Review of Nebroo Infinity BT vs Costco Kirkland 10

I’ve had my Costco Kirkland Signature 10 BTE hearing aids for over 5 years. They were made by Phonak / Sonova but discontinued a few years ago when Costco decided to get out of making their own branded hearing aid. They currently offer a Sennheiser BTE which is very similar for about $1600.

My experience with the Costco hearing aids over the years has been excellent. They have excellent sound quality, BT functionality works well with my phone and TV streamer, and they’ve been reliable (I did have a battery stop working after 5 years and they fixed it for $135 since it was beyond the 3 yr warranty - a reasonable price for a functioning hearing aid).

However, I wear glasses which makes BTE hearing aids a bit of a nuisance since there is limited space on top and behind my ears. I was told by my Costco audiologist that BTE was best for me because CIC in the canal hearing aids block exterior sound from entering the ear canal giving a more muffled hearing experience. I very much prefer the open air sound that my BTE aids provide which is far more natural sounding.

However, when I came across to an ad in Facebook from a company called Nebroo, which I had not previously heard of, offering a OTC CIC hearing aid with Bluetooth for $99, I decided to give it a shot. Since I could not find any detailed reviews of the Nebroo, I’m posting my findings here for the benefit of those who may be contemplating these or other low cost OTC CIC hearing aids.

In short, there is NO comparison sound quality wise between the Costco Sig10 BTE and the Nebroo CIC - the Costco is vastly superior providing much better and natural sound quality in every listening environment. Speech comprehension is much better as is noise reduction. Regarding the all important Bluetooth, again Costco is vastly superior offering far better audio and options for adjusting the transparency level from full microphone to off, something the Nebroo entirely lacks. A big problem for the Nebroo is feedback which is inherent with the CIC design since the mic and speaker are located so close to each other. Feedback is practically nonexistent with the Costco BTE because the receiver is in the ear canal while the microphone is located outside your ear. The Costco IOS app is also far superior to Nebroo’s offering far better control and options.

So does the Nebroo CIC have any advantage over the Costco BTE? Two to be exact - it fits in the ear canal - well mostly outside of the canal but still in your ear to be accurate so it doesn’t interfere with wearing glasses. The other is price - it costs $100 vs $1600 for current Costco BTE models made by various providers including Sennheiser, Jabra, Rexton, etc.

While it can provide hearing assistance at a reasonable cost, anyone who truly values their hearing will invest the additional $1500 to get a professionally fitted BTE aid at Costco since there is no comparison in the hearing experience between the two. Costco’s hearing department is a god send for those of us who have hearing loss but no health insurance coverage for aids. Their audiologists are top notch and their service unrivaled at a small fraction of the cost of other hearing aid providers. Well worth the price of a membership if you don’t already have one.

Here are some specifics about the Nebroo. I received the Nebroo Infinity Bluetooth model which for unknown reasons is not listed for sale on their website (www.nebroo.com25). The model which they advertise on Facebook is the Nebroo Pro BT for $199. I guess I must have received a special promotion since I got the Infinity BT for just $99. According to their website, the Nebroo Pro and Infinity use different audio chips with the Infinity having their top of the line which supports multiple hearing environments (quiet, restaurant, outdoor). Also the Infinity is listed at $370 without BT so is more expensive (the BT model is not listed yet I received it).

Out of the box, I had a terrible time with feedback, something I was not accustomed to with my Costcos. They provide multiple silicone ear tips and the only one which kept the feedback squealing at bay was the one which a double seal which blocks most outside sounds which is regrettable. This made my ear canals feel stuffed up with sounds being muffled. If you’re already accustomed to this because you use ear molds then it might not be as big an issue but for me it was a deal breaker.

The first thing I noticed is that the Nebroo greatly amplifies things that I consider unwanted background noise which the Costco excelled at filtering out. I could hear loud creaks with each step on my wooden floor which I hadn’t hear before. There is a noise reduction setting in the Nebroo app which helped to lower this but also compromised the speech sound quality.

With voice, the Nebroo actually does a fair job at amplifying speech but works far better with human voices than other sound sources like listening to a TV. When my wife spoke, her voice was noticeably amplified but when I was watching a TV program at a similar volume level, there appeared to be far less amplification. As an electrical engineer, I found that odd since both sources are at the same sound frequencies. Bottom line - if you are looking to improve speech comprehension in a relatively quite setting, then the Nebroo works, although not as well as the Costco BTE.

As far as controlling the Nebroo, it has a single tiny button which cycles through 4 volume levels. That’s it - no other control. The Costco has an up down toggle button for volume up/down and both hearing aids are linked so either side adjusts both. The Nebroo aids are not linked so you must adjust each side separately, although the app does allow you to adjust them in unison.

While both the Nebroo and Costco have IOS (and presumably Android) apps, the Costco is far better which many more adjustments available. Costco has also released significant updates to this app over the years.

Regarding Bluetooth, the Nebroo badly trails the Costco in both ability and sound quality. My impression is that Nebroo did the bare minimum to integrate BT into their hearing aid. There is no ability to control the transparency level via the microphone level. When streaming BT, the microphone is at full volume level and no noise reduction making hearing the streamed content very difficult. Hard to believe they would go through all the trouble and expense to add BT and then provide such a flawed implementation. The Nebroo sound quality which should be on par with BT earbuds is vastly inferior sounding very tinny. So yes, Nebroo has BT but its usefulness is limited by its poor implementation which I hope they’ll release a sw fix through the app soon.

So my final advice is to skip the Nebroo and go directly to you local Costco and get a real hearing aid - the difference is night and day and worth the money. If you’re looking for non-BTE hearing aid, then the Apple AirPod Pro 3 which costs around $200 is a far better value than the Nebroo. Its transparency mode can be adjusted to optimize according to your actual hearing curve via a self test in the setup app. The hearing experience is better than Nebroo and the BT performance and sound quality is as good as it gets. While there are smaller earbuds than the AirPod Pro 3, they lack the hearing aid features and performance which Apple went to great engineering and expense to build in.

I purchased Nebroo directly from their site for a total cost of 413.98. They caused pain as they are too big for my ears and the screeching and loud unwanted noises was terrible. Three days after receiving them I attempted to return them. I was told to return them by USPS only. The USPS will not accept rechargeable items. They have offered me less than 1/2 of what I paid and suggested I donate them if I don't want them. I am still trying to get a full refund and it has been more than a month.