Costco Kirkland Signature 5.0

Big thanks Costcoinsider!

We are learning a lot

Elijah

I wear a different brand of HA’s but I think the issue of exercise and sweat is more or less the same for all HA’s. I sweat a lot when I exercise, it is often literally dripping off my head. I have purchased protective “socks” from Eargear, http://www.gearforears.com/ and they are quite effective in keeping the sweat off the aids. They are very good when biking, not the least because biking outside in the air actually dries the sweat a lot faster than in the gym. I basically use them all the time for biking, but not so much at the gym. I go to a very noisy gym and I take classes that involve loud music and it is kind of nice to not hear all of it.:slight_smile:

Just wanted to clarify a couple of things:

  1. No Costco location is permitted to clean ears. We do a medical referral out for that.

  2. We still service hearing aids that are over 5 years old. In office procedures are free. If the aid has to go in for repair, it is a $135 charge, and includes a 6 month warranty.

Thanks for clearing up and refuting what “Huston Hearing” was implying regarding 5 year old HAs purchased from Costco.

Sounds like the vaguely implied “You’ll be sorry 5 years from now if you buy from Costco.” is nonsense.

If I misunderstood what HH was implying, I hope he/she will post a clarification.

Best wishes, Nate :smiley:

I’ve been seeing mixed reviews abut Resound Phone Clip+. Curious if anyone is using one, can you please give me some feedback on how they’re working out for you? Especially how is the sound quality to make phone call? Thank you very much.

More reviews abut Phone Clip:

Hi, new here but have been reading since I got my KS5s a month ago. I am interested in the Binaural Directionality and have a question, is that a separate program by that name or is BD incorporated into any existing program?

Thanks, DJK

Binaural Directionality is normally chosen as the default program #1 as it is the most versatile. It CAN be incorporated into any other more specialized program, but it in the default settings for other program options (such as restaurant) it is not preselected.

In general, the basic purpose of the extra programs is best achieved with a fixed directionality - either directional or omni- and the Binaural Directionality programming is designed to let the aids make the directionality selection on their own.

By the way, when in the Binaural Directionality setting, each aid will normally “idle” in an omni setting, and upon presentation of speech signals, the aids will decide if either ( or both) should shift into directional mode.

In my particular case, I use the Binaural Directionality program almost exclusively (95% +), and use a modified “Party” program (fixed directionality + extra noise reduction + extra speech emphasis) in extra noisy environments.

Binaural Directionality is a feature of the hearing aids as well as the name of the program that implements it. The feature is only active when you’re running that particular program. It’s not available in any other program.

My Audiologist has mine set up as:

Program 1 = Binaural Directionality
Program 2 = A copy of Program 1 (also Binaural Directionality), but with a boost to speech sounds and a boost in noise reduction
Program 3 = Party ( directional mics and boost to both speech sounds and noise reduction)
Program 4 = Music (omni mics and no noise reduction).

Are we mistaken about program 2?

It’s possible to have multiple copies of the Binaural Directionality program, but each copy is still of the BD type. The other program types (Restaurant, Party, Music, etc.) don’t have BD capability.

Thank you for your input!

Thanks to everyone that replied. Have an appointment on Friday. I will ask to have the BD program installed. Does anyone that has BD installed know what the most popular setting are so I can get off to a good start? I thought that maybe a good feature would be Natural Directionality II or is something else more effective?

Thanks, DJK

Binaural Directionality is GN ReSound’s latest evolution of the Natural Directionality concept, but with the ability of the aids to communicate with each other works entirely differently. There’s no mor focus ear and monitor ear like there was with Natural Directionality.

Just have program 1 set for Binaural Directionality, with the gain adjusted following a REM test.

Thanks jay_man, are you saying that there are no parameters to set other than gain?

I’m saying that for my fitting the fitter put Binaural Directionality in as program 1 using the fitting software settings, then adjusted it with results of the REM test, and I’m a happy camper. There are certainly other tweaks, but I recommend starting there.

Has anyone had any issue with the feedback control, I find that even with the tv set if a crowd is to loud it will start to shut down at work I will find all sorts of odd “artifacts” I guess is the word I would use for instance a far of monitor would sound right next to me or an odd sound and it suppressing the phones ringing?

mrmark35,
What aids are you using?

Today I was fitted with Ks 5 and I am impressed switching from bernafon to Ks, but it seems that speech is louder on my bernafons, I ks I can not hear speech as well but understanding is a bit better than on Verite. My question is what should I ask the audio to change to receive the speech better.
My new hearing test did not change .
How do you open the battery compartment. She showed me how to do it, pressing on the table and without the nail but I managed once and that it.
Any help would be appreciated:))
She set the general, phone, party and music program

I’ve been in my KS 5s for about a month and my major issue from day one has been understanding television (sans headphones or a streamer). The small HDTV in my office/computer room was horrible with the aids, and the big TV (with sound system) was poor. A Sony (MDR-DS7500) wireless surround sound headphone system ended up being an excellent fix, but I don’t want to use headphones 100% of the time.

Major improvement just came about after I noticed the perceived volume levels were mis-matched between left and right ears - and communicated this to my HIS. They seems to be about 60+% Left volume Vs 40% Rt volume - and artificial sound (TV speakers) was distorted - like there was too much gain or over modulated.

The HIS replaced the right mic (possibly for a different reason) and tweaked the mids up on the right aid and down on the left. He also did some alignment on the left aid (it was leaned over a bit and not pointing directly forward).

I’m now able to understand television pretty well, even from across a longish room - at least those with better quality sound to begin with.

A really major plus with the 5.0s was at the movies (read gigantic sound system). Saw the new Captain America last weekend and was blown away by how good everything sounded through the 5.0s; and speech understanding was better than it’s been in 15-20 years. And this was before the latest HIS tweaks. (Best Marvel movie ever, btw.)