Good! I will be trialing the top end Wii’s at the beginning of the year.
Because of my situation with Flex Spending, I am buying one next week and the other one January 3rd.
Got to spend it or lose the money.
Kind of frustrating to do it that way, made up my mind I’m not wearing them till I have them both.
is phonak and unitron same in performance and price?
I would like to knoe price of unitron- lattitude 16 moxi 3g price for one unit urgrntly?
plese let me know about unitron -lattitde 16 moxi model asap
thx
Phonak and Unitron I would describe as sister companies. Share some of the same tech/platform but not exactly the same. I have fit both, and had success with both. Unitron is good if you want lots of accessories and don’t want to pay more…phonak is good for the sound recover feature available.
The Latitude line I believe is an older line. I’m not sure on pricing but I would suspect that the Latitude should be slightly less than the Phonak products, unless you are buying an older phonak product and not the new spice chip.
The current Uniitron line is Quantum. It happens to be pretty good for the price. Dollar for dollar I find you get more value with Unitron products, than Phonak.
“Defamatory” needs to be knowingly false. What I said - “ZCT is a Starkey distributor who, as opposed to wearers or most Audies, has a pecuniary interest in people buying Starkey HAs’” was true. Why do we know this? Well, you stated it in your post. You are a “consultant” with a mysterious company that only does business with Starkey. Umm, that means you financially benefit in Starkey’s sales - even if indirectly.
But that’s okay you didn’t get the false part because you are probably focusing on another required element of defamatory - the part about harming your reputation. Well, if you think me saying that your being tied in business relationship to Starkey hurts your reputation, it sounds like you are not very proud of Starkey.
If you want me to stop informing people that you benefit from sales of Starkey hearing aids, I have a simple solution: just put it in your signature. Something like Starkey “Distributor,” “Consultant” to Starkey, Sharkey “Hawker.” Or whatever.
BTW, saying you are biased for Starkey products because they are good also conflicts with English language definitions. Bias does not come from proven effects but from a preconceived notion. Certainly, if you financially benefit - even indirectly - from sales of a product that is a factor that can produce bias.
Just be transparent and admit your affiliation in your signature and people will be duly informed. What are you afraid of with openness?
Defamatory - Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.
I wish we had more contributors like ZCT who obviously know what they are writing about and put it across in a clear and sometimes amusing manner. If we had some one with the same standard of knowledge of some of the other major makes - Widex or Phonak, for example the resulting discussion would be most interesting. I suggest we do not discount what he writes simply because he knows all about Starkey and is kind enough to tell us what he knows.
Problemsolver1
Location: Derbyshire, UK.
I believe DocAudio is a good Phonak professional. I do not remember what brands dr.amy works with.
ZCT makes Starkey sound like the best there is. It is good to believe in the product with which you are associated.
I interviewed 5 different audi firms. None suggested Starkey for me. Why not? Are they not popular in the NorthEast US?
ZCT has said that he and his customers have compared Starkey to other brands. Perhaps the firms you contacted are not experienced Starkey firms.
The large firm I visited early last year lists Starkey and other brands on theit website. They refuse to use anything but Phonak. I called the two local dealers listed on Starkey’s site. Neither one sold Starkey. I ended up calling Starkey’;s 800 number and got a Micro Tech professional in my area.
If Starkey’s are as good as ZCT claims then there must be some other factor at work here. Such as, maybe they don’t pay audis as much as the other manufacturers, or their service is poor.
One audi I visited did not recommend Phonaks because she said their reps were not knowledgeable and they returned HAs sent in for repair back without repairing them.
I must say I almost want to try Starkey’s just to see how they reduce noise in a crowded restaurant. I can’t imgine the algorithm to do that. Most fo the noise would be other speech from other customers or possibly background music. How would it detect speech you want to hear from speech by other customers and waiters that you/it considers noise?
I am trialing the Wi110’s right now and went to a restaurant today. Turning my head to the person helps in making out what they are saying.
A couple of times, the HA tuned into a speaker in the upper left corner of the room about 20 feet away from me and I knew exactly where to look for it by direction, kind of uncanny. Never been to this place before so did not know the speaker was even there and it picked up the singers voice.
Still got a bit more tuning to do as I am asking my audi to install a couple of programs in it. The one I am most interested in is the industrial noise one which is why I went with this model.
I have four distinct environments in my job and they all give me problems. Office - restaurants - conference rooms - industrial settings.
What I don’t like is my noisy car, I will be keeping the remote in my car to turn the HA’s off when driving. Wind noise is driving me nuts. My wife’s car is much quieter.
