#17

Reply to arupert: Well you are lucky to have a flexible and intelligent audiologist. I was once fitted for phonak aids with the I cube and it is great. Looks like a simple program too. I am surprised that you can use the I cube for non-Phonak aids.

There is a seller on ebay named help2hear that deals mostly with rebuilt Phonak aids, and he has a lot of helpful information in his links too. You and others may want to look at his shop, and particularly look at his information links. The Phonak program for Icube is online in one of his links. I also see some Icubes available on ebay now and then, but they are made in China and are over 400$, and I hesitate to buy from China. I may try buying from him.
I see very little on this forum about self-programming. I think we who are hard-of-hearing need to consider that. There will be a market for it if more of us demand it. But I doubt audiologists/dispensers would help with this. Unlike your audiologist, most are sworn to secrecy. So unless I find someone willing to make the kind of sale you got, my options are few. After dropping HearSource, I am left with America Hears aids which are 4000$ a pair for my loss-not much better than the price you pay for a middle range pair you buy from the local audi. Or I can go with help-2-hear on ebay.
Good Luck and thanks for your story.

#18

Reply to Sho: My last experience with Costco was about 6 years ago. At that time my hearing was just going from moderate-severe to much worse. Costco did not really do a good audiogram on me-they basically used the one from another audie that was done some months previously while I was shopping. They fitted me with Bernafon aids which soon became underpowered. Worthless. ( I gave those aids to a teacher who said she worked with hearing impaired children and could find them a home) After that 2000$ lousy experience, Costco wanted me to buy 3000$ higher power aids that were just being developed. I tried them and they did not do the job. Of course I needed a lot of tweaking, but my Costco has a long line for appointments. It was just a risky purchase with a lot of hassle. I was getting very profound-cannot hear without aids, so I moved on to other options. That is a long story of defeat and dismay, for the most part. I got so frustrated with the whole hearing aid business that I started learning ASL. Deaf is not DEAD, I say. Finally I did find an audi who seemed to take pains to get me fitted well-many visits for tweaking. But he got very popular too for being so good, so his prices went up and his appointment book was very full. After all he should be rewarded for his careful approach-and that is happening. I may stay with him, but his last sales pitch to me was AGX aids, which is now his product line ( really Oticons in disguise), and cost $6500 with some Bluetooth stuff. Not for this senior retiree on fixed income. Anyway, I am reticent to return to Costco and have obvious reasons for wanting to do the fitting myself. As I have said, it is not just about cost, although that is a big issue for those of us who are retired and living on fixed incomes. It is also about time and frustration. It seems like I have been spending half my leisure time sitting in audiology waiting rooms, spending scads of money on instruments that do not work well, that die in moisture all the time, and that go dead about the time that your contract expires.

#19

georged,
Before you went to HearSource did you do a search about them on the HA Forum? I seem to remember last year several people had experiences very similar to yours. They couldn’t get the aids programmed right and when they returned the aids HearSource told them the HA’s basically had to be unused and then socked them with a large restocking fee. The only way they got their money back was to threaten them with legal action and then and only then did they got their money back. I would say they are probably a good company to stay away from.

The reason the ICube works with the Unitron HA’s is probably because they are part of Phonak; much as Bernafon is part of Oticon.

I can see why you would want to to self programming but with your hearing loss I think it would be a challenge to get them just right on your own without the help of somebody. Not knowing where you live I would call around to various hearing aid centers and see if you could get a deal similar to arupert. Another possibility besides Costco is if you were ever in the military, if you were contact the VA they would more than likely give you the HA’s you need. Good luck!

#20

Yes. I checked the forums. Mixed and limited to just a couple of entries. One very bad,a couple very positive. But mostly I banked on my experience with an earlier HearSource repair. One Starkey aid went dead after a little more than 2 years-shortly after the warranty expired. My audi quoted me a charge of 500$ for the repair. I checked online. HearSource would do it for about 100$, but offered a 1-year guarantee for $140. I went for it and they came back repaired OK. I waited a month and the aids proved to be OK. So I decided the company was trustworthy, and I bought into the 2000$ package.( With one 2000$ aid going dead, I got worried. Remember, I cannot hear anything without these aids! Totally dependent on this industry. I am determined to get out of that serfdom!) What followed was a nightmare of switches, delays, and scams. If anyone wants the sordid details , I can post an attachment with the history. I cannot say that the hearing aid industry is all rotten, but in my state, California, enough rottenness has prompted passage of the Song-Bird law which requires dispensers to take back hearing aids for a full refund within 30 days of the sale (no restocking fee, but cost of the earmold is excluded) NO QUESTIONS ASKED. I live in Clovis, next to Fresno. Not the richest part of the State, but it is my home and I have been here 40 years. And I remind everyone that hearing “health” is just a small part of the huge US trillions of dollars medical industry that recent studies suggest is riddled with scams and inefficiencies.

