For those talking about the Starkey wireless CIC–the antenna can be curved with a little heat and, depending on your ear, tucked into the concha pretty discretely.
For the OP, the phonak and starkey IICs are both good. The titanium is robust and it’s nice to know that if you drop it on something hard it won’t break; it often takes a bit longer to come in because there is only one titanium shell lab and it is international, but then as long as you aren’t having the shell remade repairs are more local. Starkey can usually fit a stronger receiver into a smaller space, but with your loss (and depending on your ear canal) that doesn’t necessarily matter. Starkey’s feedback management is probably a bit better? If you have a nice ear canal for an IIC and can get a good deep impression so as to have a pretty long hearing aid that is still an IIC, feedback may not be much of an issue, but if the hearing aid is going to be pretty short that might be a reason to go with Starkey. If you intend to keep these for a while, check on repair pricing out of warranty as there might be a significant difference. But at the end of the day, differences are probably razor thin; flip a coin.
For those saying that the OP needs to get over their vanity and go with something bigger, depending on the ear that may be a very nice hearing loss for an IIC. Depending on the ear, IICs are comfortable with great retention, wind noise isn’t a problem, natural pinna directionality is maintained. If someone feels that all of their listening difficulties are resolved with an IIC, why SHOULD they get something else? We don’t know what this person’s speech-in-noise abilities are like, they might not need the extra support from directional mics and wireless accessories.
There are absolutely people who demand IICs for whom they are inappropriate, but this person isn’t obviously one of them.