First thing that struck me wearing them was driving out of the parking lot, I heard the turn signal relay for the first time in 25 years, turn signals were always visual for me, with the aids, I hear them clearly.
Other noises are shoe laces clicking on my shoes, Never heard those …
“S” sounds almost sound like whistling … almost forgot how that sounded like. Over the years, got into the habit of using the military phonetic alphabet to not screw up part numbers … prevents VERY expensive mistakes. (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot 
)
Still got a ways to go … my wife is now talking too loudly to me … she has some unlearning to do also. LMAO
My right ear still feels like there is a blanket over it … kind of hard to explain … makes me aware how bad it is compared to the left ear. The left ear is quite better and is still my “master” ear.
All I can say is try them, it is kind of like explaining sex to a virgin. 
Best…Analogy…Ever!
Tambourine Man: manufacturers don’s pay us audiologists, insurance companies and patients do. The manufacturers set the prices we pay for aids, but all of them have prices that are pretty similar, with maybe the exception of Siemens. But that has more to do with the structure of the company than the aids - hearing aids are only a small slice of the equipment that Siemens manufactures. And service plays a large part, but Starkey has excellent service, being one of the only existing manufacturers that will repair aids over 10 years old regardless of who manufactured the aid. Professionals choose manufacturers based on how comfortable/competent they are with products and software, and what the manufacturer has to offer our patients (best instruments that can help all the potential losses we see).
Prodigy Place: Most of my experience is with Starkey, GN Resound and Siemens. Used to fit Oticon as well, but not in recent years.
dr.amy
I am trying Phonak Naida S IX CRTs and have had them for a week and a half. I had originally told my audi I also wanted to try Oticon Agil Pros but the Phonaks seem so good I am rethinking that as it seems a shame to cause that manufacturer to have to just dispose of them when I will probably keep the Phonaks as they have more features. I just want to have something to compare to know whether they are tinny and the Oticons are warmer and more natural.
I guess the sex - virgin thing is a good analogy. The one I used with my audi was if I had never driven a car before and went to buy one and demo’d a Mercedes I am sure I would like it, but if I aqlso demo’d a BMW I might like it better, or vice versa, but if I never tried the other I would not know.
While I tried 5 audis none mentioned Starkey for me which may be because they did not handle them. Do you think I should try Starkey Wi 110’s? Do they have better noise reduction than the Naidas? With the Naidas I have to manually select stereo zoom of zoom control, although once selected these work well. Is this automatic with the Starkey’s? Do the Starkey’s have the equivalent of SoundRecover?
All manufacturers have a wholesale price, it may be that some of the European models have lower wholesale prices, and can thus yield more profit. I know when I ran my own business, I didn’t bother calling them to find out because I only wanted to dispense Starkey.
I’ve heard that around the year 2000, Starkey slipped a little in customer service. I was in the process of moving to the US and obtaining my new license at the time so didn’t really notice.
I used to program in assembly language, and I cannot imagine the algorithm either!
However, when it comes to nearby conversation versus the hubbub of conversation in a restaurant, my understanding is that the hubbub melds together while nearby conversation still has a noticeable modulation, and you can program for that difference.
Your ridiculous post implied that unlike ‘most’ hearing professionals I have some kind special interest with Starkey, and by inference my bias made my professional opinion less useful than ‘most’ hearing professionals. And of course, I objected to that and found it offensive.
Let’s also be real for a moment. Of the population of America with a hearing loss who are likely to buy hearing aids maybe 0.0001% of them visit this forum. And of that percentage maybe 0.01% of them listen to my advice and trial Starkey hearing aids. If my goal were to come here and talk up Starkey products for some financial reward, I’m kind of wasting my time aren’t I?
Again, my issue is the false accusation that I differ from ‘most’ hearing professionals because I have a preference for Starkey. You are implying that ‘most’ hearing professionals, unlike me, evaluate every brand of hearing aid available and then offer all the pros and cons to the patient. That’s simply not true, and is an attack on my professionalism.
You are not informing people of anything. You are drawing conclusions based on my posts and extrapolating ‘facts’ about a stranger on the Internet and then posting them as if they were known verifiable facts.
I could put “I am Bill Austin” in my signature line, but that wouldn’t make it true nor my posts any more credible.
My opinion of Starkey products began in 1994 in England. I worked for the two largest independent companies that sell private hearing aids in the UK. I worked as a hearing aid dispenser. Our price list included Philips, Starkey, Danavox, Resound, Siemens, A&M, Widex, Oticon, Rexton, and Phonak.
My remuneration was a company car, a salary, and a bonus based on sales performance. A very common business model at the time.
