Just got my first hearing aids shortly after my 82nd birthday, so I am slightly ahead of the huge influx of Baby Boomers getting here soon.
Bought Phonak Audeo L90-RT with ActiveVent Receivers to get the automatic adjustments for my fairly active life that includes swing dancing to live bands and to recorded music, as well as skating at different rinks both indoors and outside.
Great hearing aids, and yes, it seems you would be the spokesmodel for sloping hearing loss.
Although my insurance would have paid for premium Signia hearing aids at a local hearing care provider, the Signia managed care providers did not carry the latest top-tier Signia model that my research indicated I would want, and I always go for the latest tech when making a major purchase. (My insurance deductible would have been around $1600 for a pair of Signia HAs.)
I did lots of research on this and other forums and watched many youtube videos and eventually decided I was willing to pay twice my health insurance deductible for the latest Phonak Audeo Lumity HAs - but I was not anxious to spend four times that deductible amount to get them through a local HA provider.
I found an online HA provider whose prices were very near that $3200 I was willing to pay, offered 3 years of warranty and unlimited remote HA adjustments through the myPhonak app, and whom my research indicated had a good reputation.
(I knew I would not be getting Real Ear Measurement (REM) when buying online, but I hoped my age-related hearing loss was close enough to the “typical” that I would benefit greatly from just the default fitting settings these premium HAs would provide. I also would be willing to find a local HA provider to do REM if I decided later that it would be worthwhile or necessary.)
My willingness to spend much more than my insurance deductible was partially due to my realization that any savings and investments I currently had might easily be wiped out if I were to get a major illness or need assisted living, otherwise it would just be left to my descendants. Might as well improve whatever remaining years I have left!
Thanks to all my research and the vast amount of info on these forums and youtube videos, I bought more than just HAs - I bought the Phonak TV Connector, a ReDux Home HA Dryer, a new NoahlinK Programming Device with fitting software from several major HA providers, WaxMasterMD and EarWaxMD, and a Neckloop Telecoil Coupler - in addition to a Telecoil and ActiveVent Receivers installed on my P90-RT HAs.
I plan to buy a set of backup HAs either on ebay or perhaps at Costco, and maybe use the Noahlink only with the backup HAs rather than risk jeopardizing my Phonak HA warranty by using DIY on them.
I wore my new hearing aids for the first time yesterday around the house, and I definitely could hear my housemates much better from further differences than I have in many years, as well as hearing the TV while sitting next to them without using the TV Connector that I had attached to the TV in my bedroom.
Battery life and drain are my concern as well as many on this forum - but in a different way for me. I am only using my HAs for about 13 hours each day and then putting them in the ReDux Dryer for a few hours before recharging them. I am wondering if my not draining them sufficiently will shorten the battery capacity earlier than normal longer wear would.
(I only go dancing and skating one or two nights a week, and most other days my HA use is mostly watching TV. With my minimal HA loss, I find that watching TV with my Bose or AirPods Pro earbuds (as I have been doing for several years) is sufficient enough that I really do not need to wear my HAs connected to the Phonak TV Streamer - which would conserve HA battery use - but I am not sure yet if that is a good or a bad idea.)
Welcome to the DIY hearing aid community. You will find a lot of help here if you go that route. I am wondering why you need the Neckloop. Dryers are a good idea, I am told. I have worn hearing aids for 30 years and never worried about a dryer without having a problem. I may just be lucky in that respect but I would not lose a lot of sleep trying to be too precise with the drying process unless you live in a very humid climate.
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In answer to the thread title - no you’re not. The Low Frequency asymmetry is likely indicative of another factor at work.
Though the high frequency result is fairly typical of presbyacusis.
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Please report back, once you use them for a while, on how well you like the ActiveVent Recievers.
I don’t really need the neckloop but I saw youtube videos which convinced me to get a telecoil in my HAs and some others showing how a neckloop can be used with my telecoil. Bought a lot of things while waiting for my HAs and not rushing to use them all yet. I will need to review many of those videos again to benefit from those purchases. The dryer was quite expensive but should help me extend the life of my ActiveVent Receivers that are $200 per pair and supposed to be changed every six months.
Unfortunately I just returned my Phonak HAs for a refund because the left HA failed to charge twice and also stopped streaming during a two-hour skating session. (I plan to buy Costco HAs and also Signia using my Medicare Advantage benefits, and the total cost for both sets of HAs will be less than what the Phonaks cost me online (and that cost was only about half of what my local clinic wanted for the Phonaks).)
I chose ActiveVent Receivers so I could stream music and hear better bass, as I have a Bose subwoofer in my car, where a closed vent would work best - and also get the benefit of open vents when that was automatically chosen for me.
I mainly used Automatic mode and let the HAs change as I moved around our house or went shopping or dancing or skating - but I have a high tolerance for discomfort and just ignored any clicks or other noise the HAs or the ActiveVents might have made, thus I cannot say that I evaluated the ActiveVents specifically.
I will post another thread when I get my Signia HAs, which is scheduled for 6/10/24 - and another thread when I get my Costco HAs for which I have a hearing test scheduled for 6/21/24.
There is absolutely no risk Noahlink and Target will harm your Phonaks is any way. When you first use these the software proposes to retrieve all settings your audiologist programmed for them, and you can easily revert to those if needed.
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Absolutely right, the warranty is not voided because of any DIY projects, and as you say very easy to revert back to the original audiology settings, they’ll only notice a time stamp difference between when they programmed them and when you revert back, no big deal.
I was referring to the 3 year warranty provided by the online store that sold me the HAs - not Phonak. I bought the Noahlink so I could use it eventually, as I expect to wear HAs the rest of my life and hopefully for many years beyond any warranty period.