What's with the crazy hearing aid pricing differences in Costco versus chain hearing clinics?

@tenkan said:

This is true that the Noahlink wireless programming device won’t work, but the software does?

I believe you are correct, that the sw should run. You can probably run in simulation mode.

I have had several posts directed at me, so I’ll reemphasize a few points which seem to be overlooked:

1. My point was that Philips HearLink hearing aids are NOT rebadged Oticon Reals as stated earlier in this thread by another poster. They simply are not. That’s a fact.

2. I never said anything negative about Philips HearLinks. Quite the opposite. Nothing I said stated or implied that they provide an inferior listening experience.

3. I never said that Philips HearLinks are of inferior quality. I simply said that they are not the same.

@user777 said:

Billgem seems to be in the minority of opinions in this thread. I believe most people do not perceive a needed difference between Philips and Oticon. My evidence is that they have demonstrated this by voting with their hard earned dollars for Philips. If there was a difference that they truly needed, they would buy Oticon. Costco has a major market share for this simple reason.

I think that Billgem argues from the point of view of the HA company, using arcane technical spec arguments. But what do users care about those specs? What matters to users is what they hear. If their hearing is improved enough by an HA, their needs are met. My hearing is so much improved by my Philips that I feel it is returned to normal. Why would I even consider Oticon, especially for three time the price?

I asked you “What are you basing this belief on?” In response to your statement that”most people . . . hear no perceptible difference between Oticon and Philips.”

Nothing you’ve said answers that question. In order for your statement to be true “most people” would have to be trying both sets of hearing aids and making a comparison in order to make that statement.

Let me remind you that I was responding to the claim that Philips HearLinks are rebadged Oticon Reals. That means that the claim is that they are identical, not that they perform just as well. They are not identical.

I don’t think that’s correct. I program mine using a Noahlink Wireless through Parallels. It works. I even updated the firmware this morning, and I think once before that, too. It was only the Roger Upgrader that I couldn’t get working. And even that would start the update, then spit out several different errors midway through.

@user715 said:

It’s worth asking for the terms and conditions of a practice/provider because those can have a big impact on the total cost of ownership.

Um … yeah. Always.

Costco’s price includes: 180 money-back return privilege, 3 year warranty, cleaning - dome - wax filters for life of the aid, adjustments for the life of the aid, loss insurance (1 loss per instrument) for 2 or 3 years. The return privilege is easy to use once. After the 1st return, a customer may have trouble, including being black-listed, according to one report. The ‘life of the aid’ may not be documented, but it’s how I’ve been treated.

The cost of R&D is part of the cost of every instrument. It’s estimated, and it’s governed by tax laws, but my bet is that Demant/Philips, ReSound, and Signia charge Costco for R & D one way or another, unless all the R & D expense was attributed to the main brands’ HAs.

WRT Costco’s claim to sell premium aids, I pretty much accept the assertions that the Jabra Pro 10s are Omnia 9s. The Jabra Pro 10s are adjusted via the ReSound app. The number of controls available for the Pro 10s is the same as provided for Omnia 9s. The Pro 10s and the Omnia 9s have more control options than the Omnia 7, ReSound’s mid-level HA. The manuals are essentially the same, though I have only compared a dozen paragraphs scattered through the manuals. I’ve used the ReSound app and the Jabra app to control my Pro 10s, and the ReSound-labeled app works exactly as the Jabra app does. (I’m unable to test the Jabra app with ReSound aids.)

In any case, if the Pro 10s aren’t Omnia 9s, they are closer to the 9s than the 7s, which are the ReSound level below the 9s.

Costco’s value proposition is very compelling, as long as you want what they sell and as long as you connect with someone at a Costco near you who can program your HAs to your satisfaction. If you want something different, or if you can’t find someone who can program your HAs well enough, you’ve got to go elsewhere.

As I’ve written, I have despaired of being able to find ‘the best’ of anything. I look for ‘good enough’. Even if there were an acknowledged ‘best’, a buyer is not going to get much out of what they buy if they get a lemon.

@glucas said:

Not a claim I would make though.

Not a claim I would make. If you look at the Phillips software, it’s clearly a Bernafon dupe, not an Oticon dupe.

I don’t care one bit if they are not perfectly identical. The only thing that matters is performance, and both share enough technology because they are owned by the same parent, that those who buy Philips can get enough similar performance that satisfies their need that they can feel good about saving a lot of money.

Billgem, since you seem to think you are expert in the brand’s arcane technology differences, are you sure the Oticon delivered performance is worth three times the price of Philips? If so, you have a lot of people to convince.

@CombatWombat , is your Mac an Intel based mac? If so then yes you are correct that will work. However all current Macs are ARM based. And based on this: ARM-based Windows not supported for Noah or Noahlink Wireless – HIMSA HIMSA doesn’t support running in Windows on an ARM environment. e.g. Windows ARM running under Parallels.

If you do have a newer ARM based Mac, is Parallels now able to emulate x86 (intel) on an ARM mac? That would be great if it does. Last I checked about a year ago it couldn’t.

@user777 said:

I don’t care one bit if they are not perfectly identical. The only thing that matters is performance, and both share enough technology because they are owned by the same parent, that those who buy Philips can get enough similar performance that satisfies their need that they can feel good about saving a lot of money.

Billgem, since you seem to think you are expert in the brand’s arcane technology differences, are you sure the Oticon delivered performance is worth three times the price of Philips? If so, you have a lot of people to convince.

Gee whiz, lighten up. Whether the price difference is worth it to anyone is their own business. I wouldn’t try to convince anyone. Ultimately the difference is going to be the audiologist or the hearing instrument specialist. For some people, working with their chosen audiologist is worth the difference. To others, it is not.

Again, my point was directed at people who want to get the Oticon Real and think they can get the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost at Costco. They can’t.

But I agree with you that they can still get a very fine hearing aid by the same manufacturer.

There have been cases when Costco has carried the exact same hearing instrument rebranded as in the case of the KS 9 and 10 (Phonak) and Rexton Bi-Core (Signia).

That must be it. It’s a 2018 Macbook air, so I guess it’s too old to be ARM. Note to self: remember this when upgrading!

Thanks for explaining!

@JimGnitecki said:

The above sumamrizes why I am leaning strongly towards buying from Costco.

Just go for it. If it doesn’t work out, you can return it, or you can absorb the cost over a few years and go elsewhere to try again. Looks like you probably needed hearing aids a decade ago. Time to jump in.

@JimGnitecki said:

Raudrive is worried that I am not resonding eniugh to my own post. Rest assured I have read EVERY comment here! I am not “responding” only because:

I can’t imagine that what computer you have has anything to do with buying Costco hearing aids.

The Costco aids are every bit as good as the high dollar aids from other locations. The fitters and audiologist from either place can be good or bad or anything in-between but Costco does use best practices, all of them.

Well fit aids from wherever are a good choice.

Raudrive: All I meant by my Mac versus Windows comment was that my understanding is that DIY programming of an HA apparently requires being able to run a program that will not run on a non-Intel computer. So since I run a Mac, and am not at all interested in suffering through Windows use ever again, I would not be able to do my own programming, despite my inherent interest in doing that, being a degreed engineer.

Jim G

@JimGnitecki said:

DIY programming of an HA apparently requires being able to run a program that will not run on a non-Intel computer.

No it’s not true, the only thing that doesn’t run on ARM is the Noahlink wireless, and this only because of the lack of support for the drivers, an easy way for you would be to buy an older model of Mac machines and use bootcamp, and now your away programming your HAs, simple.