I am looking for reccomendations on new hearing aids, where to go for unbiased reviews without the marketing. I have experience with three different models the Starkey Soundlens Synergy i2400, and the ReSound Forte 8 and Jabra Enhansed Pro both from Costco… My experience is over an 8 year period wirh blast damage to my left ear from the 60s to sudden hearing loss in my right ear 2 years ago. My experienc over the 8 years has been less than satisfying. Reccomendations for review sites and models would be appriciated. Thanks
Part of the problem with side-by-side comparisons is WHO’s doing it! If it’s Consumer Reports, you’ll see a lot of low budget, not wowie aids & OTC solutions.
There’s the list of aids compared right here at HearingTracker.
If it’s in a magazine like THIS review in Forbes, the advertising cronyism is suspect.
If you go to single site places like Dr Cliff or Matthew at HearingTracker, you’d spend all day at YouTube watching these.
Many hearing aid information sites are simply WAAAAAY too basic to offer any help in figuring out the best aid to buy. It’s hit & miss.
Thanks,
Misssed the fact that Hearing Tracker had a list of HAs with reviews.
Found the Forbes review and agree with your assement. Consumer reports is not helpful if looking for top end (in performance) HAs.
I’ll keep on looking.
Yeah very subjective opinions with asking this, your not happy with Costco service/ products then I guess you won’t be happy anywhere else, the only person who can tell which is “best” is you, no-one else can possibly do that, so you need to trial models to see which works best for you, any of the sites mentioned you’d need to take them with a pinch of salt, but there’s plenty of “real world” reviews from right here on hearingtracker, choose a brand/model and use the search button and see what “real” people are saying!
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Yes you have very subjective opinions about things. Costco is 2 to 3 years behind the technology, but great service though. I am trying to find the latest and best and I have been doing just that. HAs don’t do a very good job at what they are made for so hoping latest technology has improved. And I do know how to search, but trying to clear out the noise, clutter and sales pitches.
Thanks for a very opinionated response.
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Not quite, they get the latest version 6 or so months after release from the manufacturers.
Yes and no, so many variables on this, for some of us it’s just plug and play for others it’s a real grind, I’ve found that the DIY path was the only way I was going to be able to “hear” again.
Yes 100% with you, it’s a minefield out there! this is why I said pick a brand/ model and go trial and see for yourself if they live up to the hype, for me ReSound (Jabra) and Signia (Rexton) do what I want in a HAs (well not entirely true, I don’t think there’s a “perfect” aid out just yet, heaps of hype on AI but too bad this still sits outside the ear canal= pointless, AI and CI now that’s gonna be a game changer!)
I try to be honest 
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Same impression here- the vast majority of HA info you see out there is from the manufacturers, and it is extremely hard to get meaningful comparisons (including pricing by country, warranties, accessories, life span and how they are sold). Those from Consumer Reports and Forbes are simply rubbish.
Having said that, the details of our hearing loss vary to the extreme (how I wish this was as simple as prescription glasses!), so the best choice remains very individual, and local (Costco only exists in the US, for example).
Even normal hearing/listening is extremely subjective. For generations, people believed Stradivarius violins sound vastly better than modern instruments (“look at what they cost!”), until a proper double-blind study demonstrated this to be false:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1619443114
Audiologists have (I believe) only an interest to make you happy with any device from the brands they deal with, they know your ears, so their advice and broad bias is probably the best for you.
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