Glad to hear you’re doing well with them. For the price I’ll take them over the Oticons I currently own. Last year I wore Oticons OPN1 for 2 weeks and really liked them till I found that my insurance wouldn’t cover them and >6k was abit much to swallow.
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Also ordered the Resound Forte 8’s and picking up next week at Costco. Thanks for your review. I was a rock musician for 40 years and did some damage. Have severe hearing loss but really seemed to get bad this past year. Will report back to the forum when I’ve had them a couple of weeks. Sure loved the price at Costco.
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Today, on my first return visit (three week checkup), I had her remove the music program, as I just don’t think that is something I would get much of any use out of, had her turn down the program change dings (which I erroneously had her turn up on first fitting), and had her set the left rocker to switch programs, while the right rocker continues to be volume control. At factory setting, both rockers serve as volume control, and holding either of the top rockers for a few seconds changes the program, and holding either bottom rocker switches to streaming (for those that have remote mic gadgets or TV gadgets I suppose), so I wanted a single click up or down for program changing, in case I don’t want to pull out my phone or my remote control, or don’t have them with me. However, I spend about 90% of my time on the first “Auto” program.
Very happy with this, my third set of hearing aids, and even more so that they only cost me HALF what each of my last two sets costs. I also got a nice bonus bit of information today. Whenever I go to Costco to shop, I can drop my hearing aids off with the receptionist at the Hearing Center and she will clean and change the wax filters while I shop, AT NO CHARGE. No appointment needed, and no limit to the number of times. That is awesome! Not that I can’t clean them myself or change my own filters, but what a nice bit of customer service!!
I hope you have a great experience with your new hearing aids, and with Costco as well. No disrespect to any independent Audies out there, as I was very appreciative of both my previous ones, but I’m extremely happy with my third experience!
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I recently went to both Costco and Sam’s for hearing loss evaluation and to see what they had to offer. The test results were very close to the same, and agreed with an additional test at an ENT’s office. I also wanted connectivity through my iPhone, telecoil (very important if you spend much time using a traditional home phone), and enough power to give me the volume I need with my severe to profound hearing loss. Sam’s had the features I wanted, except for the iPhone conectivity. At that, their prices for a similar product were much higher than Costco. For me it was a no brainer.
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Your mention needing the telecoils for landline connectivity (I presume using a magnet on the receiver). I think the KS8’s offer a handy solution. Have the fitter activate the "XPhone " feature (also known as Cross Phone or Cross Talk). That allows you to choose to have the input from one HA streamed to the opposite HA. You can choose either L-to-R or R-to-L, but it’s fixed in the program. When you answer a landline phone, just activate the “Phone” feature and hold the receiver to the controlling HA. In my case, my “Automatic” program is at the top of my list and the “XPhone” feature is at the bottom of the list, so its possible to toggle between the two by simply hitting the top or bottom rocker on my left HA. The feature can also be selected in the iPhone app. I’ve described this in more detail in another thread if this isn’t clear enough
I also believe it’s probably possible to connect a Smart Transmitter 2.4 to the landline phone using a headphone-to-RCA input adapter included in the Smart Transmitter 2.4 accessories, but in that case the feature would be limited only to that phone.
Excellent explanation. I think also that the XPhone can automatically switch to the phone program…no need to switch to it manually.
I don’t think I made myself clear in that post. I’m not talking about the iPhone X here. I’m talking about a program offered within the KS8 named “XPhone”. It’s a way to manually link the two HA’s together so that a regular landline phone held to the “Controlling” HA can be simultaneously heard in the opposite HA. But the changeover must be done manually in the app or via the left side rocker switch.
I think I understood completely. What I’m saying is that I think it can be set up in the fitting software to make the aids switch automatically to the phone program rather than pressing a button manually. This happens upon the aids detecting the magnet and being triggered.
But I’m no expert 
That’s the way my old Phonaks worked, but they were equipped with telecoils. I understand the magnet activates the “XPhone” feature in the KS7’s, but not the KS8’s. But I’m still in the steep side of the learning curve and I could easily be wrong. I’ll certainly find out
Ah. Indeed. I’m assuming that the KS8’s would work similarly. I don’t know either. Maybe the telecoil version of the KS8’s?
Sounds like you may have the answer.
So did you get the telecoil option in your KS8’s? If so then maybe this would work the same as the KS7’s.
No, I didn’t get the telecoil option with the KS8’s. Other than the telephone feature, I never used the telecoils in 7 years with the Phonaks. I understand that it makes the HA’s physically larger, and the iPhone connectivity of the basic model met most of my major needs. But the ability to adapt to the landline phones with this workaround (when needed) is an added bonus.
Having owned hearing aids with the built in telecoil is a great convenience. It requires no other action than touching the mode button to the telecoil setting on your hearing aid, and placing the landline receiver next to your ear. When someone speaks other the other end, the speech is amplified by your hearing aid. I thought that almost all better hearing aids come with the telecoil feature. No so with Costco products. That’s a definite negative.
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My Costco house brand Kirkland Signature version 7(KS7)'s have it. A version of the KS8 can have it. It just so happens that johnhardin9 chose or was not sold the version with it.
I’m not certain about all the other HA’s Costco has but I would tend more towards it being the exception that any don’t and more likely that they would.
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Yes, Z10 nailed it. I chose the KS8’s without telecoils because I preferred the smaller size, especially since the iPhone connectivity gave me 75-80% of the phone capability the telecoils provided with my previous devices. The discovery that I could use “XPhone” feature just added icing on the cake by closing the gap to 95%.
When I bought my Phonaks 7 years ago, I thought telecoils were the wave of the future based on many things I read and heard. There were expectations that loop systems would be ubiquitous in public venues such as buildings, arenas, stadiums, airports, churches, etc. However, in my experience that hasn’t been the case. If it weren’t for the telephone feature, I would have considered the telecoils to be virtually useless for me. Over the 7-year period, I can count on one hand the number of times they helped in any situation other than the phones.
All that is to say I decided my optimum choice was to skip the telecoils, especially since Costco’s policy allows a switch to them during the trial period. So far I see no reason to make the switch. Having choices is a positive, not a negative. (YMMV)
Beside the land phone and public places, one other nifty thing with the telecoil is that you can get a third party neck loop that has an audio line in and turn your hearing aid into headphones for non Bluetooth devices that have audio out like older laptop, TV etc.
Not so! Many of the size 312 battery models don’t. Only one I am aware of with it is Resound and that is new to this model. The emphasis for several models has been smaller profiles and that could be accomplished better leaving out them out.
We all should fact check better. There is a lot of guessing going on based on limited knowledge. Costco doesn’t eliminate Telecoil from the models it offers. They are identical as to whether or not that model has TC.
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We all have slightly different understandings of what constitutes a “better hearing aid”, based on our individual needs and wants. To me, a better product gives me options to choose or not choose a particular feature. And ideally it should give me an opportunity to evaluate my choice over a reasonable period of time and then trade up if I choose to do so. I think Costco wins hands down in both respects.
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Except that the telecoil outputs only mono. ie. copied to both sides. You would need to output mono from your playing device or you would lose things.
Now…connecting that device to the center speaker output of a 5.1 system might be golden. I haven’t tried that yet. I’ll be putting in my own loop in my reno I have going on right now.
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