About me:
First off, I know, I’m wordy. I am 47, got my first pair of hearing aids just over 3 years ago, it was during COVID lockdowns that I noticed my ears rang all the time. I went to an ENT and he asked me if I had hearing loss. I laughed and said “I don’t think so”. I then went down the hall to the audiologist where I discovered I have mild to moderate hearing loss. I was shocked, a little aggravated. Not sure why I had hearing loss. I’m bald so I have no way of really hiding them, but I have yet to be self conscious about wearing them. Anyways this is where my journey of hearing aids began. My first pair I bought were Phonak marvel at the 70 tech level. I went with disposables because I didn’t think the battery would last me all day.
Why new hearing aids:
Yea, I know that on average people wear their hearing aids 5 years or so but for me I felt I was ready for a new pair. I have been waiting for a pair of hearing aids with auracast, had read / watched videos on M&RIE receivers so when I saw the EP20’s were now available at Costco I got really excited. I had also seen that their sister model the Resound Nexia’s had a ridiculous battery life. As most around here know Costco’s hearing aids are all top tech level. If I were to do it all over again I would definitely have gone for the top tech level in hearing aids. For a good while my Phonaks were great. With COVID I wasn’t going to very loud places. As things began to go back to normal, I noticed that I was struggling to hear in noise to the point I was avoiding loud venues at all cost.
EP20’s getting fitted:
I called into costco, they got me an appointment for the next week. I went in got my hearing tested and said “Yes I would like to order, when can I get them”. Just over a week later I had my appointment to fit them. The place I got my Phonak’s didn’t do real ear measures. Getting them dialed in was a pain in the ass, looking back I’m not sure if they were 100% dialed in. Costco did real ear measures, already a positive step. At first the tech didn’t want to put M&RIE’s on them but I insisted, I have struggled with directionality on the Phonaks. Anyways things went smooth. The techs were great and answered all of my questions.
First impressions:
I walked around the store a bit, called my wife. She said I sounded really bad, like I was electronic and in a tunnel. This was a bit disappointing but not a deal breaker yet. I got very few complaints on the Phonaks when I called using Bluetooth.
It’s hard to describe for me but the sound coming from the hearing aids sounded more natural. Like it blended in with unamplified sound, nothing was too loud or too soft, something that took 3-4 visits to get to the last place to get them dialed in. I guess real ear measures do work.
I streamed a bit of music when I got home, it was no better or worse than the sound from my Phonaks, they are hearing aids, not meant to generate a ton of bass, I accept that. My family sounded more clear. I could still hear the tv pretty well with people talking around me, another thing I had been struggling with.
At the end of the day, before going to bed I looked at the battery level 70%. Sure, it was basically just 3/4 of a day but almost definitely something I could work with.
Real world testing:
The very next night was my company party. I was excited but also a bit anxious. I walk into the party and what to do you know, a live band playing. I popped it into the hearing in noise program. While not perfect, it was night and day better than my Phonaks, which didn’t have a hearing in noise program since I didn’t have the highest tech level. If I didn’t have the Jabra’s I don’t think I could have stayed long, unless I wanted to spend the night pretending to hear people and not really talk.
Since the party, I have been in noisy restaurants and other venues and it’s been great. I feel like I don’t have to worry as much about going to loud places.
Battery life is outstanding. I have always worn my hearing aids 365 days a year from the time I get out of the shower in the morning to the time I go to bed. I think the lowest I have ever seen the batteries at the end of the day was 40% on a day when I did a ton of streaming.
I mentioned before I struggled with directionality. With the EP20’s and M&RIE’s, its subtle, but yes I can localize sounds 100% better. Sounds used to sound like they were coming from the hearing aid. Now sounds sound like they are coming from where the sounds are actually coming from. It’s not perfect but a huge improvement. In the past if one of my kids was watching a video on their cell phone it was annoying as hell, Not only would I not b be able to tell which kid was not using their headphones, if I was watching tv it would sometime just sound like the TV had background noise.
Other likes:
I’m an Iphone guy now. I get it, there are many areas where Androids are superior to iPhones. I had one of the first Android phones, owned many of them over the years, rooted them etc. When I got to my current job, almost all of my users, I want to say over 90% of them used iPhone. As someone that has to support them quite a bit, it just made sense to make the jump. The phonaks have bluetooth classic, this as pluses and minuses. A huge plus is that Phonaks can connect to any bluetooth device. One huge downside is that Bluetooth classing sucks down the battery pretty fast. I’m not sure if it was just my Marvel’s, just phonaks or just all Bluetooth classic devices but when I was streaming, no outside sound would be amplified. Pausing a video for example, it would take a second or so for the amplification to start, so if someone was talking to me, I missed the first part. If I was streaming at a low level and someone tried to talk to me, same thing, no amplification. With my Jabra’s I noticed right away that they are always amplifying. I can stream at a low volume and still hear what people are saying clearly.
MFI integration between the HA’s and Iphone is awesome. I wish they would mandate identical compatibility for android devices. Bluetooth connected, the Marvels were just like a pair of inexpensive bluetooth headphones when connected to an Iphone. If you wanted to change the volume not using the buttons on the HA’s, you had to open the app, wait for the app to connect and then control. The EP20’s connect to the phone and stay connected until you turn off Bluetooth on the phone or you turn off the hearing aids. I can tripple click my power button and I can see battery level change volume, bass & treble and change programs. Another plus in the apple arena is the apple watch app. It’s nice to be able to easily change a program, level or see the battery level from my wrist.
What I don’t like:
It’s a little hard because I like the EP20’s. Call quality for the person on the other end is what I would consider bad. As long as I can hear what the other person is saying on the other end I’m fine even if the sound quality isn’t 100%. It’s the other end. Some people like my wife seem to exaggerate how bad things are, I get it it’s not like having headset on where the mic is next to your mouth. My wife flat out won’t talk to me on the phone if I’m using the EP20’s. My Phonaks weren’t amazing on calls but if I was in a quiet place I got little to no complaints. I wished that a company that owns Jabra, a company known for their headsets would have taken more time to get this part right. Perhaps it’s the M&RIE’s that make things worse, I don’t know. That’s it, just taking calls over Bluetooth. It’s not a deal breaker. Since my hearing loss is mild to moderate, with my volume up on my phone and my ear to the phone, I can clearly hear the other end. I also never really liked walking around talking on my phone looking like a crazy person talking to themselves.
Conclusion:
I really like these hearing aids. I’m interested to see what other new models from other brands come to costco in the next 6 months. I guess if they look amazing and have amazing call quality I would consider possibly swapping, but I would lose the M&RE. I also don’t want to abuse the system, that’s just how I am, plus I’m a shareholder.
My last hearing aids were disposable batteries. Their huge downside was water resistance. If I worked out my sweat would short the batteries out, couldn’t go near a swimming pool even if I wasn’t going to go under etc. The batteries on these are nothing short of amazing. If I keep these, when they are just about to go out of warranty I’ll send them in for new batteries.
I loved the staff at Costco and love that I got them dialed in on the first visit. I’m happy that almost anywhere I would travel in the US, I could go into a Costco if I had some major issue. Oh yea, it’s also hard to beat the price of Costco.
