with wax buildup in the receiver that shuts down the sound, what the different modes on the phone app mean, etc. My audiologist left me in the dark on all of these issues.

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If you have access to other Costco’s in the DFW area, you can sho around until you find a hearing care professional who meets your needs. I have 4 Costco’s within about a half hour or so from where I live. Two of them have actual audiologists on staff while the other two are staffed by hearing instrument specialists. That difference in the level of training helped me narrow my choices. That’s one way to shop around.

I agree with this. I don’t know what might be causing this. I have zero issues with staying paired to my Jabra’s.

Edited

Yes, could be. I know Jabra has a list of approved phones. I am using a Samsung S20 with no issues.
Audi can turn up low freqs in SmartFit for the streaming program. I have mine maxed for streaming since i dont need max voice comprehension as much as when using my to-go All Around program

Edited

Like others, I have very few issues with my phone losing the connection with my Jabras.

Question for mr.smithster - do you have a TV streamer? Do you try to mute the aids during commercials? If so, does it work with a single touch, or do you have to keep pressing? Do you sometimes see a combined line for both aids and separate lines at other times? I’m trying to figure out if the app is a problem or my phone or ???

BTW, I’ve experimented with my wife’s iphone SE. The built-in program works very reliably, but doesn’t seem to allow muting except by moving the slider all the way to the left. The Jabra/ReSound app works pretty much perfectly, at the expense of a lot of juice. With the Jabra app and no data except for streaming, the phone needs daily recharging. Using MFI for streaming TV and controlling the aids, it’s 3-4 days between charges. (Note that we don’t use cell data - screens are too small. PCs for web-surfing…)

Thanks.

Here is my issue with pairing. Every morning when I take them out of the charging case I get the 11 dings and they pair with the phone right away. If I happen to walk away from the phone for a while and then return to it, the aids are unpaired. I have to turn them off and back on to the pairing mode to get them paired again. When I asked the audi about this he just shrugged and said that this was normal and that pairing used a lot of power, so you had to manually make them go through the pairing sequence by turning them off and on again.

Does this match what you guys are experiencing? Phone is new iPhone 14 Pro.

In reply to @mr.smithster

mr.smithster, are you using occluded receivers? If not, are you saying the audi cranked up the low freqs to accommodate the low freq loss due to non-occluded receivers? If so, don’t you hear too much booming when you are not streaming? As far as I know, there is no way to adjust the streaming frequency response compensation independent of the non-streaming compensation.

Edited

In reply to @user844

My Jabras were delivered on 2/6/23. My phone is a Samsung S20 5G (not officially stated to be compatible, though the S20 and S20 Ultra 5G are).

Are you using IOS or the Jabra app to control your aids? Which version of IOS? IIRC, I’ve read some reports of connection issues with releases newer than 16.4.

When I wake up, the app has no connection with the aids. Seconds after I take them out of the charger, the aids show up in the app, ready to be controlled by the app or the buttons.

Sometimes when using the TV streamer I go downstairs (I live in an apartment) and lose the connection with the streamer at our elevator. When I come back up, the aids and streamer reconnect essentially as soon as I get in range.

Occasionally an aid loses connection with the app. I can usually reestablish the connection by closing all apps and restarting the Jabra app. Sometimes I need to reboot the phone, which has, IIRC, always worked.

philbob57, I use the Jabra app on the iPhone 14 Pro. I do NOT get this automatic reconnection like you do. If I lose a Bluetooth connection, I have to make the manually reconnect. But, I have not tried restarting the Jabra app. I will try that. BTW, the left HA seems to lose connection more than the right. ?? Don’t know why.

No issues here with month-old iPhone 14 Pro Max. Rather than going through the Jabra app, I mostly just use tap the shortcut displayed when I swipe diagonally down from the top right corner of the screen (the accessories screen, maybe?).
It doesn’t have all the adjustments that are available in the app, but it’s enough to change volume & programs.

In reply to @user844

Yep, thats what I’m saying. In SmartFit one can adjust frequencies independently per program. I believe there are 3 levels of low freq boost available for the streaming program, which has zero effect on any other program, like All Around, or Outdoors.
And yes, i use custom molds and the mold on my bad ear has zero vent.

