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Which Costco Hearing Aid

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Edited

I had Jabra Enhanced Pro 10’s that worked pretty well until I went back to Costco for a adjustment. After the adjustment the option to focus the microphones was removed. They said they upgraded the software and the focus option was eliminated. I could not get the Jabra’s to work as well as before I came in to make a minor tweak. I could not hear people at the same table in a crowded restaurant as I did before. So I returned the Jabra’s and bought otc Elehear Alpha’s which I have been using. I had planned to use the Elehear Alpha’s until the other brands of ’s in Costco had updated to the LE Bluetooth. Reading about what Costco now offers it seems that both the Rexton and Phillips are now upgraded to use LE Bluetooth. So now is the time I plan to get some HA’s from Costco. The thing that troubles me and I need help with is that it appears that all the HA’s with LE Bluetooth are having problems staying connected to their apps on Android phones. I have a Pixel 7 that no problem connecting to the Jabra Enhanced Pro 10’s. I just need to hear experiences connecting to the current Rexton and Phillips HA’s and how they work in a crowded restaurant.

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Edited

Since you have 180 days to try them, isn’t that the only way to know if they will work well for you?

The Philips brand doesn’t have a way to adjust the beam in the app. So check out the Rexton app to see if will work for you.

Note that folks that have issues complain. Folks that don’t have issues, just go on with their lives. So don’t over think this. Just use the 180 day trial period to see if any issues crop up for you.

I have used the trial period in the past with the Jabra’s but going back to get adjustments is a hassle. I would like to make an informed purchase and eliminate as much hassle as possible. I use the app a lot and would like to know which of these products is best at maintaining a connection with the app. Yes the ability to adjust the directionality of the microphones with the Rexton is a plus. One of the reasons I’m looking to replace the Elehear’s is when I go in to talk to someone my wife stays in the car and uses our Pixel 7 to text, every time she sends a text there is a pause in the function of the ’s. This is embarrassing to go deaf in the middle of a conversation. I don’t remember this happening with the Jabra’s.

BTW, your Costco hearing aid specialist can restore the Speech Focus feature to your Jabra Enhanced Pro App. It’s a big improvement over the automatic function. The Jabra Enhanced Pro 20 have LE Bluetooth capability.

Edited

In reply to @RedMed

Well only you can determine the hassle factor. I live about 8 miles from my local Costco, so it’s no big deal to me.

Looking at the app is the first place to look at since adjusting the beam has been useful to you in the past.

The Philips hearing aids are using to automatically do that function. How well it works for your situation is impossible to say without you trying it.

My beef with Costco is that they can’t spend enough time on getting your hearing fine tuned, and that I don’t believe they are using AI generated voices and a frequency monitor to get one’s hearing aid fine tuned.

I’ve said this before that any hearing provider that is not using AI generated voices and frequency monitor to fine tune a patients hearing is guilty of malpractice.

You certainly help the process by downloading a frequency app like Spectroid and going to a AI generated voice web site like AI Voice Generator with Emotional Text to Speech10 and then bring that information to your fitting adjustments.

Of course you can always go the route. There is a DIY section here on this website if interested.

As far as Bluetooth, it works best when indoors, since the signal can bounce off walls and reach both hearing aids. Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that can affect Bluetooth, including one’s head. Again, it’s just something you have try yourself to see if it works well for you.

From the Bluetooth web site.
This last point surprises many developers, but there is a practical reason for this. The head absorbs the 2.4 GHz transmissions of the Bluetooth® signal extremely well. The result is that for many applications, particularly with miniature earbuds with small antennas, it is nearly impossible for a Bluetooth signal to get reliably from your left to right ear, particularly if you are outside where there are no radio reflections from walls or ceiling. While many earbuds and hearing aids today contain a proprietary sub-GHz radio to connect the left and right earbuds, the Bluetooth standard does not
specify or expect this. Instead, the Bluetooth specification provides other mechanisms to ensure that two earbuds remain synchronized, principally through the use of notifications and support for the coordinated set features within ™ assistants.

is new to all of the hearing aids that Costco sells with the exception of the Sennheiser hearing aids with still uses Bluetooth classic.

LE Bluetooth has been around for a while.

Edited

In reply to @Flyboybob

That is good to know then maybe I’ll revisit Jabra. I had my Jabra Enhanced Pro 10’s working well in crowded restaurants. After a month of adjusting I had it figured out to adjust the treble two clicks from the stored setting. So I went to have the setting changed to two clicks. The adjuster told me her setting equipment did not go by clicks but by percentages. We guessed at the percentage change. Then later in the day, in a restaurant, I went to change to the focus mode and discovered it was missing. I went back and was told the focus mode was not necessary anymore. I spent another month trying to get back to where I was before and could not. So I returned them in frustration.

In reply to @Zebras

When I got my Jabra enhanced pro 10’s 2023 shortly after the Jabra enhanced pro 20’s came out. As far as I know Jabra was the first to incorporate / . This past year late summer or fall Phillips upgraded to LE and just recently Rexton made a software change to activate LE Audio. Atl least this is what I have gathered as I have been waiting for the other Costco ’s to convert to LE audio. Another thing I have read is that going to the new LE Bluetooth seems to have caused connectivity issues. Frequent disconnects from the app. I may be wrong about this. But I would suspect the hardware and software needs some tweaking to get some maturity with the new Bluetooth connectivity. I’m trying to determine if I should wait for another generation of HA’s to come out. But I’m also getting tired of waiting.

I trialed the Jabra Pro from Costco and while i hated the and returned them, i did not have any connectivity issues with Bluetooth and my Sampsung S23

I thought they were very bad in noise. I ended up with the Phonak Spheres.

In reply to @Flyboybob

Autofocus is a feature in the Advanced settings in the Jabra fitting software. Some COSTCO fitters appear to lazy or disinterested to go beyond the default settings in the basic options in the software program even though a lot of customization exists they don’t tell you about…consuming their valuable “selling” time perhaps.

The hearing aid specialist at Costco can set up the manually adjustable speech focus which Jabra removed from the Enhanced Pro app. Using it compared to the automatic speech focus is the difference between night and day. I’m always amazed when software engineers decide to automate and then replace a manual function because they think that this is what consumers want.

Edited

You asked about connections to the app, The Rexton Reach uses sound not Bluetooth to connect to the app, you can change volume, program and direction without Bluetooth. You only need Bluetooth to stream phone calls and music

In reply to @Flyboybob

@Flyboybob said:

The hearing aid specialist at Costco can set up the manually adjustable speech focus which Jabra removed from the Enhanced Pro app. Using it compared to the automatic speech focus is the difference between night and day. I’m always amazed when software engineers decide to automate and then replace a manual function because they think that this is what consumers want.

That is exactly why I returned the Java EP 10’s.

In reply to @snah76

@snah76 said:

You asked about connections to the app, The Rexton Reach uses sound not Bluetooth to connect to the app, you can change volume, program and direction without Bluetooth. You only need Bluetooth to stream phone calles and music

I don’t understand. Do the app and ’s make audible sounds to each other. Or do they use inaudible sounds? With a combination of Bluetooth?

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