Costco Kirkland Signature 10.0 (Product Information)

mistilynn7,

My bad, You are correct. micro-usb…

Although double tap seems to work well for me, I was finding my iPhone getting pretty low in charge by the end of the day. I experimented with shutting down things like mail fetching, etc., but found that the problem was solved by turning off double-tap in the hearing aid app. Evidently, the phone has to always be listening for it, and this drains the battery. If you are in a situation where your battery is low consider forgoing this nice feature for a few hours.

2 Likes

I’m not just embarrassed now since I obviously forgot how to read a digital meter, but also bit jealous. Why? Your USB monitor is much better than mine–more precise anyway. What brand is it? Mine’s got 2 outputs, which I really like, and was only $10. But, I could use the extra precision to easily see when each HA’s are done charging. (Mine shows = 0,02 vs Yours = 0.025)

Why is precision important? Only for this isolated reason:
My left M-90R now has the green LED fading and almost invisible for the second time. When that left one is nearly charged, my LED is nearly invisible, and only consumes an alternating 0.01-0.00 OR just 0.00. So, it’s very hard to determine if it is fully charged or not. Both green LEDs failed over the first 8 months I owned them. The Phonak factory repair took two weeks after sent in by the VA. (Phonak recently said, “this time they have a permanent fix for the green LED figured out”.

“Trust me when I say 2 mA”, should be a giveaway that I might have be mistaken, (Ironic, since I seldom say “trust”, and seldom lose a bet. I guess I am more careful betting than writing.)

Try as a test, 100% occlusion, connect to the frequency generator for (Android / Google Play) KEWLSoft – You’d absolutely hear LEVEL VOLUME sound at ANY frequency, all the way down to 8 Hz, which is just about the limit of anyone’s hearing, that starts where you have to feel, not hear any bass if any lower. Since you can change the sound frequency and level up and down, if your “real ear” adjustments were done perfectly, all the frequencies up to at least 4-6K should sound flat–same volume level.

Adjusting the “tone” as done in the Phonak APP is both temporary, and should not be needed at all. The whole purpose of “fitting” is the get the perfect fit. Bluetooth connection drivers and software generally do not have any “tone” adjustments at the source devices whatsoever, on PC W-10 or Android 10.0 for instance. I’ve got tons of controls on my Alienware Soundblaster PC setup. But, no adjustments change bluetooth at all. I do use those controls to TRY to simulate the sound of my Phonak M-90R’s on my $200 Klipsch earphones. BTW, all the great bass ALSO disappears by simply pulling the Klipsch earphone partially out, and turns it into sounding like an AM radio. Likewise pull your 100% occluded HA earmolds partially out, OR just leave the unmodified mold with ports fully open and you will get no bass. Note that the HA WITH occlusions are designed and tuned for you, for external sound like speech. As soon as you occlude 100%, your speech will not sound right at all, and WILL be attenuated.

To get 100 occlusion for a test, you’d have to devise a way to seal all the air out of your ear past the molds. Any gaps, and the bass goes out with the air and leaks away. Personally, I love it, and just pull my molds part way out while talking or listening to TV. If you also want occlusion, there are silicon plugs (made by, and for HA mfg’s), that you can get (free) that are tapered, hard to get into the occlusion port, and so are rather permanent once you get them in. (CUT the excess off before stuffing them into your eardrums!!)

I still contend that for anyone who loves music, it is criminal to not provide a way to simply provide better sound than you could get with a $5,000 ambient amplifier, speaker setup in an acoustically great room. Your HA are physically capable to safely and perfectly tuning your ears to music, from 8 Hz to as high as you can hear, and at “full” very loud, just below unsafe volume. I get GREAT bass, and GREAT clarity, and at the “highest safe” volume. I can also tell what era music was recorded – 30’s 40’s 50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s, 90’s and beyond. Only the latest era, with great sound engineers, listening through FLAC lossless playback, sounds perfect. With these great HA’s, now every recording defect is evident, regardless of where that artifact was added.

