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Summary of my Costco KS9 experience

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Edited

Posting earlier considering the KS9’s, someone asked that I give a summary after I used them for a while. Here is that summary:

To “beat” year end insurance cut off for out of network reimbursement, I rushed purchase of KS9. Did a bit of research here, but not enough for my usual, pre purchase scrutiny of any sizable cost outlay.

KS9s were $1,500. Buying before Dec 31, netted reimbursement of $1,000 (already received) leaving me $500. out of pocket. After Jan 1 at required sources would have tripled my out of pocket. This was a major incentive.

I’m happy to say after wearing them for several week, they are a great improvement over the old, Costco Bernofons from 2013. This is my critique:

Background noise is substantially reduced in meetings, restaurants, etc. Of course, not a miracle and can’t hear squeaky voiced little kids over noisy diesel engine school bus I drive, but there is a small improvement. Watching / listening to TV in same room with my wife has eliminated her complaining “IT’S TOO LOUD”

I didn’t buy TV streaming thing for $100 bucks on Costco recommendation I try without first. This was good advice.

The bluetooth connection to my phone is really good. The button to push to answer a call is a little small for my big hands, as is the up/down volume buttons, but given some time, it should get easier.

Putting into my ears is more difficult than old Bernofons. Stiffer, plastic tubes on the Bernos were easier to handle sticking in ears. KS9’s have a limp, fiber optic, making this a little harder. The aids themselves are also smaller and lighter. Although it hasn’t happened yet, I’m afraid they might get bumped and fall out getting in/out of car or putting ID badge lanyard around my neck.

Blue tooth allows both the phone call connection AND a remote volume adjustment from phone. I haven’t been able to make both connections work at the same time, but I have a techy son who I’ll be talking to.

One of the really good things, is I can hear google map turn by turn instructions. Occasionally, I drive a kids field trip someplace I’m not familiar with and not allowed to have a phone in my hand driving the school bus. Previously, I tried it with phone in my breast pocket to hear direction but noise of the engine makes that really hard.

It’s also better on personal trips GPS in my car is old and sucks. The interface is only slightly advanced from chisel and stone input. Listening to google maps on a trip yesterday was a great improvement, but getting notifications for messages, etc interferes. My son is helping me inhibit most notifications. He also showed me how to disabled phone unlocking when paired with my hearing aids. For phone calls, I can simply say, “hey google”, call “Sam”, etc without first having to put my fingerprint to unlock phone.

Bottom line regarding the KS9’s, I’ll give them a 9.8 rating and glad I bought them. To get a “10”, they’d have to canceled the diesel engine noise or turned the clock back to when I was 16 yrs old.

13 people in this conversation8 min readJump to latest

Here’s a follow up to my message which was getting a bit long.

What do I do with the old Bernofon hearing aids? As mentioned, they are from 2013 but still work. I’m assuming they’d work for someone younger than me (75). I’m not sue how someone would get matched with their own audigram.

As for hygiene, I have a bunch of new ear pieces and tubes.

Are they worth anything and is there a market for them?

I have always had to go back to my backup aids at least once before I turned my present aids to being the backups.

I also bought the KS9’s a few weeks back. Previous experience (my first ’s) were KS8’s, which I returned just before the 180 day trial due to being unimpressed.

I thought the KS9’s were going to be even worse. The sound was extremely “brittle”. Everything sounded tinnier than a 1910 Victrola phonograph. The left dome, which was a double, was unbearably uncomfortable. The single RH dome felt fine. I was impressed with the Bluetooth phone performance, phone calls were a pleasure.

A couple of days ago I went back for the follow up at Costco and asked the audiologist why I had two types of domes. She said the double was intentional due to that side having different needs. I asked for a conventional dome on both sides and instantly the aids were comfortable. Then I proceeded to tell her in technical terms what I would like her to tweak. She asked if I was a sound engineer (pretty common here in Nashville) and I said no, but had produced several feature films and done much of my own audio work. I told her I needed more midrange, less highs and less compression. She also adjusted the wind threshold, echo and other settings.

