Well…we’ve heard other stories of misinformation from Costco people.
Picked up my KS8’s today. These are my first HA’s. Got them around 11:00 and kept them in for about 11 hours non stop. After nearly an hour of fitting and training, etc. I went to lunch with my wife and another couple. It was the first time I’ve been able to fully participate in a full conversation in a busy restaurant in years. The other couple didn’t know I was wearing HA’s until I told them half way through lunch. Totally not recognized by our friends. I do, however, have long hair.
After lunch I drove back to Hilton Head (250 miles or so) by myself. My wife has a birthday party for a friend tomorrow. I got quite a few phone calls and the KS8’s were as good as advertised. Voices came through loud and clear in both ears. You do need to speak through the phone, however. This seems a bit of a question, however, since the units obviously have microphones built in.
The technician put in 6 programs. These are selected via the up/down switches on the left unit. The right unit is for volume. I frankly couldn’t tell the difference between them while traveling but assume that was the function of the ambient noise of a vehicle traveling as fast as you can go on I-95.
When I got home my daughter came over and her first comment was, “You got your hearing aids, didn’t you”? When I asked her why she thought that she said it was because she couldn’t hear the TV standing outside the front door. I don’t think she was kidding. She checked the remote control and the volume was set to 13 instead of the 25 she said I usually have it set to.
First day went well, now just a matter of time to see if I can actually adapt to this. Clearly not like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time. Thanks to this forum for all of the help and advice I’ve been able to gather over the last 10 days or so.
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Indeed. There’s only one that uses the HA mic.
Nice. My fitter didn’t do any extra programs initially. Those came afterwards. I have right - volume/program/power and left - tone.
Well, the danged things are now going back, they are driving me to drink. I just played 9 holes af golf. Did you know that there are birds out there singing? While I’m trying to putt?
The heck with it, I’ll keep ‘em and have another Amstel. Remembering some of the things I forgotten that I’ve lost.
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ncgo4, you are a walking Costco ad. Great stuff!
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The App for the KS8 is called “Connexx Smart Direct” and it shows up on your iPhone as “Smart Direct”. It’s very useful, in fact I would say mandatory. It’s not “Apple-like intuitive”, but simple enough to get through. Allows you to do much more than you can with the adjustment things on the back of the HA units. Also give you usage data and things like battery status (L & R).
I’ve put it into the bottom row of my iPhine so it is visible no matter what page of Apps I’m in.
I am streaming Andrea Bocelli as I write this. It’s very acceptable. One of my set-ups done by the technician was “Listening to Music” and it seems to put in a bit more bass but sounds very good.
Just wish I had had these a week earlier as the iWife and I saw Bocelli in concert in Charlotte.
By the way, while playing with these while walking down the fairway I did something and lost all sound in the right ear. Duh! Took one of the units out, opened the battery door and when re closed it resets everything to the “base” set up as created for me by the technician. Thank goodness or I may have driven back to Charlotte.
If someone buys the new streaming device for Android with the KS 8 I hope they will post their experience with it here. There have been many complaints about EasyTek and Smart Connect streamers in the past.
I’m hoping the new streamer version for the KS 8 will be an improvement.
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Won’t the “Phone Clip +” work?
It works with the Resound Forte. I originally got it to go with the KS 5.
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Nope. KS8 is made by Rexton. Resound products won’t work with it. It’s been confusing as Kirkland “brand” was made by Rexton for KS4, Resound for KS5 and KS6 and back to Rexton for KS7 and KS8
I guess that applies to the TV streamer as well.
I can’t find any info on KS8 accessories.
You do know that you can use the iPhone microphone for phone calls, right?
I don’t see anything about the “SmartMic for $200” mentioned anywhere.
Yes, I know about the iPhone mic, but I liked the idea of having the phone in my bag or across the room and being able to talk truly hands-free.
There’s only one that can do that and this ain’t it.
KS8 is too new for much info to be out. I asked at a Costco store about the Smart Mic and it took them quite a bit of time to find the price ($200) There’s also a TV streamer and some sort of a remote (not sure why you’d want that) You can get info on what the accessories are like by looking at info on accessories for Signia nx, or going to Costco, asking and being patient while they locate the info.
MDB: My mother doesn’t have a “smartphone”. She has a remote. It allows for some discreteness with making adjustments rather than reaching up and fiddling with something behind your ear.
Good point. My Mom doesn’t have a smart phone each other. Her audiologist told her everything is auotmatic and she doesn’t need to worry about buttons and controls and she’s happy, but I could see if somebody without a smartphone (or ipod or mp3 player) wanted some controls besides buttons that a remote could be handy.
I meant with a discreet clip-on mic as I had with the KS5 which also worked with the Resound Forte. I could answer the phone, hear clearly through my aids and talk. All as long as the phone was somewhere nearby.
I guess you were referring to the Phonak B Direct, which to me has the drawback of mono hearing with phone calls.
Hmm. There’s that mono thing again. I made a similar comment in another thread. I don’t get it. All phones since they were invented are mono. Sure, one could get headsets and hearing aids that duplicate the inherently already built-in mono sound of the one sided sound source out to the other side but I don’t understand the problem with just continuing on with the same one side as always done.
I must be missing something as this seems to come up frequently as a knock on listening to a phone on only one side.
Maybe I’m missing something but even it’s the same mono signal, getting it in both aids at the same time is a big plus. My understanding is, with the Phonak, the sound is in just one ear.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.