I have had the Reach for 4 months now, first fitting and 1 tweak by Costco. This is my 3rd hearing aid coming from KS10’s and before that Bernafon. I have been playing with DIY downloading the Rexton Connexx from the DYI area on this forum and have improved my Auto and Music programs
I’m on Day 3 with the Reach, using a Sleeve. I’m coming from 3 years on KS9T (normal old guy hearing loss, symmetrical, down 70DB at 6 kHz, word recognition scores falling to 70% or 80%.) Being on Day 3, I’ve had the initial fitting, not the followup … but here’s some first impressions:
- bluetooth was wonky to get set up: paired fine with Pixel 8 on Android 15, but was a bit unstable (one or the other earpiece flickering out.in kind of thing); then pairing with my OnePlus Pad 2 tablet (Android 14 now) only handled one aid at a time. But with enough unpair/repair and such, it now works fine with both, though switching is a bit of a PITA. I’m hoping that LE Audio comes quickly and helps (I have LE Audio on the Pixel already and should have it on the Pad 2 with the Android 15 update next week)
- Bluetooth using the Remote Mic as a relay worked solidly, but the tiny obscure controls on the Mic are annoying (and it uses old-school USB cable, very annoying since i don’t have those scattered around anymore)
- the Remote Mic in the car helps, but it seems to pick up a lot of cabin noise as well as my wife’s voice … so if she wears it but isn’t speaking constantly then I get an earful of noise all the time (and she talks kinda seldom, so I really want to hear when she does!)
- Travel Charger is annoying - putting the aids into the charger in the dark (after I’ve worn them while getting into bed) is hard because the damn lights on the things are a bright green, placed on the front just where you’re trying to look to see the black wells you need to put the aids into (I don’t think they had any “old” people use or Charger nor Mic these in their design phase!) And I guess I didn’t seat one aid properly last night, or maybe I dislodged it closing the lid, because the left aid was down to 20% this morning (the other aid was at 100%). So I have to learn some habits about the Charger, it’s certainly not as simple as using the batteries on the KS9
- streaming sound quality seems about the same as the KS9 in Youtube or Amazon Prime Video players on using a phone conversation; though with occasional short-term quaver characteristic (I suspect the left/right getting unsynchronized for just a bit?)
- audio quality in regular use is slightly more muffled than with the KS9; I feel I’ve actually lost some ability to understand my wife or dialog on the TV (I know, haven’t had the second fitting visit yet!) particularly if there’s other noise (like the house heater) or in Costco walking around, talking to the checkout clerk
- there’s a bit of a lag in phone conversations (if I call my Pixel from another phone and tap the other phone’s mic, when do I hear the tap in the hearing aids? It’s maybe a half second longer with the Reach than with the KS9.)
- using directionality and the various programs or the Rexton Assist tool makes changes but they seem pretty subtle, I’ll talk to the fitter about that
- the physical button are easy to find and operate
- the battery seems to easily last all day even with lots of test-streaming
- my right aid will make an extra “hiss” when any noise happens. Only the right, not the left. Only from “noise” not from speech. When it’s happening in Automatic mode I can snap my fingers near my right ear and the extra noise goes away for a few seconds then returns. I noted this during the fitting (I could hear it inside the booth when someone rolled their cart past the Hearing center, but only if I was sitting with the right ear pointed at the door). Fitter expressed bafflement, and I decided to let the issue wait until I saw if it happened in the real world (it does - annoying when driving, etc)
- the App doesn’t have any real equalizer or anything; there’s a “Balance” that sharpens or dulls the sound
- the Musicolet player equalizer on both the Pixel phone and the OnePlus tablet will crash if I try to use the equalizer function
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My 2nd visit to Costco really improved things
- Bluetooth with iphone is perfect, no issues
- The charger is ok after you get used to it, the lights are too bright
- The streaming sound quality has a lot of adjustments in the fitting software, tell the fitter your wants (more base etc…) it is easy to fix
- Costco should be able to fix that, I had the same issues and they fixed it
- Must be an Android thing, LE Audio should help, the firmware update is available for the Reach
- I have used mine for 2 days after I forgot to charge them with no problems
- I have not had that issue
- no problems with any app in IOS
Hope your issues are fixed by Costco
New hearing aid user here. 56 years old. I went to Costco November 6th for my hearing test. They suggested the Rexton Reach for me. Picked them up a week later. Went in for my first “adjustment” today. So far, I’m underwhelmed. I still find myself lip reading most of the time. I’ve found the adjustments in the app kind of worthless. I don’t hear the television any better than I did before. The Rexton Assist does little or nothing for me. They added 3 programs for me today after having none, initially. They added Noise/Party, Television and Focus 360° programs to my app. I don’t really notice any difference between any of the programs. They also “tweaked” the hearing aids. I initially started with open domes and they replaced them with the tulip domes today. I understand my experience won’t be like my hearing when I was 18 but I thought the hearing aids would be more aggressive than they are. I have to have the volume set to 13 on the app to make a noticeable difference. I’ve seen two different specialists at Costco. And, while they were pleasant, I felt rushed all three times I was there. I have a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone. My research has led me to believe that most, if not all, hearing aids are much more Apple friendly. I’ve found that the connection with my phone to be clumsy and the audio through the phone (when I can get it connected) to be lousy. Am I supposed to have the LE audio slider on in my Bluetooth settings for each hearing aid?
Like I said, maybe I was expecting too much but, again, color me underwhelmed at this point. I love the price point at Costco and I know of many people that have had great experiences with the Costco hearing centers. I really want to be one of those successful people.
Note: Tinnitus is not my friend in all of this.
The Reach are my 3rd hearing aids and a nice upgrade from the KS10’s. After a 1st follow up visit to Costco I wanted to play and ordered the Noalink programmer and the Rexton Connexx software (here in the DIY area) and now tweak the aids at home, I know where my issues are and fix them easier than trying to explain them to a fitter.