The difference was like night and day. I can now hear a much higher percentage of speech with clarity and no longer hear minute sounds a mile away. Everything sounds much closer to natural, no HA sound- exactly what I wanted. Overall I’m very impressed with the KS9’s after the follow up. I also noticed that the Costco KS series is the top rated aid regardless of price in Consumer Reports, so I guess I made the right choice.

I gather the KS9 uses small (312) batteries. Since uses lots of juice, what’s their life span?
A number of phones can be set to answer automatically after 1st, 2nd, 3rd ring. If your phone doesn’t have that feature, there’s an Android app. Calls go strate to and are answered w.o. me touching anything.

In reply to @fredwilharm

@fredwilharm said:

I also noticed that the Costco KS series is the top rated aid regardless of price in Consumer Reports, so I guess I made the right choice.

I believe based on the date they did their survey for their rating of brands, the Kirkland Signature aids (7&8) were Rexton/Signia. The KS9’s are Phonak, and were released well after the survey was done. Phonak rated #4 after the KS, Signia, and Oticon. Price was a factor in the rating, so the KS9 would likely rate higher than the higher priced Phonak branded aids.

Boy, if there’s anything I don’t want to do, it’s answer the phone automatically. I don’t get as many garbage calls on the cell as I did on the landline, but I still get them.

I don’t get as many garbage calls on my cell either but they are annoying. Surprisingly, even if my cell is about 90 feet away calls still ring in my ears!

Android 10 has a cool phone screening feature. If someone isn’t an approved caller marked in my dialing directory, my phone goes to screening mode and announces that this call is being screened by Google and to state their name and the reason they are calling. If they do, the screener will then offer to take a message. Telemarketers just hang up right away. I absolutely love this feature on Android 10.

That came from Google Fi service around four years ago. Yes it was / is a great feature. For me the Fi service was too costly, for others a bargain. Loved it on my Nexus 6, then Pixel 2 XL.

Aha! You’re right! I’m a Google Fi subscriber. We both have Pixel 3 XL’s. For us Google Fi works as we both work from our home offices and are on our WiFi at home and literally anywhere we go in the Atlanta area we’re on WiFi. When we went with Google Fi several years ago we went from a monthly bill of about $125/mo to an average of $38/mo with Google Fi. For how we use our phones Fi has been great!

quite few comments on my previous post and many off topic so making new posts. I still like these KS9s but having some issues with bluetooth.

Using Galaxy S10e android.

I have a number of potential bluetooth pairings on my phone. They include:

  • My car (Audi) to use phone hands free while driving. This has worked well for several years

  • A “Dongel”. plugs into OBDII port for diagnosing car. Also worked well for many years

  • My TV. My son recently set something up to stream from my TV. I see this option on my connection but have never tried to use it.

  • KS9 Hearing aids:

    1. For regular calls and phone audio (google maps giving me turn by turn) Apparently, I can turn off/on calls or audio but there might be a problem if only one is turned on.

    2. Remote volume adjustment for my aids. This worked when audiologist originally walked e through set up but haven’t been able to replicate since then. Only the calls and audio have worked and experienced some issues. This is not a big deal as I can use the up/down volume buttons.

Occasionally, I’ll hear a noise (something like a far off train horn). If I were to try to make a call, it appears my hearing aids disconnected. Because I drive a school bus and not supposed to answer phone (even hands free), I generally turn off blue tooth.

After I was off the bus, I turned it on and it only worked for a while before getting the train horn noise. Attempting to connect (turn phone blue on/off) and also open/close battery “door” on phone, it would work, sometimes, other times it “could not connect”

Am I doing something wrong? Should I first turn on blue, then off/on my hearing aids?

One thing I’d like to be able to do it hear google maps audio when I’m driving bus to a location I’m not familiar. In the past, I had phone in my breast pocket and listened but engine is too noisy. I’ve been able to use it once but can’t seem to make it do it again.

Is it possible what I’m experiencing is due too batteries running down very quickly (3-4 days?) When I turn the blue tooth on and off, am I also supposed to turn on/off my hearing aids by opening the “battery” doors?

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