Posting my experience in case it might be helpful to others considering these 2 hearing aids. This is not the ‘final word’ on anything, since different people will have different experiences.
I first tried the Jabra, being quite hopeful in terms of what the M&RIE would add, along with its streaming capabilities. This actually pushed me to upgrade my prior Galaxy Note 8, to the Galaxy S21 Ultra, in order to have the ASHA capability required for streaming with the Jabra.
In terms of streaming functionality, I was very disappointed, even after a couple of fitting sessions, along with directly contacting Jabra’s tech support people.
- I like to listen to podcasts while out walking, and if I put the phone in my left pocket, the right would lose connectivity, and vice-versa.
- Even when a ‘good’ connection was present, there seemed to be a timing issue between Left and Right such that I heard the podcast, music, or the other person’s voice during a phone call fluctuate randomly between being ‘central’ as it should be, or hearing things simultaneously from each ear separately, which it obviously shouldn’t be.
- Bass tones for podcast, music, and speech, were extremely poor such that it was just too thin and unacceptable.
- In terms of the hearing aid itself, it was fine, but at least in the time I had them, they didn’t seem to do much more than my prior Widex Unique 330’s.
So I returned these, and am now using the KS10’s. I had my 2nd session yesterday which tweaked a few things, but overall, these are dramatically better in terms of streaming:
- Connectivity is much stronger. Mine are configured with the BT receiver in the Left aid, and if I put the phone in my right pocket, I’ll occasionally get a drop-out, but if I put it in my left pocket, it’s solid.
- The left/right are also always solid, with the sound image always central.
- Bass is dramatically better for music, podcast and voice. Now these do not compete with a decent set of headphones, but I wouldn’t expect them to. But the sound is much fuller than I had with the Jabra’s.
- The hearing aid itself is working well, and I like the App better than Jabra’s, in terms of functionality and stability. The main downside is that it takes 15-20 seconds for the App to connect to the hearing aids, and that connection times out fairly quickly.
Some who have iPhones report much better streaming performance with the Jabra’s, so my using Android may be partly responsible. And it is always possible there’s something different about my S21 Ultra, although it is one of Samsung’s ‘flagship’ phones right now.
So I’ll be sticking with the KS10’s, and hopefully I can get the basic hearing aid functionality improved even more over time, so they’ll be better than my Unique 330’s. They’re probably at least as good now, possibly slightly better, but after only 2 weeks, there’s probably additional tweaking that can be done to improve it further.
Hope this helps others who are considering these.