I have moderate hearing loss in both ears at 3K and above, and in the right ear below 1.5K. After consulting with an in network audiologist covered by my Medicare insurance, I purchased the Starkey Edge Al 16 last September. It had bluetooth reliability issues from day one, meaning one side or the other would disconnect several times per day, which is very obvious when streaming. The are very flakey with respect to switching streaming sources between my Macbook laptop and my Google Pixel 9 phone. To make that switch I have at times restarted my phone; put them back into their charging case, or, the usual approach, turning off the BT on the source device. These BT bugs were also problematic with streaming and phone calls in my 2025 Volvo. If the Edge 16 just had an On/Off button, I assume all of these issues would have been easy to manage.
As suggested by the audiologist, I called Telehear for support. They told me Starkey is aware of these BT issues and was working on a fix, and until then I should restart my phone at least daily to minimize these occurrences. I expect a future software update will solve these glitches.
Last month I decided to try a product that was getting very positive reviews for BT stability and flexibility, and ended up buying the Elehear Beyond Pro. The BT switching and stability has been most reliable. There is also an On/Off button on each HA for when you want to save the battery while swimming or taking a shower. I now prefer these for the hours when I am listening to streaming content. I do have a few complaints about the Elehear, starting with the fit which just isn’t as comfortable in the ear canal as the Starkey was, even though I have replaced the cable with a longer one and tried different domes. Maybe I’ll find a tool that will help with this. Another Starkey advantage over the Elehear is how it generates the tinnitus masking sound. The white noise from the Starkey is custom-tuned to my tinnitus, and the sound follows a constant quiet to loud and backa to quiet cycle the timing of which I can control in the app. With the Elehear it is a constant sound, but with the option of 22 different sounds, and you can combine them into a custom profile.
Hope this helps someone who might be in the same boat.
You’re ignoring this member’s posts.