#21

If you want to drive to San Jose, we have two Costco’s that I know of with really good HA specialists; one is at the Senter Rd store and the other is at the Coleman Rd store. It’s pretty easy to get into the Senter Rd store, but it takes about a month or more to get into the Coleman Rd location. The word about this guy has gotten out. I know someone with a loss similar to yours and he has gotten his HA’s at Costco for at least the last 10 years. However, I would think you would be a good candidate for the Phonak Naida’s. I know someone who wears them and I think he got them for about $4,000 but I’m not sure were he got them.

#22

Thanks for the tip. It may be worth a drive up, but my experience would be many drives up for the tweaking. As for Naidas, I was fitted with them when they first came out. If you remember, they were supposed to be waterproof. Well I wore them during the trial period while hiking in the fog. Conked out like they all do. I returned them and complained to the company. They replied that the problem was in the “earhook” and they would send my audi a replacement. Never showed up. Just another bait and switch. The 6500$ AGX BTE my audi wanted to sell me also was supposed to be water-proof. I looked at it closely. No screws or seams on the side. I asked my audi how it could possibly be repaired. He just shrugged. I suspect it is just replaced. Cheaper than repair. Maybe that is what will develop: throw-away rather than repair. Goes against my grain, but so does importing everything just about from China. That’s politics i guess. Thanks again for the tip. I am off to the mountains in a couple of days so i won’t be able to continue this thread much longer. It is a great helpful forum. Glad I joined. And thankful for the many helpful suggestions.

#23

For hearing aids that fit your loss, America Hears wants $1999 per aid, which includes a custom mold. I would not ever spend that kind of money with them, even as good as my experience was with the company.

#24

Yes, I’ve been wearing Freedom Powers for about 7 years. There are no issues with self programming. The software has a ‘wizard’ style option where you can answer a bunch of questions about performance (e.g… dishes in the sink are too loud) and let it change the gains, or you can go right in and tune the gains of the instrument yourself directly.

The instruments use a ADRO, a different type of compression, I happen to like it a lot. It also makes tuning it a lot easier as you don’t really have compression knees to deal with. If you’re thinking of going this route, read up on it.

The only issue I have with these instruments is durability. I’ve owned mostly Siemens over 25 years and they would require repair only rarely (5+ years). The AH instruments rarely go 2 year without a repair. Almost always the mics, on my instrument both the mics point mostly up. I’m sure they may great water basins. They offer flat $175 repairs, which is cheap these days, but it’s frustrating to have to use it so often. Repairs are usually completed and back in your hand within 5 business days.

#25

RE America Hears Aids- Seven years of use is impressive for digitals-my experience has been only about 3 years. Repair cost that my audi wanted to charge was 500 bucks for a Starkey aid that went dead after only 2 years. America Hears has mixed reviews, but frequent repairs is mentioned a lot. I cannot see what they currently charge for a repair. For my loss, AH aids are pricey up front at 2000$ per aid. Maybe only 1000$ less than what my audi would charge for the lowest priced aids in the shop. AH is really my only self-programming option now other than buying an Icube from China on ebay along with Phonaks there too. Not sure that would save me much. Also,not sure I can handle all that technology. Some people on these forums are obviously into technology, but I am not really a computer geek. I am stone deaf without hearing aids but balk at 4 to 6 grand for them. Of course I would pay that if they worked well and lasted 7 years like yours. But that has not been my experience for the last 10 years since the industry went digital and since I got so deaf. For now I am thinking forget good clean hearing and buy some cheaper and more powerful analogs. There is a guy on ebay that sells reconditioned old superpower analogs for about $250 each. Maybe I will go with him. A lot less to lose. My history of hearing aid scams and disappointments suggests possibly a cochlear, but that was rejected by my insurance 6 months ago. This disability has been just an endless cycle of cost both time and money-and woe.

#26

Send the Starkey’s that died after 2 years to www.DIRECTHEARINGAIDSERVICES.com in Garden Grove, CA and for way less than $500 they will have them working like new and back to you in usually less than a week. These guys all worked for Starkey until Starkey moved to Minn. about 8 years ago. You can call them at !-888-580-4327 and get a quote on the repairs. Hope this helps. Good luck!

#27

Thanks for the Tip! I will send them the next repair.

#28

Geesh, $500 for a repair? That’s twice what I charge, and we give a one year warranty. I’d check around to find a more reasonable price in your area.

#29

George,
When you send them in put the HA’s in a pill bottle with cotton or tissue to pad it and send them of in the small flat rate box. I asked Tom if I should insure it and he said in all the years he’s been doing HA repairs not one has been lost and the flat rate has a tracking number, so you know were it is or has been.

#30

My first post … just joined the forum. Thanks for posting this. In the past 10 years I’ve spent about $8k on HAs. First, 2 pairs of ReSounds at $3800/pair, then for the past two years I’ve been using archer’s-ear-type all-band amplifiers. The all-bands just don’t do it so I’ve decided to go DIY and have been researching that for the past week or so. Decent HAs are so expensive that I even thought about just building a set myself (retired elec engineer), but I’m trying to find a reasonably-priced alternative first. My wife has only so much patience for the geek-look and she’s afraid that, if I build it, I’ll end up having to use a back pack to carry my HA circuit boards. :slight_smile:

So, to my point, I’ve been reading about the HearSource aids and the eMiniTec home-programmer that comes with them looked intriguing. Looks like you’ve saved me some time, money and frustration with your post, so thank-you.

