Ha ha, whatever makes you happy, but this is a public forum, but agree it’s time to move on it’s getting late and a cup of tea… is in order.
1 Like
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.
3 Likes
Stricly for comparing the retention string/fishline thingy. This is how invisible my Eargo is with the string curled into my lobe. Zoom in and maybe you will see it. With the Starkey and Virto units, if you heat and curl it, can you get it to lay like this?
1 Like
At no time has anyone told anyone to go for something “bigger”
Yeah that’s one of my points.
Exactly, it’s hard for some to drop that " they won’t know I’m using a HA feeling"
Who cares, that’s not the point of being vain.
Yeah and then again they “might”
Well if you say so.
Only the antenna on the Starkey wireless CIC is longer and more noticable. For the non-wireless versions, the pull strings are already just about like that.
Hi @Neville thanks for the info re curving the antenna with heat - will wait until I get mine and see how far they stick out.
Dumb question - what sort of heat should be used and how would you apply it? By doing this it wouldn’t cause damage to the antennas (if done gently and properly), however what about the warranty side of things?
Thank you!
Can’t even see it! When I tried the Silk X the cord was pretty much invisible like this.
As a first step, I would recommend asking your clinician to do it. If that is new to them, they can reach out to Starkey for advice.
1 Like
Your loss is less good for IICs/CICs because of your good lows. You might want to at least trial a RIC so that you know what you could be missing re: sound quality by choosing an IIC.
1 Like
Not sure what a BTE experience adds to this thread, sorry. I’m specifically being very clear that I want an IIC and looking for user experiences on those.
Anyway, impressions now taken, and Phonaks ordered.
Apparently there’s only one titanium 3D printer and that’s in Vietnam - so an expected 3 week wait now.
2 Likes
The impressions for my trial Starkey AI 2400 CICs were taken just over 2 weeks ago and won’t be here until early next week. Not sure where in the world they were sent to or if they are being done locally.
Great that you are getting the Phonaks - I’d really love to hear your thoughts on them once you receive them.
Hi @auGMS,
Just an update for you - it seems either my audi or Starkey screwed up and I ended up with a trial pair of Evolv 2400 IIC NW instead of the CIC BT as I had discussed with him. I got these today.
I’ve updated my other post with my experience thus far with the IIC, so hopefully you’ll find it of use. I will endeavor to update as much as possible over the next 2 weeks before I go back for my next adjustment.
Very keen to hear of your experience with the Phonaks when you get them.
Cheers,
Richard
I’ve been using the Phonak IIC’s for about 18 months. I tried Oticon’s first and they were not working for me, so then tried the Phonak’s, which worked much better. I wear them about 12 hours each day and forget they’re there most of the time. Not one person has ever noticed them before. They work well in all but extremely noisy environments, in which I usually just remove them. Are they perfect, no. I still have to use the buttons occasionally to increase volume/change programs, but I’m impressed by the technology crammed into that small of a unit and overall they work for me.
1 Like
Thanks. I really like mine. Now i have tweaked them myself and changed to NAL-NL2 prescription, they’re more than good enough. I don’t change programs at all as I find the automatic program change works quite well in most environments.
1 Like
Sorry to jump into this thread more than a year later, but I was just given these 2 models as my choices for IIC’s and trying to do research on them. This thread came up in my google search and is exactly what I’m looking for, so I signed up for this forum.
I’ve previously had Phonak B50 and then B70 IIC’s over the past roughly 6 years, but this time (with a new audiologist), I was offered these 2 choices.
Specifically curious if @auGMS stuck with the Phonak and if @richard.silver stuck with the Starkey? And how have they been?
Just recently saw a review article on Forbes site listing best invisible hearing aids and they had Starkey rated much higher than Phonak.
Also curious about warranties. I’ve been lucky to have a couple of fixes of broken and/or replacement of lost HA’s over the years from Phonak - which I believe has a 3 year warranty. I’m also thinking the titanium would be more durable and may have avoided the 2 times in the past 5-6 years I had one crack.
I haven’t necessarily had any issues with my previous Phonak, but the Forbes ratings made me interested in trying the Starkey.
If anyone does see this after all this time, would love to hear any feedback specific to this question…don’t want to resurface the CIC discussion or the vanity discussion.
Thanks.
1 Like
Hi there @dpnintn, and welcome!
After trialling about 5 or 6 different makes and models, I ended up going with the Phonak Virto P90-312.
Initially, discretion was the most important factor for me - hence going for IIC and then CIC. I’m struggling to remember all of the details as it was a year ago now, but as I recall the Starkey IIC was pretty basic (as one would expect from a device so small). They were totally invisible but I really struggled with hearing speech with them, no matter how many adjustments were made - I could hear every other sound, but speech was impossible even with the person standing directly in front of me 1m away. The Starkey T2 app for adjusting program/volume was very hit and miss as well. I didn’t get to trial the Phonak Virto Titanium as it was going to take a while to manufacture and the audi kind of talked me out of it due to the expense.
As I was trying all the different HAs, I came to realize that functionality was edging much further ahead in the way of importance for me. I spend quite a bit of time on the phone and on Teams meetings, so BT connectivity is important, as well as being able to change programs discreetly thru an app rather than holding my phone up to each ear while it played tones to adjust the program/volume - which was impractical in a noisy environment. From here, I wanted to trial the Starkey CIC, but as mentioned the ridiculously long antenna was a deal breaker (I see now they have changed this model to have curved antennas…), so I instead tried the Starkey ITC. The sound was natural and good, but they are Made for iPhone (MFI) so they will only connect to one device at a time (and not my laptop) - so they quickly got eliminated.
I trialled the Phonak Virto P90 and although they are bigger than I would like (but smaller than the Starkey ITC), they allow me to connect to my personal cellphone, my work cell, and my laptop (only 2 can be paired at a time though). I ended up settling on these due in part to the functionality, but also because my audiologist chain offers a “pay as you go” subscription service on Phonak for $100 a month with a free upgrade every 3 years. In addition, the New Zealand government subsidizes the cost of my HAs to the tune of about 70% due to my loss being work related from many years ago, so I didn’t have to shell out anything upfront.
On the warranty side of things, I haven’t had any issues as yet (touch wood), and the government will pay for out of warranty repairs to a certain value.
Sorry I couldn’t provide much more info on the Starkey IIC other than the brief bit above.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions on this forum - 99% of the folk here are very friendly and knowledgeable and are happy to answer questions or give advice.
Cheers,
Richard
2 Likes