Hi all, new member here but have been reading the forums for a while before signing up.
Quick background: have had some constant decrease in my hearing (more so in my left ear) for a while but only affecting my ability to understand speech for the past 5-10 years (coincided with my starting scuba diving, don’t know if related or not), also with tinnitus, progressively worse over the past 5 years, now aware of it almost constantly. I hear speech but (more often now) hard to understand, particularly in noisy situations or when unable to read lips. I finally decided to get my hearing tested, audiogram in my profile, just done at a local Costco.
Surprisingly to me, the tech stated that my hearing was pretty good and I did not need any hearing aids based on the audiogram. After telling him that I have had difficulty understanding speech for years, he kinda reluctantly suggested to try the Philips 9040 in the store see if I notice any difference. There was a subtle but definite improvement in my ability to understand speech, and I suggested him I also try the Jabra Enhance Pro 10 (based on my prior online research). He wasn’t really happy with my asking to try a different HA, stating my allotted appointment time has passed and now he was busy with other clients, but he did make some time to give me and program a demo pair for a few minutes. I didn’t really notice much difference between the two except for the Jabras being slightly smaller and having some static at some point (he said it was because they were at 100%, whatever that means). I asked if there was any way to try them at home for a while, I was told that it wasn’t possible, so I ended up buying the Jabras, now waiting for delivery in about a week or so.
My question now is: The tech did not think a HA would help given my audiogram yet I do know I have had years of hard time understanding speech, made worse by my tinnitus, so am I going to see any improvement with (any) HAs?? Or did I just throw money out the window? And was I wrong to choose Jabra over Philips?
Many thanks, waiting to hear (haha) from you!