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Choosing the right Costco HA - Resound vs Philips vs KS

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I went to Costco to buy hearing aids and unforturnately I was the last appointment of the day. I had two options presented to me: the KS brand and the Philips Hearlink. The audiologist was very anxious to go home and pretty much told me to make a decision or come back another day because she was ready to clock out. I tried each one out on the noisy floor and thought the Philips was better at blocking the warehouse noise. She said the KS “could be adjusted but not in the demo because I clock out shortly”.

So feeling under pressure, I ordered the Philips. I asked her if there were quality, expected life, better technology, etc. reasons to pay an additional $1,000 and she said there aren’t any specs that make the Philips better. I’m happy to pay the higher price to get the RIGHT product. I just don’t know what that is at this point.

So I’m trying to do some homework here to either confirm this decision or cancel and change. If anyone has experience with any of the following questions, please help!

  1. The Philips literature says it has 64 channels vs the KS brand 20. Is this a real advantage?

  2. I didn’t get to try the Resound Vida model but I’ve read that it is a quality product. Does anyone have experience comparing it to the others?

  3. I’m a dedicated iPhone user and I want seamless technology. I’ve read that Resound has that. Does Philips also have it? How is the KS iPhone technology?

Any and all thoughts welcome!

5 people in this conversation4 min readJump to latest

64 vs 20 channels is irrelevant. It’s essentially marketing hype.
Any of the 3 aids (KS9, Phillips or Resound) are fine aids.
Any of the aids will work with iPhone, although only Phillips and Resound are “Made for iPhone.”
I don’t know about “seamless.” Some people have had excellent luck and claim a seamless experience. Others have intermittent issues. Issues are common after many iOS upgrades.
Don’t overthink this. Try one and commit to making it work. It takes time to adjust no matter what you get. If after several months, it’s not working and the fitter has no suggestions, then consider tryng something else.

Thank you! So Philips is also “made for iPhone”? Any other reasons it might be superior to KS? the background noise difference in the two was pretty significant and I can’t figure out if that’s a setting or a difference in the technology.

Something else to consider would be go back when there is time to try all three.

All three aids are good ones. Any could probably be tuned to fit you well. All three work fine with iPhones.

Take your time.

In reply to @elliewmiller

Yes, Phillips is “Made for iPhone.” There are a ton of differences that could affect how the aids sounded including dealing with background noise. For starters: the size and type of dome and how well it “fit,” the fitting formula that was used, how good the fitter was with setting up the aids.

I would suggest the big difference between the KS9 and the Phillips is the price and that the Phillips is rechargeable. Replaceable batteries are so cheap that the extra cost for rechargeable is never going to be paid back. But some people like them. I think replacing batteries once every 6 days or so is easier than putting them in a charger every night.

They will all work with an iPhone, but the KS9 does not use . It works a little different when streaming in that it uses the hearing aid microphones to pick up your voice when you are talking on the phone. The MFi system is to use the iPhone microphone, so you have to hold it up to your mouth. This means the KS9 system is hands free essentially, while the MFi system is not. The sound quality is more controllable with the MFi though. You can hold the phone closer or further from your mouth, but with the KS9’s you can’t change the location of your ears (easily!).

To be frank, I would find it hard to spend the extra $1000 on the Phillips or ReSound (which is probably more still?) over the KS9.

There is another choice called the Rexton Adore Li. It is rechargeable and other than that pretty close to the KS8 aids which are no longer available. They have a couple of features that the KS9 does not seem to have. One is that they can be trained to recognize your own voice. It turns the gain down when you speak to make your own voice sound better. It also has a full equalizer built into the fitting software that helps correct for lack of bass when streaming music to the aids. I think the Adore is about $1800 a pair, but not sure I would pay that over the KS9’s either.

I have the ReSound Preza rechargeable aids, and it was worth the money to not have to worry about or deal with batteries. I get more than the wear time I need each day, and don’t ever need to fuss with batteries. With my fine motor skills deteriorating with age, making it tough sometimes just to get the little tab off a zinc-air battery, I appreciate not having to deal with it.

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