I am one year into wearing Jabra Pro hearing aids purchased at Costco. I have expressed my frustration with the folks in my local Costco hearing aid department before but recently realized another issue. I do not notice a profound difference in my hearing with and without the aids. I clearly have a high-frequency loss, and yes, when I have the aids on and turn them on and off while watching TV I can hear the enhancement of those lost frequencies. But, I do not notice much difference in my speech understanding. Do others hear a profound difference in speech understanding and fewer incidents of, “What did you just say?” I do not. Is that normal?
1 Like
This is an instance where being able to see your audiogram would really help. (Top of page, click on FORUM and then My Hearing Tests) What you’re describing sounds pretty typical.
If you can post your word recognition scores for both ears, that may help too.
Word recognition scores? Not sure what you mean.
Look at my loss. I just got the Jabra’s and i can hear many higher freqs. With my old aids i couldnt hear the high pitch beeps when i badge in at work. Now i can hear them. I forgot it even made a sound when badging in. I can hear birds chirping and other sounds even with my profound loss. Suggest you try another Costco and ask them to completely start over with a new hearing test. I found that some of the Costco techs are lacking in skills.
5 Likes
OK. I had not done that. Just posted my audio test done a year ago. I interpreted the Costco data sheet as best I could.
Yes, your right ear loss is much more severe than mine. It may be that I am just expecting too much, given my hearing loss. Check my audiogram just posted.
WRS’s were 90% both ears.
Well that’s good news. That means with enough amplification you can understand what is being said.
I wouldn’t expect to see a huge difference hearing low frequencies since you have mild to moderate hearing loss in that area, especially if folks have booming voices.
If you listen to music with headphones, you might notice that drums and bass guitars don’t sound as loud in the right ear compared to the left ear unless you are wearing your hearing aids.
Also, I noticed that my Philips hearing aids when programmed by Costco where programmed using comfort setting and that they had the target gain dialed down to 80%. So it’s possible that your hearing aids are not set to the maximum gain (100%) that the programming software says it should be set at.
Note, you might not like a 100% setting.
What kind of domes are you using?
1 Like
Thanks for posting your audiogram. Do you notice much difference when listening to somebody who is soft-spoken in a quiet place? Either way I’d return to Costco and tell them you don’t feel the hearing aids make much difference. If you haven’t been retested since you got the aids they’ll probably retest and go from there.
Closed domes but my audi took scissors and cut a slit in them since my canals were an in-between size. So, they are not totally closed.
I have been underwhelmed with the response by the audis at my Costcos. But, I’ll give it a shot.
1 Like
I have not really tested the soft-spoken situation. I’ll try and do that.
That probably explains some of your issue.
Are you getting any feedback when wearing a hooded coat or when you run your hand across the hearing aid?
How does music sound through your hearing aids when using Bluetooth?
Bluetooth sounds very “tiney.” Even though I said I had closed domes, they apparently are not closed because to hear high frequencies, I need to stop up my ears with my fingers. Same with Bluetooth phone calls.
Regarding running my fingers over the aids, of course, I get a loud crackle by actuating the microphones.
You are having frequency leakage. So it’s no wonder you can’t tell much difference.
You will probably be better off with custom ventilated molds since you are experiencing fitting issues with domes. With custom molds, Bluetooth should sound much better.
It doesn’t appear that you have feedback issues since you didn’t say the hearing aids squeal.
2 Likes
No, I don’t have squeals and feedback. Should I ask my Costco Audis about custom molds??
Since you have stated that domes need to be modified to fit and you are getting leakage, outside of seeing if another manufacture’s domes fit, molds look like part of the solution.
If you are sticking with the Jabra hearing aids, then that’s what I would do if Bluetooth was important. If Bluetooth is not that important, then let Costco try to adjust the hearing aids before going to molds.
If you are thinking about trying molds, but you are not sold on the Jabra hearing aids, then I would ask if the molds can be moved to one of the other hearing aid brands that Costco sells if you decide to get a refund on the Jabra.
I don’t use molds. So I have no experience with them. I would expect Bluetooth to sound much better with molds, since the molds should help with the leakage you are experiencing. However, they may introduce occlusion if not vented properly, a bit of a trade off.
I use open domes, and Bluetooth sounds worst then a cheap radio for music due to the leakage.
1 Like
You summed up the open-closed dome pros and cons nicely. I’ve thought about that and don’t think closed domes are worth it for me. I’ll just live with the poor quality Bluetooth audio because I don’t listen to Bluetooth music. I will revisit my Costco audi and explore some tweaks.