At no point was there ever any pressure to recommend any specific aids. The brief was to sell while taking care of the patient in the best way possible. So out of personal interest, I deliberately fitted each and every type of aid (these were pre-digital days so there was not the need to learn complex fitting software back then) and I evaluated my patients performance.
Over the years and hundreds of patients, I began to form an opinion as to which companies were efficient, who was making my patients happy, who had my back if I ran into issues, who made the best molds, who had the best packaging/instructions, which aids performed best on the ANSI testing that was done on all new aids before they left the factory, who had the most reliable reps, etc etc.
The only financial issue that guided this process really was that if the aids sucked and the patient returned them, it would affect my bonus. So it was in my financial interest to track down the brand that made the patient the most happy, because logically these patients were the most likely to keep their aids, so I could keep my bonus.
So that’s how I became a fan of Starkey. They did a great job of making my patients happy, and to this day they still do. There’s no conspiracy theory here, I am not some secret agent, or some sucker that was wined and dined by Starkey so now I sing from the company hymn book. I went out into the field and later into my own clinics helping patients to hear, and I learned what worked.
This is why I find your disparaging nonsense about my ethics offensive. I do a good job and I help people, and people like you and a few others on this forum just like to lash out because this is the Internet and that’s what some people like to do.
I’m afraid of the kind of weirdos that troll the Internet for an argument. I could put my full name, job position, license numbers, credentials, and a link to my Curriculum Vitae on the signature line on this forum, right next to my personal cell number. But why should I? I don’t see it on your signature.
I’m just a hearing professional posting his opinion on a forum. I have a right to some anonymity on here. As do we all.
I don’t really need your help understanding the definition of words. However, as I have already mentioned, you made the statement that led people to believe that ‘most’ hearing professionals operate in a different and by implication superior way to me. This has the action of harming reputation, decreasing respect or regard or confidence.
You either did this knowingly, in other words it was intentional, or you are ignorant, in which case your mistake was simply a function of your lack of knowledge but still has a negative impact on my reputation, assuming of course that anyone views you as having credibility.
Aw shucks Thanks!
ZTC why bother to defend your integrity against mindless statements of a few ignorant weirdos on this forum. This is Internet and there is always few people trying to boost their sagging ego at someone else’s expense. I have seen many of your posts and I feel that you are a professional of high integrity very helpful to HOH community on this forum. I’m not big fan of Starkey for lack of personal experience but simply recognize that present crop of Starkey aids is a:) very good choice.
I did not choose Starkey, my audi recommended Starkey first. Customer service means a lot to me. I will pay more to get that than buy a cheap product and hope for the nonexistent luck of the draw. Been burned way to many times doing that in the past.
So i find this forum after several hours researching HA’s on the net. Then spent several DAYS using the search function, crafting queries for various brands and diagnosis.
Reading though the thousands of posts, here and the other forums, I noticed a pattern forming. It is not the brand, it is the audi … their product competencies, technical skills and most importantly, their people skills. How can they interpret a rather crude chart, listen to a patient and fit a solution that works to the MUTUAL satisfaction of patient and fitter.
At first glance, ZCT looks like shill for Starkey. After reading over a hundred of these posts, it became very clear to me that he is passionate about his work AND he loves helping people. So does English Dispenser and Dr Amy and other professionals on this forum.
Slamming ZCT impacts your credibility … if the only thing that sets you off is his unique choice of product and you are willing to spend hours crafting diatribes against his participation in the forum … I question your motives.
Some people build … some people destroy … and others don’t care.
I am interested in the builders … I don’t care and have the time for anything else.
I have been around life long enough to recognize a bully when I see this type of behavior.
Everyone has a right to free speech and on this forum it kinda fundamental! I have to say I’ve crossed swords with most of the Pro’s on here, but it is honestly nothing personal, I will fight tooth and nail for the HOH of this world with any of these guys and girls, in especial when it comes to, HA’s pricing policies and self-programming, but that does not mean I do not respect their views; I do most of the time… But, not always and now and then I go off on the odd diatribe, usually followed by some form of apology, I have to say sorry, tis just me!:o
As for ZCT, I think you are always going to promote what you like best, more so if you love your work and believe in your product… I think ZCT cares deeply about his job, his clients and his HA’s and why not, very few of us can say we have found our niche in life, can we? You get my vote anyway and although I have never actually used a Starkey Aid, I very much appreciate ZCT, especially his enthusiasm, it is kinda infectious! And all the other Pro’s on here whom give their time freely with some excellent advice, thank you all guys and girls:D Now I reiterate, that does not mean I ain’t going to argue with you all, it just means you have mine and many others on this forums respect…
Cheers Kev:D