I’m a new user of the 9040, coming from the KS10 and having no previous experience with Philips hearing aids. I notice some scattered discussion of Philips domes on the forum and thought that I’d write my experience to date with domes, might help some folks.
I loved the KS10 vented domes, the little black ones that are bullet-shaped. These domes my point of reference.
With the 9040 I tried various Philips domes, of which there is a wide assortment. I had terrible itching problems with the material in all of the Philips domes and had to look for an alternative.
Phonak/KS10 domes don’t fit the connector on the Philips. I found that Starkey domes do. And they have the same general black look and soft, conforming feel as my KS10 domes. They work for me. So I have solved my itching problem.
Itch problems aside here are some further comments:
I have no experience with open domes of either brand.
I tried the Philips double domes and disliked the occlusion. They are really good at closing-off all natural sounds. Closed domes are probably in my future, but thankfully not now.
I tried the Philips double and single vented domes and liked the sound of both quite a lot, as well as my KS10 domes. Due to itching I didn’t have a lot of time with either, but in the end I might have gone with the single vent as I still seemed to get an acceptable amount of natural sound from it and it probably has better feedback possibilities.
I tried only the “occluded” version of the Starkey domes. I don’t know why they call these domes occluded. They sound fine to me, like a vented KS10 or Philips dome. Starkeys are comfortable.
Philips vented domes come only in even millimeter sizes. Starkey domes come only in odd mm sizes.
Sizing of both brands seems to be true. What I mean by this is that if a Philips 6 mm dome is too small for you and their 8 mm dome is too big, you are probably going to find a nice fit with a Starkey 7 mm dome. Etcetera. Interchangeable sizing. This is really nice. Between the two brands you will find a nice fit.
There seems to be a lot of latitude in fitting the Starkey domes. What I mean by this is that the correct dome size for me is about 8 mm so far as I can tell. (If not for the itching I would probably be wearing Philips 8 mm now and calling it a day, because they are nice.) I bought both 7 and 9 mm Starkeys. I’m wearing the 7 mm right now and the sound is good. But these domes are very compliant and I think that I can comfortably wear the 9 mm. I intend to give 9 mm a shot once I have more experience with the 7 mm. So that’s what I mean by latitude.
Hope this helps folks who have domes questions.