From Mexico: will KS10s work with Profound Hearing Loss?

Hearing Aids
#21

2 cheap licenses from eBay will be the Roger X receiver to transfer the licenses which needs to be 1744 on the serial number or later for it to work.

Also be aware that there are a lot of Roger iN devices on eBay but WITHOUT the licenses so make sure they have them otherwise it’s useless.

@dennis.hurley8

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#22

Phonak requires licenses ? Wow, got all of my Resound devices on ebay. Glad Resound doesn’t do that

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#23

For the Roger.

Your Resound will require Roger X receivers or the Roger Neckloop.

It won’t work without.

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#24

Hi @Zebras, Thanks for reinforcing this message about the Roger X receiver. I have spotted a Roger Select In with 2 receivers on eBay for $600 with a reputable supplier. (without the Roger X license, about $300). So I will certainly get this device with the licenses. And use it with the either the KS10s or Brio 5’s that I end up buying.
KR, Dennis

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#25

I believe you are referring to Phonak. Resound doesn’t use the Roger and no Resound devices needs licenses.

#26

@mr.smithster

Yes Roger is Phonak but like I said, any brand of HA can use Roger.

Your Resound Accessories are like the Phonak Partner Mic which isn’t as good as the Roger but again, might do the job for you.

As I explained already, there is no way for YOU to use the Roger without a Roger NeckLoop or Roger X receiver. The Roger NeckLoop or Roger X receiver is equal to the licenses, they cost money!

Roger X goes into the MultiMic.

A Phonak Partner Mic doesn’t need licenses either. Think you’re confusing it to all accessories which isn’t true.

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#27

I had no idea that Roger worked on all aids. I assumed it was for Phonak aids. I don’t have a need for that, my existing devices work well enough. But thanks for the clarification

#28

As promised, I am sharing my experience in trying to buy KS10s in Mexico at Costco last Thursday with the participants of this thread. See this new thread I started to see if anyone on the Forum can shed more light on this withdrawal:
KS10s withdrawn from Costco stores in Mexico: Why? And will US and Canada follow?
Last week I went in for an appointment to be fitted with Costco KS10s here in Mexico City. I was surprised when the audiologists told me that KS10s had been withdrawn from stores in Mexico. So they had to fit me with another model. And lo and behold the KS10s were removed from the shop counter with only the other 4 HAs (Phillips, Phonak Brio, Rexton and Jabra were still there.)
In a subsequent post tomorrow, I will share what I can surmise on why this happened.
Does anyone know if US and Canada Costco’s will follow in this removal of KS10s?

#29

It’s already happening in USA, not sure about Canada, but I’d say it’s most likely.

#30

Fellow Forum members, Thanks for your comments and suggestions so far.
As promised, here is the rest of my update on the visit to Costco Mexico HA center on 29 September 2022. This is what followed after getting the bad news about KS10’s not being available:

  1. A rather thorough hearing test battery. My resulting audiogram (see attached) is pretty stable from 4 yrs ago (age 72 to 76) both with the profound loss (>110 dB at 2000 and above).
  2. Fitter suggested Phillips Hearing Link 9030 model which is the same one that I see in Costco US.
  3. He fitted it using standard Phillips software. At first it was very loud, until he changed the receivers from 105 model on my Bernafon Zerena 9s to 85 model and moved to more open domes from my previous powerdomes. Then the Phillips were okay as far as loudness goes.
  4. Apart from the loudness, I did not discern any further clarity in speech. And coming out of the fitting room into the Costco store enviroment, the ventilator noises in the store were quite loud in the beginning until adjustments to settings were made which got me back to where the Zerena 9s were.
  5. The frequency lowering (what Phonak calls Sound Recovery) seemed quite rudimentary as compared to Phonak and less clear about what range was being mapped to what range. The fitter was not as clear as needed on what exactly these Phillips were capable of. It is clearer with Zerena 9s fitting software from 2018. Neither is as powerful as Sound Recovery 2 (SR2)from Phonak (Sonova) which, per publications, gets the equivalent of 15 dB improvement. (And I certainly need this improvement from 2000 Hz and up. :smiley:)
  6. The only way to connect Hearing Link 9030 to my Android model (not ASHA compliant but quite recent model (Dec 2020) Moto G8 Power was thru the auxiliary mike that Phillips has. This is similar to my Zerena 9s from 2018. I understand that KS10s (and other new Phonak models) should connect up directly with my Android Moto G8 Power.
  7. Cost of Hearing Link 9030 and aux. mike was US$1,850 so about $600 more than KS10s.
  8. So, I did not see any great advance from my current Zerena 9s to Phillips Hearing Link 9030s. And so I decided not to buy them.
  9. The only Phonak Brio Model available is the older Brio 4. (MX is about 1 year behind US in new models since the MX-equivalent of the FDA takes that year to approve the new “medical device” once Costco/Phonak submits all the paperwork to them. )
  10. Interestingly the fitter said that Brio ( being BTE) was not a good option for me b/c my low frequency losses are mild (250 & 500 Hz) and to moderate and moderate-severe at 750 and 1000 Hz and so the BTEs would be “too loud”. Is this true?
  11. The fitter also advised against getting any custom molds again because of my somewhat limited (not too great currently) low frequency losses. Is this true?

