Anyone try the new Soundgear aids at Costco?

@Deadman42 said:

If you know otherwise, I would genuinely like to see how, because I have seen these limitations firsthand

It can be done in stand alone mode tho.

@Deadman42 said:

The tinnitus options are greyed out or missing in Costco‑programmed hearing aids because of how Costco configures the software

I don’t think this is the case in stand alone install, it must be NOAH that’s doing this?

@Deadman42 said:

I do extensive testing with hearing aids and programming, and I study each module from the major manufacturers

Been there done that myself, I don’t bother so much now and haven’t done the latest from Costco, again I believe it’s the Noah type software that must be doing it, but it’s a good thing we can indeed DIY all the rebranded from them, actually there’s a few Costco stores that do employ audiologist’s as well but few and far between, this is probably a cost effective way for them.

You’re absolutely right — a standalone setup will work, and I believe Sycle (which functions similarly to Noah) is the system handling it. All the Costco Hearing Aid Dispensers I’ve encountered use Sycle, while audiologists outside of Costco typically rely on Noahlink for programming. I agree it’s a huge advantage that we can now DIY fittings, and that’s exactly what I love about it. Personally, I haven’t seen audiologists working inside the Costco locations I’ve visited.

Thanks for all the info guys. I guess i should have researched this before diving in, but it stands to reason Costco must cut a corner somewhere to keep pricing real. I blindly figured that if the device was capable, they would enable the tinnitus program. I certainly wasn’t about to pay many thousands of dollars for a professional purchase and fitting.

Seems logical to me, but couldn’t Costco just charge an extra fee to do this? I suppose they would then open the door to more and more adjustments, not to mention the training the staff would need. I could see requiring a higher level qualified staff member, and it all snowballing from there. Makes more and more sense what they are doing the more I think about it.

Guess I’ll just try the iphone tinnitus apps first and stream them to the aids, and hope that just using hearing aids to balance out my asymmetrical hearing loss, has some effect. Apparently the latter has merit.

The apps I’ve seen seen, and the type of program the aid manufacturers follow, seem to follow one of three schemes - Zen, Fractal, and Notch therapy. Not a one-size-fits-all theory is it ?

You can download a tinnitus app to your phone and try it yourself. Resound Relief is the one I tried. As long as your phone is connected to your hearing aid the app will play a background sound you can configure. That’s really all the tinnitus function is, a background sound effect to distract you from your tinnitus.

to me, it’s really just replacing one irritating sound with another one, YMMV

You could try the Sound Amp aids with the dyi app and see if it is important to you. If you find it valuable you could return the aids to Costco and go to audiologist. If you find it doesn’t help you have save thousands of dollars.

With several of these apps loaded on my iphone, ive been playing around with them all through the Soundgear Amp and my Ipod pro 2’s. Works fine, so i neednt have been stressing Costcos not activating the activity.

“Tropical Night” on the widex zen app seems to surround my tinnitus frequency more than any other ive yet found, so it makes it easier to ignore, if that makes sense. Must be the cicadas/crickets in the track, which assimilate my tinnitus sound. Now to figure out how best to use this !

Only a few days into my experience with the Soundgear Amp aids, but im impressed so far. These are my first hearing aids, so i have no basis for comparison. I was glad to see that Costco used REM, although the techs abilities to use it are at least as important.

Default volume settings are set too high, and I dont see how i can change that in the app, so I must wait for my 2 week follow up appointment. Car radio sounded just fine

Once i got home with the aids, i went straight to my home theater to evaluate the “Music” program. Glad to report that it seemed to work very well. Wow, Ive been missing a lot of high frequencies and detail.

I demo’d the Soundgear Amp at Costco. I have a Galaxy S23 with the most current updates. Although I liked the sound quality the knockout for me was that the Soundgears are only one way connectivity. I could hear a phone call perfectly, but I needed to have my phone in my hand for my voice to be heard on the call. The Soundgear micophones don’t pickup my voice. I don’t believe this is an issue with iPhone, but it’s a major issue for me and most Android users.

Wow, that sucks. Must admit i have not tried a phone call yet, but thats a dealbreaker for android users surely !

Just tried a phone call. Needed to stay within bluetooth range of my Iphone 17, up to about 30’, but it functioned perfectly.

I use a Samsung S26 Ultra running Android, and it works fine. The Bluetooth connection is not as strong as Phonak’s, though, but it works for me.

I have the Starkey edge AI.

I have a pixel 10.

I keep my phone in my front pants pocket.

That’s three feet to the hearing aids.

I have absolutely no problem streaming.

Thanks much apreciate the info.

They sound pretty good to me.

Update on how these are performing for you? I saw the two negative post at #30. I wonder if their experiences are due to the HA specialist. I’m either going with SoundGear, once it’s available at my nearby stores, or with Phillips 9050, but I’d like to read more experiences with this product 1st. IIC/CIC version.

Streaming music is not on the level of AirPods Pro 3’s but it is pretty good. The BT signal sometimes drops but not nearly as much as it did before upgrading iOS on my phone. Audiobooks sound fine. Now that Auracast is working, I used a HomeSpot 121 last night for the first time to stream TV and it worked great.

Howdy — which Costco did you use?

From my research for the Los Angeles metro area, only the Burbank and Westlake Village stores have the SoundGear AMP devices.

Thanks!