What's with the crazy hearing aid pricing differences in Costco versus chain hearing clinics?

Neville: I have tracked my hearing since 2005, when my tubes issue first manifested. The hearing loss, while numerically measurable, did not become a problem that was notable until 2017, when my doctor at the time noted my listening behaviour and referred me to an ENT doctor, who sent a camera deep up my nose (extremely unpleasant!) to see the issue firsthand.

She identified a daily Pulmicort nasal flush as a solution that would make a huge difference, and she was correct. That worked well until just a few months ago, when I started having problems following conversations involving people 10 feet away along a table, and then progressed until most recently when I started needing more TV volume, and “legibility” of portions of the TV dialog being incomprehensible in spite of the increased volume. And, it got to the point now where I am having to say “Sorry, what did you say?” to my wife pretty often.

So, I knew the time for an HA had arrived, and fortunately, as a result of waiting, I will be getting far better technology than I would have been able to get a few years ago, and at a far more affordable price.

I have not for the past few years been chomping at the bit to get HAs because I know they will be a big inconvenience added to my daily activities and my hobbies.

I do woodworking which is far too dusty & nosiy to wear HAs.

I target shoot and cannot wear HAs there because gunfire would destroy them AND my body’s hearing system components, and I need to instead wear sound SUPPRESSING earmuffs that take out 30 db instead of adding db, and electronically amplify “safe” sounds only enough to make them hearable versus harmful.

I motorcycle and cannot practically wear HAs inside a full coverage helmet (MY eyeglasses are a big enough challenge there by themselves, and my eyesight requires them as a condition of the driving license).

So, for me, it’s not just putting on HAs in the morning and remvoing them before sleep. It gets complicated.

And yes, unless I read something much more convincing about chain clinic HAs than I have seen so far in answer to my question on this thread, I WILL buy the Jabra Enhance Pro 10 or Pro 20 HAs at Costco, and enjoy the $20 per month amortized cost. Along with all the service advantages and HA pricing described for Costco, their local store also happens to be just 1 kilometer from our home, and we do already do some of our shopping there, so stopping by at the HA department at Costco will be pretty painless.

I would need a VERY good superior performance reason to buy from a chain clinic instead. So far, I haven’t seen that notably superior and obvious performance reason to pay 4 or 5 times as much.

Jim G

@JimGnitecki said:

I run a Mac, and am not at all interested in suffering through Windows use ever again

I feel the same, but in reverse. And this is basically the difference between different hearing aid brands. Except I suppose in this case Oticon is Apple, if we’re comparing pricing practices.

As for your hearing dropping suddenly in the past few months, you’ve been back to your ENT, right? Speech intelligibility index in your better ear is about 50%. That came on suddenly?

And yeah, sounds like you need hearing protection most of the day. Target shooting with bows is fun though.

@Volusiano said:

The SmartSpeech technology in the Lumity now uses the Speech Sensor to detect where the speeches are coming from and adapt the directionality to pick up where the speeches are detected, even from behind.

During my trial period with the Lumity that is exactly what I experienced, enhanced speech detection from behind me. That is the one feature I wish I could replicate with the Reals.

@tenkan said:

Um no, remember we went through this in post #41 and it’s the Noahlink wireless drivers that are not supported, both windows or Mac machines with ARM based chips installed, windows software can still be installed and used using a virtual machine right?

You are right again. Maybe this time that will stick in my brain!! Its the Noah and Noahlink Wireless that aren’t supported on ARM based.

@user777 said:

[Oticon and Philips] are owned by the same parent

Not exactly. Four+ years ago, Philips partnered with Demant2, which owns Oticon, whereby Philips provides its healthcare brand for hearing aids containing Demant technology. Unlike Oticon, Philips has a ton of healthcare products unrelated to hearing.

@Volusiano said:

You’re supposed to get speech detection 360 around you with the open paradigm in the Real.

When the Opns came out, the way they were creating the “open paradigm” was to check for speech right behind and if it wasn’t there take a ‘snapshot’ of the noise behind and delete that from everything in front under the assumption that what was behind, as long as it wasn’t speech, was an average sort of unwanted noise that it could then comb out of the front to better focus on wanted speech sounds. Clever way to reduce background babble sound. However, if what was behind you was near speech they wouldn’t want to use that to substract from the front as it might subtract more desired signal. The solution was that if the Opn detected speech close behind you, the “open paradigm” function would temporarily turn off. So speech right behind was specifically NOT something that the new “open paradigm” was helping with, and the opn settings were essentially a fairly wide directional setting but with that extra processing to reduce unwanted noise within that directional bubble, in contrast to other devices’ narrow beam forming strategies.