My current plan is to go to the main Phonak Audiologist site in Mexico City. And after testing, try out Audeo Paradise P90’s, and Naida Paradise P90’s so as to have both the RITE and BTE experience. This will cover my needs as expressed in Item #5 (SR2), #6 (direct connect to my Android), and direct connect to Roger devices (e.g. Roger Select In as recommended by @kevels55 ) which is another goal of mine for the next set of HAs. I do not think they will let me buy and then return these models so my testing will have to be limited to what I can do at the hearing aid center, but I am hopeful of doing this to some extent based on my 18 years experience with HAs. (I realize buying either of these models will be much more expensive than the Costco solutions). Any suggestions?
And with that knowledge, I will go to Costco in US in Feb 2023 when I am up in the US visiting family, to see if KS10s (or KS11s ??) are available, and to try out Brio 5s to compare with what I found in MX. And make a final decision and buy in the US (be it at Costco (Brio 5s) or at a HA center that fits Phonaks (Audeo Paradise P90’s,or Naida Paradise P90’s) since I will get a better return policy so I can try out new model extensively and make a good decision. Any thoughts to improve this plan?

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#31

This makes so sense at all, forget the domes and go for custom made molds, with say 1mm or 1.2mm vent (not to big as you’ll get some feedback)
you’ve got to try and get the gain needed from the mid to high frequencys, with any type of dome your just not going to get the required gain without issues.

This is hardly surprising, your not correctly fit, you need to try other things instead of trying to get things sounding like your old bernafon models, correctly fit HAs are going to sound “very loud” to begin with, but over time you’ll get used to them (well hopefully)

You don’t want your new HAs to be the “same” your old bernafon, you want to improve, so you have to set whatever you end up getting differently.

Why not just update to a newer Motorola or something, quite cheap for getting the maximum use of any HAs that can use direct streaming to android.

Again I’d say because they’re not getting correctly fit, your loss is not an easy to fit,one stop set up, takes time and an experienced audiologist to help you get the maximum benefit from HAs.

I don’t actually agree with this, no use just focusing on these ffrequencies for speech comprehension, Brio 5 you need to give a trial so you can be sure yourself if this actually the case for you.

Again I don’t agree with this, you need to try for yourself, with the correct size vent to your satisfaction, molds will be better then any dome available.

So in short, you gotta find an audiologist with experience in your loss, and you definitely need to trial for a much longer period then just in the “store” as this not going end to well, as it’s just not long enough.

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#32

@tenkan Thanks for all the good information and suggestions. I will use them as I move forward on this over the next few months. KR, Dennis

#33

You have been given some great advice from @tenkan .

I still would like to know if you can really hear sound, not crackling, clicks or buzzing from 2000 hertz up.
If you can not, maybe hearing aids with great frequency lowering can help you. They did for me for a while. I finally went with CI, great move for me. I am getting back out into life again.

#34

@Raudrive: I apologize for not having mentioned this before. I had no crackling, clicks or buzzing from 2000 hertz up. I just could not hear anything until 110 dBs (or at higher frequency I could not hear anything at all even at 120 dB or greater.)
I hope you are right that then HA with greater frequency lower capacity may help me (e.g. Phonak with SoundRecover 2 (SR2)).
I have my fingers crossed! :crossed_fingers:
KR, Dennis

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#35

@dennis.hurley8

image
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This is the Phonak Brio 4 SP fitting range so actually, don’t take any notice of the audiologist saying they’ll be too loud in the lows! Completely rubbish!

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#36

Thanks @Zebras very useful to me and does put in serious doubt what the fitter told me.
Is there a way to get the similar graph for Brio 5s, Nadia Paradise P90s, Audeo Paradise P90s, and KS10s (the latter for when Costco stocks them again.
KR, Dennis

#37

Search phonakpro
lots of great information.

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#38

Thanks for the suggestion. Will do.

#39

You have a very profound hearing loss on the high freqs side. If the aids are programmed to make you hear somewhat better on the low freqs but little of the highs. You need to use a full shell earmold not to get any feedbacks and maybe SoundRecover2 might help. If you look at my audiogram, I can hear the test tones of 8k at 95 dB but the low freqs will drown out the high freqs in speech. I have a pair of V90-SP aids that still work for me and they are my backup aids.

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#40

I would like to know can you answer the telephone and understand what’s being said? How much of a conversation can you actually her and comprehend what’s being said to you? How about I meetings and restaurants can you hold a conversation?

IMO only you might still struggle, even with new aids. Give some consideration to getting a cochlear implant… I did, and my hearing was virtually the same as yours. It’s the best thing I ever did…

Good luck to you which ever way you decide to go…

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