As I continue my research I’m sure I’ll be posting some comments/questions. Really glad that this forum exists.

#31

When I first tried Hear-Source they offered a power aid. I tried to purchase it but they said it was not ready for the market, but they could boost the power on the other model to fit my loss. I went for it. I got a big package in the mail containing a binder with directions on how to self-program, along with the aids and some other trinkets (dessicant jar etc). The aids they sent did not work with my profound loss. I tried boosting the gain according to their instructions, but that did not work. I asked for a refund and they really spent months dragging their feet on that. I had to threaten them with legal action. They sent the money back less a 250$ trial fee. All a big scam. Today I see on their website that they only offer two lower-power BTE models. Maybe they would work for you, it all depends on your audiogram (you should post it). I had better luck with America Hears, and they let me try aids without any fees whatsoever. But even their aids were not quite powerful enough for my loss. My audi fitted me with very powerful Starkey aids about a year ago. They sort of do the job, but there is still a lot of loss. I cannot use the phone at all or hear the TV. So it goes. I still would avoid HearSource and recommend you try America Hears. Good Luck.

#32

Thanks. I don’t have a recent graph from an audiologist, but I self-tested on myHearingTest dot net, and will post that below. It looks about right but I’ll be going to Costco soon and get a legitimate graph. I can use a telephone ok but I have to use captions on tv, otherwise it mostly sounds like they’re mumbling. Can’t hear high freq (beeps, birds, insects) but do “ok” with base tones. With the all-band amplifiers I still have problem with discriminating words, especially in the car, restaurants, etc. With no amplification, under normal household conditions, I can have somewhat of a conversation but the other person has to be facing me and I still have to ask for occasional repeats. Gets a bit frustrating for the wife at times.

Here’s my self-test graph:
Hz…Left…Right
250…30…13
500…30…20
1K…40…40
2k…60…60
4k…60…70
8k…70…70

I’ve looked on ebay and I can get a Hi-Pro USB programmer for around $210, including shipping. It’s said to be the “newer” model, but not the Hi-Pro 2. Also, looked on Alibaba and can get ReSound MA2T70-V Digital BTE aids for $100 each with minimum purchase of 10 units. I haven’t researched those yet to know whether they would be sufficient and I still need to get a legit audio to know exactly what my needs are, but it looks like I should be able to find something to work without spending thousands of dollars for a single pair, that won’t last more than 2 or 3 years. I’m now retired, living on set income, but worked as an elec engineer with over 20 years in microprocessor design, so I have a hard time paying $2000+ for an electronic unit that I know doesn’t cost more than about $30 to manufacture. I had to pay thousands for my own education and I don’t want to pay for the audiologist’s phd, business overhead and boat payment. I think I just have to do the research but, I’ve got the time to do it. :slight_smile:

ETA: Thanks for the tip about America Hears. I’ll contact them once I have an audio. I wish the online HA suppliers would list their ballpark pricing on their sites. I’m also looking for other online sources and prefer those with non-proprietary programmers that would work with the Hi Pro. It seems to be the industry standard. Gonna take some time and effort.

#33

You are looking at old junk and setting yourself up for failure.</snip></snip></snip>

#34

Here’s my self-test graph:
Hz…Left…Right
250…30…13
500…30…20
1K…40…40
2k…60…60
4k…60…70
8k…70…70

I don’t know how accurate the self-test would be. Maybe OK for moderate hearing loss. But I am so deaf that I cannot trust self-testing. As for do it yourself programming, you might want to check out the specific Forum for DIY people on this site, located at the very bottom of the list of Forums.
Of course anyone with hearing loss that needs to get hearing aids is going to get a shock at the cost of getting properly fitted by a professional. I had the same feeling about this as you have: Why pay someone a lot of money who tweaks a computer and asks me “how does that sound” when I can do that better for myself? Well I am not an electrical engineer like you, but I think even if you get the cables and hardware to wire your hearing aids to the computer, you still need a program that will work with those aids. Those programs are proprietary and made available only to the professionals. I guess there are programs available online that might work for some hearing aids, but all that is beyond me. Good Luck!

#35

You don’t need to self test. Many places do that free. Costco does. Just make sure of the fee up front. Be prepared to fight with some to get a copy of your audiogram after the test.

And learn how to click a link. Hint…for example>> Free-Fitting-Software << in the links below.

#36

HearSource hearing aid wearer for 3 years. I am very happy with them. I have never had ANY problems. I sent in two Beltone aids years ago for repair when my local dealer said they could not be repaired. Hear source repaired them and I had them back in a few days. Repair charge for both aids was about $200 together. Bought current aids from them in 2013. No problems and I am very happy. I like the self adjustments I can do. They were very eager to assist me while i was becoming acquainted with the software. Id totally recommend them anyone who is interested in the self adjusting of their own hearing aids.