I have an appointment with Costco (in Canada) in a bit more than a week for hearing aids. These will be my first ever hearing aids, and I am pretty green on the subject.
Could someone point me to useful resources to get some essential support for my visit? I already did a search on this forum and found 20 pages of threads mentioning Costco, which seems a bit unmanageable.
I’m compiling a list of questions that I want to ask the people at Costco. So far I have the following.
What brand and style of do I need?
Will my HAs have a volume control?
Will I be able to tune the frequencies myself?
Will the HAs interfere with my glasses?
Plus of course questions re cost, guarantee, service, adjustments, etc.
What questions should I add to the list? (I don't spend much time on the phone, so connectivity to a phone is not important for now.)
battery size? battery life?
remote control? control via smartphone (even if you don’t talk on the phone much)? streaming?
hearing in noise (can’t tell until you try it)?
water resistant?
warranty details?
will they tone down the gain until you get used to them?
different programs for different situations? selectable how?
Most of what you suggested would be covered as a matter of course I think.
With your hearing loss, most aids would be able to deal with it. Assuming cost is an issue, simplify things and get the Kirkland Signature 7, known on these forums as the KS7. You can learn more about them by looking under digital hearing aids and Rexton. They are . They have a volume control. Unless you want to get into self programming, you won’t be able to tune the frequencies yourself (that goes for all hearing aids) There is a tone control that will let you make the sound have more or less treble. Most people don’t have any issues with glasses, but we’ve had a rare person in the forums have issues. Don’t know Canadian specifics. In the US, the KS 7s cost $1699 for the pair and come with a 3 year guarantee. All adjustments and supplies (domes and ) are free. Hope that helps.
@Freddy said:
I have an appointment with Costco (in Canada) in a bit more than a week for hearing aids. These will be my first ever hearing aids, and I am pretty green on the subject.
Could someone point me to useful resources to get some essential support for my visit? I already did a search on this forum and found 20 pages of threads mentioning Costco, which seems a bit unmanageable.
I’m compiling a list of questions that I want to ask the people at Costco. So far I have the following.
What brand and style of HAs do I need?
Will my HAs have a volume control?
Will I be able to tune the frequencies myself?
Will the HAs interfere with my glasses?
Plus of course questions re cost, guarantee, service, adjustments, etc.
What questions should I add to the list? (I don't spend much time on the phone, so connectivity to a phone is not important for now.)
Here’s another vote for the Costco Kirkland KS7’s. I’m new to hearing aids and I’m so far very satisfied with them. I tried a pair of hearing aids from United Healthcare for a month before I got the KS7’s and it’s like night and day. By the way, the more reading up here you do before going in, the better. You’ll most likely be wearing whichever hearing aids you choose for years.
Yes, I’ve been reading posts here, and learning, but it is kind of chaotic, reading a bit here and a bit there. Little by little some of the info is making sense.
I have already been to an audiologist, a small private clinic. The visit did not go well - not because of the audiologist, but because of me. I asked too many questions and asked the wrong questions. It still helped, I learned, but I wanted to be better prepared for the upcoming visit to Costco.
I will spend some time learning about the Kirkland Signature 7s. I can’t find any info on hearing aid brands on the Canadian Costco website - do they sell the KS7 like in the US?
The display at my closest Costco in Canada had Phonak, Rexton, bernafon, ReSound and Kirkland Signature which are de-featured Rexton’s and the “version” is now 7. Thus the KS7 moniker. I seem to think that the other brands are also somewhat de-featured but I’m not certain.
Much of the information you’ll find here is the same except Canada only offers 3 months trial and the price is $1999 (CDN of course).
I’m pretty much a newbie too. It sucks having to get assistance but when the tv can be quieter for the spousal unit and they can dial down their speech volume it’s all worth it. A couple additional techie things attracted me that made them a little easier to decide.
I think as you learned… don’t go in and interrogate the you will learn a lot more being civil then putting them on defense.
