Welcome to the forum.
Good luck with your appointment.
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I got my KS-10’s at the Charlottesville, VA Costco last Saturday. They came in after only five days from the initial audiometry and ordering. The hearing aid specialist was experienced, having worked a a local brick and mortar hearing aid store in the area for several years. I have been wearing HAs since 2013, and I am a pretty good judge of the dispensers’ capabilities. They do “Real Ear Evaluations” (their term for “Real Ear Measurements”) routinely!
I had been fitted with the previous generation Phonak Audeó Marvel-90-RT HAs two years ago by a trusted local provider, and with his discount and my insurance coverage (once every three years), they still cost me $2500. So, without insurance at all, Costco’s $1400 was a good deal. I’ve gotta admit, though, I felt a bit guilty to abandon my regular provider for Costco, but I assuage the guilt by telling myself that the KS-10s are a companion pair.
I am quite pleased with the KS-10s. My only quibble so far is that the batteries do not seem to hold up as long as the Phonak Marvel-90-RTs, but I have not done rigorous testing; it is just my impression after a week of usage, including about 2-3 hours of streaming daily. By bed time, they are discharged to about 20-25% remaining. I have no idea how that would compare with the new generation Phonak Paradise-90RTs.
I am thrilled with the ability to pair with several (up to 8?) Bluetooth devices and to connect with up to two of them at any one time. This morning, I watched a replay of the de-orbiting of the Crew Dragon capsule, listening through the KS-10s connected to my iMac desktop, and my iPhone was also connected.
The sound rendition is not quite the same between the Phonak M90s and the KS-10s, but that is to be expected. For one, the KS algorithm prescribed vented domes, different from the more open domes that are on the end of my Phonak M90s. And, of course, they were fitted under two different regimes. I thought that I understood my dinner companions a bit better in a not-too-crowded dining room with the KS-10s than previously with the Phonak Marvels, but, again, that is only subjective.
I have a mid-May appointment for a remote checkup with the Costco specialist. I had previously used the remote checkup capability with my Phonak provider, so I am familiar with the process, and I heartily endorse using it.
I find Costco’s EasyLine Remote app to be much alike the myPhonak app. Neither app works with the other’s HAs! The main difference is that the Phonak app is green-on-white, and the Costco EasyLine app is black-on-white. I can live with that.
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One week experiences - upgrading from KS7s to KS10s. Overall, I’m very pleased with the change.
The Easy Line Android app is slow to connect compared to before. This generation uses 2 way communication whereas the other was 1 way (ultrasonic tones, not BT). I’ll adapt, but it is a difference.
The Costco TV Connector works well, mounted along with a Toslink splitter on the back of the TV. The Connector is powered by a TV USB port and turns on and off with the set. The Connector retains its volume setting through power cycling, which is great.
I find the range for the TV Connector to be about 20 feet, perhaps hindered by its location behind the set.
The TV doesn’t mute the Toslink when I mute the speakers. I’ll ask the fitter if a ‘mute’ custom program can be added to the HA swhen I go for the follow-up appointment. Waiting for the app to connect and mute isn’t viable.
I wear the HAs about 14 hours a day, with ~4-5 hours of streaming from the TV. That streaming has been reported to use less power than regular BlueTooth. So far, the batteries have been at 33% or more capacity at end of day.
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I also have the TV Connector. I am pleased with he quality of the audio. The only thing is that my hearing aids connect to it automatically when the TV is powered on. My wife was watching TV while I was away from the house today. As soon as I pulled into the driveway, my hearing aids started streaming the TV’s audio. I suspect that the same will happen as I work from home. I will have to remember to power off the TV connector when I’m not using it.
This can be changed by the fitter. You have three choices how the aids and the TV connector connect. Yours are in Auto. There are two manual choices. I liked manual myself.
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I’m about to receive a set of KS-10’s and a TV Connector. I’m curious about how it works. How do I change the volume? Do I have to physically go to the connector and push a button? Is the sound level coming from my HA’s completely separated from the sound coming from my speakers attached to my surround surround system? I’m delighted to learn that I can manually control on/off as I watch way less TV than my wife and it would kill me to be forced to have a Soap streaming to my ears.
Don’t know who may be interested in this but…
I emailed Phonak Australia and asked what their input headroom was : specifically
“I am trying to find out what the input headroom of the Phonak Audeo paradise hearing aids is. That is what is the maximum volume it will process without clipping. Some brands are around 110db but I can’t find this figure for the Phonak”
The answer I received was:
“The upper limit of our analogue to digital converter is 118 dB before saturation.”
If that is truely a reflection of the input headroom I am impressed. I assume (!) the KS10 is the same.
FYI!
I change the volume through the phone app. The sound level in your hearing aids is independent of the sound level of the TV’s speakers or connected speaker system.
Adding to DrBob’s reply, the TV connector has buttons on it for volume control also as well as using your phone app.
The toggle switch on your aids will also change what you hear while streaming from the TV connector. You can adjust the ratio of streamed sound from the TV and ambient sound from your surroundings up and down. This feature allows you to hear more or less around you.
This ability to increase the amount of environmental sound relative to streamed sound can be confusing at times. If somebody turns the TV up and you turn hearing aids down, you’ll be getting more TV through your hearing aid microphones and less from streaming. I may have not said that well, but it can be less straight forward than one thinks.
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Agreed, the best way to understand it is to hold the aids toggle switch one way all the way then go the opposite direction. This will swing the environmental sounds and TV streamed sound ratio to extremes showing exactly how it works. Once you do this it becomes very clear, at least it did for me.
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I think I’m correct that using “volume control” on hearing aid and button on TV connector both alter this relationship between streamed sound and sound through hearing aid microphone? As far as I know the only way to directly alter streamed sound from TV Connector is through app? Apologies if I’m creating confusion.
The volume buttons on the TV Connector establish the ‘default’ volume when the gadget is turned on. Since mine is behind the TV and inconvenient to access, I make any further adjustments with the aids or the app.
I found the factory setting too loud for my taste, so I adjusted it down via the buttons on the Connector.
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I’m going to Costco at the end of the month to get the ks10s. Can you tell me how much you paid for the tv streamer? They never put that info online.
Has anyone purchased the easy line power pack $100 for the ks 10?
The Costco TV Connector is $99.99 (U.S. price anyway).
Ok, thanks! Definitely worth every penny.
Yes, it works nice. Given that the hearing aids need to be restarted to go into Bluetooth pairing mode, and the only way to restart them is to put them into the charger and then taking them out again the power pack makes it easy to use charger without having to worry about plugging it in.
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Try holding the down volume toggle for about 3-4 seconds and see if the aids will power down. Same for powering up.
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I picked up a power pack for a lot cheaper on eBay. It’s Phonak gold instead of Kirkland white, but that makes little difference to me.
BTW, DrBob said that the only way to go into Bluetooth mode with the KS10’s was to put them into the charger, which it completely incorrect. You just hold down the volume button on the right one for about 3 seconds and it will turn off. Hold it down again to turn on, and you will be in pairing mode for Bluetooth and will drop all previous active connections, and pick up your new ones. You never even have to take them out of your ears.
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