so i’m 20 and i was told i have moderate cookie bite loss in november 2024 (so like 4 months ago). i got my philips miniRITE from coscto in january and they were ok for the first few weeks. as i got more used to them, i was starting to realize everything was just louder not clearer. i was still struggling with speech clarity and the background noises were just enhanced. i went in to costco last week to ask him about maybe trying BTEs instead. he said he would see if any costcos nearby had the philips ones i could loan out but for the time being, he tried to adjust my current ones to make voices clearer. it did not help. things were just louder and voices hurt my ears. well i was able to get in yesterday and he gave me a loan pair yesterday of jabra BTEs. immediately everything was so much clearer. i could understand people and sounds weren’t hurting my ears. certain things r loud (like my car horn when i lock it but i’m sure that can be adjusted since this is just a trial) but other than that, it feels so much more natural and clearer. i was told though that BTEs usually aren’t used for moderate loss and people on here have told me the same, but they feel so much better. i worse them for so much longer last night because they felt so natural and i could hear better. should i look into sticking with them? i mean i want to try them the next two weeks at school to make sure since there’s no way to know how they’ll be there unless i try. but if they’re better, should i stick with them? i don’t care about them being bulkier i just want to be able to hear. i’m a pre-nursing student and relatively social so it’s important i can hear. am i like doing too much? i don’t know how to word that question 
but like if they work for me like does it matter if others say these aren’t usually used for my loss?
Do it. In the US you get 6 mos to take them back. Try it out. There are other BTEs but this sounds like a path for goodness.
WH
I think (I may be wrong) that they provide the RIC (RITE) hearing aid with too long a cable to the receiver, which can alter directivity and beamforming upward, which can be detrimental to sound quality, especially if you are tall. See links below; however, I see no contraindications for BTE—it provides a nice, repeatable, stable position.
Personally, I had BTE long time ago - Phonak Bolero, Oticon Inteo, etc.
You didn’t mentioned which acoustic coupling you had with Philips and with Jabra - closed domes? Vented domes? Earmold?
they’re using my skeleton molds from my RITEs for the BTE trial run. so i’ve had molds for both. i can’t do domes as they made me extremely itchy as soon as they went in
Any loss can be fit with a BTE. RICs usually have more high frequency gain than a BTE with a slimtube.
Would you suggest a BTE over RIC for such a loss or do you suspect something about the RIC setup (programming or mold/dome) was not optimized?
Is it possible to post your audogram, as this will help everyone offer more advice.
my audiogram is on my profile here : ]
Could be fitted with any aid. It’s slightly ‘reverse sloped’ too, which means that your venting/high frequency balance needs to be really well considered.
You might also do well with one of the new IIC/CIC if you’d prefer that style.
The probably isn’t an inherant reason to use the BTE over the RIC, no. Digital eharing aids are very flexible, and if you measure the output of the BTE you can wrangle the output of the RIC to look to same.