I am the first to admit I am not a huge fan of large shopping malls, especially those packed with the exact same cookie cutter retail stores found in most malls today.
But after recently watching Dr. Cliff’s video of the Nuance EssilorLuxottica hearing glasses, I made the trek yesterday to a nearby LensCrafters store.
The sales agent was pleasant if not entirely knowledgeable, and pulled out a small suitcase prepackaged with a demo setup. After fumbling with the phone (which was not correctly charged), she proceeded with the obviously rehearsed demo.
At that point, I was not impressed, and was preparing to leave within the next few minutes.
When she left to work with another customer, I was able to work through the app and demo myself, and my opinion quickly changed. Make no mistake - these are not replacements for my prescription hearing aids, but they do work well.
There are four preprogrammed hearing profiles, along with additional settings for noise reduction, mic directionality, and volume. I chose Profile B (emphasizes high frequencies) and was able to clearly hear others in the store, to a much greater degree than without the glasses. The directional mic feature is also quite effective with front focus and all around modes.
As I walked throughout the mall, these glasses did a highly respectable job of reducing background noise and clarifying speech, so much so that I wanted to keep them on!
The frames are themselves a bit thick but stylish, and I found myself really liking what EssilorLuxottica has achieved with these glasses. I can see myself moving forward with a purchase in the next few weeks, which I never thought I would say about OTC hearing glasses.
For me to be able to purchase progressive prescription eyeglasses with Transitions XTRActive lenses to also use as sunglasses and then experience greatly improved hearing in one device is amazing.