I am retired in Mexico at age 76, but continue to go to US occasionally to see grandchildren. KS10s just arrived in Mexico Costco stores. About $625 each. So similar to US prices. 90 days fitting guarantee so I can get reimbursement if not working better than my current 4-year old Bernafon Zerena 9’s. (Similar to Canada return policy as I understand.) I am considering getting them because the Phonak Paradise P90’s or Oticon More 1’s will cost me around $2,000 for each HA.
I have searched thru the Forum but have not found an answer to the following:
Will KS10s work with my type of ski-slope profound Hearing Loss?
You can see my audiogram.
One advantage of getting less expensive HAs will be that I can change them for a newer model every 3 years with improved technology that will come out which I could not do if I pay $2,000 per hearing aid.
Thanks for any suggestions.
They will, but you’ll be maxed out in those higher frequencies, you could benefit from soundrecover 2 which could help you get these fit for your loss, have you looked into Brio 5 from Phonak, Costco have them.
@dennis.hurley8 are $2000 for a pair or that’s $4000 a pair?
Not sure how much they charge in MX, but here is the price in the US for the Brio 5:
Also consider the Jabra Enhance Pro at Costco which covers a slightly better high end range than the KS10 at approximately $900 each
Looking at your audiogram the KS10 aids might just work for you.
Your high frequencies from 2000 up are apparently gone.
Do you actually hear tones at 2000 hertz up? Or is it a buzz or crackle?
As mentioned, Sound Recover can bring those upper frequencies down into your hearing zones to make better speech understanding. It would take a little time to learn.
Another option for you would be cochlear implants. Getting a cochlear implant evaluation would really help you understand more about your hearing loss. It would answer many questions you might have.
Good luck with this.
Thanks for your quick reply, @tenkan . I spent all morning looking deeply into your suggestions. I will share what I learned.
- Brio 5 (BTEs) with SoundRecover 2 does sound like what I need with my hearing loss (see audiogram). My previous HA’s (2018 top of the line Bernafon Zerena 9’s RITE (had the equivalent of SoundRecover but only the original version which Phonak improved on in 2016. This SoundRecover feature of upper frequency sound compression and movement to lower frequencies really did help me in 2018, so the SoundRecover 2 should be even better per these PDFs. Newest version SR2:
fsn_soundrecover2_high_frequency_sounds.pdf (263.6 KB)
Previous version SR (for learning terminology):
Compendium_No3_SoundRecover.pdf (689.6 KB) - The price for Brio 5 in US Costco is $2,499 per pair vs at least $4,000 per pair at lowest cost for Phonak Nadia Paradise P90 UP. And they are pretty similar per another topic on this site where you @Tenkan have also been involved.
So my current plan is to see if in Mexico Costco Brio 5s are available (MX Costco runs about 1 year behind US Costco is availability of models) and what is the price and what the audiologist recommends after getting an updated hearing test (on 30 Sept). (I suspect audiologist will recommend Brio 5s over KS10’s b/c of my profound ski-slope hearing loss.)
I have one further question for all of you:
Does anyone know if the Brio 5s will be able to connect up directly with Roger Select In
ALD?
I am very interested in getting this device since one of my major challenges and pleasures is eating with family and I can no longer do well in conversations unless they are 1 on 1. I am hoping that the Roger Select will greatly help in this situation per the comments of @kevels55 and the group https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/now-i-understand-roger-on-wow-factor/66604/11
I will report back to this thread in a week on my findings.
Thanks for the great orientation, much appreciated.
Dennis
Yes, @Baltazard , the named brand HAs like Phonak Naida Paradise P90s will be at least, $2000 each or $4,000 per pair in Mexico. So Costco Brio 5 is a much better deal since it has the technology that I need at a better price. (at least $1,500 less).
Thanks for your quick reply @Baltazard, much appreciated. Dennis
The brio 5 should work with roger select or Roger ON, if you already have a roger X license then you will need to transfer the licenses to the Brio.
Or get 2 cheap licenses from Ebay.
Or get a good price on Roger Select iN or Roger ON iN
See link below:
Check the compatibility:
Another link:
Hi @mr.smithster, Thanks for the good suggestion. When I go in next week to Costco, I will check out Jabra Enhance Pro for availability and price here in Mexico.
Dennis
Thanks, @Raudrive. I will check out with my next hearing test exactly what I hear at 2000 hertz up, it has been about 3 years since I had a formal hearing test.