IMHO, The KS7 are an excellent aid particularly when you can get out the door with aids, easytek and tvlink for less $$$ than the cost of their other aids.
Freddy, when people buy a particular aid, they tend to promote it. It is, because they know they made the very best choice and they can’t be wrong. :o Understand that every aid has its fanboys. It like a thread that goes at it about Apple vs Windows.
So, take it all with a grain of salt. Consider that most of us are dumb users like those Win-Apple fanboys. You don’t hear the audiologist and fitters posting here come up with similar views. And why would they fit any/all the brands if one was so superior? Retails are close for a reason.
So find a good fitter and depend on that person. And at Costco you have either a 90 or 180 day trial where you can determine if the brand/fitter has given you something that really improves you situation.
We certainly have a variety of opinions of the forums–some expressed more strongly than others. I guess I could be considered a KS7 fanboy, but it’s measured. I suggest them because they are an exceptional value-- at leat $800 USD less than other similar Costco hearing aids. However, if iPhone streaming were important to a user, I would suggest the Resound Linx2 and if somebody had a striking high frequency loss, the Phonak Brio 2s might be worth considering because their Sound Recover program seems to be well thought of. If music is important, all bets are off. The Bernafons have a good reputation, but music appreciation is so individualized that I think finding a hearing aid that makes a music afficianado happy might require a lot of trial and error, or they might be decide a good set of headphones is better than hearing aids for listening to music.
Freddy, when people buy a particular aid, they tend to promote it. Partially, because they know they made the best choice. Understand that every aid has its fanboys. It like a thread that goes at it about Apple vs Windows.
So, take it all with a grain of salt. Consider that most of us are dumb users like those Win-Apple fanboys. You don’t hear the audiologist and fitters posting here come up with similar views. And why would they fit all the brands if one was so superior?
So find a good fitter and depend on that person. And at Costco you have either a 90 or 180 day trial where you can determine if the brand/fitter has given you something that really improves you situation.
I agree with MDB. It was about the value. For my first foray into needing ’s the price was the lowest for entirely usable first-time HA’s. I have company benefits where I could’ve gone higher cost but thought that to get started in the world of HA’s these would be fine.
There’s a slight chance that after these first HA’s that I might entertain Widex but we’ll see how these turn out.
Freddy, when people buy a particular aid, they tend to promote it. It is, because they know they made the very best choice and they can’t be wrong. :o Understand that every aid has its fanboys. It like a thread that goes at it about Apple vs Windows.
So, take it all with a grain of salt. Consider that most of us are dumb users like those Win-Apple fanboys. You don’t hear the audiologist and fitters posting here come up with similar views. And why would they fit any/all the brands if one was so superior? Retails are close for a reason.
So find a good fitter and depend on that person. And at Costco you have either a 90 or 180 day trial where you can determine if the brand/fitter has given you something that really improves you situation.
Thanks, KenP.
When I started this venture, I thought I would be able to approach it the same way as with other purchases - do some research, read reviews, compare features, and so on. But it has turned out to be very different. There don’t seem to be any impartial reviews of the different hearing aid models. Consumer Reports rates the merchants, not the models. Maybe I am overlooking a source, but I can’t find comparisons that I can trust.
Also, HA’s are extremely complex, with many features that may or may not be useful to me. The different features have trade names that are inscrutable. So far I have not found a source that explains these features concisely and logically. Well, I’m not sure I even need such an outline, or need to spend that time, because 90% might not be relevant to my needs. But the approach I usually use to research a purchase is not working well for buying HA’s.
Very rarely will I put myself at the mercy of a sales person. But for HA’s, it seems like it will be necessary.
Yes, there are the free trials, but a new user like me is not likely to be a good HA evaluator. My first HA is going to sound weird. That is what they say and I understand the reason. It would be quite an undertaking to test and compare a few different models. For a reliable assessment, the tests should be blind, and each HA would have to be tried more than once, to remove biases. Now that would be quite the testing program, but it is unrealistic to carry out.
