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Costco vs Audiologist

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@Psocoptera said:

Have a look on the professional section of the manufacturers website.

And the unbelievably helpful audiologyonline.com16! There are lots of tutorials there, from short and basic, to long and professional. Totally free (unless you want CE credits).

It does seem that if anyone on here says anything contrary about Costco, it upsets some people. Pays to check around and reach your own conclusions.

Opinion please - I head back tomorrow with my single opn1. I find that unless I raise the volume up from what is set as the baseline, it does not help at all, even in quiet settings. The ‘baseline’ is 60% where I hear the beep as I move the slider on the ‘triple home key press’ In very noisy situations it needs to be set to 100% or ‘4’ on the app most of the time.

I’m convinced that with a borderline left ear that a second one will not hurt - only assist my understanding of speech better. I’m only concerned with speech and the balance of the surrounding noise.

I’m going to propose that they provide me with the second opn1 and a pair of resound 3d. Now that I’ve had the OPN1 for nearly 3 weeks, I have a good understanding of what it has done for me (with it’s current setting) which I am blind to.

Is it uncommon to ask the aud to have 2 pairs at once to compare? I would of course pay for all of it and then get reimbursed for the set that does not meet my needs.

It is unusual, but if you pay for it all upfront and are comfortable with losing the money for the services associated with the second hearing aid than I don’t imagine it would be a problem.

In reply to @Waynetc

@Waynetc said:

Opinion please - I head back tomorrow with my single opn1. I find that unless I raise the volume up from what is set as the baseline, it does not help at all, even in quiet settings. The ‘baseline’ is 60% where I hear the HA beep as I move the slider on the ‘triple home key press’ In very noisy situations it needs to be set to 100% or ‘4’ on the app most of the time.

I’m convinced that with a borderline left ear that a second one will not hurt - only assist my understanding of speech better. I’m only concerned with speech and the balance of the surrounding noise.

I’m guessing that with a single OPN 1, your sense of balance is probably upset a little bit because you used to hear better with the left ear. But now with the focus being switched the other way around, getting used to hearing more with the right ear as it is the dominant ear now (with the correction applied) probably throws you off a little.

Maybe your brain has been desensitized to hearing using the right ear all these years (by letting the left ear do most of the work). So you need the extra volume on the right earnow to “wake up” that dormant part of the brain, or even re-wire it.

I can’t see having the second hearing aid will hurt (except your wallet). Maybe with a second hearing aid, it’ll help restore the sense of equilibrium to your hearing balance and reduce the focus on re-sensitizing your right hearing so much so fast.

The visit worked out very well. I’ve ordered the second OPN1 after adjustment was made. They also provided a loaner pair of Linx 3D, which I am trying out now. Interesting and they are quite different.

The only problem they had was pairing the linx 3D with the iphone. I did a forget on the OPN1, but only 1 of the Resounds will pair. They show up individually in the hearing devices but once I pair one the other vanishes. I have not loaded any Resound app yet. Any ideas? perhaps I should post this question in another thread.

The Resounds pair separately with the Iphone - sounds like one wan’t fully paired at inception - put the phone in flight mode, delete the pairing and boot the suspect one first, nearest the Iphone with a 5 minute old battery, then reactivate the bluetooth, confirm the pairing on each side before attempting to do anything else.

Thank you - Um_Bongo I’ve tried your suggestions. I can pair to L or R, but not both. Sometimes they both show up as Wayne’s hearing aids. Other times on shows up as GN and the other shows up as Wayne’s hearing aids

May I ask what is normal when a set of Resound LInx 3D are paired? are both seen as individual aids and does selecting one of the pair connect both…or is it different. I also loaded the app and tried to access the pair of hearing aids through it then turned off the left one (with the right one paired to the phone )and tried again. The app never gets past “please connect your hearing aids” thanks

I called resound and they were great. It’s a problem in the programming at the AUD office. They should be seen as 1 line item (L&R), not 2 (L) ® which is what I experience. I’ll have to head back over and have them “erased” and reprogrammed.

lol. A friend eh? :slight_smile:
Waynetc started the thread. He posted just before you did. He can go wherever he wants with his thread. :slight_smile:

Only downside of threads wandering for me is that if there’s something I want to come back to, I often can’t find it.

I’ll get a notification that some thread I’ve been interested in, and posted to – like this one – has got new posts. But I’ll go there and it’s always about the OPN1 :wink:

I apologize for the wandering thread. That’s really not my style, but since this is a new world for me and I am trying to learn a lot fast, it happened. In a nutshell I’ve looked at 4 ’s and because of the insurance my wife carries, can get an OPN1 or a Linx 3D pair for a little less than the highest priced ones at Costco. I’ll never know if what Costco has is better than those two, but I like the audiologist I’m working with and feel that this works best for me. I’ll update other existing threads or start new ones as appropriate for my questions and comments.
Thanks everyone.

Okay and I do apologize. This is meant to be a pretty friendly place, and as @z10user2 has pointed out, it is your thread.

It’s great that your insurance will cover so much of the cost of the OPNs! Consensus here is that they’re awesome. Maybe I’m just jealous :wink: But anyway, sorry for being a bully.

No apology needed at all! Honestly if my wife did not work at that hospital with the benefit (which surprised the heck out of me) I’d be buying at Costco like so many members of this wonderful forum.

@Waynetc said:

No apology needed at all! Honestly if my wife did not work at that hospital with the HA benefit (which surprised the heck out of me) I’d be buying at Costco like so many members of this wonderful forum.

Same with me on the insurance front. It was also a nice surprise for me to learn that my new insurance covered 95% of the cost of hearing aids after my deductible. Luckily for me, although I have a high deductible health plan, I happened to exhaust my deductible that year on something else already so I seized the opportunity to get the OPN 1. Otherwise, I had been buying hearing aids from Costco for years and I would have continued to buy from Costco again because they have the best value for the money on hearing aids.

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