Suggestions for New Hearing Aids - First time private buyer

Hi all,

This is a bit of a long post so please bare with me.

I’m relatively new to the forum here but not to hearing aids, I’ve been wearing them since I was 21.

I have otosclerosis and I’ve had a stapedectomy and canalplasty done in both ears, the audio gram you see on my profile is what it is today, prior to surgery, both were more or less into the 100db range.

I’m based in the UK so I’ve always had NHS supplied hearing aids, starting off with Oticon, then when the hearing got worse I was given Phonaks.

I then relocated to South Wales and found that they only issue Danalogic/Resound, I was given the option to carry on using the Phonaks which they COULD program but in the event if they needed repairing or replacing, it would need to be sent off.

So I decided to take the Danalogics as I felt if they were more familiar with them, they’d be able to program them better and for support.
The first pair were terrible and so old, they still even had an analogue wheel to change the volume!

Luckily soon I was upgraded with the i-Fit CS series which were notably better and wireless so I could invest in Wireless Accessories like Multi-Mic.

In 2019 I did trial a pair of private Resound Enzo hearing aids, whilst these were better I didn’t feel it was worth the £3000 price tag attached to it then, even the branch manager at Amplifon said she felt I wouldn’t gain much more from going private.
This was before I had my second surgery but the more successful surgery had already been done.

I used the NHS i-Fit ones until Summer of 2021 when the Ambio’s were rolled out and ever since then I’ve had Ambio Smart aids which were a game changer with the direct bluetooth streaming for audio and calls.

Whilst the Ambio Smart aids are the best I’ve had from the NHS, I’ve always wondered how much better would a well programmed private set be for my loss?

The Ambio Smart aids do struggle in noisy environments for speech I find despite suggestions and tweaks from Audiologists to try and help.
In fact one of them actually made them totally focus on the front which then made it useless to hear anyone to the side of me!

I’ve been looking at the Phonak Lumity Naida L90 as that seems to have fantastic reviews on the whole but I’m open to any other suggestions.

I’m not interested in rechargeable hearing aids, I do go out to supermarkets and restaurants fairly often and struggle to hear in them at times as the hearing aid struggles to pick out speech from noise.

I do love listening to music and I enjoy watching TV and movies, I have a good 5.1 Surround Sound system too for extra clarity and warmth.

Any help or advice welcome and appreciated.

Many thanks

You don’t get to shop around for your U.K. NHS provider: you use your local hospital. In Wales healthcare is devolved too, so we have to use what’s available here unless there’s a very good medical need to go private/external. Or you pay in full for yourself.