Therefore, contrary to my inclinations, I will have to put myself under the sway of a merchant. And consensus is that Costco is one of the better merchants.
Maybe they will recommend the KS7, which is “night and day” better than other brands (“night and day” = “slightly better” in forum talk).
Freddy, the brands at Costco represent 4 of the 6 major manufacturers. Missing are Starkey and Widex.
KS7 is from Signia – formerly Siemens. Siemens had let the brand languish. Signia is aggressive with improvements. It is now recognize as current in feaures.
Resound has also played catchup in recent years and its feaures can be considered Comparable
Phonaks has been a solid product in the digital revolution and is well place with features.
Bernafon is behind the current levels a bit. The platform Costco offers lags a bit in hardware. It should see an upgrade. It is a second label product from Octicon and will lag the primary brand.
At Costco, all products are typically last years model. That much less a big deal over 5-10 years ago when hardware was improving almost exponentially. Hardware says how powerful the programming can be. This is a real-time processing activity and processors create definite limits. With processor levels fairly comparable, you can expect that the programming /feature-set is close between the brands.
So, it boils down to what seems to sound better to your ears and yours are different from mine and everyone else. That makes choosing an aid an empirical operation that is valid on an individual basis.
However, it’s just based on user feedback, sometimes with very few responses and in a few cases it seems like somebody was either trying to promote or denigrate a hearing aid which makes me question motives. My take from all this (including issues you state) is that there is no one hearing aid that is markedly better than others for all individuals. Using cost, special features or a hearing professional’s recommendation are all valid ways to approach.
When I started this venture, I thought I would be able to approach it the same way as with other purchases - do some research, read reviews, compare features, and so on. But it has turned out to be very different. There don’t seem to be any impartial reviews of the different hearing aid models. Consumer Reports rates the merchants, not the HA models. Maybe I am overlooking a source, but I can’t find comparisons that I can trust.
Also, HA’s are extremely complex, with many features that may or may not be useful to me. The different features have trade names that are inscrutable. So far I have not found a source that explains these features concisely and logically. Well, I’m not sure I even need such an outline, or need to spend that time, because 90% might not be relevant to my needs. But the approach I usually use to research a purchase is not working well for buying HA’s.
Very rarely will I put myself at the mercy of a sales person. But for HA’s, it seems like it will be necessary.
Yes, there are the free trials, but a new user like me is not likely to be a good HA evaluator. My first HA is going to sound weird. That is what they say and I understand the reason. It would be quite an undertaking to test and compare a few different models. For a reliable assessment, the tests should be blind, and each HA would have to be tried more than once, to remove biases. Now that would be quite the testing program, but it is unrealistic to carry out.
Therefore, contrary to my inclinations, I will have to put myself under the sway of a merchant. And consensus is that Costco is one of the better merchants.
Maybe they will recommend the KS7, which is “night and day” better than other brands (“night and day” = “slightly better” in forum talk).
Very rarely will I put myself at the mercy of a sales person. But for HA’s, it seems like it will be necessary.
I’m with you. I investigate the heck out of larger purchases and yes quickly found that there was no real way to compare. Sticking with the big well known brands seems safe. They’ll all handle the standard aging ski slope loss fine. When you get into severe to profound loss then you need to make sure you’re getting the right one. And yes that would mean relying on the sales person. Digging into some of the technical documentation can find useful info. Things like frequency response and how much amplification seems to be available.
Another approach is to try out demo modes of the fitting software and see what is available on the specific aids and see what their ranges and capabilities are using your .
Every year many tons of rubber are worn off tires. That rubber ends up on and near our roads. You could make millions by gathering up that used rubber and selling it to recyclers. All you have to do is figure out how to collect it.
And yes, I want the that sounds better to me. That is an idea that is worth millions. All I need to know now is how to do that.
NW Indiana