Upcoming Costco Appointment - Rexton Reach VS Philips 9050, Advice?

I’m in the same boat, but leaning towards the Rexton Reach.

The only way to know what works for you is to try them. I picked the Reach over the 9040 after trying them both, but the Philips line has plenty of fans of its own.

Whichever you try first, stick with it for a while and go back for an adjustment or two if it isn’t meeting your needs. The beauty of Costco is that you have 6 months to decide. One way to do it, is to buy one, use it for a while and then buy the other before you return the first one. Try the second one for a while, then keep the one that works better for you and return the other. The prices at Costco is that 2 Costco hearing aids are still cheaper than one from a private audiologist. Of course, you can always try one, return it, buy the second, and keep it if it’s better or return it and repurchase the first one. I’ve done it both ways ar Costco.

Upgraded or so I thought from the KS-9s. Wore the 9040’s for two long weeks. On top of a poor fitting, they lost BT connectivity randomly, the App is very plain jane and will make you wish for a lot of the options from the KS EasyLine App. I returned the Philips on the 3rd of Sept and have had the Rexton Reach since. the app has better function the hearing aids have the ability to change listening direction as well as other features. The two Fitters i spoke with will only program in the “Auto” and “Noise” but the aids and s/w can do 6 total programs. Costco will not do the tinnitus setting either. So far the Reach’s have been good, I am trying to find the Connexx 9.x s/w and have a Noahlink 2 on order. Good luck.

I forgot to mention that I have 60% loss on one side and 48% loss on the other and these Rexton Reach are still showing 60-70% battery after 15 hr days. If you run an iPhone you will have hands free with either, on Android calls will send audio to the aids but you have to speak into phone. Unless you buy additional device it sucks but it is that way w/ both the Philips and Rextons.

@CoopersPaw said:

So far the Reach’s have been good, I am trying to find the Connexx 9.x s/w and have a Noahlink 2 on order.

Hi there, great your giving DIY a go, be sure to do some research and read the user guides before starting, Connexx software is pretty easy to use and navigate.

You betcha. Thanks to everyone, this place is great and full information for the layman.

I got a chance to try out the new Rexton Reach and Philips 9050 RIC hearing aids yesterday at my local Costco. I’ll give my impressions after some background, so you can just skip ahead if you want.

I have been wearing Bernafons for the past 5 years. In January, I got a set of Philips 9040s after trying them against the Jabras (I found the Philips sound profile more to my liking: no surprise they were very similar to my Bernafons) but returned them a few days before the 6 month window expired, anticipating that the 9050s might be a nice upgrade and worth waiting for. At about the same time, the Rexton Reach hearing aids were coming out. My Costco practioner recommended waiting for the Philips to be available before trying the Rextons, so I wouldn’t be in the position of trying and maybe purchasing the Rextons, then coming back to try the Philips and maybe be wanting to return and repurchase for a second time.

After a new hearing test (it had been more than six months since my last one), I first tried the Rexton Reach set in a typical Costo test: take your cart and wander around the store, talking to people, heading for the noisy produce and dairy refrigeration rooms, etc. My initial reaction was being blown away by two things: First, the natural nature of the sounds around me, especially voices. I found the speech profile virtually indistinguishable from what I was used to with my Bernafons. I did find my own voice sounding a little boomy, but I know that is adjustable. Second was the ‘sound stage’. I could clearly discern the direction from which sounds were coming from, and I seemed to be able pick up conversations that were going on around me from some distance away. Some of the increase in perception of volume can probably be attributed to the age of my Bernafons, but it was still a very pleasant surprise. The third thing I noticed after a while was how comfortable the domes were. This is something I had never given much thought to, but now it was definitely a contributing factor to the overall experience of wearing hearing aids.

I then went back and tried the 9050s. The practioner had set them to exactly the same level using the Philips fitting software that he had used for the Rextons. The first thing I noticed on my new walkaround was the volume level seemed to be lower than the Rextons and the sound stage seemed to be narrower. The sound profile was in line with what I had with my Bernafons (no surprises there, since they come from the same family of products), but surprisingly, I couldn’t really distinguish any differences from what I had been hearing from the Rextons. Voices were clear in conversations, and I could distinguish where they were coming from. I tried to see if there were any differences between standing still and walking around, but I could not really notice any. After a while, I started to notice the domes in my ears, which is something I have always been conscious of with my Bernafons, which use the same domes.

Finally, the practioner let me take both sets out to my car to listen to them with the engine running (I actually drove around the parking lot as well) and to listen to music in my car. Both models seemed to be a big improvement in reducing background noise compared to my old hearing aids, but I couldn’t distinguish anything different between them that made one stand out over the other. As far as music went, I must have swapped them out 20 times, listening to different genres. Given that this was certainly not a scientific objective test, I might have detected a slight preference for the Philips in clarity of vocals when it came to sibilant sounds.

So: my final selection was: (drum roll…) the Rexton Reach hearing aids. The choice came down to:

Speech profile - I couldn’t distinguish any significant differences that favored one model over the other.
Sound stage - Subjective, but I liked what I was hearing with the Rextons maybe a little more.
Domes - Clear winner in the Rextons.
Charger - Something I haven’t mentioned up to now, but there is a clear size difference between the Philips and Rexton chargers that come with the hearing aids at Costco: the Rexton charger is labeled as a travel charger, and is much smaller than the Philips. I travel frequently on long trips and as we all know, sometimes size matters.

It will be a week before I can pick up my new hearing aids. If I find anything majorly different after I’ve had them for a while, I will post back.

Expect a lot of misinformation on here about the Rextons. There are a few of us that actually own the Rextons or the equivalent Signia C&G aids. Who can answer most question.

Would love to hear your response!

I could use some help / information. I have been wearing the Reach for a month with a positive experience. I switched from the 9040. I have a problem with the receiver staying inserted in the ear. The shape of the wire connecting the HA to the receiver is not curved / contoured like the 9040 and my ear shape puts pressure on the wire causing the receiver to slowly come out of ear canal. I did not have this problem with the 9040 or my prior Oticon OPNs. The wire on the reach is straight after the bend from the HA and before the bend at the receiver.
Are there different wire contours available?
Can the wires be shaped to a contour like the 9040?

@Tim_TheToolman said:

Can the wires be shaped to a contour like the 9040?

It seems Oticon/Philips are the only brands that have this feature. This is because the receiver/wire and the dome/shell are embedded and shaped to your ear.

Signia now has a smaller receiver plug that makes the wire less visible.

Signia Earwear 3.0 | Signia Pro59

Signia EarWear 3.0 are accessories like Click Sleeves, Eartips, miniReceivers, WaxGuards and Earmolds. Visit the Official Signia Website for professionals.

I think this is a dome issue. I suggest you get earmolds.

@billgem said:

One additional benefit of the Rexton charge is that it not only puts a full charge on the hearing aids, which is good for 37 hours, more or less depending on streaming, but it stores 2 additional full charges. So, when traveling the charger is good for a 2nd and 3rd full charge of the hearing aids without the cord.

For comparison, I got my 9050s 12 days ago. I wear all day every day. This morning the charger still shows two of three LEDs. That’s better than the 9040 charger, which needed a refill around day 8.