So, you are saying I can have a frequency compensation for streaming separate from the normal compensation. That really cooks my goose with this audiologist. When I discussed my problems with the terrible sound quality when streaming, he only raised the possibility of ear molds and then talked me out of that approach. His suggestion was essentially, “get used to it.” Already I have my phone set up to answer using the speaker and not Bluetooth because the streaming sound quality is so terrible.

And what is SmartFit?

Edited

SmartFit is the program that your audi uses to program your aids. If you have a Noahlink Wireless device, you can get the program on this site. I got my Noahlink on ebay for about $120. It allows you to communicate with your aids and the program then allows adjustments. You would also need a Windows computer that you download the SmartFit program to, then connect the Noahlink and it wirelessly connects to your aids.
You can find more about self programming or adjusting by searching this site.
Audiologyonline.com73 is a great site for learning the basics of aid programming and adjusting. You have to register but all courses are free and are the same courses an audi might take. You would want to look for info on the Resound SmartFit as those Jabra’s are the equivalent to Resounds Omina hearing aid. They have beginners courses on the aids and the software, as well as general to advanced audiology courses. The SmartFit software allows you to save your current settings so you can always revert back to your original setting if things go wrong.
My opinion is, without custom molds, you will never be happy with streaming. Even with closed power domes, they leak low freqs.
What phone are you using?

Thanks for the many tips.

So, here’s a question for anyone reading. My are constantly getting plugged up with wax. My audi wants me to drive to Costco to get them unplugged every time. This is untenable. I have read that there are kits one can buy and “do it yourself.” Are you guys using the wax filters and how do you handle wax plugs?

I am really getting steamed at my Costco audi. He has told me nothing about handling wax, about the effects of open and , about separate tuning for streaming … nothing. It seems he likes being the expert and in control. I am VERY close to giving these Jabras back to Costco!! Frustrated.

Edited
@user844 said:

Constantly having to re-pair them with my phone when I leave the phone in the other room is a hassle,

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, and I have the same loss of connectivity problem with my Omnias that you describe with your Jabras. Resound Omnia 9 battery problem - #30 by jim_lewis

@david.hendon has also described the same problem with his Omnias. He also has the ReSound Ones and paradoxically has no connectivity problems with those using the same phone. GN Resound Omnia Bluetooth issues

You don’t have to repair a disconnected hearing aid. All you have to do is reboot the hearing aid. Hold down the button on the until it turns off; press the button to turn it on again. If using a disposable battery-powered HA (my Omnias), open and close the battery door.

To deal with wax accumulation in domes or molds, you might try buying a consumer-level Jodi Vac. https://www.amazon.com/Jodi-Consumer-Hearing-Vacuum-Cleaner/dp/B007ORQ01K/138 A number of forum members, including me have bought them and are pretty satisfied with them as a cleaning tool.

Custom molds are easier to clean with the Jodi Vac than domes, in my experience. DON’T USE THE JODI VAC ON YOUR MICROPHONE OPENINGS. I did initially with my Quattros several years ago, and that may have helped kill the external mics on several Quattros.

Don’t know why some folks have the connection problem, and others don’t. I also have an Apple Watch Ultra and apps galore on my iPhone that want to share the BT connection, so that may have something to do with the connectivity loss if I go away from my iPhone for an extended period of time. I’ve also wondered if the Omnia running BT 5.3 and perhaps being set up (hopefully) to eventually do BT has something to do with the less-than-stellar MFI connectivity maintenance. (Or maybe lack of Apple motivation to address HA bugs in iOS?!). As I’ve noted in previous posts, it’s not just loss of connectivity to the ReSound Smart 3D app. When connectivity is lost, it also shows up in Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices as loss of basic connectivity.

Edit_Update (8/5/23): To fix the BT connectivity problem, it seems turning off BT for more than TWO MINUTES may work, rather than having to reboot the HA’s: GN Resound Omnia Bluetooth issues - #24 by jim_lewis

@jim_lewis said:

When connectivity is lost, it also shows up in Settings, Accessibility, Hearing Devices as loss of basic MFi connectivity.

Yes. The shortcut to discovering what is going on is to press the power button on the iPhone 3 times and you get up the hearing aid menu. You can see at a glance whether one or other or both aids are disconnected from the iPhone itself. This screen shot shows me that both are connected currently.

IMG_7891

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