Hi, Tim
Sorry I was off working in my yard and reading and debating coronavirus stuff on Facebook with old friends there.
I don’t have any idea how the Multi Mic compares to the Remote Mic. There’s a lot of extra stuff you get with the Multi Mic like the phone jack line in (useful, say, to connect more directly to a computer with less BT lag), the FM receiver plug, and the telecoil, plus the microphone pickup and broadcast to your HA’s via BT.
I’m pretty happy with my Multi Mic especially if it’s hung vertically on the chest of the person I want to hear talk (my wife almost entirely). The main drawback is if the person unexpectedly rattles or rustles something you can suddenly and unexpectedly have a very loud noise in your ears - so if I’m driving that can be very unsettling. As a passenger on a road trip to St. Louis last fall where the legal speed limit was 75 mph on parts of the trip, I found the wind/road noise was still annoying even when my wife was wearing the Multi Mic as the driver and I was the front seat passenger. I had some over-the-ear noise canceling headphones that I brought along and that worked even better with the Multi Mic broadcasting the wife’s voice, filtering out even more of the road noise. So even if you just had some passive ear muff protectors, I think that would give you an even better result in a noisy car ride than just the Multi Mic by itself. I don’t use the Multi Mic that often but when I do, I’m glad that I got it.
Unlike the Phone Clip+, the Multi Mic has 4 LED status lights. They can be used to show which of the 4 modes (microphone, line in, FM receiver, telecoil) the device is operating in. And also, if one presses and holds for 3 sec the Mode buttton that’s used to switch modes with a tap, the LED’s show gross battery charging status in 25% increments, i.e. < 25% charged, 25% to 50% charged, 50% to 75% charged, or >75% charged. To preserve Li-ion battery life, I will normally charge it just past 50% charged (to when the 50% to 75% battery light just comes on), and store it in that state when I’m not using it. If I plan moderate use, I will charge it up just over 75%.
One difference in usage availability as compared to the Phone Clip+ is that the Phone Clip+ can presumably idle up to 90 hours while on and doing nothing awaiting a phone call, etc. The Multi Mic while on and doing “nothing” is using up a lot more its battery charge per hour. According to the Multi Mic spec datasheet, a full-charged battery gives the following performance hours:
Talk time:
• Microphone mode: 11 hours
• Line-in mode: 11 hours
• Telecoil mode: 7 hours
• FM mode: 10 hours
But I’m so used to the PC+ just going on and on in idle mode that I’ve forgotten and let the Multi Mic run dead just sitting around on quite a few times (the battery LED’s help a lot, though).
Too bad if there is no way that you can get it through Costco. Since it’s a special order item that involves no fitting, I’m surprised that they just couldn’t order it for you and let you pick it up. And it would be great if there were a decent return period if you didn’t like it. The web page for our local Costco Hearing Center says that they are offering “reduced” services during the Covid-19 outbreak but they don’t define what that means.