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Both Phonak Sphere & Philips 9050

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In reply to @IGZO

Costco never carries the same model of anything, but if it helps, they currently have a model of Bowers & Wilkins headphones that are 3 generations old, and the Bose QC are not anything you can get anywhere else for the same price as the lower end model at Best Buy. Goodbye to my fond Costco best brand memories.

In reply to @hearingMac

Shows the power of Costco

They do carry brand names of toilet paper, ketchup, and hand soap.

Yet they sell medical equipment (hearing aids) that are similar to known brands

They do cost less. They do have longer warranties.

They did stop carrying hearing aids from a known manufacturer.

The power of Costco. The ultimate influencer.

In reply to @hearingMac

@hearingMac said:

Philips are old news

Where did you get that bit of wisdom?
The Philips 9050 was released in 2024, just a few months before the Phonak Spheres.
The Philips share many of the attributes of the Oticon Intents, which are as premium as the Spheres.
Oh, the Philips also have , which Phonak has yet to introduce a year after several other brands have.
Factor in the Philips price point, and tell me that again.
BTW, I don’t wear the Philips, but sure would not diss it.

In reply to @IGZO

I currently have the “old” Kirkland KS10s. I tried the Jabra 30s and Philips 9050s at my local Costco but returned them because fitters could not make them sound as good as the KS10s - I couldn’t even hear about 30% of the people and couldn’t understand almost half of the ones I could understand. I did make use of AuraCast on both of them. I volunteer at a Museum in CO Springs and have convinced them to pilot AuraCast at the museum (for only about $100). AuraCast worked great with both brands, but the volume had to be adjusted on the AuraCast transmitter to fall within the comfortable range on the two . I’d be interested in the non-sphere version of the Phonak Infinio Audio -R that Costco has just started carrying (Sennheiser Sonite-Rise) if it had AuraCast. What do you think of the non-Sphere speech in noise and other capabilities of the Phonak Infinio in daily use?

Rise is supposed to have enabled through an update. That could come tomorrow or never. It’s hard to see how Phonak can stay competitive if this update is more than 180 days out and if so you could return the aids. That does not solve a need for Auracast today but you could use the FlooGoo FMA 120/121 workaround if absolutely necessary.

Thank you for the input. Since the Rise is the Costco version of the Phonak Audio Infineo - R that’s been out for well over a year and still doesn’t have AuraCast activated, the “… or never” projection doesn’t seem too unrealistic. My current (hare brained) plan is to try the Oticon Zeal or Intent through a “Soundly.com1” audiologist for two months. If they knock my socks off, I’ll bite the expensive bullet and go that way. If they don’t I’ll see what Costco Sonite Rise is doing and give them 6 months from then. Meanwhile, I should be able to get the AuraCast system at the Museum fully up, checked out and running. We hope to shame some of the other venues in both Colorado Springs and Denver into implementing AuraCast when they see how easy and effective the system at our place is. (Meanwhile, we hope to be able to improve our chances to gets more grant money by being compliant.)

I am curious to find out how the Phonak Sphere batteries are lasting. I previously had the Phonak Slim L-90. I had to send it back twice to have the battery replaced in 3 years, even when I kept streaming down to a minimum, I rarely got to 12 hours od daily use before the batteries would die. I really loved how they sounded, but when I tried to talk to the company, the customer service rep just kept denying that there was a problem. So I was afraid to try the Sphere, and I went with the Oticon Intent miniRITE. Though the battery is one I will never run out, the sound is…meh compared to the Phonak. I can hear, but it’s not worth singing about. What has your experience been?

In reply to @LauraB

Have you ever you at least tried Spheres? Spheres have huge battery, it last even 30-40 hrs without using the Spheric program which is the most often situation.

Assumung you continuously use power-hungry Spheric program - it is enough for 9-11 hrs of use. The reality is: Sphere is activated when necessary in automatic program, so battery is enough for the whole 24 hrs.

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