Even with perfectly done REM and 100% occlusion, I don’t think you’re going to get a flat response because hearing aid prescriptions don’t replace all the gain. It varies per algorithm, but often gain is about 1/3 the loss (30 dB gain for 90dB loss for example)

You are correct, but ONLY as it pertains to amplified sound that is picked up by the HA microphones. In this BT instance, I was referring to what was being delivered and then producing the original analog sound by the HA’s, via BT from another source. It can’t be attenuated, since it isn’t boosting an existing analog source and is producing the original analog itself.

That’s what threw me off: There is NO amplification per se, since the signal is being produced and replicated only by the HA’s. The specs as given by Phonak SEEM wrong. There is NOTHING, NADA, ANY reference to ANY sound below 100 Hz! All the graphs show amplification falling off dramatically below 100 Hz. So, I was (ecstatically) shocked to learn that the receiver would deliver 8 Hz at about the same volume as 120 Hz.
Indeed, the HA receivers are some of the best “speakers” I’ve heard, including woofers.

One disclaimer – You aren’t going to get head shaking levels of bass. But, IMO, the bass you do get is much much more as intended by the sound engineers that spent their lives perfecting the sound. We tend to overdo the volume, which is why a lot of rock musicians have learned from a family friend, Mead Killion, to always wear special sound limiting earplugs or you will be as deaf as… WHO?? Yeah, all of the (remaining) Who.

Want another great example of how great sound should deliver the bass?? Try the artist: DeadMou5 – His bass lines of most his music is key to being one of the top electronic artists out there. I can crank more bass out from my Klipsch’s, but then, last time I saw Grand Funk Railroad live, my ears almost bled, too. (Yeah, 15 feet away… not smart, even in 2008.) Try my best, I still can’t tune my Klipsch’s with my PC nearly as good as the Phonak’s. I do crank them up to 100%, which seems deficient… but only for about 30 seconds, and then you realize you really don’t get anymore out of 120 db than more modest levels. I used to literally love standing 3 feet away from 2 F-4 jet engines at 100 AND afterburners on, (while chained down, BTW. Now, that’s bass you can feel! Maybe there’s a reason I needed HA’s!

Volume is kinda like my 2 Lb steaks I used to eat. Yes, I still so enjoy all 32 oz. But how much better then 12-16oz? Not much. When tuning my SubWoofer, I can and have literally thrown plates that were hung from the wall off. So, I had to try to manually limit the damage of too much bass. Same with earphones, you can overdrive them too, until you are deaf from breaking off those little hairs from your inner ear.

I’ll post this here since this is the KS10.0 mega-thread.

After getting my Kirkland Signature 10 HAs, I can verify and confirm the ability to connect these hearing aids directly to my PC and Mac to listen to my music or watch videos. My PC supports Bluetooth 4.2

For both Mac and PC, I select the name of the hearing aids set, such as Matthew, Becky, or whatever you had them set as by your specialist. Bluetooth pairing happens on the Master hearing aid after turning it on and within the first 5 seconds. I can’t pair the KS10 after 10 seconds of turning them on.

I can use the Easy Line app on my smartphone while using the KS10 with my PC/Mac to change settings.

These hearing aids will encounter Bluetooth interference if someone uses a microwave because both are operating on the same spectrum.

I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to here. Can’t speak for Phonak but I wear ReSound Quattro HA’s. ReSound uses “mix-in” streaming whereby the digital sound delivered via BT is sent through whatever of 4 basic programs are in use. Just as digitized sound from the external mics is processed, the same is applied to BT input. Different gain curves are used for the basic programs because they have different purposes, e.g., All-Around for speech understanding with all-around environmental awareness, Music for music reproduction. All one has to do is listen to a .MP3 sound streamed from a phone (Android or iOS) to realize that different gain settings are applied to the BT sound depending on what HA program is in use. You might want to try this with your Phonak HA’s.

And why shouldn’t streamed BT sounds get the same processing as the sound picked up by your external mics? If the streamed BT sound included SPEECH, if the suitable gain were not applied to the streamed BT speech according to the frequency spectrum of your hearing loss, the speech would be unintelligible.