With the More, unwanted noise changed from “non-speech-stuff-in-back” to “what-this-AI-says-is-noise”. Also cool. But as hearing aids advance, they still hold onto the developments that have been made over time. It’s getting harder to know exactly what is going on under the hood, but elements of the Opn may remain and one of them may be a fairly consistent null in back. I’m not sure. But that would be different than 360 degree adaptive directional beam forming.

Somewhere on this hearingtracker site there is a chart with the biggest worldwide HA companies that shows all the brands they own. There are very few companies with each owning many brands. It shows Philips and Oticon as owned by the same parent. It is easy to assume that brands owned by the same parent probably share technology to avoid doing their own expensive research and engineering. I think others have supported my view that Philips and Oticon are related, share technology, and deliver essentially the same performance in essentially the same way. One poster argues that they are not perfectly identical, but I believe that an absolute match is foolishly irrelevant. My need was by Philips at one third the cost of Oticon, but others may find reasons to buy Oticon.

I’m in no position to know precisely how they work together, but isn’t it probable that Demant provides all their HA know how to Philips, even if they are not absolutely co-owned? What does anyrthihng else matter?

Yes. That is what is happening. Demnant is providing Philips with the hardware/software platforms. I am unsure whether it gets manufactured from within Philips factories and the software set up thereafter within Philips facilities. But the source is Demnant.

@user777 said:

Somewhere on this hearingtracker site there is a chart with the biggest worldwide HA companies that shows all the brands they own.

The chart is probably the one @tenkan posted in this topic.

I guess you could say that Denant “owns” the Philips brand, with respect to hearing aids, in the sense of licensing. It doesn’t own Philips the company in the same sense that it does own Oticon, which it bought roughly 20 years ago.

The Philips hearing web site is copyright protected by Demant. Philips Hearing Solutions 3

See the very bottom of the page.

WH

Hm… this thread is interesting. I gonna hopping on the wagon.

So… read this far now. It safe to assume Philips 9040 is as close (not 100% so) as Oticon’s Real?

I surprise Philips seems to get the “most of” technology from Oticon/Demant while Bernafon/Sonic getting less or almost outright different inside. e.g. No AI use in Bernafon Alpha XT.

If I want Oticon Real but I want it cheaper and don’t mind the hearing aids shell will not looks the same. So Philips 9040 is it?

However, if I go Philips, I gonna give up Bernafon setup and software I was been studying it for 2 years worth. Kinda confident with Bernafon setting. I don’t know its good idea to give up proficiently with Bernafon for the unknown Philips? Relearn everything again from scratches…

@mami2529 said:

Kinda confident with Bernafon setting. I don’t know its good idea to give up proficiently with Bernafon for the unknown Philips?

Yeah why would you change if your happy with channel less Bernafon, I have an old set that I was quite happy with in the day as well, but moved on to ReSound, the difference was enough for me to drop Bernafon.
Only you would know after a trial if the Phillips 9040 are worth it for you.

Well you’ve sure got enough food for thought to digest for a 180-day Costco trial!

It is true that Costco will sell the rebranded aids that others (including myself) pay $7,000 US for. My own justification is all about the service for YEARS that follows a purchase. I have truly cinderblock ears, and they are never going to get better. I pay more to see a dedicated audiologist who has the patience and understanding to really work with me in a partnership for life.

I only changed my previous audiologist after 15 years due to a cross-country move. My new audiologist of 2 years is also (fortunately!) outstanding. She’s much younger than me, so I hope I have a new life partner. She sees me whenever I have an issue or request a program refinement or need to talk about hearing accessories. She’s as accessible as a simple email, then she pings me back with a day/time and I go in - typically within 10-14 days. So far, THAT is worth paying the huge premium for.

To each his/her own! Some folks here are incredibly talented DIYers! I wish I was, but know that is not what I want to do. So my best option is to do the research, ask around, go for a visit and try out an audi to see if there’s a good fit.

NOT to diminish Costco for one second, but I do not feel confident that my local store would have a dedicated audi as competent, patient and accessible as my current audi.