MD Hearing aids?

OK, as promised, or depending on your point of view (threatened … :slight_smile: ), I’m baaack to give brief comparison now of the MD Air digital aids to my fancy new Kirkland KS5s I just picked up yesterday. Again not quite fair to the MD Airs as I only purchased 1 of them to use in left ear, knowing I was going to be buying and likely keeping the KS5s. But I can imagine how much better having 2 MD Airs in would be over just one as I experienced that whenever I wore both the larger and less sophisticated MD analogue aids.

The advantages immediately apparent are:

  1. Of course having my specific frequency losses compensated by the multi-band equalization (if that’s a decent term in HA land) The MD Airs don’t seem to be linear as are the MD analogue model and do seem to address the higher frequencies more and with the 2nd and 3rd programs take down the other frequencies to concentrate more on conversation than background noise.

  2. Directionality. No contest of course with the sets of directional and omni directional mics on each KS5 plus the great sound field awareness created by their back and forth communication.

  3. Feedback suppression. Big advantage to the KS5s. Though the Airs do a lot better than the original MD analogue, if you find one of the buds that fits well enough to seal but not be uncomfortable. Their open bud to me is too open, and I settled on the smaller full bud for comfort, but the next larger size which is a bit too large after wearing for awhile does a much better job with feeback suppression. At least in my kit I would have liked to have seen a solid size in between those two. I bet they have them maybe as additional parts can be purchased.

More sophistication of course with the KS5s and with the remote and the programs, but sonically, the 3 points above are the biggest advantages of the KS5s to me. There is a return period with the MD Airs, and if someone is really needing help with their hearing, but with very little money to be afforded toward it, I would still whole heartedly recommend you give a try to these for $600. If you have never worn any aids with your now challenged hearing capabilities, I would expect these would be a revelation to you.

Hope this helps.

Freq. L R
250 30 30
500 40 50
750 45 45
1K 50 50
1500 55 60
2K 50 65
3K 60 65
4K 60 70
8K 65 70