The important thing is not replication of sound exactly as it was produced, whether for sound from external mics or BT streaming, but amplification of sound across the frequency spectrum (within the limits of technology) for best perceptual understanding and appreciation of speech and music. As MDB pointed out, there are different fitting algorithms for which different gain recipes are applied, e.g., for ReSound, its own Audiogram+ algorithm, NAL-NL2, and DSL5-Adult, for example. I’ve tried these and believe me, with ReSound’s mix-in streaming, you get a different perceptual sound experience with BT streamed sounds as well as those transmitted through your external mics when using each of the different gain recipe algorithms.

If you look in Android and iOS settings, there are equalizers that can alternate the relative amount of base and treble in streamed sound (there is an equalizer setting in iOS accessibility, hearing devices settings, that directly affects the reproduction of base and treble within a MFi DSP HA, for example). Even my Surface headphones have a built-in equalizer function that affects how the headphone amplification system reproduces BT streamed sound - and that’s just for normal hearing folks who have different likes and dislikes in relative tonality, etc.

Keweisi KWS-MX18. Handles up to 30V, 5.1 A. I probably found it on eBay.

I picked up one of these and a power pack on eBay for $50 each. This is the same cost as the Costco power pack alone. The Phonak version has some benefits over its Costco cousin. It includes a cleaning brush and has a slot for drying capsules.

1 Like

Today the bluetooth phone feature is not working again; I cleared the cache, restarted, made sure it was connected, phone call still didn’t use bluetooth to my hearing aids. I am wondering if you use android auto with your phone? I use it on my work commute and wonder if that somehow messes up how the phone behaves. This is a feature I really like and really want to work reliably, I just don’t know how to get there. :slightly_frowning_face:

No, I don’t use Android Auto. And there is a step beyond just clearing the Bluetooth cache and that is to completely reset Bluetooth on your phone. Note that this also resets WiFi and you will need to reconnect to any WiFi and Bluetooth sources. On my phone it’s “Settings”, “System”, “Advanced”, “Reset Options”, and then “Reset WiFi, mobile, and Bluetooth”. You might want to give that a try.

I am new to the KS10 and prefer domes. The small vented domes (6mm) are too small and the medium (8mm) are too large. Any suggestions ??
I am coming from Brio3 aids and the mediums that were used with them were perfect but I am told that they will not “seat” properly on the KS10.
Does anyone else have this problem ?

Perhaps cut a small slit in the medium? They also have a cap dome and there’s always the possibility of a custom mold.

I use Widex large tulip domes with my Phonak P90. They are a perfect fit on the receivers. Many brands are interchangeable.

This just cracked me up, very funny and well put!

1 Like

Hello. Since I have a cochlear implant in one ear, would Costco sell one Kirkland Signature 10 hearing aid? And for what price? The per pair is a very good deal for even one hearing aid ($1399.99 per pair). I don’t suppose they’d split the price down the middle?

It might vary by store. When they sell a pair, each aid is priced individually (at half the total) I’d just go in and ask or give them a call. Certainly they’d understand that you can only use one since you have an implant. What brand of implant do you have? If Cochlear, one of their Resound aids would be a better match for streaming.

3 Likes

When I bought mine (in Chico, CA) last month, the receipt was actually for 2 HAs @ $699.99/each, so they may well sell you one.

I did buy a Roger Select iN on ebay. It arrived, and it works seamlessly with my KS 10 hearing aids. My use is limited to one restaurant session, so far, and there wasn’t a huge amount of background noise. But it really helped. And as a streamer it is automatic and it really makes TV voices easier to understand.

I go in to Costco tomorrow for my follow-up. I’ll have the Restaurant mode settings changed, per Raudrive’s recommendations, for those times when I don’t have the Roger Select with me. And I want to get more of the rear microphone volume turned down when I’m using Roger Select. Costco doesn’t do anything with the Roger devices, but I think that I can get them to program something for me.

Now my main concern is that I have to find a way to not forget to pick it up from the restaurant table when I get up to leave! I dang near did that, in my first outing! Has anybody solved this problem with devices that sit on a restaurant table, short of a string on my finger, lol?

2 Likes