Greetings. I am new here and am window shopping for hearing aids. My official audiology test at the ENT is this coming Monday and I am considering going to Costco to check out the Kirkland Signature Premium models that sell for around $1899 a pair. I had a free hearing test done at Miracle Ear last week and was recommended the ME-3 BTE hearing aid that sells for $1800 for one aid.
My left ear has mild to moderate mixed deafness in the right ear has moderate to severe mixed deafness.
I’ve worn hearing aids in the past, an In The Ear model by Starkey I purchased in 2006. They whistled when I tried to use the phone so I always had to remove the hearing aid to answer the phone.
I work in retail, customer service and am on the phone often. I also am required to wear a 2-way radio (i.e. walkie talkie) with a earpiece that goes over the ear.
So I would like to know if these Kirkland H/A from Costco have any feedback when using the telephone, and whether they would be compatible with a walkie talkie headset (or if I should buy a special headset and where I might find one).
I get no feedback with Resound, as long as they are set up correctly. Currently I’m running on the “Moderate” setting for DFS and custom molds with the select-a-vent set to just big enough not to have occlusion. I get no feedback on the phone or wearing my wireless headphones (Arctic P311).
But I had Starkey Destiny CIC in 2009 that would not feedback no matter what you did to it.
There are two pieces of the puzzle that will be important to know regarding how well you will do with telephones and 2-way radio earpieces. First is what kind of loss do you have. If you can go with an open fit, then that improves the phone performance and should improve the 2-way radio experience. Open fit or not is determined by the results of your audio tests and the hearing aid style that you choose. The open fit will work with the receiver in the canal style aids. I am wearing Phonak Brios also available from Costco and do not have any issues with feedback. Many hearing aid wearers seem to have significant issues with feedback but don’t know if it is related to the style of aid, the fit of the aid, or the hearing loss and the associated amount of gain required to offset the hearing loss.
Mine have a t-coil and I’ve switched to that program several times and can’t get any cell phone or landline phone I’ve tried to switch into t-coil mode.
The T-coil is activated by the magnet used in the speaker of the phone. Unfortunately many devices no longer have a large (strong) enough magnet to activate the T-coil. Examples are cell phones, and many of the VoIP phones that companies have transitioned to.
My aids have an acoustic phone program that sends the phone audio picked up by the microphone of one aid to the other aid. It works but takes some time and effort to figure out. Best solution if the hearing is decent out to 3 KHz or so is an open dome and placing the phone over the ear canal.
You can see by my numbers posted below, that my hearing needs a fair amount of help. I have never had real trouble using a phone. I can use a landline or a cell without even removing my hearing aids. For many years now even before I bought my 1st hearing aid, I’ve used a Bluetooth headset paired with my cell phone. That works perfectly and I don’t have to remove my hearing aids to use it. I have open fit aids. Of course my headset is the type that sits on the ear, not in it.
I use headsets on airplanes with no problems - usually with HA in my ears.