Not new to HAs but after a small fire with one I lived without HAs for a long time but have never stopped “researching” them. My experiences fit with the original authors 11. No they aren’t fact but experience. This is not a professional site where all are measured to the 14th decimal. I believe all 11 should be in your mind when shopping for HAs.
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then there is a clear lack of regulation andr oversee …
need a better regulatory controls
Less controls results in free market.
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Fewer controls allow the major manufacturers to collaborate to keep prices and profits high and to raise the barrier for new competitors to break into the market.
But with the revolving door between various industries and the government bodies that (supposedly) regulate them, it is not too difficult for the regulators to favor their former employers for whom they might want to work again in the future.
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I’d like to know this: who makes the profit from the higher tiers? The audi or the hearing aid company?
How has that been working out for prescription drug prices? Drugs are highly “controlled” yet the same issues you mention, “few controls”, seem to be still be prevalent
The prices are not controlled. The FDA regulates drugs for safety and (maybe) efficacy, but I’m not sure that they even do their own testing: don’t they mostly just accept the results of the manufacturers’ own trials?
Update: A few years back one of Martin Shkreli’s companies raised the price of one particular drug by more than 5,000%, but that was not what landed him in prison: it was securities fraud.
The official answer to the question “What kind of economy does the United States have?” (or words to that effect) in the citizenship test is not “Free Market” but “Capitalist” – and all over the Internet you can find discussions of the differences.
Hearing aid prices also are not controlled but the industry is regulated. Hmm, sounds just like prescription drugs 
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I’m sorry if this has been mentioned in earlier posts; the biggest lie is that the latest hearing aids will help you hear speech in noisy environments. They are not clever enough to hone into the speech you want to hear. Only the human brain with unimpaired hearing can decipher speech through the noise.
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Bingo, absolutely! I always get a good laugh when reading the manufacturer’s marketing hype/blurb.
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Truth 1: You need a different audiologist.
Yep, I agree!
I find that I’m happier after accepting the fact that hearing aids will not restore my hearing to some imagined pristine state where everything works the way I want.
I can’t recall what normal hearing was like. That’s one thing. And two: everyone, including normal hearing people, struggle with speech in noise. No hearing aid will make your hearing better than optimal.
I’m profoundly grateful for the aids that I have! Maybe we’re all a bit spoiled. Throughout all of history, hearing loss was permanent and not capable of being aided until very recently. The advances over the last 20 years are remarkable.
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I happy with my old Siemens RIC BX 7. They work just fine, but I wish that they had bluetooth.
Who is your audi (the one you love)? I’m nearby (in BA) and I am thinking of looking for a new place. My current Sonic Enchants came from HearingLife, and the person there isn’t really an audiologist (just a “hearing instrument specialist”) plus they seem really oriented toward sales. Thanks in advance.
I am one of those you refer to “pensioners living semi-isolated withdrawing from vital social lives”. And it really ticks me off how much auto sale hucksters, carnival barkers and the hearing aid industry in whole or in part HAVE IN COMMON.
I’ve paid a huge price for my hearing aids and “accessories” to enhance my hearing (which has not delivered on the enhancing part). Now im down and out not in Beverley Hills but the polar opposite". I dont wish to go i to reasons why any of this happened including moving to the polar opposite of Beverley Hills.
They’ve sold me a pig in a poke, taken almost my entire savings and left me high and dry with no affordable prospects that will help reverse the devastating losses I’ve suffered which include social distancing from my family and to a lesser extent my community. The distancing is not pandemic-related but more my becoming a humorless bore, who can’t keep up with conversations and other various and sundry reasons - the technology is there and so is medicare for which I pay an exorbitant price, that i need to function effectively and participate and enjoy things like Christmas Eve gatherings with family, government social programs for which i unfortunately make just $21 dollars a month too much to be benefit. Its too exhausting and boring to go to community gatherings due to the constant echoing sounds vibrating and bouncing off the walls yada yada. So i stay home and vegitate watching out my window as life and neigbors pass by probably thinking im either a senile recluse or have antisocial borderline personality disorder. Ive been reduced to begging, crying and near collapse. Every news magazine quotes half the top-heavy government alphabet soup agencies about how hearing loss and isolation leads to dementia but nobody does anything. Its late and i am rambling trying to type on a cheap piece of orient-sourced tablet so i will shut up… Hopefully you get my drift. In closing everything i own is defective outdated junk but i still dont qualify for WHATEVER… Have a pleasant evening!
Hey kcsummerks, You may consider leaving L.A. on a midnight train to Georgia.
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Just say NO to Midnight Trains to Georgia
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It sounds like “L.A. was just too much for the man”
Biggest “lie” told to me by Phonak: Lumity Life aids are waterproof. That lie was backed up with lots of marketing brochures, online promos and ads showing folks of all ages and sexes IN the water.
Well, they were standing IN water or paddling ON water or out in the rain, but never literally swimming with their aids in or taking a shower with them on. Or submerged a few inches snorkeling with aids in.
See what I’m saying? That to me is what “waterproof” would mean.
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