About 8 to 10 months ago I venture into the “Costco hearing aid experience”. It was a horrible experience. My so called “hearing expert” could best be described as having no clue what she was doing. Allowing no input from me she selected the Philips hearing aids for me. Please understand I am not knocking the Philips hearing aids. All I know is people sounded like Donald Duck with a bad lisp. But then again both aids had to be replaced after 4 weeks due to other failure issues (the new set sounded the same so it was the settings). Being my first experience with hearing aides I was also clueless. But I knew I should have had more then 1 program and the little buttons were supposed to do more then turn on/off the aids and I shouldn’t feel like my wife should have feathers to go along with her duck like voice. So after 6 weeks and 19 adjustment visits I called it quits and requested a refund.
Because I live in an area rich with Costco stores I waited a few months and went to another Costco location where I met my current hearing aid expert (Mike). I told him my experience and we started the process over. This time I requested the Jabra enhanced pro with MRIE mikes. He told me I was technically outside the recommended parameters for the MRIE but was willing to let me give them a try. I tried them for about 4 weeks and then switched to a standard setup (without the MRIE mikes which required reprogramming). While the Jabra’s worked ok with the MRIE setup they were much better without them. With them I had to much feedback of my own voice. I felt I was loosing the value of aids due to trying to compensate for the problem with the programming. Beside, even though I use a little lube (eye drops) in my ears I still itch now and them. Trust me those MRIE mikes really like to let you know to keep your finger out of your ears (squeal).
I’m sorry to say that after about 4 weeks or so the Jabra also had to be replaced. The first set simply stopped pairing with my iphone nor with Costco’s equipment. While I thought they would be repaired they once again replaced them with a new set or maybe someone else’s returned set. All I know is I was told they were new and had different serial numbers to be recorded.
Bottom line these new Jabra’s without the MRIE mikes are working great for me. This is the first time I can stream music and both units are not only working at the same time (no this never happened before on the Jabra or Philips aids) but it’s in stereo the way it was recorded. While the sound quality is not close to a good set of ear muffs it sounds good enough for me when I’m out working and want some tunes. My iPhone 14 works flawlessly with them for streaming or taking/making phone calls in a true “hands free” manner. No problem hearing people or them hearing me. The best part is I never-ever touch the settings or change programs for any reason.
I’m a biker and frequently ride on stone covered bike paths. With the Philips the noise from the wind and and clicking of the stones under the tires was so load I had to remove them. With the Jabra’s this is no problem at all. Actually, I forget I’m wearing them even while biking.
This is not meant to be an endorsement of the Jabra hearing aid over the Philips hearing aids. But more an endorsement for Mike (my current Costco hearing specialist). With him I’m confident the Philips would have worked as well (maybe not with the wind and stones though). BTW, at the time I was told it was near impossible to get the iPhone to take/make phone calls in a true “hands free” condition. But that was with my first Costco HAS and I’m sure this was not actually correct. Actually, my first HAS also told me Costco does not offer online consultation or adjustments. I have had both online consultations and adjustments with Mike.