As mentioned in another reply to @tenkan I have been using Bernafon Zerena’s 9s with a basic Sound Recover and after a bit of getting used to it, I really benefited so I have already been thru the learning curve. And now I am excited to try SoundRecover 2 since per the PDFs I attached, this more advanced 2016 innovation from Phonak is exactly what I need with the my profound hearing loss. (I am a biostatistician and after an hour or so reading and rereading the SR2 PDF, the conclusion I came to from the text, the graphs, and the stat results is that if you still can have some hearing up to 3,000 Hz then SoundRecover (original version) and SR2 work about equally as well. But if your hearing loss is greater than 95 dB Hearing loss SR2 helps a lot (20 dB equivalent improvement. (“For those with a 6F AHL>90 dBHL and an average 2 kHz threshold around 110 dBHL, we can conclude that remapping of frequencies to a lower cut off frequency using SoundRecover2 resulted in an extended perceptual auditory bandwidth. For them, SoundRecover2 increases the audibility of high frequency sounds significantly.”)
Thanks for wishing me good luck, I will need it! 
Dennis
My take is nothing is going to supply gain to your 2000Hz area on up. KS10 should be able to get gain to 1500 Hz on down and Sound Recover 2 has the potential to lower some of the highs into a range where you could be aware of them. If you want to use frequency lowering, I’d stick with Phonak as you don’t have much of a range to lower to and Phonak’s Sound Recover 2 allows lowering to lower frequencies than other brands frequency lowering. The one plus I could see to the Brio5 is better battery life.
Hi @Baltazard, The link to the previous topic https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/fear-of-after-pandemic-face-to-face-work/66951/16 was very useful including its videos. I now really have much more of a feel for the Roger ALDs.
Unfortunately the compatibility checker works for most Phonak standard models (such as Audeo P90 and Naida Marvel 90) and shows direct connect, but for Naida Paradise, the compatibility tool seems to have a malfunction in this specific case. And the Brio family is not even mentioned. But I strongly suspect that you are right that the Naida Paradise should be fully supported since the Audeo P90 and Naida Marvel 90 are supported.
Thanks again for your help. Dennis
Thanks for your comments @MDB. What you said reinforces and further clarifies what I have learned over the past few days and what the others in this conversation have commented. I will let others know what I learn this coming week here in Mexico Costco.
“Buen fin” (which is “have a good weekend” in Spanish) to all.
Dennis
Is Resound One the same as that hearing aid? For example, I compared Phonak Paradise and Resound one and compared the receivers, Phonak/Unitron gives stronger receiver amplification. Resound does not have power domes like phonak/unitron.
Correct me if I’m wrong. Look at the picture.
@dennis.hurley8 the checker is missing the Naida Paradise, but they have the same compatibility as the Audeo Paradise, and the Brio 5 is pretty much the same as (perhaps few options missing from the Brio) Naida Paradise UP (675).
Yes, they are the same. I first had the Jabra’s but found the Resound One’s for sale for only $900 and only used a few times, So I returned the Jabra’s. They are exactly the same aids. I also do some self programming and Resound uses Sound Shaper in SmartFit as the freq lowering option. I was told by both Costco and a private audi that these aids are better for high frequency loss than the Phonak KS10. They also have 100 & 105db power receivers. I prefer the 85db receivers with freq lowering over the power receivers for speech comprehension. Also the power receivers are large and if trying to use domes, may not be comfortable. Then again, at your loss you will need custom molds. I did try domes, and yes Resound has fully closed double domes but I had bad feedback and leakage no matter what dome I used, because our gains need to be set so high. Custom molds made my aids seem like they were turbo charged. Huge improvement. And frequency lowering isn’t always the savior it is made out to be. It can make words and sounds seem unnatural sounding or add artifacts, and it really seems to vary wildly if you will hear better at a higher level of compression.
You would probably do better with BTE power aids, and of course would need custom molds for those too. Good luck.
Hi @mr.smithster,
Your experiences with different types of receivers and frequency lowering, plus your comments about the difference custom molds made for you, open up my mind to try different combinations and see which one works best. Theory can rule out some combinations, but other combinations just need to be tried out to see which one works best with my hearing loss, my ear canals, etc. This information will serve me well this coming week. Thanks, Dennis
Actually you won’t have any problem getting gain over 2000Hz, the UP will be at it’s limits, but you will definitely get some benefit from using the Brio 5, the thing to remember is “something is better then nothing” another thing is some profound users don’t like full gain anyway, the reason is because they get “distortion” some audiologists will back off a bit to help will this, so even if you don’t get the full on gain, you’ll have something usable.
Your coming from the Bernafon Zerena 9, so if you were able to use them at your level of loss, I’m sure your not going to have a problem with the Brio 5, Bernafon are quite different from the way Phonak work, getting that trial period will be crucial to helping you decide.
Hi @tenkan , got it. With all the good advice, I feel ready for the next few months of HA adventures. And am now excited (rather than anxious) going into it.
Thanks, Dennis