My husband has these aids. Does anyone know if Signature 10 hearing aids have this feature and have turned it on or are using it?
I have some concerns about ongoing support given Costco is no longer partnering with the manufacturer. And given that I will only be able to part my husband from his aids at gunpoint, I may need to figure out how to program them myself at some point? He believes in getting his money’s worth (to wit, we just replaced our 2000 Jeep GCL…not that we are actually getting rid of the Jeep but he did grudgingly allow that we might need a “backup”).
My immediate problem is this: Do these aids support frequency lowering and if so, what kind of algorithm do they use (since there are a few flavors of this)? He has had the aids for a couple years, and of late we are back to the pre HA years in terms of understanding spoken speech. This was hugely apparent when we bought the new vehicle, because he misunderstood things I was telling him (over the phone) and which the dealer was saying directly. I didn’t realize this until the 11th hour when reading documents and had to restart the process which cost people time and could have cost us $. And his response was “you didn’t say that.”
So in my experiment today, I spoke to him in face to face mode and over the phone. He is struggling with consonants and phonemes. Sip, tip, chip sound the same unless I hyper enunciate. But, bus, bust same and had to repeat numerous times. Guh is the same to him as duh. He cannot hear any difference between them despite repetition. I used my normal voice which is not high but is still higher than say a normal male register.
I told him he needs to contact Costco and get an appt. But it is a 3 hour round trip, not a pleasant drive, and I am wondering what he can expect and/or should ask for ti maximize his visit?
I asked him how long the hearing tech spent with him tuning his aids originally, and he said 10 minutes. Maybe this is SOP because he was an experienced user. But seems to me there must be features in that aid he could use to help him?
So I did some research and learned about frequency lowering. I would appreciate any help. My husband is a very social person and the Costco aids for him were a dramatic improvement due to the support he received in the process of acquiring and tuning the aids. I am hoping he can get some more traction out of these aids, and if they are not working for him, not sure where to go. Maybe he can trade up.
PS: The audiogram is mine, as I am a soon to be wearing HA user.